# Plain Language Summary: Protecting Life from Chemical Abortions Act

This bill would prevent the federal government from declaring a public health emergency related to abortion and would restrict how medication abortion drugs can be distributed. Specifically, it would require that abortion medications only be dispensed in person at clinics, medical offices, or hospitals under the supervision of a doctor or certified healthcare provider. This reverses a previous policy change that allowed these medications to be mailed to patients' homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill also prevents the FDA from loosening safety requirements around abortion drugs unless all 50 states first submit detailed abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This data would include information about the patient's age, how far along the pregnancy was, race and ethnicity, the method used, and whether the fetus survived the procedure. The bill defines "abortion drugs" broadly to include any medication used to end a pregnancy, with limited exceptions for treating ectopic pregnancies, removing dead fetuses, or medical situations after viability where a live birth is intended.

For people seeking medication abortion, this would mean they could no longer have pills mailed to them—they would need to travel to a medical facility in person to receive the medication. For healthcare providers, it would require them to complete additional paperwork and meet specific qualifications, including the ability to diagnose ectopic pregnancies and handle complications like severe bleeding. The practical effect would be to make medication abortion less accessible, particularly for people in rural areas or those with limited ability to travel to medical facilities.

Protecting Life from Chemical Abortions Act

Hern, Kevin

Protecting Life from Chemical Abortions Act This bill nullifies certain changes made by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to dispensing requirements for mifepristone. (Mifepristone is a drug that is approved to end pregnancies through 10 weeks gestation when used in conjunction with the drug misoprostol. The procedure is often referred to as medication abortion or the abortion pill.) The FDA regulates the use of mifepristone through the Mifepristone Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program. The program requires health care providers to comply with certain requirements in order to prescribe or dispense mifepristone to end a pregnancy; the program previously included an in-person dispensing requirement that required mifepristone to be directly dispensed to patients in clinics, medical offices, or hospitals. During the COVID-19 public health emergency, the FDA temporarily stopped enforcing the in-person dispensing requirement, which allowed mail-order pharmacies to fill and dispense mifepristone prescriptions. In January 2023, the FDA modified program requirements so as to (1) remove the in-person dispensing requirement, and (2) require pharmacies to be certified in the program in order to dispense mifepristone. The modifications allow retail pharmacies, after receiving certification, to dispense mifepristone pursuant to prescriptions that are written by program-certified prescribers. The bill nullifies the January 2023 changes and prohibits the FDA from (1) exercising any enforcement discretion with respect to program requirements, or (2) reducing program protections until every state submits certain data regarding abortions to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bill also generally prohibits the declaration of a public health emergency with respect to abortions.