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 cov-
erage 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) PREGNANCY.—The term ‘‘pregnancy’’ refers 
to the period of the human reproductive process be-
ginning with the implantation of a fertilized egg. 
(6) 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. 
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(7) 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 follow specific medical pro-
cedures in connection with the provision of an abor-
tion, unless generally required for the provision of 
medically comparable procedures. 
(2) A limitation on an abortion provider’s abil-
ity to delegate tasks, other than a limitation gen-
erally applicable to providers of medically com-
parable procedures. 
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(3) A limitation on an abortion provider’s abil-
ity to prescribe or dispense drugs based on her or 
his good-faith medical judgment, other than a limi-
tation 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 woman make one or more medically un-
necessary visits to the provider of abortion 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-
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