a child ‘‘in a state of being born and before ac-
tual birth,’’ was not under attack. This interest 
becomes compelling as the child emerges from 
the maternal body. A child that is completely 
born is a full, legal person entitled to constitu-
tional protections afforded a ‘‘person’’ under 
the United States Constitution. Partial-birth 
abortions involve the killing of a child that is in 
the process, in fact mere inches away from, be-
coming a ‘‘person’’. Thus, the government has 
a heightened interest in protecting the life of 
the partially-born child. 
(I) This, too, has not gone unnoticed in 
the medical community, where a prominent 
medical association has recognized that partial-
birth abortions are ‘‘ethically different from 
other destructive abortion techniques because 
the fetus, normally twenty weeks or longer in 
gestation, is killed outside of the womb’’. Ac-
cording to this medical association, the ‘‘ ‘par-
tial birth’ gives the fetus an autonomy which 
separates it from the right of the woman to 
choose treatments for her own body’’. 
(J) Partial-birth abortion also confuses the 
medical, legal, and ethical duties of physicians
to preserve and promote life, as the physician 
acts directly against the physical life of a child, 
whom he or she had just delivered, all but the 
head, out of the womb, in order to end that life. 
Partial-birth abortion thus appropriates the ter-
minology and techniques used by obstetricians 
in the delivery of living children—obstetricians 
who preserve and protect the life of the mother 
and the child—and instead uses those tech-
niques to end the life of the partially-born child. 
(K) Thus, by aborting a child in the man-
ner that purposefully seeks to kill the child 
after he or she has begun the process of birth, 
partial-birth abortion undermines the public’s 
perception of the appropriate role of a physician 
during the delivery process, and perverts a 
process during which life is brought into the 
world, in order to destroy a partially-born child. 
(L) The gruesome and inhumane nature of 
the partial-birth abortion procedure and its dis-
turbing similarity to the killing of a newborn in-
fant promotes a complete disregard for infant 
human life that can only be countered by a pro-
hibition of the procedure.
(M) The vast majority of babies killed dur-
ing partial-birth abortions are alive until the 
end of the procedure. It is a medical fact, how-
ever, that unborn infants at this stage can feel 
pain when subjected to painful stimuli and that 
their perception of this pain is even more in-
tense than that of newborn infants and older 
children when subjected to the same stimuli. 
Thus, during a partial-birth abortion procedure, 
the child will fully experience the pain associ-
ated with piercing his or her skull and sucking 
out his or her brain.
(N) Implicitly approving such a brutal and 
inhumane procedure by choosing not to prohibit 
it will further coarsen society to the humanity 
of not only newborns, but all vulnerable and in-
nocent human life, making it increasingly dif-
ficult to protect such life. Thus, Congress has 
a compelling interest in acting—indeed it must 
act—to prohibit this inhumane procedure. 
(O) For these reasons, Congress finds that 
partial-birth abortion is never medically indi-
cated to preserve the health of the mother; is in 
fact unrecognized as a valid abortion procedure 
by the mainstream medical community; poses
additional health risks to the mother; blurs the 
line between abortion and infanticide in the kill-
ing of a partially-born child just inches from 
birth; and confuses the role of the physician in 
childbirth and should, therefore, be banned. 
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title 18, United States Code, is 
amended by inserting after chapter 73 the following: 
‘‘CHAPTER 74—PARTIAL-BIRTH 
ABORTIONS
‘‘Sec. 
‘‘1531. Partial-birth abortions prohibited.
‘‘§ 1531. Partial-birth abortions prohibited 
‘‘(a) Any physician who, in or affecting interstate or 
foreign commerce, knowingly performs a partial-birth 
abortion and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined 
under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or 
both. This subsection does not apply to a partial-birth 
abortion that is necessary to save the life of a mother 
whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical 
illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering 
physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy 
itself. This subsection takes effect 1 day after the enact-
ment. 
‘‘(b) As used in this section—
‘‘(1) the term ‘partial-birth abortion’ means an 
abortion in which—
‘‘(A) the person performing the abortion 
deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers 
a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first 
presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the 
body of the mother, or, in the case of breech 
presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past 
the navel is outside the body of the mother for 
the purpose of performing an overt act that the 
person knows will kill the partially delivered liv-
ing fetus; and 
‘‘(B) performs the overt act, other than 
completion of delivery, that kills the partially 
delivered living fetus; and 
‘‘(2) the term ‘physician’ means a doctor of medicine 
or osteopathy legally authorized to practice medicine and 
surgery by the State in which the doctor performs such 
activity, or any other individual legally authorized by the 
State to perform abortions: Provided, however, That any 
individual who is not a physician or not otherwise legally 
authorized by the State to perform abortions, but who nev-
ertheless directly performs a partial-birth abortion, shall 
be subject to the provisions of this section.
‘‘(c)(1) The father, if married to the mother at the 
time she receives a partial-birth abortion procedure, and 
if the mother has not attained the age of 18 years at the 
time of the abortion, the maternal grandparents of the 
fetus, may in a civil action obtain appropriate relief, unless 
the pregnancy resulted from the plaintiff’s criminal con-
duct or the plaintiff consented to the abortion. 
‘‘(2) Such relief shall include—
‘‘(A) money damages for all injuries, psycho-
logical and physical, occasioned by the violation of 
this section; and 
‘‘(B) statutory damages equal to three times 
the cost of the partial-birth abortion. 
‘‘(d)(1) A defendant accused of an offense under this 
section may seek a hearing before the State Medical Board 
on whether the physician’s conduct was necessary to save 
the life of the mother whose life was endangered by a 
physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, in-
cluding a life-endangering physical condition caused by or 
arising from the pregnancy itself. 
‘‘(2) The findings on that issue are admissible on that 
issue at the trial of the defendant. Upon a motion of the 
defendant, the court shall delay the beginning of the trial 
for not more than 30 days to permit such a hearing to 
take place.