Sponsors (164)
The bill guarantees immediate, equal medical care and criminal accountability for infants born alive after attempted abortions but does so by expanding federal criminal and civil exposure and mandatory reporting that risk chilling reproductive care, increasing provider liability, and creating legal uncertainty.
Newborn infants born alive after an attempted abortion (and their parents) would be guaranteed immediate hospital admission and the same standard of medical care as other newborns.
Health care practitioners would face criminal penalties for failing to provide required care or transfer, creating legal accountability for noncompliance with newborn-care obligations.
Women upon whom the abortion was performed would have a civil cause of action and ability to seek monetary damages for harms from noncompliance by providers.
Women and pregnant people could face reduced abortion access or altered clinical care as providers alter practices or decline procedures out of fear of legal exposure, delaying or limiting reproductive care.
Health care providers and facilities would face substantial new civil liability and financial exposure (treble statutory damages, punitive damages, and attorneys' fees) plus increased malpractice risk and compliance costs.
Mandatory reporting by health care workers and facility employees to law enforcement of suspected noncompliance may deter patients from seeking care, chill clinical decision-making, and conflict with patient privacy/confidentiality protections.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Imposes federal medical-care, reporting, criminal penalties, and civil remedies for infants born alive after an abortion or attempted abortion.
Creates a new federal crime and civil remedies related to infants born alive after an attempted abortion. It requires any health care practitioner present at such a birth to provide the same degree of professional care that would be given to any other newborn of the same gestational age, to immediately transport and admit the infant to a hospital, and to report suspected noncompliance to law enforcement; it also establishes penalties for violations and makes intentional killing of a born-alive infant punishable as murder.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Ann Wagner · Last progress January 24, 2025