State Representative Regan Deering is speaking out after Governor JB Pritzker signed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide in Illinois

The new law, Senate Bill 1950, will allow doctors to prescribe self-administered medication to terminally ill patients who have been given six months or less to live. The measure takes effect in September of 2026.

Republican State Representative Regan Deering of Decatur says she’s “extremely disappointed” in the governor’s decision, calling the law a compromise of what she describes as the sanctity of life. Deering also raised concerns about safety, arguing that once the medication leaves a pharmacy, there’s no way to know who might access it, especially amid what she calls an ongoing mental health crisis.

She also worries about potential coercion involving elderly, disabled, or chronically ill patients, saying the safeguards in the law “don’t go far enough” to protect vulnerable populations.

Deering says Illinois should instead expand hospice care, palliative care, mental health services, and support for caregivers, rather than legalize physician-assisted suicide.

Again, the new law is set to take effect in September of 2026.