I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2373 

To prohibit discrimination against the unborn on the basis of sex, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 25, 2019 

Mrs. WAGNER (for herself, Mrs. HARTZLER, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. BABIN, Mr. 

BRADY, Mr. LUETKEMEYER, Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia, Mr. HICE

of Georgia, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. GIBBS, Mr. ABRAHAM, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. 

BYRNE, Mr. HUIZENGA, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. KELLY of Mississippi, Mr. FLORES, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. OLSON, Mr. BANKS, Mr. SMITH

of Missouri, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. ROUZER, Mr. HUDSON, Mr. WATKINS, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania, Mr. THOMPSON of 

Pennsylvania, Mr. WRIGHT, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana, 

Mr. WALBERG, Mr. COLE, Mrs. WALORSKI, Mr. ESTES, Mr. STEWART, 

Mr. BIGGS, Mr. LATTA, Mr. JORDAN, Mr. WEBSTER of Florida, Mr. 

GROTHMAN, Mr. LOUDERMILK, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. FORTENBERRY, Mr. 

DUFFY, Mr. PALAZZO, Mrs. LESKO, Mr. BROOKS of Alabama, and Mr. 

MEADOWS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To prohibit discrimination against the unborn on the basis 

of sex, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS
2 

•HR 2373 IH

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Prenatal Non3 discrimination Act of 2019’’ or the ‘‘PRENDA Act of 

4 2019’’. 

5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY. 

6 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress makes the following 

7 findings: 

8 (1) Women and girls possess the same funda9 mental human rights and civil rights as men and are 

10 essential to the formation of stable, peaceful soci11 eties. 

12 (2) Approximately 126,000,000 women and 

13 girls are missing from the world population due to 

14 systematic violence against women and girls, par15 ticularly sex-selection abortions, according to the 

16 United Nations Population Fund. 

17 (3) United States law prohibits the dissimilar 

18 treatment of males and females who are similarly 

19 situated and prohibits sex discrimination in various 

20 contexts, including the provision of employment, 

21 education, housing, health insurance coverage, and 

22 athletics. 

23 (4) A ‘‘sex-selection abortion’’ is an abortion 

24 undertaken for purposes of eliminating an unborn 

25 child of an undesired sex. Sex-selection abortion is 

26 described by scholars and civil rights advocates as 


jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS
3 

•HR 2373 IH

1 an act of sex-based or gender-based violence, predi2 cated on sex discrimination. By definition, sex-selec3 tion abortions do not implicate the health of the 

4 mother of the unborn, but instead are elective proce5 dures motivated by sex or gender bias. 

6 (5) The targeted victims of sex-selection abor7 tions performed in the United States and worldwide 

8 are overwhelmingly female. 

9 (6) Sex-selection abortions are not expressly 

10 prohibited by United States law, and only 7 States 

11 ban abortions for reason of sex selection at some 

12 point in pregnancy. Sex is an immutable char13 acteristic ascertainable at the earliest stages of 

14 human development through existing medical tech15 nology and procedures commonly in use, including 

16 maternal-fetal bloodstream DNA sampling, amnio17 centesis, chorionic villus sampling or ‘‘CVS’’, and 

18 obstetric ultrasound. 

19 (7) Sex-selection abortions have the effect of di20 minishing the representation of women in the Amer21 ican population, and therefore, the American elec22 torate. 

23 (8) Sex-selection abortions reinforce sex dis24 crimination and have no place in a civilized society. 


jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS
4 

•HR 2373 IH

1 (9) The history of the United States includes 

2 many examples of sex discrimination. The people of 

3 the United States ultimately responded in the 

4 strongest possible legal terms by enacting a constitu5 tional amendment correcting an element of this dis6 crimination. Women, once subjected to sex discrimi7 nation that denied them the right to vote, now have 

8 suffrage guaranteed by the 19th Amendment. The 

9 elimination of discriminatory practices has been and 

10 is among the highest priorities and greatest achieve11 ments of American history. 

12 (10) Implicitly approving the discriminatory 

13 practices of sex-selection abortion by choosing not to 

14 prohibit them will reinforce sex discrimination, and 

15 coarsen society to the value of females. Thus, Con16 gress has a compelling interest in acting—indeed it 

17 must act—to prohibit sex-selection abortion. 

18 (b) CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY.—In accordance 

19 with the above findings, Congress enacts the following 

20 pursuant to Congress’ power under— 

21 (1) the Commerce Clause; 

22 (2) section 5 of the 14th Amendment, including 

23 the power to enforce the prohibition on government 

24 action denying equal protection of the laws; and 


jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS
5 

•HR 2373 IH

1 (3) section 8 of article I to make all laws nec2 essary and proper for the carrying into execution of 

3 powers vested by the Constitution in the Govern4 ment of the United States. 

5 SEC. 3. DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE UNBORN ON THE 

6 BASIS OF SEX. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 13 of title 18, United 

8 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol9 lowing: 

10 ‘‘§ 250. Discrimination against the unborn on the 

11 basis of sex 

12 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Whoever knowingly— 

13 ‘‘(1) performs an abortion knowing that such 

14 abortion is sought based on the sex or gender of the 

15 child; 

16 ‘‘(2) uses force or the threat of force to inten17 tionally injure or intimidate any person for the pur18 pose of coercing a sex-selection abortion; 

19 ‘‘(3) solicits or accepts funds for the perform20 ance of a sex-selection abortion; or 

21 ‘‘(4) transports a woman into the United States 

22 or across a State line for the purpose of obtaining 

23 a sex-selection abortion, 

24 or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or im25 prisoned not more than 5 years, or both. 


jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS
6 

•HR 2373 IH

1 ‘‘(b) CIVIL REMEDIES.— 

2 ‘‘(1) CIVIL ACTION BY WOMAN ON WHOM ABOR3 TION IS PERFORMED.—A woman upon whom an 

4 abortion has been performed or attempted in viola5 tion of subsection (a)(2) may in a civil action 

6 against any person who engaged in a violation of 

7 subsection (a) obtain appropriate relief. 

8 ‘‘(2) CIVIL ACTION BY RELATIVES.—The father 

9 of an unborn child who is the subject of an abortion 

10 performed or attempted in violation of subsection 

11 (a), or a maternal grandparent of the unborn child 

12 if the pregnant woman is an unemancipated minor, 

13 may in a civil action against any person who en14 gaged in the violation, obtain appropriate relief, un15 less the pregnancy or abortion resulted from the 

16 plaintiff’s criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented 

17 to the abortion. 

18 ‘‘(3) APPROPRIATE RELIEF.—Appropriate relief 

19 in a civil action under this subsection includes— 

20 ‘‘(A) objectively verifiable money damages 

21 for all injuries, psychological and physical, in22 cluding loss of companionship and support, oc23 casioned by the violation of this section; and 

24 ‘‘(B) punitive damages. 

25 ‘‘(4) INJUNCTIVE RELIEF.— 


jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS
7 

•HR 2373 IH

1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A qualified plaintiff 

2 may in a civil action obtain injunctive relief to 

3 prevent an abortion provider from performing 

4 or attempting further abortions in violation of 

5 this section. 

6 ‘‘(B) DEFINITION.—In this paragraph the 

7 term ‘qualified plaintiff’ means— 

8 ‘‘(i) a woman upon whom an abortion 

9 is performed or attempted in violation of 

10 this section; 

11 ‘‘(ii) a maternal grandparent of the 

12 unborn child if the woman upon whom an 

13 abortion is performed or attempted in vio14 lation of this section is an unemancipated 

15 minor; 

16 ‘‘(iii) the father of an unborn child 

17 who is the subject of an abortion per18 formed or attempted in violation of sub19 section (a); or 

20 ‘‘(iv) the Attorney General. 

21 ‘‘(5) ATTORNEYS FEES FOR PLAINTIFF.—The 

22 court shall award a reasonable attorney’s fee as part 

23 of the costs to a prevailing plaintiff in a civil action 

24 under this subsection. 


jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS
8 

•HR 2373 IH

1 ‘‘(c) BAR TO PROSECUTION.—A woman upon whom 

2 a sex-selection abortion is performed may not be pros3 ecuted or held civilly liable for any violation of this section, 

4 or for a conspiracy to violate under this section, for a con5 spiracy to violate this section, or for an offense under sec6 tion 2, 3, or 4 of this title based on a violation of this 

7 section. 

8 ‘‘(d) LOSS OF FEDERAL FUNDING.—A violation of 

9 subsection (a) shall be deemed for the purposes of title 

10 VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to be discrimination 

11 prohibited by section 601 of that Act. 

12 ‘‘(e) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—A physician, phy13 sician’s assistant, nurse, counselor, or other medical or 

14 mental health professional shall report known or suspected 

15 violations of any of this section to appropriate Federal, 

16 State, and local law enforcement authorities. Whoever vio17 lates this requirement shall be fined under this title or 

18 imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both. 

19 ‘‘(f) EXPEDITED CONSIDERATION.—It shall be the 

20 duty of the United States district courts, United States 

21 courts of appeal, and the Supreme Court of the United 

22 States to advance on the docket and to expedite to the 

23 greatest possible extent the disposition of any matter 

24 brought under this section. 


jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS
9 

•HR 2373 IH

1 ‘‘(g) PROTECTION OF PRIVACY IN COURT PRO2 CEEDINGS.— 

3 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except to the extent the 

4 Constitution or other similarly compelling reason re5 quires, in every civil or criminal action under this 

6 section, the court shall make such orders as are nec7 essary to protect the anonymity of any woman upon 

8 whom an abortion has been performed or attempted 

9 if she does not give her written consent to such dis10 closure. Such orders may be made upon motion, but 

11 shall be made sua sponte if not otherwise sought by 

12 a party. 

13 ‘‘(2) ORDERS TO PARTIES, WITNESSES, AND

14 COUNSEL.—The court shall issue appropriate orders 

15 to the parties, witnesses, and counsel and shall di16 rect the sealing of the record and exclusion of indi17 viduals from courtrooms or hearing rooms to the ex18 tent necessary to safeguard the identity of the 

19 woman described in paragraph (1) from public dis20 closure. 

21 ‘‘(3) PSEUDONYM REQUIRED.—In the absence 

22 of written consent of the woman upon whom an 

23 abortion has been performed or attempted, any 

24 party, other than a public official, who brings an acVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:10 Apr 26, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2373.IH H2373

jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS
10 

•HR 2373 IH

1 tion under this section shall do so under a pseu2 donym. 

3 ‘‘(4) LIMITATION.—This subsection shall not be 

4 construed to conceal the identity of the plaintiff or 

5 of witnesses from the defendant or from attorneys 

6 for the defendant. 

7 ‘‘(h) DEFINITION.—In this section— 

8 ‘‘(1) the term ‘abortion’ means the act of using 

9 or prescribing any instrument, medicine, drug, or 

10 any other substance, device, or means with the in11 tent to— 

12 ‘‘(A) kill the unborn child of a woman 

13 known to be pregnant; or 

14 ‘‘(B) terminate the pregnancy of a woman 

15 known to be pregnant, with an intention other 

16 than— 

17 ‘‘(i) after viability to produce a live 

18 birth and preserve the life and health of 

19 the child born alive; or 

20 ‘‘(ii) to remove a dead unborn child; 

21 and 

22 ‘‘(2) the term ‘sex-selection abortion’ means an 

23 abortion undertaken for purposes of eliminating an 

24 unborn child of an undesired sex.’’. 


jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS
11 

•HR 2373 IH

1 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

2 at the beginning of chapter 13 of title 18, United States 

3 Code, is amended by adding after the item relating to sec4 tion 249 the following new item: 

‘‘250. Discrimination against the unborn on the basis of sex.’’. 

5 SEC. 4. SEVERABILITY. 

6 If any portion of this Act or the application thereof 

7 to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such inva8 lidity shall not affect the portions or applications of this 

9 Act which can be given effect without the invalid portion 

10 or application. 

Æ 


jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS