To amend title IV of the Public Health Service Act to prohibit sale or transactions relating to human fetal tissue.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Scott Franklin of Florida (for himself, Mr. Weber of …
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill closes loopholes in existing federal law that prohibits the sale of human fetal tissue. It expands the definition of "valuable consideration" (compensation) to include not just direct cash payments, but also indirect financial benefits like waived fees, forgiven debts, delayed payments, and any payments for transporting, processing, or storing fetal tissue.
Who Benefits and How
Pro-life advocacy groups and anti-abortion organizations benefit by tightening restrictions on fetal tissue transactions. The bill makes it harder for any organization to profit from fetal tissue in any way, aligning with their policy goals of limiting abortion-related activities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Medical research institutions and universities conducting fetal tissue research face stricter rules on how they can obtain tissue samples, increasing compliance costs and potentially limiting research capabilities. Tissue processing laboratories, storage facilities, and transportation companies can no longer receive any payments for handling fetal tissue, eliminating a revenue stream. Abortion providers cannot receive compensation for fetal tissue donations, including reimbursement for processing or handling costs.
Key Provisions
- Expands "valuable consideration" to include gifts, honoraria, and any recognition of value bestowed
- Prohibits waiving, forgiving, reducing, or delaying fees related to fetal tissue
- Bans all payments for transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of fetal tissue
- Prohibits transferring items or providing services for free when a charge would customarily be made
- Makes it illegal to forgive loans or debts in exchange for fetal tissue
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Expands the definition of 'valuable consideration' to close loopholes in the prohibition on sale of human fetal tissue
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Tighten restrictions on fetal tissue transactions by broadening what constitutes prohibited 'valuable consideration' to include indirect financial benefits"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Pro-life advocacy groups
- Anti-abortion organizations
Likely Burden Bearers
- Medical research institutions
- Universities conducting fetal tissue research
- Tissue processing laboratories
- Abortion providers
- Transportation and storage companies handling fetal tissue
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Health and Human Services
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Expanded to include: (A) any payment made or debt incurred; (B) any gift, honorarium, or recognition of value bestowed; (C) any price, charge, or fee which is waived, forgiven, reduced, or indefinitely delayed; (D) any loan or debt which is canceled or otherwise forgiven; (E) the transfer of any item from one person to another or provision of any service or granting of any opportunity for which a charge is customarily made, without charge or for a reduced charge; and (F) any payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology