I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 846
To prohibit disinformation in the advertising of abortion services, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY31, 2025
Ms. B
ONAMICI(for herself, Mrs. SYKES, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms.
A
DAMS, Ms. TITUS, Mr. EVANSof Pennsylvania, Ms. CROCKETT, Mr.
S
WALWELL, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. CONNOLLY, Ms. DELBENE, Ms. NOR-
TON, Mr. SMITHof Washington, Ms. CLARKEof New York, Ms. LEGER
F
ERNANDEZ, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia, Ms. MCCOL-
LUM, Mr. COHEN, Ms. BROWNLEY, Ms. JACOBS, Ms. BALINT, Ms.
B
UDZINSKI, Mr. CASAR, Ms. MCCLELLAN, Mrs. TRAHAN, Ms. CHU, Ms.
D
EGETTE, Mr. GOLDMANof New York, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. TONKO, Ms.
J
AYAPAL, Ms. MOOREof Wisconsin, Mrs. MCIVER, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr.
T
ORRESof New York, Mr. MAGAZINER, Ms. PETTERSEN, Ms. WILSON
of Florida, Mr. G
RIJALVA, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI,
Mrs. F
LETCHER, Ms. ANSARI, Mr. DAVISof Illinois, Ms. BYNUM, Ms.
S
ALINAS, Ms. WASSERMANSCHULTZ, Ms. CRAIG, Ms. CASTORof Florida,
Ms. O
CASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. DEXTER, Ms. MORRISON, and Ms. LEEof
Pennsylvania) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To prohibit disinformation in the advertising of abortion
services, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop Antiabortion 2
Disinformation Act’’ or the ‘‘SAD Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4
Congress finds the following: 5
(1) Abortion services are an essential compo-6
nent of reproductive health care. 7
(2) After decades of escalating attacks on abor-8
tion rights, on June 24, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson 9
Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court 10
overruled Roe v. Wade, reversing decades of prece-11
dent recognizing a constitutional right to abortion 12
and permitting decimation of an already precarious 13
landscape of access to abortion. 14
(3) The effects were immediate and disastrous. 15
As of January 2025, abortion is unavailable in 14 16
States, leaving 17.9 million women, as well as 17
transgender and gender nonconforming individuals, 18
of reproductive age (ages 15 to 49), without access 19
to abortion in the home State of such individuals. 20
(4) Travel time to an abortion clinic, already 21
burdensome under Roe, has quadrupled since Dobbs, 22
as scores of clinics in already underserved areas 23
have been forced to close and more patients have 24
been forced to travel to other States (with over 25
170,000 people traveling out of State for care in 26
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2023 alone). As distance to an abortion facility in-1
creases, so do the accompanying burdens of time off 2
from work or school, lost wages, transportation 3
costs, lodging, child care costs, and other ancillary 4
costs. 5
(5) These burdens do not fall equally. Since 6
Dobbs and additional State bans and restrictions on 7
abortion care have taken effect, data shows that 8
women with low incomes and women of color have 9
experienced the largest increase in travel times to 10
abortion clinics. This is particularly burdensome for 11
women and pregnant people of color in the South, 12
the area of the country that has seen the highest in-13
creases in travel time. 14
(6) The freedom to decide whether and when to 15
have a child is key to the ability of an individual to 16
participate fully in our democracy. 17
(7) Unfortunately, rampant misinformation and 18
disinformation have affected the ability of people to 19
access needed abortion care. Crisis pregnancy cen-20
ters (CPCs) often disseminate and promote inac-21
curate information about abortion and contracep-22
tion. 23
(8) CPCs are antiabortion organizations that 24
present themselves as comprehensive reproductive 25
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health care providers with the intent of shaming, de-1
ceiving, or discouraging pregnant people from having 2
abortions. 3
(9) According to the Journal of Medical Inter-4
net Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveil-5
lance, there are more than 2,500 CPCs in the 6
United States, though some antiabortion groups 7
claim that the number is closer to 4,000. 8
(10) According to 2020 data from JMIR Public 9
Health and Surveillance, CPCs outnumber abortion 10
clinics nationwide by an average of 3 to 1. In some 11
States, this statistic is higher. For example, The Al-12
liance: State Advocates for Women’s Rights & Gen-13
der Equality (The Alliance) found that in Pennsyl-14
vania, CPCs outnumber abortion clinics by 9 to 1. 15
The Alliance also found that in Minnesota, CPCs 16
outnumber abortion clinics by 11 to 1. 17
(11) CPCs routinely engage in a variety of de-18
ceptive tactics, including— 19
(A) making false claims about reproductive 20
health care and providers; 21
(B) disseminating inaccurate, misleading, 22
and stigmatizing information about the risks of 23
abortion and contraception; and 24
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(C) using illegitimate or false citations to 1
imply that deceptive claims are supported by le-2
gitimate medical sources. 3
(12) CPCs typically advertise themselves as 4
providers of comprehensive health care. However, 5
most CPCs in the United States do not employ li-6
censed medical personnel or provide referrals for 7
birth control or abortion care. 8
(13) Most CPCs are not Health Insurance 9
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-covered 10
entities, but many deceptively claim to be compliant 11
with HIPAA in order to collect sensitive information 12
and mislead pregnant people about the privacy prac-13
tices and obligations of CPCs. CPCs have been 14
found to disclose the health data of pregnant people, 15
including to law enforcement. 16
(14) By using these deceptive tactics, CPCs 17
prevent people from accessing reproductive health 18
care, intentionally delay access to time-sensitive 19
abortion services, and can subject people to harmful 20
interactions with law enforcement. The consequences 21
of these tactics and delays are far greater in the 22
wake of Dobbs. 23
(15) CPCs target under-resourced neighbor-24
hoods and communities of color, including Black, 25
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Latino, Indigenous, Asian-American, Pacific Is-1
lander, and immigrant communities, by locating 2
CPCs near social services centers and comprehensive 3
reproductive health care providers. CPCs place ad-4
vertisements in these neighborhoods that mislead 5
and draw people away from nearby providers that 6
offer evidence-based sexual and reproductive health 7
care, including abortion care. This exacerbates exist-8
ing health barriers and delays access to time-sen-9
sitive care. 10
(16) People are entitled to honest, accurate, 11
and timely information when seeking reproductive 12
health care. 13
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON DISINFORMATION RELATING TO 14
ABORTION SERVICES. 15
(a) P
ROHIBITION.—It shall be unlawful for any per-16
son to engage in deceptive advertising about the reproduc-17
tive health services offered by the person, including adver-18
tising that misrepresents that the person— 19
(1) offers or provides contraception or abortion 20
services (or referrals for such contraception or abor-21
tion services); or 22
(2) employs or offers access to licensed medical 23
personnel. 24
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(b) RULEMAKING.—The Commission may promul-1
gate, under section 553 of title 5, United States Code, 2
any regulations the Commission determines necessary to 3
carry out this section. 4
(c) E
NFORCEMENT BY COMMISSION.— 5
(1) U
NFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC -6
TICES.—A violation of this section or a regulation 7
promulgated pursuant to this section shall be treated 8
as a violation of a regulation under section 9
18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 10
(15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or decep-11
tive acts or practices. 12
(2) P
OWERS OF COMMISSION .—Except as other-13
wise provided in paragraph (3), the Commission 14
shall enforce this section and any regulation promul-15
gated pursuant to this section in the same manner, 16
by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction, 17
powers, and duties as though all applicable terms 18
and provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act 19
were incorporated into and made a part of this sec-20
tion, and any person who violates this section or a 21
regulation promulgated pursuant to this section shall 22
be subject to the penalties and entitled to the privi-23
leges and immunities provided in the Federal Trade 24
Commission Act. 25
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(3) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS .—Notwith-1
standing section 4, 5(a)(2), or 6 of the Federal 2
Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 44; 45(a)(2); 46) 3
or any jurisdictional limitation of the Commission, 4
the Commission shall also enforce this section and 5
any regulation promulgated pursuant to this section 6
in the same manner provided in paragraphs (1) and 7
(2) with respect to organizations not organized to 8
carry on business for their own profit or that of 9
their members. 10
(4) I
NDEPENDENT LITIGATION AUTHORITY .— 11
(A) C
IVIL ACTION BY COMMISSION.—If the 12
Commission has reason to believe that a person 13
has violated this section or a regulation promul-14
gated pursuant to this section, the Commission 15
may bring a civil action in any appropriate 16
United States district court for any of the fol-17
lowing remedies: 18
(i) To enjoin any further such viola-19
tion by such person. 20
(ii) To enforce compliance with this 21
section or a regulation promulgated pursu-22
ant to this section. 23
(iii) To obtain a permanent, tem-24
porary, or preliminary injunction. 25
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(iv) To obtain civil penalties. 1
(v) To obtain damages, restitution, or 2
other compensation on behalf of aggrieved 3
consumers. 4
(vi) To obtain any other appropriate 5
equitable relief. 6
(B) E
XCLUSIVE AUTHORITY OF COMMIS -7
SION.— 8
(i) E
XCLUSIVE AUTHORITY .—Except 9
as otherwise provided in section 16(a)(3) 10
of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 11
U.S.C. 56(a)(3)), the Commission shall 12
have exclusive authority to commence or 13
defend, and supervise the litigation of, any 14
civil action under this section and any ap-15
peal of such action, in its own name by 16
any of its attorneys, designated by it for 17
such purpose, unless the Commission au-18
thorizes the Attorney General to do so. 19
(ii) R
ELATION TO ATTORNEY GEN -20
ERAL.—The Commission shall inform the 21
Attorney General of the exercise of such 22
authority, and such exercise shall not pre-23
clude the Attorney General from inter-24
vening on behalf of the United States in 25
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such action and any appeal of such action 1
as may be otherwise provided by law. 2
(d) C
IVILPENALTY.—In addition to any other pen-3
alty as may be prescribed by law, any person who violates 4
this section or a regulation promulgated pursuant this sec-5
tion shall be punishable by a civil penalty for each such 6
violation that shall not exceed the greater of— 7
(1) $100,000 (to be adjusted annually for infla-8
tion based on the change in the Consumer Price 9
Index); or 10
(2) 50 percent of the revenue earned by the ul-11
timate parent entity of a person during the pre-12
ceding 12-month period. 13
(e) R
EPORTS.—Beginning 1 year after the date of the 14
enactment of this Act, and every 2 years thereafter, the 15
Commission shall submit to Congress a report that in-16
cludes (with respect to the previous year) a description 17
of— 18
(1) any enforcement action by the Commission 19
under this Act; 20
(2) the outcome of any such action; and 21
(3) any regulation promulgated pursuant to this 22
Act. 23
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(f) SAVINGSCLAUSE.—Nothing in this Act may be 1
construed to limit the authority of the Commission under 2
any other provision of law. 3
(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 4
(1) A
BORTION SERVICES.—The term ‘‘abortion 5
services’’ means an abortion or any medical or non- 6
medical service related to or provided in conjunction 7
with an abortion, whether or not provided at the 8
same time or on the same day as the abortion. 9
(2) C
OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 10
means the Federal Trade Commission. 11
(3) P
ERSON.—The term ‘‘person’’ has the 12
meaning given that term in section 551(2) of title 5, 13
United States Code. 14
Æ
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