HR4964-119

What This Bill Does

The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act creates new federal offenses and notification rules around minors, abortion, and state parental involvement laws. A person who knowingly transports a minor across state lines intending that the minor obtain an abortion, and thereby abridges a parental notification, consent, or court-proceeding requirement in the minor's home state, can be fined or imprisoned for up to one year. The bill exempts abortions necessary to save the minor's life, protects the transported minor and the minor's parent from prosecution or suit for the transportation offense, creates affirmative defenses based on reasonable parental-consent information or court documentation, and gives harmed parents a civil action unless the parent committed incest. It separately makes a physician who performs or induces an abortion on an out-of-state minor provide at least 24 hours actual or constructive notice to a parent unless exceptions apply, including compliance with the abortion state's parental-involvement law, court waiver documentation, abuse reporting, life endangerment with later written parent notice, or physical accompaniment by a documented parent.

Who Benefits and How

Parental rights organizations benefit because the bill creates criminal penalties and civil remedies when out-of-state transport bypasses parental involvement laws. State law enforcement agencies benefit from a federal rule extending home-state parental-involvement policies across state lines. Family law attorneys benefit from a civil action for harmed parents unless the parent committed incest with the minor. Prosecutor offices benefit from new federal offenses and definitions covering transportation and physician notice violations.

Who Bears the Burden and How

People transporting minors for abortions face fines or up to one year imprisonment when the transport circumvents parental involvement laws. Physicians performing abortions on out-of-state minors must provide 24 hours actual or constructive parent notice unless an exception applies. Minor abortion patients face reduced confidential access to out-of-state abortion care even though the bill bars prosecuting or suing the minor for the transportation offense. Abortion providers must evaluate parental involvement laws, court waivers, abuse declarations, life-endangerment exceptions, and documentation rules.

Key Provisions

• Creates a federal offense for transporting a minor across state lines to circumvent parental involvement abortion laws.
• Provides life-saving, court-waiver, parental-information, and abuse-reporting exceptions or defenses.
• Creates civil relief for harmed parents while barring suits against transported minors and certain parents.
• Requires physicians performing abortions on out-of-state minors to give at least 24 hours parent notice unless an exception applies.
• Defines abortion, minor, parent, actual notice, constructive notice, and covered parental involvement laws.