We’re in the homestretch with May 31st scheduled for adjournment for the summer. This week will be budget talks behind closed doors and more budget hearings.

However, there are 6 bills that are now one vote away from the Governor’s Desk – HB 4714 & SB 3138 (both the same mental health bill), HB 5095, HB 4536, HB 4606, and HB 4834. The votes on these bills (see below for descriptions) could come as early as Tuesday, May 12 or as late as Friday, May 22, which is the deadline for passage. Let’s not give up yet! Keeping up the pressure by emailing lawmakers with our positions ensures we have done everything possible to make our voices heard. Email links are below.

A piece of good news. HB 5295 (Canty-Villanueva) is stalled in the Senate Executive Committee. However, witness slips can still be filed. Let’s make our opposition loud and clear!

And another piece of good news is SB 2895, a bill that IFI SUPPORTS. See below.

Please File Witness Slips for These Bills

Witness Slip Instructions

• Click on the witness slip link for each bill.
• Fill out your personal information.
• Under Firm/Business/Agency, Title, Representation, type “self” or “NA” if you are not representing an organization and do not have a title.
• Under Position – Add Legislation, select Original Bill, unless otherwise noted.
• Under Add Position, select Opponent or Proponent. Then click on Add Position. (Your position will then appear in the box to the right with a red circle and an x inside of it.)
• Select Record of Appearance Only.
• Check that you agree to the ILGA Terms of Agreement.
• Check that you aren’t a robot.
• Click Submit Witness Slip.

SUPPORT SB 2895 – Natalie Manley (D-Romeoville): the Healing Through History Act, focuses on adoptive-parent disclosure requirements. The bill requires adoptive parents to receive additional background information about when a child spent time in foster care before adoption, including the number of foster placements, reasons for placement changes, whether other children lived in the foster homes, basic information regarding foster parents, and developmental milestones prior to adoption. The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the House Executive Committee at 10:00 AM on Wednesday, May 13th in Room 118 Capitol.

It passed unanimously out of the state senate! IFI SUPPORTS this bill.

Click HERE to file a witness slip in SUPPORT of SB 2895.

Click HERE to urge your state representative to SUPPORT SB 2895.

HB 5295 – Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago): this bill will prevent abortion-related medical information from disclosure. It requires health data systems to hide that information and also restrict when and how it can be shared—especially with out-of-state entities.

From a criminal perspective, this bill is a predator’s dream come true. It would cover the crimes of sexual predators and human traffickers, allowing them to bring under-age girls to Illinois for abortions and no one would be the wiser. Not the parents nor law enforcement. The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Executive Committee at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, May 13th in Room 212 Capitol.

Click HERE to file a witness slip in OPPOSITION of HB 5295.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 5295.

HB 4966 – Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago): huge expansion of DCFS. Youth can have a say-so of where they’re placed based on their needs and characteristics as defined under the Illinois Human Rights Act (i.e. sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.). As a backup, if the child would happen to be placed with a parent who doesn’t agree with the child’s expressed preferences in gender or sexuality, the bill allows those individuals to sue if the placement decisions weren’t handled “correctly.”

It also prohibits counseling those under DCFS care who struggle with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion. This is a very bad bill that will have life-time consequences for confused children who are under DCFS care. The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, May 13th in Room 400 Capitol.

Click HERE to file a witness slip in OPPOSITION of HB 4966.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 4966.

Possible Votes This Week – Please Email Your Lawmakers

HB 4536 – Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago): another piece of the school-based mental-health puzzle where teachers and administrators are trained to view students, families, discipline, identity, and social conditions through a state-approved therapeutic/equity lens.

HB 4536 re-classifies school “trauma-informed practices” to make it anything the left wants. It broadens the definition of trauma to include early relational trauma, caregiver separation, disrupted attachment, prolonged instability, racism, discrimination, lack of supports, identity development, and “systemic and historical oppression.”

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 4536.

HB 4606 – Cristina Castro (D-Elgin): This is the universal newborn home-visiting bill. In plain English: the State is building the framework for government-supported home visits after birth, tied to mental health, lactation, substance use, social determinants of health, community referrals, and future data systems.

It also creates a permanent DHS administrative home and statewide infrastructure for newborn home visits, screening, referrals, data collection, future funding priorities, and coordination with public-health/social-service stakeholders. Big Brother wants to make sure you raise your child the way they see fit.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 4606.

HB 4834 — Adriane Johnson (D-Waukegan): removes transgender hormone and abortion drugs (testosterone, mifepristone, misoprostol, GnRH analogues, and estrogen) from the Prescription Monitoring Program, a state-run system that lets doctors and pharmacists see what drugs a patient has already been prescribed, mainly to prevent abuse and dangerous interactions. But in this case, to remove all records of transgender hormone therapy and medical abortions. These prescriptions will no longer be tracked or visible to other providers plus it requires deleting some existing testosterone prescription records.

This is a dangerous bill, according to State Representative Bill Hauter, MD, who said doctors won’t have this critical information, which can be a matter of life or death in some instances.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 4834.

HB 4714 – Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) & SB 3138 – Will Davis (D-East Hazel Crest): Both bills do the same thing and both have passed the chamber where originated and have moved to the other legislative chamber. They are coming at us from both sides to make sure that one becomes law.

The bills expand the Children’s Mental Health Partnership in public schools so it focuses more on needs reviews, policy monitoring, and use of statewide BEACON data. The bills require that the Partnership’s membership shall include public members who reflect a diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity. These are the people that will oversee your child’s mental health and make sure your child’s mental health aligns with theirs.

This is another nail in the coffin toward a statewide mental health system that increasingly shapes how children are evaluated and treated — both in schools and through State-connected services.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 4714.

Click HERE to email your state representative to OPPOSE SB 3138.

HB 5095 — Laura Ellman (D-Naperville): changes State ID and driver’s license law to allow individuals to select “male,” “female,” or “X” as their sex designation and establishes a formal process to change that designation through a form they fill out to say what sex they themselves say they are.

Click HERE to email your state senator to OPPOSE HB 5095.

THANK YOU!