By: Lucio S.B. No. 394
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the regulation of drug-induced abortion procedures,
providers, and facilities; providing criminal penalties.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature of the State of Texas finds that:
(1) The state has an interest to protect the health and
welfare of every woman considering a drug-induced abortion.
(2) The use of Mifeprex/mifepristone presents
significant medical complications including, but not limited to,
uterine hemorrhage, viral infections, abdominal pain, cramping,
vomiting, headache, fatigue, and pelvic inflammatory disease.
(3) The risk of failure rate and complications
increases with advancing gestational age.
SECTION 2. Section 171.061, Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 171.061. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
(1) "Abortion" has the meaning assigned by Section
245.002. This definition, as applied in this subchapter, may not be
construed to apply to an act done with the intent to treat a
maternal disease or illness for which a prescribed drug, medicine,
or other substance is indicated.
(2) "Abortion-inducing drug" means a drug, a medicine,
or any other substance, including a regimen of two or more drugs,
medicines, or substances, prescribed, dispensed, or administered
with the intent of terminating a clinically diagnosable pregnancy
of a woman and with knowledge that the termination will, with
reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the woman's unborn child.
The term includes off-label use of drugs, medicines, or other
substances known to have abortion-inducing properties that are
prescribed, dispensed, or administered with the intent of causing
an abortion, including the Mifeprex regimen, misoprostol
(Cytotec), and methotrexate. The term does not include a drug,
medicine, or other substance that may be known to cause an abortion
but is prescribed, dispensed, or administered for other medical
reasons.
(3) "Final printed label" or "FPL" means the
informational document approved by the United States Food and Drug
Administration for an abortion-inducing drug that:
(A) outlines the protocol authorized by that
agency and agreed to by the drug company applying for authorization
of the drug by that agency; and
(B) delineates how a drug is to be used according
to approval by that agency.
(3) "Adverse event" means any adverse physical
condition arising from the performance of an abortion, including
the complications listed in Section 171.006, Health and Safety
Code.
(4) "Gestational age" means the amount of time that
has elapsed since the first day of a woman's last menstrual period.
(5) "Medical abortion" means the administration or use
of an abortion-inducing drug to induce an abortion. The use of such
drugs to induce abortion is also known as "medical," "medication,"
"RU-486," "chemical," "Mifeprex regimen," or "drug-induced"
abortion.
(6) "Mifeprex regimen," "RU-486 regimen," or "RU-486"
means the abortion-inducing drug regimen approved by the United
States Food and Drug Administration that consists of administering
mifepristone and misoprostol.
(7) (6) "Physician" means an individual who is
licensed to practice medicine in this state, including a medical
doctor and a doctor of osteopathic medicine.
(8)(7) "Pregnant" means the female reproductive
condition of having an unborn child in a woman's uterus.
(8) "Provide" means, when used regarding
abortion-inducing drugs, any act of giving, selling, dispensing,
administering, transferring possession to or otherwise providing
or prescribing an abortion-inducing drug.
(9) "Unborn child" means an offspring of human beings
from conception until birth.
SECTION 3. Section 171.063, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by amending Subsections (a), (b), and (c) to read as
follows:
(a) A person may not knowingly give, sell, dispense,
administer, provide, or prescribe an abortion-inducing drug to a
pregnant woman for the purpose of inducing an abortion in the
pregnant woman or enabling another person to induce an abortion in
the pregnant woman unless:
(1) the person who gives, sells, dispenses,
administers, provides, or prescribes the abortion-inducing drug is
a physician; and
(2) except as otherwise provided by Subsection (b),
the provision, prescription, or administration of the
abortion-inducing drug satisfies the protocol tested and
authorized by the United States Food and Drug Administration as
outlined in the final printed label of the abortion-inducing drug
the requirements and procedures laid out in this subchapter.
(b) A person may provide, prescribe, or administer the
abortion-inducing drug in the dosage amount prescribed by the
clinical management guidelines defined by the American Congress of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists Practice Bulletin as those
guidelines existed on January 1, 2013. It shall be unlawful for any
manufacturer, supplier, physician, or any other person to provide
any abortion-inducing drug via courier, delivery, or mail service.
(c) Before the physician gives, sells, dispenses,
administers, provides, or prescribes an abortion-inducing drug,
the physician must:
(1) examine the pregnant woman in-person;
(2) independently verify that a pregnancy exists;
(3) and document, in the woman's medical record, the
gestational age and intrauterine location of the pregnancy in order
to rule out ectopic pregnancy;,
(4) determine the woman's blood type, and if she is Rh
negative, be able to and offer to administer Rh immunoglobulin
(RhoGAM) at the time of the abortion to prevent Rh incompatibility,
complications, or miscarriage in future pregnancies;
(5) document whether she received treatment for Rh
negativity, as diagnosed by the most accurate standard of medical
care; and
(6) ensure that they do not give, sell, dispense,
administers, provide, or prescribe an abortion-inducing drug for a
pregnant woman whose pregnancy is beyond 49 days gestational age.
SECTION 4. Subchapter D, Chapter 171, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Sections 171.0631, 171.0632, 171.065,
and 171.066 to read as follows:
Sec. 171.0631. VOLUNTARY AND INFORMED CONSENT REQUIREMENTS
FOR ABORTION-INDUCING DRUGS. No abortion-inducing drug shall be
provided to a pregnant woman without satisfying the informed
consent requirements of Sections 171.011-171.018, Subchapter B,
Health and Safety Code, as applicable.
Sec. 171.0632. REPORTING ON ABORTION-INDUCING DRUGS AND
DRUG-INDUCED ABORTIONS. A physician who gives, sells, dispenses,
administers, provides, or prescribes an abortion-inducing drug
must comply with the applicable Physician Reporting Requirements in
Sec. 245.011, Health and Safety Code.
Sec. 171.065. CRIMINAL PENALTY. (a) In addition to
penalties permitted under Sec. 171.066, a person who intentionally,
knowingly, or recklessly violates any provision of this Act is
guilty of a state jail felony. In this Section, "intentionally",
"knowingly", and "recklessly," are defined by Section 6.03(a)-(c),
Penal Code.
(b) No criminal penalty may be assessed against the pregnant
woman upon whom the drug-induced abortion is attempted, induced, or
performed.
Sec. 171.066. CONSTRUCTION. A state executive or
administrative official may not decline to enforce this subchapter,
or adopt a construction of this subchapter in a way that narrows its
applicability, based on the official's own beliefs about what the
state or federal constitution requires, unless the official is
enjoined by a state or federal court from enforcing this
subchapter.
SECTION 5. CONSTRUCTION. (a)Nothing in this Act shall be
construed as creating or recognizing a right to abortion.
(b) It is not the intention of this Act to make lawful an
abortion that is otherwise unlawful.
(c) Nothing in this Act repeals, replaces, or otherwise
invalidates existing Texas laws, regulations, or policies.
SECTION 6. SEVERABILITY. Any provision of this Act held to
be invalid or unenforceable by its terms or as applied to any person
or circumstance shall be construed so as to give it the maximum
effect permitted by law, unless such holding shall be one of utter
invalidity or unenforceability, in which event such provision shall
be deemed severable herefrom and shall not affect the remainder
hereof or the application of such provision to other persons not
similarly situated or to other, dissimilar circumstances.
SECTION 7. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2021.