Sponsors (25)
The bill prioritizes limiting emergency federal authority and imposing in-person and reporting requirements to promote oversight and clinical safety, but does so at the cost of reduced access, higher provider burdens, greater costs, potential clinic closures, and less regulatory flexibility during crises.
Women and pregnant people (and their clinicians) are less likely to face sudden federal emergency-driven regulatory changes tied to an HHS public health emergency declaration for abortion, preserving a more stable regulatory environment for care and providers.
Reduces the risk that federal emergency powers could be used to expand or redirect funding or services around abortion without explicit congressional approval, preserving congressional oversight of major policy shifts.
Requiring in‑person dispensing in supervised clinical settings and prescriber competency aims to improve clinical safety — proponents say this reduces risks from unsupervised self-administration and increases clinician preparedness to manage complications.
People seeking medication abortion — especially low-income individuals and those far from clinics — will face reduced access because drugs must be obtained in-person at clinics or hospitals, increasing travel, delays, costs, and attendant health risks from delayed care.
Providers and health systems (including telehealth services and pharmacies) may be barred or face new operational constraints, reducing provider availability, increasing wait times, and limiting emergency-use flexibilities like cross-state licensure and streamlined data sharing.
The bill immediately terminates abortion-related public health emergency authorities and constrains federal regulatory flexibility, which could slow evidence-based updates to REMS or other FDA/HHS actions and hinder rapid federal response during abortion-related crises.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Blocks HHS public-health emergency use for abortion, restores in-person REMS dispensing for abortion drugs, and ties REMS changes to state data reporting to CDC.
Introduced February 24, 2025 by Kevin Hern · Last progress February 24, 2025
Prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services from declaring or using a public health emergency for matters “with respect to abortion” and immediately ends any such declaration in effect when the law takes effect. Requires the Food and Drug Administration to reinstate and enforce any in-person dispensing requirement in risk evaluation and mitigation strategies (REMS) for abortion drugs so those drugs are provided only in clinics, medical offices, or hospitals by or under the supervision of a certified health care provider. Also prevents reduction of REMS protections for abortion drugs until every State submits aggregate abortion data to the CDC using a standardized worksheet that includes specific variables (for example, maternal age, gestational age, race/ethnicity, abortion method, prior pregnancies, and fetal outcomes). The law defines key terms such as “abortion,” “abortion drug,” “certified health care provider,” and “unborn child.”