I 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6465 

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

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 20, 2022 

Mrs. WAGNER (for herself, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. JORDAN, Mr. HICE of Georgia, 

Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. BROOKS, Mr. LATTA, Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana, Mr. 

BANKS, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. KELLER, Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania, Mr. 

BAIRD, Ms. HERRELL, Mr. MOONEY, Mrs. LESKO, Mr. GROTHMAN, Mr. 

ADERHOLT, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. STEUBE, Mr. FORTENBERRY, Mr. ROSE, 

Mrs. HINSON, Mr. GUEST, Mr. KELLY of Mississippi, Mr. MURPHY of 

North Carolina, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. BABIN, Mr. JACKSON, Mr. BUDD, and 

Mr. LATURNER) 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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Prenatal Non5 discrimination Act of 2022’’ or the ‘‘PRENDA Act of 

6 2022’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY. 

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

3 findings: 

4 (1) Women and girls possess the same funda5 mental human rights and civil rights as men and are 

6 essential to the formation of stable, peaceful soci7 eties. 

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

9 girls are missing from the world population due to 

10 systematic violence against women and girls, par11 ticularly sex-selection abortions, according to the 

12 United Nations Population Fund. 

13 (3) United States law prohibits the dissimilar 

14 treatment of males and females who are similarly 

15 situated and prohibits sex discrimination in various 

16 contexts, including the provision of employment, 

17 education, housing, health insurance coverage, and 

18 athletics. 

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

20 undertaken for purposes of eliminating an unborn 

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

22 described by scholars and civil rights advocates as 

23 an act of sex-based or gender-based violence, predi24 cated on sex discrimination. By definition, sex-selec25 tion abortions do not implicate the health of the 


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1 mother of the unborn, but instead are elective proce2 dures motivated by sex or gender bias. 

3 (5) The targeted victims of sex-selection abor4 tions performed in the United States and worldwide 

5 are overwhelmingly female. 

6 (6) Sex-selection abortions are not expressly 

7 prohibited by United States law, and only 7 States 

8 ban abortions for reason of sex selection at some 

9 point in pregnancy. Sex is an immutable char10 acteristic ascertainable at the earliest stages of 

11 human development through existing medical tech12 nology and procedures commonly in use, including 

13 maternal-fetal bloodstream DNA sampling, amnio14 centesis, chorionic villus sampling or ‘‘CVS’’, and 

15 obstetric ultrasound. 

16 (7) Sex-selection abortions have the effect of di17 minishing the representation of women in the Amer18 ican population, and therefore, the American elec19 torate. 

20 (8) Sex-selection abortions reinforce sex dis21 crimination and have no place in a civilized society. 

22 (9) The history of the United States includes 

23 many examples of sex discrimination. The people of 

24 the United States ultimately responded in the 

25 strongest possible legal terms by enacting a constituVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:05 Jan 24, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6465.IH H6465

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1 tional amendment correcting an element of this dis2 crimination. Women, once subjected to sex discrimi3 nation that denied them the right to vote, now have 

4 suffrage guaranteed by the 19th Amendment. The 

5 elimination of discriminatory practices has been and 

6 is among the highest priorities and greatest achieve7 ments of American history. 

8 (10) Implicitly approving the discriminatory 

9 practices of sex-selection abortion by choosing not to 

10 prohibit them will reinforce sex discrimination, and 

11 coarsen society to the value of females. Thus, Con12 gress has a compelling interest in acting—indeed it 

13 must act—to prohibit sex-selection abortion. 

14 (b) CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY.—In accordance 

15 with the above findings, Congress enacts the following 

16 pursuant to Congress’ power under— 

17 (1) the Commerce Clause; 

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

19 the power to enforce the prohibition on government 

20 action denying equal protection of the laws; and 

21 (3) section 8 of article I to make all laws nec22 essary and proper for the carrying into execution of 

23 powers vested by the Constitution in the Govern24 ment of the United States. 


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1 SEC. 3. DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE UNBORN ON THE 

2 BASIS OF SEX. 

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

4 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol5 lowing: 

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

7 basis of sex 

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

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

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

11 child; 

12 ‘‘(2) uses force or the threat of force to inten13 tionally injure or intimidate any person for the pur14 pose of coercing a sex-selection abortion; 

15 ‘‘(3) solicits or accepts funds for the perform16 ance of a sex-selection abortion; or 

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

18 or across a State line for the purpose of obtaining 

19 a sex-selection abortion, 

20 or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or im21 prisoned not more than 5 years, or both. 

22 ‘‘(b) CIVIL REMEDIES.— 

23 ‘‘(1) CIVIL ACTION BY WOMAN ON WHOM ABOR24 TION IS PERFORMED.—A woman upon whom an 

25 abortion has been performed or attempted in viola26 tion of subsection (a)(2) may in a civil action 


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1 against any person who engaged in a violation of 

2 subsection (a) obtain appropriate relief. 

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

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

5 performed or attempted in violation of subsection 

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

7 if the pregnant woman is an unemancipated minor, 

8 may in a civil action against any person who en9 gaged in the violation, obtain appropriate relief, un10 less the pregnancy or abortion resulted from the 

11 plaintiff’s criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented 

12 to the abortion. 

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

14 in a civil action under this subsection includes— 

15 ‘‘(A) objectively verifiable money damages 

16 for all injuries, psychological and physical, in17 cluding loss of companionship and support, oc18 casioned by the violation of this section; and 

19 ‘‘(B) punitive damages. 

20 ‘‘(4) INJUNCTIVE RELIEF.— 

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

22 may in a civil action obtain injunctive relief to 

23 prevent an abortion provider from performing 

24 or attempting further abortions in violation of 

25 this section. 


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

2 term ‘qualified plaintiff’ means— 

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

4 is performed or attempted in violation of 

5 this section; 

6 ‘‘(ii) a maternal grandparent of the 

7 unborn child if the woman upon whom an 

8 abortion is performed or attempted in vio9 lation of this section is an unemancipated 

10 minor; 

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

12 who is the subject of an abortion per13 formed or attempted in violation of sub14 section (a); or 

15 ‘‘(iv) the Attorney General. 

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

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

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

19 under this subsection. 

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

21 a sex-selection abortion is performed may not be pros22 ecuted or held civilly liable for any violation of this section, 

23 or for a conspiracy to violate under this section, for a con24 spiracy to violate this section, or for an offense under secVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:05 Jan 24, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6465.IH H6465

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1 tion 2, 3, or 4 of this title based on a violation of this 

2 section. 

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

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

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

6 prohibited by section 601 of that Act. 

7 ‘‘(e) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—A physician, phy8 sician’s assistant, nurse, counselor, or other medical or 

9 mental health professional shall report known or suspected 

10 violations of any of this section to appropriate Federal, 

11 State, and local law enforcement authorities. Whoever vio12 lates this requirement shall be fined under this title or 

13 imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both. 

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

15 duty of the United States district courts, United States 

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

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

18 greatest possible extent the disposition of any matter 

19 brought under this section. 

20 ‘‘(g) PROTECTION OF PRIVACY IN COURT PRO21 CEEDINGS.— 

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

23 Constitution or other similarly compelling reason re24 quires, in every civil or criminal action under this 

25 section, the court shall make such orders as are necVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:05 Jan 24, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6465.IH H6465

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1 essary to protect the anonymity of any woman upon 

2 whom an abortion has been performed or attempted 

3 if she does not give her written consent to such dis4 closure. Such orders may be made upon motion, but 

5 shall be made sua sponte if not otherwise sought by 

6 a party. 

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

8 COUNSEL.—The court shall issue appropriate orders 

9 to the parties, witnesses, and counsel and shall di10 rect the sealing of the record and exclusion of indi11 viduals from courtrooms or hearing rooms to the ex12 tent necessary to safeguard the identity of the 

13 woman described in paragraph (1) from public dis14 closure. 

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

16 of written consent of the woman upon whom an 

17 abortion has been performed or attempted, any 

18 party, other than a public official, who brings an ac19 tion under this section shall do so under a pseu20 donym. 

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

22 construed to conceal the identity of the plaintiff or 

23 of witnesses from the defendant or from attorneys 

24 for the defendant. 

25 ‘‘(h) DEFINITION.—In this section— 


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

2 or prescribing any instrument, medicine, drug, or 

3 any other substance, device, or means with the in4 tent to— 

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

6 known to be pregnant; or 

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

8 known to be pregnant, with an intention other 

9 than— 

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

11 birth and preserve the life and health of 

12 the child born alive; or 

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

14 and 

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

16 abortion undertaken for purposes of eliminating an 

17 unborn child of an undesired sex.’’. 

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

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

20 Code, is amended by adding after the item relating to sec21 tion 249 the following new item: 

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

22 SEC. 4. SEVERABILITY. 

23 If any portion of this Act or the application thereof 

24 to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such inva25 lidity shall not affect the portions or applications of this 


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1 Act which can be given effect without the invalid portion 

2 or application. 

Æ 


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