Contact your House member's office to register your support for the bills and urge your House member to vote YES on each of them. To find your legislator by zip code or county and his/her contact information Click here:

HB 5155 - Emergency Contraception in the Emergency Room - requires emergency room or urgent care clinic to offer emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault. The bill would add a new section to the Public Health Code (333.20190) to require the Department of Community Health to prepare and distribute medically and factually accurate written information about emergency contraception to health facilities and agencies that provide emergency or urgent care; this would have to be done within 30 days of the bill's effective date. "Emergency contraception" would mean a drug, medicine, oral hormonal compound, mixture, preparation, instrument, article, or device approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration and that prevented a pregnancy after sexual intercourse. The term would not include a drug, medicine, oral hormone compound, mixture, preparation, instrument, article or device of any nature prescribed to terminate the pregnancy of a female. Beginning on the 30th day after the bill took effect, the affected health care facilities and agencies would have to provide the written information to persons who provide care to victims of criminal sexual assault. The information would then have to be provided to any female victim of criminal sexual assault who was of childbearing age, along with an offer of emergency contraception. If requested by the victim, the facility or agency would have to administer emergency contraception to her. The reason we need this bill is because some faith-based emergency rooms and clinics oppose contraception.

HB 5163 - Comprehensive Sex Education - Since 1993, the Revised School Code has required a public school, if it offers a course in human sexuality, to teach abstinence as an effective prevention against disease and unwanted pregnancy. Legislation enacted in 2004 further amended the school code to – among other things – require that public school instruction on HIV, AIDS, and sex education emphasize abstinence, the consequences of sexual behavior, and refusal skills. House Bill 5163 would amend several provisions of the Revised School Code that pertain to sex education instruction in public schools to specify that if the board of a school district or public school academy provided instruction in sex education, the instruction would have to include comprehensive sexuality education that is medically accurate and age-appropriate. The bill defines "factual information" and "medically accurate." The reason we need the bill is that abstinence only education is not working to prevent STIs and pregnancies among young people.

HB 5164 - Duty to Dispense - This bill would require a pharmacy to deliver lawfully prescribed drugs or devices to patients, as well as distribute FDA-approved drugs and devices for restricted distribution by pharmacies (i.e., emergency contraception, also known as the morning after pill). If this cannot be done, the pharmacy must provide a therapeutically equivalent drug or device in a timely manner consistent with reasonable expectations for filling a prescription. A pharmacy would be exempt from the provisions if thre was an obvious or known error in the prescription, inadequacy in the instructions, or known contraindications or an incompatible prescription; anational or state emergency existed or guidelines had been issued affecting the availability, usage, or supplies of drugs or devices; the pharmacy lacks expertise or necessary equipment to safely produce, store, or dispense the drug or device, such as drug compounds or storage for nuclear medicine; the prescription might be fraudulent; or the drug or device is unavailable. Prohibited conduct would include: Destruction of unfilled lawful prescriptions; Refusal to return a lawful prescription; Violation of a patient's privacy; Discrimination against patients or their agents in a manner prohibited by state or federal laws; Failure on a persistent basis to have FDA-approved pregnancy prevention drugs or devices available for delivery. the reason we need the bill is that some pharmacists and small pharmacies owned by anti-contraception pharmacists are creating barriers to access to contraception.