Illinois law threatens religious employers’ right to hire staff who share their beliefs, ADF warns

August 13, 2024

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) warns that a new Illinois law affirming “reproductive health decisions” may threaten employers’ ability to hire employees who share their religious beliefs.

The Christian Post reports that Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed House Bill 4867 into law last week.

The law purports to prohibit discrimination based on reproductive health decisions, which it defines as: “a person’s decisions regarding the person’s use of: contraception, fertility or sterilization care; assisted reproductive technologies; miscarriage management care; healthcare related to the continuation or termination of pregnancy; or prenatal, intranatal, or postnatal care.” 

ADF Senior Counsel Greg Baylor says the bill would “force people or organizations to violate their religious beliefs” by preventing them from hiring employees who “share and communicate their beliefs on the sanctity of human life.”

Baylor said: “Many organizations, including religious and mission-driven entities, maintain their unique character through their personnel choices,” adding, “These employers advance their missions and communicate their messages by hiring and retaining people who wholeheartedly support and share the organization’s mission and message. HB 4867 destroys that essential freedom.”

According to the Christian Post, Gov. Pritzker defended the law as necessary, saying: “We are guaranteeing that women cannot be discriminated against in housing, employment, public accommodations for reproductive health decisions, whether that be abortion, [in-vitro fertilization], fertility treatment and more.”

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