Sponsors (25)
The bill prioritizes in-person oversight, standard reporting, and removal of emergency flexibilities for medication abortion—improving statutory control and data standardization for some stakeholders—but does so at the cost of substantially reduced access, higher burdens for patients and providers, privacy risks, and reduced federal flexibility during public-health emergencies.
Pregnant people: The bill prevents HHS from invoking federal emergency powers to change abortion-related rules without new legislation, preserving normal statutory processes for making such changes.
Hospitals, health systems, and patients: The bill terminates any active abortion-related public health emergency and immediately removes emergency-era waivers or flexibilities tied to that declaration.
Pregnant people seeking medication abortion: The bill requires an in-person evaluation by a certified provider before dispensing abortion drugs, which proponents describe as increasing clinical oversight.
Pregnant people: The bill significantly reduces access to medication abortion and abortion care overall by naming and targeting 'chemical/medication abortion', requiring in-person dispensing and certified prescribers, and removing emergency-era flexibilities that had expanded telehealth and other access routes.
Low-income and rural patients: The in-person dispensing and facility requirements will raise travel, time, and out-of-pocket costs, imposing bigger burdens on rural residents and people with limited resources.
Healthcare providers and patients: Providers who cannot meet certification or facility requirements (e.g., surgical backup, blood transfusion capability) may be excluded from prescribing, reducing the number of available clinicians and clinics.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Bars HHS from using public health emergency authority for abortion, reinstates in-person REMS for abortion drugs, and conditions REMS waivers on states submitting specified abortion data to CDC.
Stops the Department of Health and Human Services from declaring or using federal public health emergency authority for anything related to abortion and ends any such emergency that already exists. It also requires the Food and Drug Administration and other HHS officials to restore and enforce an in-person dispensing requirement for abortion drugs and forbids reducing or waiving those safety rules until states submit a specified set of aggregate abortion data to the CDC. The bill defines key terms (including “abortion,” “abortion drug,” “certified health care provider,” and “unborn child” as beginning at fertilization), lists the data variables states must provide to CDC, and makes the in-person dispensing requirement effective on enactment.
Introduced February 24, 2025 by Kevin Hern · Last progress February 24, 2025