HR21-119

What This Bill Does

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act states congressional findings that an infant born alive after an abortion is a legal person for all purposes under U.S. law and has the same claim to legal protection as any other newborn or patient in a hospital, clinic, or other facility. The bill then adds title 18 section 1532. If an abortion or attempted abortion results in a child born alive, any health care practitioner present must exercise the same professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the child's life and health that a reasonably diligent practitioner would provide to any other child born alive at the same gestational age. After providing that care, the practitioner must ensure immediate transport and admission to a hospital. A practitioner or employee of a hospital, physician's office, or abortion clinic who knows of noncompliance must immediately report it to state or federal law enforcement. Violations of the care and transport requirement are punishable by a fine, up to five years in prison, or both. An intentional overt act that kills a born-alive child is punished under the federal murder statute. The mother may not be prosecuted under the section or conspiracy/accessory provisions based on the violation. If a violation occurs, the woman on whom the abortion was performed or attempted may sue for objectively verifiable physical and psychological damages, statutory damages equal to three times the abortion cost, punitive damages, and attorney fees. The bill also defines abortion and attempt and retitles chapter 74 from Partial-Birth Abortions to Abortions.

Who Benefits and How

Infants born alive after attempted abortions, women on whom abortions were performed or attempted, state law-enforcement agencies, federal law-enforcement agencies, neonatal hospital teams receiving transfers, supporters of born-alive protections, and civil plaintiffs benefit from explicit federal duties of care, immediate hospital-transfer requirements, mandatory reporting, criminal penalties, homicide penalties for intentional killing, maternal immunity from prosecution, and civil damages.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Health care practitioners performing abortions, abortion clinics, hospital employees, physician office staff, clinic compliance officers, abortion providers, facility administrators, medical malpractice insurers, and abortion-rights advocates must comply with federal care and transfer duties, report suspected noncompliance immediately, face criminal penalties and civil liability, manage hospital-transfer protocols, and absorb added federal intervention in abortion-related care.

Key Provisions

• Requires practitioners to provide born-alive children the same care as other newborns at the same gestational age.
• Requires immediate transport and admission of the born-alive child to a hospital after required care.
• Requires practitioners and facility employees with knowledge of noncompliance to report immediately to law enforcement.
• Creates fines, up to five years imprisonment, and federal murder penalties for intentional killing.
• Protects the mother from prosecution and creates civil remedies including damages and attorney fees.
• Defines abortion and attempt and updates title 18 chapter headings.