Many experts believe sex-selection abortion is the 
primary cause. Current estimates of women 
missing from the world range in the hundreds of 
millions. 
(J) Countries with longstanding experience 
with sex-selection abortion—such as the Republic 
of India, the United Kingdom, and the People’s 
Republic of China—have enacted restrictions on 
sex-selection, and have steadily continued to 
strengthen 
prohibitions 
and 
penalties. 
The 
United States, by contrast, has no law in place 
to restrict sex-selection abortion, establishing the 
United States as affording less protection from 
sex-based feticide than the Republic of India or 
the People’s Republic of China, whose recent 
practices of sex-selection abortion were vehe-
mently and repeatedly condemned by United 
States congressional resolutions and by the 
United States Ambassador to the Commission on 
the Status of Women. Public statements from 
within the medical community reveal that citi-
zens of other countries come to the United States 
for sex-selection procedures that would be crimi-
nal in their country of origin. Because the 
United States permits abortion on the basis of 
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sex, the United States may effectively function as 
a ‘‘safe haven’’ for those who seek to have Amer-
ican physicians do what would otherwise be 
criminal in their home countries—a sex-selection 
abortion, most likely late-term. 
(K) The American medical community op-
poses sex-selection. The American Congress of 
Obstetricians 
and 
Gynecologists, 
commonly 
known as ‘‘ACOG,’’ stated in its 2007 Ethics 
Committee Opinion, Number 360, that sex-selec-
tion is inappropriate because it ‘‘ultimately sup-
ports sexist practices.’’ The American Society of 
Reproductive Medicine ( commonly known as 
‘‘ASRM’’ ) 2004 Ethics Committee Opinion on 
sex-selection notes that central to the controversy 
of sex-selection is the potential for ‘‘inherent gen-
der discrimination’’, . . .the ‘‘risk of psycho-
logical harm to sex-selected offspring (i.e., by 
placing on them expectations that are too 
high),’’. . . and ‘‘reinforcement of gender bias in 
society as a whole.’’ Embryo sex-selection, ASRM 
notes, remains ‘‘vulnerable to the judgment that 
no matter what its basis, [the method] identifies 
gender as a reason to value one person over an-
other, and it supports socially constructed stereo-
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types of what gender means.’’ In doing so, it not 
only ‘‘reinforces possibilities of unfair discrimi-
nation, but may trivialize human reproduction 
by making it depend on the selection of non-
essential features of offspring.’’ The ASRM ethics 
opinion continues, ‘‘ongoing problems with the 
status of women in the United States make it 
necessary to take account of concerns for the im-
pact of sex-selection on goals of gender equality.’’ 
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetri-
cians and Gynecologists, an organization with 
hundreds of members - many of whom are former 
abortionists - makes the following declaration: 
‘‘Sex selection abortions are more graphic exam-
ples of the damage that abortion inflicts on 
women. In addition to increasing premature 
labor in subsequent pregnancies, increasing sui-
cide and major depression, and increasing the 
risk of breast cancer in teens who abort their 
first pregnancy and delay childbearing, sex selec-
tion abortions are often targeted at fetuses sim-
ply because the fetus is female. As physicians 
who care for both the mother and her unborn 
child, the American Association of Pro-Life Ob-
stetricians and Gynecologists vigorously opposes 
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aborting fetuses because of their gender.’’ The 
President’s Council on Bioethics published a 
Working Paper stating the council’s belief that 
society’s respect for reproductive freedom does 
not prohibit the regulation or prohibition of ‘‘sex 
control,’’ defined as the use of various medical 
technologies to choose the sex of one’s child. The 
publication expresses concern that ‘‘sex control 
might lead to . . .dehumanization and a new eu-
genics.’’ 
(L) Sex-selection abortion results in an un-
natural sex-ratio imbalance. An unnatural sex- 
ratio imbalance is undesirable, due to the inabil-
ity of the numerically predominant sex to find 
mates. Experts worldwide document that a sig-
nificant sex-ratio imbalance in which males nu-
merically predominate can be a cause of in-
creased violence and militancy within a society. 
Likewise, an unnatural sex-ratio imbalance gives 
rise to the commoditization of humans in the 
form of human trafficking, and a consequent in-
crease in kidnapping and other violent crime. 
(M) Sex-selection abortions have the effect of 
diminishing the representation of women in the 
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American population, and therefore, the Amer-
ican electorate. 
(N) Sex-selection abortion reinforces sex dis-
crimination and has no place in a civilized soci-
ety. 
(2) RACIAL DISCRIMINATION FINDINGS.— 
(A) Minorities are a vital part of American 
society and culture and possess the same funda-
mental human rights and civil rights as the ma-
jority. 
(B) United States law prohibits the dis-
similar treatment of persons of different races 
who are similarly situated. United States law 
prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in 
various contexts, including the provision of em-
ployment, education, housing, health insurance 
coverage, and athletics. 
(C) A ‘‘race-selection abortion’’ is an abor-
tion performed for purposes of eliminating an 
unborn child because the child or a parent of the 
child is of an undesired race. Race-selection 
abortion is barbaric, and described by civil 
rights advocates as an act of race-based violence, 
predicated on race discrimination. By definition, 
race-selection abortions do not implicate the 
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health of mother of the unborn, but instead are 
elective procedures motivated by race bias. 
(D) Only one State, Arizona, has enacted 
law to proscribe the performance of race-selection 
abortions. 
(E) Race-selection abortions have the effect 
of diminishing the number of minorities in the 
American population and therefore, the Amer-
ican electorate. 
(F) Race-selection abortion reinforces racial 
discrimination and has no place in a civilized 
society. 
(3) GENERAL FINDINGS.— 
(A) The history of the United States in-
cludes examples of both sex discrimination and 
race discrimination. The people of the United 
States ultimately responded in the strongest pos-
sible legal terms by enacting constitutional 
amendments correcting elements of such dis-
crimination. Women, once subjected to sex dis-
crimination that denied them the right to vote, 
now have suffrage guaranteed by the 19th 
amendment. African-Americans, once subjected 
to race discrimination through slavery that de-
nied them equal protection of the laws, now have 
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that right guaranteed by the 14th amendment. 
The elimination of discriminatory practices has 
been and is among the highest priorities and 
greatest achievements of American history. 
(B) Implicitly approving the discrimina-
tory practices of sex-selection abortion and race- 
selection abortion by choosing not to prohibit 
them will reinforce these inherently discrimina-
tory practices, and evidence a failure to protect 
a segment of certain unborn Americans because 
those unborn are of a sex or racial makeup that 
is disfavored. Sex-selection and race-selection 
abortions trivialize the value of the unborn on 
the basis of sex or race, reinforcing sex and race 
discrimination, and coarsening society to the hu-
manity of all vulnerable and innocent human 
life, making it increasingly difficult to protect 
such life. Thus, Congress has a compelling inter-
est in acting—indeed it must act—to prohibit 
sex-selection abortion and race-selection abortion. 
(b) CONSTITUTIONAL
AUTHORITY.—In accordance 
with the above findings, Congress enacts the following pur-
suant to Congress’ power under— 
(1) the Commerce Clause; 
(2) section 2 of the 13th amendment; 
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(3) section 5 of the 14th amendment, including 
the power to enforce the prohibition on government 
action denying equal protection of the laws; and 
(4) section 8 of article I to make all laws nec-
essary and proper for the carrying into execution of 
powers vested by the Constitution in the Government 
of the United States. 
SEC. 3. DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE UNBORN ON THE 
BASIS OF RACE OR SEX. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 13 of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘§ 250. Discrimination against the unborn on the 
basis of race or sex 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Whoever knowingly— 
‘‘(1) performs an abortion knowing that such 
abortion is sought based on the sex, gender, color or 
race of the child, or the race of a parent of that child; 
‘‘(2) uses force or the threat of force to inten-
tionally injure or intimidate any person for the pur-
pose of coercing a sex-selection or race-selection abor-
tion; 
‘‘(3) solicits or accepts funds for the performance 
of a sex-selection abortion or a race-selection abortion; 
or 
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‘‘(4) transports a woman into the United States 
or across a State line for the purpose of obtaining a 
sex-selection abortion or race-selection abortion; 
or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or im-
prisoned not more than 5 years, or both. 
‘‘(b) CIVIL REMEDIES.— 
‘‘(1) CIVIL ACTION BY WOMAN ON WHOM ABOR-
TION
IS
PERFORMED.—A woman upon whom an 
abortion has been performed pursuant to a violation 
of subsection (a)(2) may in a civil action against any 
person who engaged in a violation of subsection (a) 
obtain appropriate relief. 
‘‘(2) CIVIL ACTION BY RELATIVES.—The father of 
an unborn child who is the subject of an abortion per-
formed or attempted in violation of subsection (a), or 
a maternal grandparent of the unborn child if the 
pregnant woman is an unemancipated minor, may in 
a civil action against any person who engaged in the 
violation, obtain appropriate relief, unless the preg-
nancy resulted from the plaintiff’s criminal conduct 
or the plaintiff consented to the abortion. 
‘‘(3) APPROPRIATE RELIEF.—Appropriate relief 
in a civil action under this subsection includes— 
‘‘(A) objectively verifiable money damages 
for all injuries, psychological and physical, in-
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cluding loss of companionship and support, occa-
sioned by the violation of this section; and 
‘‘(B) punitive damages. 
‘‘(4) INJUNCTIVE RELIEF.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—A qualified plaintiff 
may in a civil action obtain injunctive relief to 
prevent an abortion provider from performing or 
attempting further abortions in violation of this 
section. 
‘‘(B) DEFINITION.—In this paragraph the 
term ‘qualified plaintiff’ means— 
‘‘(i) a woman upon whom an abortion 
is performed or attempted in violation of 
this section; 
‘‘(ii) any person who is the spouse or 
parent of a woman upon whom an abortion 
is performed in violation of this section; or 
‘‘(iii) the Attorney General. 
‘‘(5) ATTORNEYS
FEES
FOR
PLAINTIFF.—The 
court shall award a reasonable attorney’s fee as part 
of the costs to a prevailing plaintiff in a civil action 
under this subsection. 
‘‘(c) LOSS OF FEDERAL FUNDING.—A violation of sub-
section (a) shall be deemed for the purposes of title VI of 
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