‘Junk fee’ ban heads to Pritzker as Senate OKs bill allowing minors to
consent to birth control
[May 21, 2026]
By Nikoel Hytrek, Jerry Nowicki
The Illinois Senate advanced 40 bills on Wednesday, including a ban on
“junk fees” and a bill allowing minors to consent to receiving birth
control services without the need for a parent or other person’s
consent.
Senate Bill 3341 passed 37-19 on party lines and now moves to the House
for further consideration.
There are 24 states, plus the District of Columbia, that allow minors to
consent to receiving contraceptives on their own, according to the KFF.
Bill sponsor Sen. Graciela Guzmán said it’s about ensuring young people
can get contraceptives if they need them.
“This is about access, this isn’t about curtailing parental
involvement,” she said. “It is certainly our hope that parents are able
to be in the lives of young people in ways that facilitate access and
these conversations, but as was noted in the previous testimony of
someone here in the chamber, that’s not the case for every single
child.”
During floor debate, Republicans objected to the bill and accused Guzmán
of trying to cut parents out of important decisions concerning their
children and raised the possibility that sex trafficking or abuse
victims would go undetected.
Guzmán said she had specific experience from mentoring young people and
from being a survivor of assault herself.
“When that happened to me, I would have wanted every single opportunity
to have the help that I needed,” she said. “And in the instance that
there was someone that was suffering trafficking and needed birth
control or needed that kind of interaction with a provider, I wouldn’t
want to limit that.”
Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, questioned whether minors are able to
understand drug interactions and the potential side effects of
contraceptives.
“It’s just disheartening that we continually think that government knows
better than a parent knows about their children,” she said. “I recognize
not all children have ideal home situations, but that’s not to say that
most do, and so this bill addresses those that don’t, but it also
affects those that do.”
Junk fees ban
Three years after the bill was initially introduced, the Senate passed a
measure to ban “junk fees,” which are charges added to the total cost of
ticketed events, hotels, tech and other goods and services.
House Bill 228 would make it unlawful for any business to advertise,
display or offer a price for a good or service that does not include all
mandatory fees or surcharges before taxes.
Gov. JB Pritzker says he’ll sign it.
“Illinois consumers have been nickel-and-dimed out of thousands of
dollars per year by unnecessary and deceptive junk fees,” he said in a
statement. “I am proud that the Illinois General Assembly has passed the
Junk Fee Ban Act to put money back in the pockets of families and
establish fair, honest pricing — from concert tickets to online
shopping.”
Sen. Omar Aquino, D-Chicago, sponsored the bill in the Senate and said
it was an important consumer protection measure.
It passed 46-12 with both Democratic and Republican support after
passing the House in April 77-18. It still faces opposition from various
retail and business groups, but Aquino said he incorporated some of
their concerns.
“We did make changes to this bill a significant number of times to
balance out the making sure that we have practices in this state that
are fair, that are transparent, so that people — when they’re making
this really important decision of how to spend their money — that it is
done in a way where it is informed, they know what they’re paying for
and there’s not any surprise charges coming after,” Aquino said.
Violations of the law would be subject to civil penalties laid out in
the existing Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
Breasted CPR manikins
Beginning in the 2029-2030 school year, secondary schools that teach CPR
classes will have to provide both “breasted and non-breasted manikins”
if Gov. JB Pritzker signs a bill that will soon head to his desk.
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House Bill 4788, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Laura Ellman of
Naperville, passed the Senate 43-13. It cleared the House 73-38 in
April. The idea for the legislation began with a Naperville High School
student, senior Ashlynn Goldstein.
Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, cited his experience as a firefighter,
EMT and 20-year holder of CPR certification in voting against the bill.
“I can tell you that whether someone has breast tissue or no breast
tissue has no real-world application,” he said. “The process of CPR,
despite the amount of breast tissue you have, does not matter.”
Supporters said its about stigma. Women are 27% less likely to receive
bystander CPR than men because of hesitancy to follow protocol, fueled
by fears of inappropriate touching, exposing the chest or drawing
accusations of sexual assault, according to the Journal of the American
Heart Association.
“If this can help bridge that gap, then I think we should move forward,”
Ellman said.
The schools could comply with the law by putting chest covers on
existing manikins.
Paid jury duty
Another bill that will soon head to the governor requires employers of
more than 25 people to pay their employees for time spent on jury duty.
Sen. Rob Martwick, D-Chicago, said employers would be on the hook for
the entire duty, even if the trial last months — though he added the
“vast majority” of jury duty service lasts one day.
“This is an attempt to address the financial disincentive that exists
for potential jurors to serve,” Martwick said, adding it was an
initiative of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.
House Bill 4844 passed 35-20, with Republicans arguing that its unduly
burdensome on employers.
“It should not be on the burden of employers to fund our justice system.
It’s certainly not fair, and many are not equipped to do this,” Sen. Jil
Tracy, R-Quincy, said.
The measure previously passed the House 69-34 in April.
Solar-powered schools
Public schools may soon find it easier to incorporate rooftop solar
generators into their buildings’ electrical systems under legislation
that passed the Senate Wednesday.
Senate Bill 3273, sponsored by Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, would
streamline the process for public schools to install rooftop solar
systems and get them connected with their local power grids.
It would require electric utilities to give priority to interconnection
requests from public schools and to complete evaluations, reviews and
screenings of their proposed projects within 30 days after determining
their request is complete.
It would also require utilities to disclose upgrade costs and
construction timelines to schools as soon as possible after completing
interconnection reviews.
“We know the kind of dynamics our school districts have to deal with
when it comes to making a budget and sticking to a budget during the
course of the year,” Cunningham said on the Senate floor. “It was hard
for them to do that given the length of time it took for them to get an
interconnection. This is set to make that an easier process, a more
streamlined process because obviously school districts don’t have some
of the resources that private renewable developers do.”
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 56-0. It now awaits
consideration in the House.
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