Sponsors (13)
The bill standardizes disclosures and preserves narrow emergency exceptions but imposes substantial procedural, privacy, and legal/financial burdens that are likely to delay care and reduce abortion access for many Americans.
Women seeking abortion care will receive required, standardized disclosures (including ultrasound and shared results) and a standardized informed-consent process.
Pregnant patients and clinicians retain emergency-care flexibility because the bill exempts situations where compliance would risk death or substantial irreversible physical impairment.
Individuals who prevail in lawsuits may recover attorney fees, making it more feasible to seek damages without prohibitive legal costs.
Abortion providers and clinics face large civil penalties, increased DOJ enforcement authority, broad private lawsuits (including treble statutory damages and punitive awards), and potential criminal exposure — creating major financial and legal risk that could force clinic closures or reduce service availability.
Women seeking abortions face mandatory in-person ultrasound viewing/sharing and a 24-hour waiting period, which delays care and increases travel, cost, and logistical hardship — disproportionately affecting those with limited resources or who live far from clinics.
The requirement to retain signed consent forms under HIPAA-like retention rules raises patient privacy risks and could deter people from seeking care out of fear their records could be used in litigation or enforcement actions.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires providers involved in interstate/foreign commerce to perform and share an ultrasound and obtain an in-person signed consent at least 24 hours before an abortion, with civil/criminal penalties for violations.
Introduced January 28, 2025 by Mary E. Miller · Last progress January 28, 2025
Requires abortion providers who act in or affect interstate or foreign commerce to perform an ultrasound using a method agreed with the patient, share the results, and obtain an in-person signed informed-consent form at least 24 hours before any abortion (except in a medical emergency). The form must state that an ultrasound was performed and shared, warn providers about applicable civil/criminal liability, be signed by the patient, provider, and a witness, and be kept in the medical file under specified data-retention rules. The Attorney General may bring civil actions for knowing violations and courts may impose six-figure penalties; the measure also references criminal and private civil liability and includes a narrow medical-emergency exception.