I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 448 
To protect a woman’s right to determine whether and when to bear a child 
or end a pregnancy by limiting restrictions on the provision of abortion 
services. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 21, 2015 
Ms. CHU of California (for herself, Ms. FUDGE, Ms. FRANKEL of Florida, Mr. 
CICILLINE, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Mr. BEYER, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. 
NORTON, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. LOWENTHAL, 
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. LEE, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, 
Mr. HONDA, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. LOEBSACK, Ms. ESTY, Ms. SLAUGHTER, 
Ms. DEGETTE, Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. HAHN, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. 
BROWNLEY of California, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. DEUTCH, Ms. EDWARDS, 
Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. SARBANES, Mr. ELLISON, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, Mr. NADLER, Mr. BERA, Mr. YARMUTH, Ms. DELAURO, 
Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. TAKAI, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. QUIGLEY, Ms. TITUS, Ms. 
KUSTER, Mr. PETERS, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mr. 
GUTIE´RREZ, Ms. BASS, Mr. CROWLEY, Ms. MATSUI, Ms. DELBENE, Mrs. 
NAPOLITANO, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. RUSH, Ms. MCCOLLUM, 
Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Mr. HECK 
of Washington, Mr. HIMES, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. FOSTER, 
Mr. POCAN, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. KILMER, Mr. SHERMAN, 
Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Ms. LINDA T. SA´NCHEZ of California, Ms. MOORE, 
Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. VISCLOSKY, and Ms. CLARKE 
of New York) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To protect a woman’s right to determine whether and when 
to bear a child or end a pregnancy by limiting restric-
tions on the provision of abortion services. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Women’s Health Pro-
tection Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) Access to safe, legal abortion services is es-
sential to women’s health and central to women’s 
ability to participate equally in the economic and so-
cial life of the United States. 
(2) Access to safe, legal abortion services has 
been hindered in the United States in various ways, 
including blockades of health care facilities and asso-
ciated violence; restrictions on insurance coverage; 
restrictions on minors’ ability to obtain services; and 
requirements and restrictions that single out abor-
tion providers and those seeking their services, and 
which do not further women’s health or the safety 
of abortion, but harm women by reducing the avail-
ability of services. 
(3) In the early 1990s, protests and blockades 
at health care facilities where abortions were per-
formed, and associated violence, increased dramati-
cally and reached crisis level, requiring Congres-
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sional action. Congress passed the Freedom of Ac-
cess to Clinic Entrances Act (Public Law 103–259) 
to address that situation and ensure that women 
could physically access abortion services. 
(4) Since 2010, there has been an equally dra-
matic increase in the number of laws and regulations 
singling out abortion that threaten women’s health 
and their ability to access safe abortion services by 
interfering with health care professionals’ ability to 
provide such services. Congressional action is now 
necessary to put an end to these restrictions. In ad-
dition, there has been a dramatic increase in the 
passage of laws that blatantly violate the constitu-
tional protections afforded women, such as bans on 
abortion prior to viability. 
(5) Legal abortion is one of the safest medical 
procedures in the United States. That safety is 
furthered by regulations that are based on science 
and are generally applicable to the medical profes-
sion or to medically comparable procedures. 
(6) Many State and local governments are im-
posing restrictions on the provision of abortion that 
are neither science-based nor generally applicable to 
the medical profession or to medically comparable 
procedures. Though described by their proponents as 
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health and safety regulations, many of these abor-
tion-specific restrictions do not advance the safety of 
abortion services and do nothing to protect women’s 
health. Also, these restrictions interfere with wom-
en’s personal and private medical decisions, make 
access to abortion more difficult and costly, and 
even make it impossible for some women to obtain 
those services. 
(7) These restrictions harm women’s health by 
reducing access not only to abortion services but also 
to the other essential health care services offered by 
the providers targeted by the restrictions, including 
contraceptive services, which reduce unintended 
pregnancies and thus abortions, and screenings for 
cervical cancer and sexually transmitted infections. 
These harms fall especially heavily on low-income 
women, women of color, and women living in rural 
and other medically underserved areas. 
(8) The cumulative effect of these numerous re-
strictions has been widely varying access to abortion 
services such that a woman’s ability to exercise her 
constitutional rights is dependent on the State in 
which she lives. Federal legislation putting a stop to 
harmful restrictions throughout the United States is 
necessary to ensure that women in all States have 
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access to safe abortion services, an essential con-
stitutional right repeatedly affirmed by the United 
States Supreme Court. 
(9) Congress has the authority to protect wom-
en’s ability to access abortion services pursuant to 
its powers under the Commerce Clause and its pow-
ers under section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to 
the Constitution to enforce the provisions of section 
1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. 
(b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to pro-
tect women’s health by ensuring that abortion services will 
continue to be available and that abortion providers are 
not singled out for medically unwarranted restrictions that 
harm women by preventing them from accessing safe abor-
tion services. It is not the purpose of this Act to address 
all threats to access to abortion (for example, this Act does 
not apply to clinic violence, restrictions on insurance or 
medical assistance coverage of abortion, or requirements 
for parental consent or notification before a minor may 
obtain an abortion) which Congress should address 
through separate legislation as appropriate. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ABORTION.—The term ‘‘abortion’’ means 
any medical treatment, including the prescription of 
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medication, intended to cause the termination of a 
pregnancy except for the purpose of increasing the 
probability of a live birth, to remove an ectopic preg-
nancy, or to remove a dead fetus. 
(2) ABORTION PROVIDER.—The term ‘‘abortion 
provider’’ means a health care professional who per-
forms abortions. 
(3) GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘government’’ 
includes a branch, department, agency, instrumen-
tality, or individual acting under color of law of the 
United States, a State, or a subdivision of a State. 
(4) HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL.—The term 
‘‘health care professional’’ means a licensed medical 
professional (including physicians, certified nurse- 
midwives, nurse practitioners, and physician assist-
ants) who is competent to perform abortions based 
on clinical training. 
(5) MEDICALLY COMPARABLE PROCEDURES.— 
The term ‘‘medically comparable procedures’’ means 
medical procedures that are similar in terms of risk, 
complexity, duration, or the degree of sterile pre-
caution that is indicated. 
(6) PREGNANCY.—The term ‘‘pregnancy’’ refers 
to the period of the human reproductive process be-
ginning with the implantation of a fertilized egg. 
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(7) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ includes each of 
the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com-
monwealth of Puerto Rico, and each territory or pos-
session of the United States. 
(8) VIABILITY.—the term ‘‘viability’’ means the 
point in a pregnancy at which, in the good-faith 
medical judgment of the treating health care profes-
sional, based on the particular facts of the case be-
fore her or him, there is a reasonable likelihood of 
sustained fetal survival outside the uterus with or 
without artificial support. 
SEC. 4. PROHIBITED MEASURES AND ACTIONS. 
(a) GENERAL PROHIBITIONS.—The following limita-
tions or requirements are unlawful and shall not be im-
posed or applied by any government because they single 
out the provision of abortion services for restrictions that 
are more burdensome than those restrictions imposed on 
medically comparable procedures, they do not significantly 
advance women’s health or the safety of abortion services, 
and they make abortion services more difficult to access: 
(1) A requirement that a medical professional 
perform specific tests or medical procedures in con-
nection with the provision of an abortion, unless 
generally required for the provision of medically 
comparable procedures. 
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(2) A requirement that the same clinician who 
performs a patient’s abortion also perform specified 
tests, services or procedures prior, or subsequent, to 
the abortion. 
(3) A limitation on an abortion provider’s abil-
ity to prescribe or dispense drugs based on current 
evidence-based regimens or her or his good-faith 
medical judgment, other than a limitation generally 
applicable to the medical profession. 
(4) A limitation on an abortion provider’s abil-
ity to provide abortion services via telemedicine, 
other than a limitation generally applicable to the 
provision of medical services via telemedicine. 
(5) A requirement or limitation concerning the 
physical plant, equipment, staffing, or hospital 
transfer arrangements of facilities where abortions 
are performed, or the credentials or hospital privi-
leges or status of personnel at such facilities, that is 
not imposed on facilities or the personnel of facilities 
where medically comparable procedures are per-
formed. 
(6) A requirement that, prior to obtaining an 
abortion, a patient make one or more medically un-
necessary in-person visits to the provider of abortion 
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services or to any individual or entity that does not 
provide abortion services. 
(7) A requirement or limitation that prohibits 
or restricts medical training for abortion procedures, 
other than a requirement or limitation generally ap-
plicable to medical training for medically comparable 
procedures. 
(b) OTHER PROHIBITED MEASURES OR ACTIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—A measure or action directed 
at restricting the provision of abortion services or 
the facilities that provide abortion services that is 
similar to any of the prohibited limitations or re-
quirements described in subsection (a) shall be un-
lawful if such measure or action singles out abortion 
services or makes abortion services more difficult to 
access and does not significantly advance women’s 
health or the safety of abortion services. 
(2) PRIMA
FACIE
CASE.—To make a prima 
facie showing that a measure or action is unlawful 
under paragraph (1) a plaintiff shall demonstrate 
that the measure or action involved— 
(A) singles out the provision of abortion 
services or facilities in which abortion services 
are performed; or 
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(B) impedes women’s access to abortion 
services based on one or more of the factors de-
scribed in paragraph (3). 
(3) FACTORS.—Factors for a court to consider 
in determining whether a measure or action impedes 
access to abortion services for purposes of paragraph 
(2)(B) include the following: 
(A) Whether the measure or action inter-
feres with an abortion provider’s ability to pro-
vide care and render services in accordance with 
her or his good-faith medical judgment. 
(B) Whether the measure or action is rea-
sonably likely to delay some women in accessing 
abortion services. 
(C) Whether the measure or action is rea-
sonably likely to directly or indirectly increase 
the cost of providing abortion services or the 
cost for obtaining abortion services (including 
costs associated with travel, childcare, or time 
off work). 
(D) Whether the measure or action re-
quires, or is reasonably likely to have the effect 
of necessitating, a trip to the offices of the 
abortion provider that would not otherwise be 
required. 
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(E) Whether the measure or action is rea-
sonably likely to result in a decrease in the 
availability of abortion services in the State. 
(F) Whether the measure or action im-
poses criminal or civil penalties that are not im-
posed on other health care professionals for 
comparable conduct or failure to act or that are 
harsher than penalties imposed on other health 
care professionals for comparable conduct or 
failure to act. 
(G) The cumulative impact of the measure 
or action combined with other new or existing 
requirements or restrictions. 
(4) DEFENSE.—A measure or action shall be 
unlawful under this subsection upon making a prima 
facie case (as provided for under paragraph (2)), un-
less the defendant establishes, by clear and con-
vincing evidence, that— 
(A) the measure or action significantly ad-
vances the safety of abortion services or the 
health of women; and 
(B) the safety of abortion services or the 
health of women cannot be advanced by a less 
restrictive alternative measure or action. 
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(c) OTHER PROHIBITIONS.—The following restric-
tions on the performance of abortion are unlawful and 
shall not be imposed or applied by any government: 
(1) A prohibition or ban on abortion prior to 
fetal viability. 
(2) A prohibition on abortion after fetal viabil-
ity when, in the good-faith medical judgment of the 
treating physician, continuation of the pregnancy 
would pose a risk to the pregnant woman’s life or 
health. 
(3) A restriction that limits a pregnant wom-
an’s ability to obtain an immediate abortion when a 
health care professional believes, based on her or his 
good-faith medical judgment, that delay would pose 
a risk to the woman’s health. 
(4) A measure or action that prohibits or re-
stricts a woman from obtaining an abortion prior to 
fetal viability based on her reasons or perceived rea-
sons or that requires a woman to state her reasons 
before obtaining an abortion prior to fetal viability. 
(d) LIMITATION.—The provisions of this Act shall 
not apply to laws regulating physical access to clinic en-
trances, requirements for parental consent or notification 
before a minor may obtain an abortion, insurance coverage 
or medical assistance of abortion, or the procedure de-
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scribed in section 1531(b)(1) of title 18, United States 
Code. 
(e) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act shall apply to gov-
ernment restrictions on the provision of abortion services, 
whether statutory or otherwise, whether they are enacted 
or imposed prior to or after the date of enactment of this 
Act. 
SEC. 5. LIBERAL CONSTRUCTION. 
(a) LIBERAL CONSTRUCTION.—In interpreting the 
provisions of this Act, a court shall liberally construe such 
provisions to effectuate the purposes of the Act. 
(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 
shall be construed to authorize any government to inter-
fere with a woman’s ability to terminate her pregnancy, 
to diminish or in any way negatively affect a woman’s con-
stitutional right to terminate her pregnancy, or to displace 
any other remedy for violations of the constitutional right 
to terminate a pregnancy. 
SEC. 6. ENFORCEMENT. 
(a) ATTORNEY GENERAL.—The Attorney General 
may commence a civil action for prospective injunctive re-
lief on behalf of the United States against any government 
official that is charged with implementing or enforcing any 
restriction that is challenged as unlawful under this Act. 
(b) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.— 
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Any individual or entity ag-
grieved by an alleged violation of this Act may com-
mence a civil action for prospective injunctive relief 
against the government official that is charged with 
implementing or enforcing the restriction that is 
challenged as unlawful under this Act. 
(2) FACILITY
OR
PROFESSIONAL.—A health 
care facility or medical professional may commence 
an action for prospective injunctive relief on behalf 
of the facility’s or professional’s patients who are or 
may be adversely affected by an alleged violation of 
this Act. 
(c) EQUITABLE RELIEF.—In any action under this 
section, the court may award appropriate equitable relief, 
including temporary, preliminary, or permanent injunctive 
relief. 
(d) COSTS.—In any action under this section, the 
court shall award costs of litigation, as well as reasonable 
attorney fees, to any prevailing plaintiff. A plaintiff shall 
not be liable to a defendant for costs in an action under 
this section. 
(e) JURISDICTION.—The district courts of the United 
States shall have jurisdiction over proceedings commenced 
pursuant to this section and shall exercise the same with-
out regard to whether the party aggrieved shall have ex-
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hausted any administrative or other remedies that may be 
provided for by law. 
SEC. 7. PREEMPTION. 
No State or subdivision thereof shall enact or enforce 
any law, rule, regulation, standard, or other provision hav-
ing the force and effect of law that conflicts with any pro-
vision of this Act. 
SEC. 8. SEVERABILITY. 
If any provision of this Act, or the application of such 
provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be un-
constitutional, the remainder of this Act, or the applica-
tion of such provision to all other persons or cir-
cumstances, shall not be affected thereby. 
Æ 
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