The Democrat-controlled Illinois House of Representatives passed on Monday a bill allowing medical providers to prescribe abortion pills, the Center Square reported.
The bill, H.B. 3637, comes out of concern that the Food and Drug Administration may review the safety profile of the abortion drug.
“We want to make sure when it comes to this particular issue, that FDA approval for medication abortion would not, or actually if the FDA were to take this medication out of its FDA approval, that it would not still ban or limit access to medication abortion in Illinois,” said state Rep. Dagmara Avelar, the bill’s sponsor.
“What I would say is that, FDA approval for medication abortion, if the FDA revokes that, we would still in Illinois be able to have these drugs,” she said.
In a vote on the House floor on Monday, the bill was met with opposition from state Republican lawmakers.
State Rep. Bill Hauter, who practices emergency medicine and anesthesiology, said: “We have to stop this sort of breaking down all of the safety mechanisms we have around abortion. There has to be some safety mechanisms, whether it be in the abortion clinic or with abortion mechanisms.