Sponsors (10)
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Adds a new section (317W) to Part B of title III of the Public Health Service Act establishing requirements for CDC to maintain a standardized surveillance system for abortion data, create a standard worksheet with mandatory and voluntary questions (variables listed in subsection (b)), allow specified cross-tabulations, provide technical assistance to States, and issue an annual report with a specified publication deadline.
Adds a new subsection (cc) to 42 U.S.C. 1396b requiring States, as a condition of receiving payment under subsection (a)(5) for certain family planning services and supplies, to submit specified abortion data to the CDC abortion surveillance system on an annual schedule, to certify accuracy, and imposing a payment suspension for knowingly providing false information.
Links certain Medicaid family-planning payments to State submission of standardized, aggregate abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). States must submit specified data on abortions by set deadlines, certify accuracy, and may lose payments for knowingly false submissions; the CDC must build and run a national system, provide technical assistance, and publish annual aggregate reports. Requires a standardized worksheet with required and optional questions, lists the specific data items and permitted cross-tabulations, and phases in the payment linkage for expenditures beginning in the fiscal year that starts two years after enactment.
Reporting abortion data has been voluntary in the past, which has not resulted in complete data being submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requests specific data points from each State and the District of Columbia, States vary greatly in the information they collect and publish.
There is not a single abortion data point that is publicly reported for all 50 States and the District of Columbia.
Three States, which together account for 15 percent of the United States population of women of childbearing age, do not report any abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Accurate statistical data regarding abortion and those who survive abortion attempts is critical to public health and policy analysis.
Primary impacts:
States and State governments: Directly affected because they must collect, standardize, certify, and submit abortion data to the CDC to preserve linked Medicaid family‑planning payments. States may need to change reporting systems, allocate staff, and coordinate between public health and Medicaid agencies. Failure to comply or knowingly false reporting risks a one‑year loss of the specified payment.
Medicaid programs and family‑planning funding: Federal payments for family planning linked to compliance create a financial incentive for States to submit data. States that do not meet requirements could face reductions in funding for family‑planning expenditures, affecting program budgets.
Health care providers and clinics (including family planning clinics and Title X providers): Indirectly affected through State reporting systems. Clinics may face new data collection or aggregation requests from State public‑health or Medicaid agencies, increasing administrative workload.
CDC and federal public‑health workforce: Tasked with building and operating the standardized national data system, providing technical assistance, conducting permitted cross‑tabulations, and issuing annual reports; requires resources and program development.
People receiving family planning and abortion services (pregnant people / birthing persons): Indirectly affected because the law increases federal oversight of abortion statistics; the statute focuses on aggregate data rather than individual identifiers, but expanded reporting could affect policy debates and resource allocation.
Public‑health researchers and policy analysts: Benefit from more standardized, comparable national aggregate data and routine annual reports, improving analysis of trends and health outcomes.
Risks and tradeoffs:
Net effect:
Expand sections to see detailed analysis
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Introduced January 22, 2025 by Joni Ernst · Last progress January 22, 2025
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Introduced in Senate