2025 Policy Priorities

Individual and community experiences are shaped by policies and systems. To achieve a more just health care ecosystem, we must advance anti-racist policy and systems change that centers the communities most impacted and prioritizes transformation.

• Expand policies and programs to ensure access to all family planning and reproductive health services, including abortion, in Illinois and across the country.
• Extend paid family and medical leave for all Illinoisans.
• Expand programs that meet the economic and material needs of families with infants.
• Defend the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, CHIP, and other programs that provide access to comprehensive health care from budget cuts and legislative or administrative changes that threaten the accessibility and affordability of health care.
• Guarantee the privacy of pregnant and postpartum people in Illinois, including those seeking abortion care from other states.
• Defend health care anti-discrimination policies, especially for LGBT+, pregnant/postpartum, and immigrant populations.

• Monitor and support the Family Recovery Plan Task Force’s activities and efforts to remove punitive policies that negatively affect newborns, pregnant/postpartum people, and families affected by substance use disorder.
• Monitor and support the implementation of policies and programs in the Illinois Department of Healthcare & Family Services that support the medical, social, and economic needs of pregnant and postpartum people and their families.
• Increase enrollment of Illinoisans in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
• Introduce and advance policies to improve access to high-quality obstetric care in areas with low or no access to hospitals/birth centers offering obstetric care or obstetric providers.
• Monitor the creation of Illinois’ state-based health insurance exchange
• Advocate for a statewide system of universal newborn supports and services, a coordinated system, and a new standard of care for newborns, postpartum people, and their families.
• Monitor and respond to administrative and executive actions at the federal level that threaten or undermine public health, including access to vaccines.

EverThrive Illinois ensures that communities most impacted by injustice have the access, resources, and health care necessary to create and sustain healthy families on their own terms.

Kelly Hubbard, MPH, Policy & Advocacy Director, EverThrive Illinois; (217) 720-3301; khubbard@everthriveil.org