Sponsors (2)
The bill aims to raise safety standards and improve follow-up care information for abortion patients but does so through federal mandates, admitting-privilege criminalization, and funding conditions that risk reducing provider availability, raising costs, and restricting access—especially in rural and low-income communities.
Patients at state-licensed abortion clinics (primarily women) would face higher facility safety and quality standards because clinics performing abortions must meet ambulatory surgical center (ASC) standards, which can improve procedural safety.
Women receiving abortions would be given information at the time of the procedure about where the performing physician can provide follow-up care if complications occur, improving continuity of care and patient guidance after care.
State health boards, with HHS approval, could waive some structural ASC requirements, giving states flexibility to adapt standards to local circumstances and potentially limit unnecessary burdens where appropriate.
Physicians who cannot secure admitting privileges within 15 miles face criminal penalties (up to 2 years in prison), which would deter providers, reduce the supply of abortion providers, and limit patients' access to care.
Requiring ASC structural standards and tying compliance to federal funding would impose high costs on smaller and rural clinics, likely causing closures or loss of federal support and shifting fiscal burdens to states, taxpayers, or patients, thereby reducing local availability of abortion services.
Access to abortion could be substantially restricted—especially for women in rural or low-income areas—because clinic closures and provider loss increase travel distances, cause treatment delays, and raise the cost of care.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires abortion providers to hold hospital admitting privileges within 15 miles, criminalizes knowing noncompliance, and ties federal funding to state licensing and ASC standards for clinics.
Requires physicians who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges within 15 miles of their main office and the abortion site, and requires doctors to tell patients which hospital can provide follow-up care. It makes knowing failure to meet the admitting-privileges rule a federal crime punishable by a fine, up to two years in prison, or both, but explicitly excludes the pregnant woman from prosecution. The bill also conditions receipt of any Federal funds or assistance on abortion clinics being licensed by the state and meeting ambulatory surgery center (ASC) requirements, while allowing state health boards to waive certain structural ASC elements for abortion clinics.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress January 3, 2025