Moeller-backed Bill Cracks Down on Anti-Choice Discrimination

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, passed legislation safeguarding Illinois women from discrimination based on their personal, private health decisions, bolstering current statewide efforts to secure reproductive rights.

“As it stands, employers and workplaces everywhere can willfully discriminate against women for their health choices. It’s unacceptable,” Moeller said. “The Dobbs decision opened the floodgates to anti-choice legislation, and many other challenges. But, Illinois is bucking this trend, becoming a leader in reproductive protections. My legislation continues that effort. I hope more states will follow our lead to bolster their anti-discrimination efforts.”

In striking down decades of protections for reproductive rights, the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision left a complicated legal landscape in which private medical decisions once shielded at the federal level are now far less settled.                              

Continuing her work to uphold the right to choose Illinois, Moeller advanced House Bill 4867, which protects a variety of reproductive health decisions under the state’s Human Rights Act. Current law prohibits a business from terminating an employee, a landlord from refusing to rent to a person, or other arbitrary denial of basic accommodation to a person because of pregnancy. Moeller expanded these protections to also prevent discrimination against people for utilizing reproductive health services including abortion care, contraception, or in vitro fertilization.

The legislation was backed by Planned Parenthood, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence.