Saving Children Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 956 To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit dismemberment abortions, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 4, 2019 Mrs. LESKO (for herself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. GAETZ, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia, Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mrs. HARTZLER, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. LOUDERMILK, Mr. GROTHMAN, Mr. ABRAHAM, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. SPANO, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. GIBBS, Mr. CHABOT, and Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit dismemberment abortions, 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 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Saving Children Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. DISMEMBERMENT ABORTION BAN. 5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 74 of title 18, United 6 States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1531 7 the following: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:09 Feb 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H956.IH H956 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 956 IH ‘‘§ 1532. Dismemberment abortion ban 1 ‘‘(a) DISMEMBERMENT ABORTION PROHIBITED.— 2 Any physician who, in or affecting interstate or foreign 3 commerce, knowingly performs a dismemberment abortion 4 and thereby kills an unborn child shall be fined under this 5 title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both. This 6 subsection does not apply to a dismemberment abortion 7 that is necessary to save the life of a mother whose life 8 is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or 9 physical injury, including a life-endangering physical con- 10 dition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself. 11 ‘‘(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec- 12 tion shall be construed to limit abortions performed for 13 any reason, including when the pregnancy is a result of 14 rape or incest, if performed by a method other than dis- 15 memberment abortion. 16 ‘‘(c) CIVIL REMEDIES.— 17 ‘‘(1) CIVIL ACTION BY A WOMAN ON WHOM AN 18 ABORTION IS PERFORMED.—A woman upon whom 19 an abortion has been performed in violation of any 20 provision of this section may, in a civil action 21 against any person who committed the violation, ob- 22 tain appropriate relief. 23 ‘‘(2) CIVIL ACTION BY A PARENT OF A MINOR 24 ON WHOM AN ABORTION IS PERFORMED.—A parent 25 of a minor upon whom an abortion has been per- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:09 Feb 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H956.IH H956 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 956 IH formed in violation of any provision of this section 1 may, in a civil action against any person who com- 2 mitted the violation obtain appropriate relief, unless 3 the pregnancy resulted from the plaintiff’s criminal 4 conduct. 5 ‘‘(3) APPROPRIATE RELIEF.—Appropriate relief 6 in a civil action under this subsection includes— 7 ‘‘(A) objectively verifiable money damages 8 for all injuries, psychological and physical, occa- 9 sioned by the violation; 10 ‘‘(B) statutory damages equal to three 11 times the cost of the abortion; and 12 ‘‘(C) punitive damages. 13 ‘‘(4) ATTORNEYS FEES FOR PLAINTIFF.—The 14 court shall award a reasonable attorney’s fee as part 15 of the costs to a prevailing plaintiff in a civil action 16 under this subsection. 17 ‘‘(5) ATTORNEYS FEES FOR DEFENDANT.—If a 18 defendant in a civil action under this subsection pre- 19 vails and the court finds that the plaintiff’s suit was 20 frivolous, the court shall award a reasonable attor- 21 ney’s fee in favor of the defendant against the plain- 22 tiff. 23 ‘‘(6) AWARDS AGAINST WOMAN.—Except under 24 paragraph (5), in a civil action under this sub- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:09 Feb 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H956.IH H956 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 956 IH section, no damages, attorney’s fee or other mone- 1 tary relief may be assessed against the woman upon 2 whom the abortion was performed or attempted. 3 ‘‘(d) IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION FOR WOMAN 4 UPON WHOM A DISMEMBERMENT ABORTION IS PER- 5 FORMED.—A woman upon whom a dismemberment abor- 6 tion is performed may not be prosecuted under this sec- 7 tion, for a conspiracy to violate this section, or for an of- 8 fense under section 2, 3, or 4 of this title based on a viola- 9 tion of this section. 10 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 11 ‘‘(1) ABORTION.—The term ‘abortion’ means 12 the use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, 13 drug, or any other substance or device— 14 ‘‘(A) to intentionally kill the unborn child 15 of a woman known to be pregnant; or 16 ‘‘(B) to intentionally terminate the preg- 17 nancy of a woman known to be pregnant, with 18 an intention other than— 19 ‘‘(i) after viability to produce a live 20 birth and preserve the life and health of 21 the child born alive; or 22 ‘‘(ii) to remove a dead unborn child. 23 ‘‘(2) DISMEMBERMENT ABORTION.—The term 24 ‘dismemberment abortion’— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:09 Feb 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H956.IH H956 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 956 IH ‘‘(A) means, with the purpose of causing 1 the death of an unborn child, knowingly dis- 2 membering a living unborn child and extracting 3 such unborn child one piece at a time or intact 4 but crushed from the uterus through the use of 5 clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or 6 similar instruments that, through the conver- 7 gence of two rigid levers, slice, crush or grasp 8 a portion of the unborn child’s body in order to 9 cut or rip it off or crush it; but 10 ‘‘(B) does not include an abortion which 11 uses suction to dismember the body of the un- 12 born child by sucking fetal parts into a collec- 13 tion container unless the actions described in 14 subparagraph (A) are used to cause the death 15 of an unborn child but suction is subsequently 16 used to extract fetal parts after the death of the 17 unborn child. 18 ‘‘(3) MINOR.—The term ‘minor’ means an indi- 19 vidual who has not attained the age of 18 years. 20 ‘‘(4) PHYSICIAN.—The term ‘physician’ means 21 a doctor of medicine or osteopathy legally authorized 22 to practice medicine and surgery by the State in 23 which the doctor performs such activity, or any 24 other individual legally authorized by the State to 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:09 Feb 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H956.IH H956 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 956 IH perform abortions: Provided, however, That any in- 1 dividual who is not a physician or not otherwise le- 2 gally authorized by the State to perform abortions, 3 but who nevertheless directly performs an abortion 4 prohibited in this section shall be subject to the pro- 5 visions of this section. 6 ‘‘(5) UNBORN CHILD.—The term ‘unborn child’ 7 means an individual organism of the species homo 8 sapiens, beginning at fertilization, until the point of 9 being born alive as defined in section 8(b) of title 10 1.’’. 11 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 12 at the beginning of chapter 74 of title 18, United States 13 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 14 item: 15 ‘‘1532. Dismemberment abortion ban.’’. (c) CHAPTER HEADING AMENDMENTS.— 16 (1) CHAPTER HEADING IN CHAPTER.—The 17 chapter heading for chapter 74 of title 18, United 18 States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘PARTIAL- 19 BIRTH ABORTIONS’’ and inserting ‘‘ABOR- 20 TIONS’’. 21 (2) TABLE OF CHAPTERS FOR PART I.—The 22 item relating to chapter 74 in the table of chapters 23 at the beginning of part I of title 18, United States 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:09 Feb 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H956.IH H956 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 956 IH Code, is amended by striking ‘‘Partial-birth 1 abortions’’ and inserting ‘‘Abortions’’. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:09 Feb 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H956.IH H956 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS