Reproductive Health Patient Navigator Act of 2023
Reproductive Health Patient Navigator Act of 2023
This bill provides funding for patient navigator grants to assist individuals in accessing abortion services.
The Department of Health and Human Services must award the grants to state, tribal, or local governments; nonprofits; or community organizations that offer unbiased and medically accurate programs, services, or activities to connect individuals with abortion services. Grant-funded activities include, among others, coordinating the scheduling, financing, and other logistics of abortion services.
Further, the bill prohibits individuals, entities, and states from preventing or otherwise disadvantaging an entity that is eligible to receive a grant from carrying out activities to assist individuals with accessing abortion services, including in any state in which those services are not lawful. Such activities include providing (or assisting in the provision of) abortion care and other reproductive health services that are either (1) lawful in the state where the services are provided, or (2) provided to an individual who does not reside in the state where the services are provided. The Department of Justice may bring civil actions for violations; the bill also provides for a private right of action.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.