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Protecting Life from Chemical Abortions Act
12/15/2023, 3:53 PM
Summary of Bill HR 384
The bill aims to require healthcare providers who prescribe or dispense chemical abortion drugs to do so in accordance with the Food and Drug Administration's approved protocol. This includes ensuring that the drugs are only prescribed by licensed healthcare providers and that patients are provided with accurate information about the risks and side effects of the drugs.
Additionally, the bill seeks to prohibit the use of telemedicine for prescribing or dispensing chemical abortion drugs, in order to ensure that patients receive proper medical supervision and care throughout the abortion process. Overall, the Protecting Life from Chemical Abortions Act is designed to protect the health and safety of women seeking abortions by regulating the use of chemical abortion drugs and ensuring that they are administered in a safe and responsible manner.
Congressional Summary of HR 384
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.
