[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5806 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5806

To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit chemical abortions, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 28, 2023

  Mr. Ogles (for himself, Mrs. Harshbarger, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Weber of 
  Texas, Mrs. Miller of Illinois, Mr. Moore of Alabama, Mr. Kelly of 
  Mississippi, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Arrington, Mr. Crenshaw, Mr. Clyde, Mr. 
Allen, Mr. Self, and Mr. Aderholt) introduced the following bill; which 
             was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit chemical abortions, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ending Chemical Abortions Act of 
2023''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration approved 
        chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States. The 
        agency illegally categorized pregnancy as an illness and 
        asserted chemical abortion drugs provide a meaningful 
        therapeutic benefit.
            (2) In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration reduced the 
        number of doctor visits required for administration of chemical 
        abortion drugs from 3 visits to 1 visit. The agency also 
        removed the requirement for both the in-person administration 
        of misoprostol and a subsequent follow-up appointment. At this 
        time, the agency also expanded the availability of inducing a 
        chemical abortion from 7 to 10 weeks.
            (3) In 2021, the Food and Drug Administration eliminated 
        the in-person dispensing requirement for chemical abortion 
        drugs, purporting to allow these drugs to be dispensed by mail 
        in violation of longstanding Federal law.
            (4) When compared to surgical abortions, chemical abortions 
        are consistently more likely to result in complications that 
        are miscoded as a spontaneous abortion or ``miscarriage''.
            (5) According to the Guttmacher Institute, the Abortion 
        Industry's think tank, since 2000, the administration of 
        mifepristone and misoprostol has grown to comprise over 50 
        percent of all induced abortions in the United States.
            (6) There is a four times higher risk of experiencing 
        complications due to a chemical abortion than a surgical 
        abortion.

SEC. 3. RENAMING CHAPTER 74 OF TITLE 18, UNITED STATES CODE.

    The table of chapters for part I of title 18, United States Code, 
is amended by striking the item related to chapter 74 and inserting the 
following:

``74. Abortion crimes.''.

SEC. 4. CHEMICAL ABORTIONS PROHIBITED.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 74 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended by inserting after section 1531 the following:
``Sec. 1532. Chemical abortions
    ``(a) Prohibition.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 
whoever prescribes, dispenses, distributes, or sells, any drug, 
medication, or chemical for the purpose of procuring or performing an 
abortion on any woman, shall be imprisoned for not more than 25 years, 
fined under this title, or both.
    ``(b) Exceptions.--Subsection (a) shall not apply to any of the 
following:
            ``(1) The sale, use, prescription or administration of any 
        contraceptive agent administered before conception or before 
        pregnancy can be confirmed through conventional testing.
            ``(2) The treatment of a miscarriage according to medical 
        guidelines as accepted as of the date of the miscarriage.
            ``(3) In the case where a woman suffers from a physical 
        disorder, physical injury, or physical illness, including a 
        life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from 
        the pregnancy itself, that would, as certified by a physician, 
        place the woman in danger of death.
    ``(c) Bar to Prosecution.--A woman upon whom a chemical abortion is 
performed or attempted may not be criminally prosecuted under this 
section.
    ``(d) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Abortion.--The term `abortion' means intentionally 
        terminating the pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant, with 
        an intention other than--
                    ``(A) to produce a live birth;
                    ``(B) to remove a dead unborn child caused by 
                miscarriage; or
                    ``(C) to treat an ectopic or molar pregnancy.
            ``(2) Pregnant; pregnancy.--The term `pregnant' or 
        `pregnancy' refers to the human female reproductive condition 
        of having a living unborn child within her body throughout the 
        entire embryonic and fetal stages from fertilization to full 
        gestation and childbirth.
            ``(3) Unborn child.--The term `unborn child' means an 
        individual organism of the species homo sapiens, beginning at 
        fertilization, until the point of being born alive as defined 
        in section 8(b) of title 1, United States Code.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 74 of 
title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item 
relating to section 1531 the following:

``1532. Chemical abortions.''.
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