Healthcare

This bill, known as the Dismemberment Abortion Ban Act of 2026, prohibits physicians from performing abortions that involve dismembering an unborn child piece by piece or crushing it with instruments, with the specific intent of causing the child's death. The law defines an "unborn child" as a human organism from fertilization until birth and allows for exceptions only when the procedure is necessary to save the life of the mother due to a physical disorder, illness, or injury. While it bans this specific method, the bill explicitly states that other abortion methods remain legal for reasons such as rape or incest, and it removes the previous federal ban on partial-birth abortions from the legal code. Violators face criminal penalties including fines and up to two years in prison, while women undergoing these procedures are immune from prosecution. Additionally, the bill creates a civil remedy allowing women or parents of minors to sue physicians for money damages, psychological injury, and punitive damages if the ban is violated.

This Senate resolution commemorates the fourth anniversary of the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned the previous federal right to abortion. The document expresses the Senate's support for state authority to regulate abortion and acknowledges the work of pregnancy centers that assist expectant mothers. It formally declares the Senate's commitment to protecting unborn life and supporting families, while noting the ongoing policy challenges related to abortion access. As a symbolic measure, the bill does not create new laws or alter existing regulations but serves to record the Senate's stance on the issue.

This bill restricts how nonmilitary foreign assistance funds can be used by prohibiting organizations from supporting abortion, gender ideology, or discriminatory equity ideology outside the United States. It requires recipients of these funds to agree not to provide or promote these specific activities, mandates that U.S. organizations keep their foreign aid programs physically and financially separate from such work, and allows the Secretary of State to require foreign governments to place funds in segregated accounts to prevent misuse. The legislation defines prohibited concepts narrowly, such as defining sex strictly by biological classification and limiting exceptions for abortion to cases where a woman's life is in immediate danger. While the rules apply to foreign and international organizations receiving U.S. aid, U.S.-based nonprofits are exempt from the ban on providing these services domestically but must still ensure their foreign-funded projects do not engage in them.

This bill amends the Title X family planning program to prohibit the use of federal funds for entities that perform or financially support abortions. It allows exceptions for cases involving rape, incest, or life-threatening medical conditions, while also permitting hospitals to receive funding as long as they do not give those funds to non-hospital abortion providers. To enforce these rules, the bill requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit annual reports detailing which organizations receive grants and the specific number of abortions performed under the medical and criminal exceptions.

This bill declares that the constitutional right to life applies to all human beings from the moment of conception, including fertilization. It states that Congress intends to implement this right under its powers in Article I and the 14th Amendment. The bill explicitly clarifies it does not require prosecuting women for pregnancy outcomes, ban in vitro fertilization, or restrict birth control methods. It defines "human person" to include individuals at all life stages starting at conception.

S 707, the "No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act," defines "sanctuary jurisdictions" as states or localities that restrict sharing immigration status information with federal authorities or refuse to comply with federal detainer requests (except for crime victims/witnesses). The bill prohibits such jurisdictions from receiving federal funds intended to provide services like food, shelter, healthcare, legal aid, or transportation to undocumented immigrants, starting 60 days after enactment or the next fiscal year. It requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to annually report to Congress on jurisdictions failing to comply with federal immigration requests. This bill directly affects state and local governments with specific immigration policies, withholding targeted federal funding as a consequence.

This bill defines biological sex for federal law by amending Title 1 of the U.S. Code. It specifies that "female" means a person biologically characterized by egg-producing systems at conception, "male" means sperm-producing systems at conception, and "gender identity" is not recognized as replacing biological sex in federal contexts. The law directly affects all federal agencies, departments, and laws requiring interpretation of terms like "sex," "female," or "male" by mandating these biological definitions. It does not create new programs or funding but changes how federal agencies must interpret existing laws and regulations.

Protecting Individuals with Down Syndrome Act This bill creates new federal crimes related to the performance of an abortion on an unborn child who has Down syndrome. It subjects a violator to criminal penalties—a fine, a prison term of up to five years, or both. It also authorizes civil remedies, including damages and injunctive relief. A woman who undergoes such an abortion may not be prosecuted or held civilly liable.

HR 629, the "Ending Chemical Abortions Act of 2025," would criminalize the prescription, distribution, or sale of drugs used for chemical abortions (like mifepristone and misoprostol) under federal law, with penalties up to 25 years in prison. It directly affects healthcare providers who prescribe or dispense these drugs, while exempting contraceptive use before pregnancy, treatment of miscarriages, and life-threatening pregnancy conditions certified by a physician. The bill defines "abortion" as intentionally ending a pregnancy, excludes women from prosecution, and redefines "unborn child" to begin at fertilization. This legislation would replace existing federal abortion-related provisions and apply nationwide, making chemical abortion drugs subject to new criminal penalties.

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 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 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 program-certified in order to dispense mifepristone. The modifications allow certified retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone pursuant to prescriptions that are written by 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.