This bill would significantly restrict how abortion-ending medications can be used in the United States. Currently, the FDA has approved certain drugs that can be used to end pregnancies, and they can be prescribed and dispensed in various ways. This bill would prevent the FDA from ever approving any new abortion-ending drugs and would tighten rules around drugs already approved.

For drugs already on the market, the bill creates several new requirements. First, these medications could only be used up to 70 days into a pregnancy (about 10 weeks), whereas current approval allows use later. Second, the medication would have to be given directly by a doctor in their office rather than dispensed at a pharmacy for patients to take at home. Third, doctors who prescribe these drugs would need special certification and would have to be able to perform surgery if complications arose. Additionally, the same doctor couldn't both prescribe and dispense the medication—those would have to be two different medical professionals.

The bill would also cancel any special research exemptions the FDA has granted for experimental abortion-ending drugs. In practical terms, this means fewer medication options for people seeking to end pregnancies, more restrictive conditions on how and when those medications can be used, and additional requirements for doctors who provide them. The changes would primarily affect people in early pregnancy who might otherwise have had access to medication-based abortion options.

SAVE Moms and Babies Act of 2023

Hyde-Smith, Cindy

Support And Value Expectant Moms and Babies Act of 2023 or the SAVE Moms and Babies Act of 2023 This bill prohibits the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from approving any new drug (either as a brand-name drug or a generic) intended to terminate a pregnancy and imposes additional restrictions on such drugs that are already approved. Under the bill, an already-approved drug intended to terminate a pregnancy may be dispensed to a patient only with a prescription. Furthermore, the FDA may not approve any labeling change that would authorize (1) using the drug after 70 days of gestation, or (2) dispensing the drug by any means other than in-person administration by the prescribing health care practitioner. The FDA must also impose additional restrictions on such already-approved drugs, including by (1) requiring the prescribing health care practitioner to receive a special certification, (2) prohibiting the practitioner from also acting as the dispensing pharmacist, and (3) requiring the practitioner to have the ability to provide surgical intervention to the patient. The bill also rescinds any investigational use exemption already granted to such a drug if the bill would have prohibited the FDA from granting the exemption. (Currently, the FDA may grant an exemption to certain market approval requirements if a drug is intended solely for use in safety and effectiveness investigations.)