r/PritzkerPosting

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker held a ceremony for the signing of three bills to strengthen protections for LGBTQ+ Illinoisans on Sunday morning.

The ceremony took place at a Chicago Pride Parade reception Sunday at El Mariachi Tequila Bar & Grill, 3906 N Broadway.

"One of the things that we should have pride about, and that all around the country, I think people look in envy about the fact that Illinois truly does step up and protect our LGBTQ+ community," Pritzker said, "and we're not going to stop."

One of the bills Pritzker signed, HB4834, removes testosterone from the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program — the electronic database that collects information about specific medications and treatments. The bill also prevents the addition of estrogen, mifepristone, and misoprostol — the latter two of which are used to end pregnancies early — to the monitoring program.

Another bill, HB5095, enshrines the self-selection process for gender markers on Illinois IDs and driver's licenses, allowing people to self-report "male," "female," or "X."

A third bill, HB5492, requires insurance companies to cover six months of prescribed hormone therapy.

The Chicago Pride parade was set to step off at 11 a.m.

On the fourth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v. Wade, Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday will sign the latest legislation bolstering Illinois’ status as a haven for abortion care in the Midwest.

The measure passed by the General Assembly last month will shield patients’ abortion-related digital medical records from access by outside authorities who have sometimes used them to pursue criminal cases in states where the procedure has been outlawed.

“Since Roe was overturned, we’ve seen women’s lives endangered by draconian measures limiting reproductive freedom across the country,” Pritzker said in a statement. “The state of Illinois will always stand up for women’s reproductive freedom while aggressively rejecting anti-woman, anti-choice policies. I’m proud to sign the Reproductive Health Records Privacy Act — which represents another step forward in protecting reproductive freedom.”

The legislation, spearheaded by state Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, and state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights; limits access to medical record systems containing abortion-related information. Data won’t be allowed to be shared across state lines without the patient’s consent unless it’s for technical support, quality assurance or billing purposes, according to the bill.

Any information on abortion services will be required to be segregated from the rest of a patient’s medical record, which will have access disabled to out-of-state entities.

If the new privacy safeguards are violated, patients would be able to sue. Health information exchanges will be required to implement the changes by July 2027.

“The surest way Illinois can protect our residents and their reproductive records is by requiring health information exchanges to implement new policies that keep sensitive information out of bad actors’ hands,” Villanueva said in a statement. “Time and time again, since 2022 when Roe v. Wade was overturned, we have heard the stories of women across the United States living in fear after seeking abortion-related health care. We have a duty to ensure Illinoisans aren’t being persecuted just because their health records ended up in the wrong hands.”

Separately on Wednesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health was set to issue an updated standing order giving pharmacists more leeway to provide prescription birth control methods directly to residents, including all forms of self-administered prescription contraception.

Aside from Michigan and Minnesota, Illinois is the only Midwest state with abortion protections enshrined into state law, and it’s the closest to southern states where the procedure has been banned across the board.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois has seen a 48% increase in patients seeking abortion care since the Dobbs decision, with one in four patients traveling from another state, according to the organization. Telehealth visits have more than tripled.

“Attacks on essential health care only cause confusion and fear, which is why we must remain a consistent provider of the full spectrum of care,” Dr. Katie Sisco, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, said in a statement. “The need for affordable, trusted health care is not going away, and neither are we.”

Illinoisans will soon see fewer unexpected “junk fees” and greater protections from robots snatching up concert tickets, lawmakers and Gov. JB Pritzker said at a signing for a handful of consumer protection bills Thursday.

“Corporations have become more and more creative in finding ways to charge consumers more while telling them less about what they’re charging them for,” Pritzker said at a news conference at Concord Music Hall in Chicago. “Today is about something really simple but enormously important, and that’s protecting people’s hard-earned money.”

Democratic lawmakers billed the governor’s signings as part of their agenda to make living in Illinois more affordable — a key election-year message as the governor and many members of the Democratic legislative supermajority face voters in November.

The new laws will prohibit companies from advertising products without showing mandatory fees and then tacking them on at the final stage of a purchase.

That will help level the playing field and stop rewarding businesses that engage in deceptive advertising pricing, said Democratic state Rep. Bob Morgan of Deerfield, one of the key sponsors.

While corporations might eventually find “some other scheme,” Pritzker said he considered the law to now comprehensively cover junk fees.

The junk fee bill ultimately received bipartisan votes, though some business groups, including those representing retailers and manufacturers, indicated opposition during negotiations.

“I think it’s a great idea. However, I think this legislation goes just a step too far on our already overburdened businesses,” Republican state Rep. Tom Weber of Lake Villa said during House floor debate earlier this year.

In addition to the junk fees law, concertgoers and live sports fans will have greater protections under the new laws, legislators said. One bill will explicitly prohibit ticket resellers from offering tickets they don’t actually have, and another bans the use of bots to buy up tickets. Both bills passed without opposition in the state House and Senate.

“Fans should not have to compete against bots to attend a live concert,” said Democratic state Sen. Steve Stadelman of Rockford.

Stadelman joked that he wasn’t personally a frustrated fan of Taylor Swift — one of the artists whose ticket prices have at times risen to astronomical levels amid complaints of predatory resellers — but that smaller artists and venues are harmed by those practices too.

Those junk fee and ticket measures go into effect in 2027, according to the governor’s office.

A final bill signed Thursday, which also passed without opposition in the General Assembly, will add oversight to the emerging “buy-now-pay-later” market.

Lenders will have to register with the state, provide clear disclosures, assess if borrowers can repay, and maintain dispute and refund processes, said Democratic state Sen. Michael Hastings of Frankfort, who sponsored the bill and described the buy-now-pay-later landscape up until now as the “Wild West.”

Ticketed events like concerts “make life more enjoyable,” Pritzker said at the signing.

“Illinoisans shouldn’t have to compete against armies of computer programs or AI just to enjoy a night out,” he said.

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is fundraising in Chicago on Wednesday night with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, ahead of the governor’s own visit to Texas on Friday to deliver remarks before the state’s Democrats.

Talarico, a Texas state representative who is widely seen as a fast-rising Democratic star, is trying to become the first Democrat to win a statewide seat in Texas since 1994. He faces Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was endorsed in the waning days of his primary by President Donald Trump and won a runoff in a contentious race against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.

The general election race — which is seen as the Democrats’ best chance to win a Senate seat in a deeply red state — is expected to be one of the most expensive Senate contests in the country.

Talarico brought in a hefty fundraising haul of $40.2 million during the primary, according to the Federal Election Commission. Records show he had $9.8 million cash on hand at the end of March.

Talarico was among 40 Texas Democrats who fled to Illinois in August to deny Republicans a quorum needed to approve new maps to expand the state’s GOP congressional majority ahead of the midterm elections. Other Texas Democrats traveled to Massachusetts and New York.

The walkout, which Texas Democrats called an “extraordinary and necessary step,” came a day after a House panel advanced a congressional map to add five new Republican districts. The rare mid-decade redistricting plan came amid pressure from Trump to draw new maps to protect the GOP’s narrow 219-212 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. And it worked. The U.S. Supreme Court in December reversed a lower court’s ruling that had struck down the new map over allegations of racial gerrymandering.

Talarico, 37, spent about two weeks in the Chicago area last year during the walkout. On Wednesday, Pritzker will serve as a “special guest” at a Chicago fundraiser in support of Talarico. Federal Election Commission records show Pritzker contributed $3,500 to Talarico’s campaign in March.

Former White House chief of staff Bill Daley is among several prominent Chicagoans listed as hosts of the fundraiser, according to the invite. Suggested contributions range from $500 to $5,000 for hosts. The top tier is $13,500.

Democrats are focusing on Paxton’s past — including his history of being indicted on securities fraud charges and surviving an impeachment vote in 2023 that alleged he used his power as attorney general to help a real estate investor. The securities fraud charges were ultimately dismissed, and the Texas Senate acquitted him of all impeachment articles.

During his primary victory speech, Paxton accused Talarico of being “the most extreme radical the Democrats have ever nominated” and accused him of running a “vegan campaign,” which Talarico shot down with a picture of him eating a turkey leg at the Texas State Fair, among other examples.

Democrats in the state are trying to gain back Hispanic voters who supported Trump in 2024, playing off the president’s recent unfavorable poll numbers.

Pritzker heads to Corpus Christi, Texas on Friday to deliver a keynote speech at the Texas Democratic Convention.