Just a few months after signing two house bills into law that codify reproductive access for the state, Governor JB Pritzker, alongside a number of state and reproductive health leaders, announced the launching of the Prairie State Access Fund. The fund is created in partnership with the Michael Reese Health Trust, which strives to advance Chicagoland health equity. Prairie Fund works to merge private and public efforts to provide urgent care for Illinois residents, as well as the “one in four people nationwide who must travel [to Illinois] for reproductive and sexual healthcare,” said Ameya Pawar, President & CEO of Michael Reese Health Trust.
This fund comes at a crucial time, as Illinois continues to act as a national leader in protecting reproductive rights under life-threatening changes to policy across the United States. So how does the Prairie State Access Fund work? And how are its goals accessing our current political moment? A spokesperson for the Prairie Fund shared the following responses in an emailed statement:
Q: How does the Prairie State Access Fund work?
A: The Prairie State Access Fund (Prairie Fund) is an initiative of Michael Reese Health Trust that strengthens the network of organizations protecting and expanding access to reproductive and sexual health care across Chicago and Illinois.
At its core, Prairie Fund is about ensuring that people can make decisions about their own bodies and futures, that the organizations providing that care have the resources they need to keep showing up for their communities, and that the systems supporting that care are strong enough to meet the moment.
Illinois has become a national safety net for reproductive and sexual health care, with more than 36,000 patients traveling to the state in 2025. Prairie Fund focuses on sustaining and strengthening that infrastructure by investing in the providers, clinics, and community-based organizations that make care possible.
Editor’s note: Rebellious featured one such organization that’s helping to get those patients safely across state lines.
The fund provides flexible support to organizations on the front lines, allowing them to respond in real time, whether that means keeping clinic doors open, expanding services, navigating policy changes, or removing barriers for patients. Patient access is critical, but access only exists if there is a strong clinical infrastructure behind it. Prairie Fund’s lane is helping fortify that infrastructure, so providers have the capacity to continue delivering care in an increasingly strained environment.
Prairie Fund recently announced its first $1 million in grants to organizations including the Chicago Abortion Fund, Planned Parenthood of Illinois, Repro TLC, and the Red Tent Fund. These groups work across the full continuum of care. These investments are designed not just to meet immediate needs, but to help build long-term capacity so Illinois can continue to serve as a critical access point for care.
Michael Reese Health Trust has spent decades supporting safety-net hospitals and healthcare institutions across Chicagoland, and understands deeply what it means to operate systems that serve high-need communities, often while facing significant financial pressures. Many reproductive and sexual healthcare providers face those same realities today, particularly providers serving Medicaid patients and communities historically excluded from care.
That is why Prairie Fund is forging a lane centered on strengthening long-term clinical capacity so Illinois’ reproductive and sexual healthcare system can continue to meet this moment and remain resilient into the future.
Q: Which organizations are partners? How do these partnerships work?
A: Prairie Fund works in close collaboration with organizations across Illinois that have deep roots in reproductive justice, health care delivery, and community advocacy.
The fund’s first round of grants supports organizations like the Chicago Abortion Fund, Planned Parenthood of Illinois, Repro TLC, and the Red Tent Fund, each playing a distinct role in ensuring people can access care, from direct services to patient support and navigation.
These partnerships help guide Prairie Fund’s strategy and ensure resources reach the providers and advocates who are fighting every day to protect access. Through a Steering Committee that includes leaders from government, philanthropy, healthcare, and nonprofit sectors, the fund is shaped by those who understand both the policy landscape and the realities on the ground.
This approach recognizes that reproductive justice doesn’t happen in isolation, it intersects with broader struggles for health equity, racial justice, and economic stability. By working alongside organizations embedded in those movements, Prairie Fund helps strengthen a broader infrastructure for reproductive freedom in Illinois.
Q: How does Prairie expand reproductive justice in the state of Illinois?
A: Prairie Fund supports organizations that provide and protect access to the full spectrum of reproductive and sexual health services, including abortion care, maternal health, contraception, gender-affirming care, STI testing, cancer screenings, and other essential services.
Illinois has become a critical access point for care nationwide, as mentioned above. While abortion care is one driver, many patients are also seeking a broader range of services that are increasingly difficult to access in other states.
But the system that makes this care possible is under strain. Reproductive and sexual healthcare is often politicized, underfunded, and treated as separate from the broader healthcare system, even though it is essential to overall health and well-being. At the same time, providers face growing demand, workforce challenges, funding instability, and uncertainty around programs like Medicaid.
Michael Reese Health Trust is carrying forward the legacy of Michael Reese Hospital by supporting safety-net hospitals and healthcare institutions across Chicagoland, and Prairie Fund applies that same understanding to reproductive and sexual healthcare infrastructure. Many of the providers delivering this care are operating within the same financial realities as the broader healthcare safety net, serving patients with limited resources while managing rising operational pressures.
Those challenges are becoming even more acute as changes tied to H.R. 1 and broader threats to Medicaid, SNAP, and Affordable Care Act coverage are expected to leave more people uninsured or underinsured. As healthcare becomes more financially out of reach for many communities, providers will face even greater pressure to deliver care with limited resources.
Prairie Fund is designed to meet that reality by strengthening the system itself. That means investing in clinical capacity so providers can deliver the full continuum of care, supporting staffing, training, facility needs, and the operational backbone that keeps clinics running. It also means filling critical funding gaps, especially for services and communities that are often underfunded, stigmatized, or politically targeted.
Protecting reproductive justice means more than preserving legal rights. It means ensuring there is a functioning, accessible system of care behind those rights. By strengthening that infrastructure, Prairie Fund helps ensure that people in Illinois, and those who travel here, can access care, exercise bodily autonomy, and receive support not just in theory, but in practice.
Q: What legal or logistical challenges does Prairie have to navigate in our current political climate?
A: Michael Reese Health Trust has spent more than 150 years focused on one core mission: ensuring people can access critical healthcare with dignity and equity. From its origins as a hospital to the work we do today, that commitment has always operated fully within the bounds of the law while responding to the evolving needs of communities across Chicagoland and Illinois.
In today’s political climate, reproductive and sexual healthcare providers are navigating a rapidly shifting landscape shaped by policy changes, funding uncertainty, legal attacks, and growing pressure on already strained systems of care. For Prairie Fund, that means staying focused on strengthening the healthcare infrastructure that communities rely on, supporting providers, expanding capacity, and helping ensure organizations have the operational stability to continue delivering essential care.