Title: Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act of 2019
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act of 2019
This bill requires states, as a condition of federal payment under Medicaid for family planning services, to report certain abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Currently, reporting is voluntary.) The CDC must develop standardized questions for states with respect to specified variables (e.g., maternal demographics and methods of abortion).

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2585 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2585

To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act and Public Health Service 
   Act to improve the reporting of abortion data to the Centers for 
        Disease Control and Prevention, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 26, 2019

   Ms. Ernst (for herself, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Daines, Mr. Lankford, Mr. 
Braun, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Cramer, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Sasse, and Mr. Scott 
of South Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was read twice 
                and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act and Public Health Service 
   Act to improve the reporting of abortion data to the Centers for 
        Disease Control and Prevention, 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 ``Ensuring Accurate and Complete 
Abortion Data Reporting Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Reporting abortion data has been voluntary in the past, 
        which has not resulted in complete data being submitted to the 
        Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
            (2) While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
        requests specific data points from each State and the District 
        of Columbia, there is a great variety in the information 
        collected and published by the States.
            (3) In fact, there is not a single abortion data point 
        publicly reported for all fifty States and the District of 
        Columbia.
            (4) Even more alarming, three States that together account 
        for 15 percent of the United States population of women of 
        childbearing age do not report any abortion data to the Centers 
        for Disease Control and Prevention.
            (5) Accurate statistical data regarding abortion and those 
        who survive abortion attempts is critical to public health and 
        policy analysis.

SEC. 3. MEDICAID PAYMENTS FOR CERTAIN FAMILY PLANNING SERVICES AND 
              SUPPLIES CONTINGENT ON SUBMISSION OF ABORTION DATA TO 
              CDC.

    Section 1903 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396b) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(5), by inserting before ``an amount 
        equal to'' the following: ``subject to subsection (bb),''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(bb) Annual Reports on Abortion Data.--
            ``(1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), as a condition 
        of receiving payment under subsection (a)(5) with respect to 
        any amount expended during a year (beginning with the year 
        following two years after the date of the enactment of this 
        subsection) for family planning services and supplies described 
        in section 1905(a)(4)(C) furnished to an individual described 
        in section 1902(ii) or an individual whose medical assistance 
        under this title is limited to such services and supplies 
        furnished pursuant to a waiver granted under section 1115, each 
        State shall, by not later than December 31 of the previous 
        year, submit to the abortion surveillance system of the Centers 
        for Disease Control and Prevention, with respect to the year 
        before the previous year, at least abortion data regarding the 
        mandatory questions described in section 317U(a)(3)(A) of the 
        Public Health Service Act.
            ``(2) Late submission of reports.--With respect to a year, 
        in the case of a State that does not submit by December 31 of 
        the previous year the abortion data required under paragraph 
        (1) with respect to the year before the previous year but 
        submits such data by December 31 of the year, such State shall 
        continue to receive payment, including retroactive payment, 
        under subsection (a)(5) with respect to any amount expended 
        during the year for family planning services and supplies 
        described in section 1905(a)(4)(C) furnished to an individual 
        described in such paragraph.
            ``(3) Certification of abortion data.--
                    ``(A) In general.--With respect to each submission 
                of abortion data under this subsection, a State shall 
                certify to the Director of the Centers for Disease 
                Control and Prevention that such data is accurate.
                    ``(B) False information.--In the case that the 
                Director of the Centers for Disease Control and 
                Prevention determines that a State has knowingly 
                provided false information with respect to a submission 
                of abortion data under this subsection, such State may 
                not receive payment under subsection (a)(5) with 
                respect to any amount expended during the first full 
                fiscal year following such determination for family 
                planning services and supplies described in section 
                1905(a)(4)(C) furnished to an individual described in 
                paragraph (1).''.

SEC. 4. COLLECTION OF ABORTION DATA BY CDC.

    The Public Health Service Act is amended by inserting after section 
317T of such Act (42 U.S.C. 247b-22) the following:

``SEC. 317U. ABORTION DATA.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary, acting through the Director of 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shall--
            ``(1) maintain a surveillance system to collect aggregate 
        data in a standardized format on abortions in the United 
        States;
            ``(2) as part of such system, create a standard worksheet 
        to collect data from States on abortions in the respective 
        States, which--
                    ``(A) shall, at a minimum, include questions on the 
                variables listed in subsection (b), to be treated as 
                mandatory questions for purposes of section 1903(bb) of 
                the Social Security Act; and
                    ``(B) may include such additional questions on 
                abortion as the Secretary determines to be appropriate, 
                to be treated as voluntary questions; and
            ``(3) as part of such system, allow for cross-tabulation of 
        the variables listed in subsection (b), including cross-
        tabulation of maternal age by gestational age; race and 
        ethnicity by gestational age; type of abortion procedure by 
        gestational age; race and ethnicity by maternal age; and race 
        and ethnicity by marital status; and
            ``(4) periodically update the questions in the worksheet 
        under paragraph (2), including the classification of such 
        questions as mandatory or voluntary.
    ``(b) Variables.--The variables listed in this subsection are the 
following:
            ``(1) Maternal age in years.
            ``(2) Gestational age in completed weeks at the time of 
        abortion.
            ``(3) Maternal race.
            ``(4) Maternal ethnicity.
            ``(5) Maternal race by ethnicity.
            ``(6) The abortion method type.
            ``(7) Maternal marital status.
            ``(8) Previous pregnancies of the mother, including the 
        number of previous live births, the number of previous induced 
        abortions, and the number of previous spontaneous abortions.
            ``(9) Maternal residence (limited to county and State).
            ``(10) Whether the child survived the abortion.
    ``(c) Technical Assistance.--The Secretary shall provide technical 
assistance to States to facilitate and improve the reporting of data to 
the system under subsection (a).
    ``(d) Annual Reporting.--The Secretary shall--
            ``(1) issue an annual report on abortion, which shall 
        include the data collected pursuant to this section; and
            ``(2) publish such report not later than December 30 of the 
        third calendar year following the calendar year covered by the 
        report.''.
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