By NIKOEL HYTREK
CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS
nhytrek@capitolnewsillinois.com
A bill to strengthen privacy protections for transgender and abortion patients passed a Senate committee Wednesday in a 9-4 partisan vote.
Senate Bill 4834, would remove testosterone from the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program, which otherwise exists to protect against misuse of addictive controlled substances. It would also prohibit the Department of Human Services from adding estrogen, abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol, and drugs commonly referred to as hormone suppressants to the program.
The state’s Prescription Monitoring Program was established in the 1980s to prevent people from getting multiple prescriptions of addictive medications by going to different doctors. The program monitors prescriptions for controlled substances used as painkillers such as oxycodone and morphine.
The program also requires dispensers to submit records for people who have been prescribed certain controlled substances.
SB 4834 would also purge IDHS records of the prescribing or dispensing of testosterone. That information would still be part of a patient’s medical records.
State Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, the sponsor of the bill, said medical privacy is an essential right to protect.
“It’s no secret that the transgender community has been the target of hate for years,” she said in a Thursday news conference. “It’s not difficult to image that this data could be used to target transgender individuals who take testosterone.”
Testosterone was classified as a Schedule III controlled substance in the 1990 Anabolic Steroids Control Act to crack down on performance enhancing drug use in sports. But the hormone has several medical uses for treating low testosterone levels, breast cancer patients, muscle atrophy and hormone replacement therapy for trans people. It can be addictive when misused, but gender affirming care is normally monitored closely by doctors.
“Tracking individuals for seeking hormone replacement therapy undermines both medical confidentiality and personal freedom,” Johnson said. “Everyone deserves the ability to make informed healthcare choices without unnecessary intrusion.”
Abortion medication included
The bill also protects abortion patients’ access to abortion medication — both mifepristone and misoprostol. Those drugs are not considered controlled substances, but Louisiana in 2024 reclassified them as such so the state could restrict patients from obtaining the pills for abortions. The bill preempts potential similar action in Illinois.
Those drugs also have important medical uses for managing miscarriages, inducing labor and treating postpartum hemorrhage. Experts have voiced concerns that increased oversight and scrutiny could deter doctors from prescribing the pills because abortion is already severely restricted in Louisiana.
“A patient’s medical information is deeply personal, and protecting it is essential to preserving trust between individuals and their healthcare providers,” Johnson said.
If patients are concerned about having their prescriptions monitored, she said, they might avoid doctors or forgo care.
Johnson said her bill is “a complement” to one passed by the House on April 16, which would create the Reproductive Health Records Privacy Act and automatically segregate abortion-related services and treatment from digital medical records.
Republicans pushed back on the bill, arguing that testosterone and abortion medication prescriptions are important for monitoring.
“Medical organizations are aware of this bill,” said Michael Ziri, with Planned Parenthood Illinois Action during the Wednesday committee hearing. “They have shared no concerns with us. We reached out to the State Medical Society. They shared no concerns with us.”
Johnson said pharmacists will still be able to advise patients about potential drug interactions because the information is only being removed from the state’s database, and it will stay in a patient’s medical records.
“These medications are lifesaving, and we should not unnecessarily surveil individuals who are prescribed with them,” she said.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
