H.R. 12: Women’s Health Protection Act of 2025

H.R. 12, the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2025, would create federal protections for abortion before viability and for abortions after viability when a provider decides they are necessary to protect a patient's life or health. In practice, that means states could not enforce pre-viability bans or many abortion-specific rules that are stricter than what comparable medical care faces.

The bill goes well beyond outright bans. It would block restrictions like medically unnecessary in-person visit requirements, telemedicine limits that are not applied to similar care, provider credential rules that single out abortion, and requirements to give medically inaccurate information.

It also says you have a protected right to travel to another state for reproductive health care, including abortion, and that someone else can help you do that. That matters because the bill's findings say travel time to an abortion clinic has quadrupled since Dobbs, adding costs like time off work, transportation, lodging, and child care.

If a state wants to defend one of these restrictions, the bill sets a high legal bar. The government would have to show the rule is truly necessary for patient safety or health and that a less restrictive option would not work.

H.R. 12 would override conflicting state and federal laws, with a few carveouts for areas like insurance coverage rules and some existing federal laws. It also gives the U.S. attorney general, patients, providers, and other affected parties a path to sue in federal court to stop violations.