IV 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 206 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Congress and 
the States should investigate and correct abusive, unsanitary, and illegal 
abortion practices. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 8, 2013 
Mr. FINCHER (for himself, Mrs. BLACKBURN, and Mr. STUTZMAN) submitted 
the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for 
a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
Congress and the States should investigate and correct 
abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion practices. 
Whereas the Declaration of Independence sets forth the prin-
ciple that all people are created equal and are endowed 
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that 
among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness; 
Whereas the dedication of the people of the United States to 
this principle, though at times tragically marred by insti-
tutions such as slavery and practices such as segregation 
and the denial of the right to vote, has summoned the 
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•HRES 206 IH 
people of the United States time and again to fight for 
human dignity and the common good; 
Whereas the people of the United States believe that every 
human life is precious from its very beginning, and that 
every individual, regardless of age, health, or condition of 
dependency, deserves the respect and protection of soci-
ety; 
Whereas the people of the United States believe that early 
and consistent care for mothers, with due regard both for 
the well-being of expectant mothers and for the children 
they carry, is a primary goal of any sound health care 
policy in the United States; 
Whereas no woman should ever be abandoned, by policy or 
practice, to the depredations of an unlicensed, unregu-
lated, or uninspected clinic operating outside of the law 
with no regard for the mothers or children ostensibly 
under its care; 
Whereas the Report of the Grand Jury in the Court of Com-
mon Pleas of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, 
certified on January 14, 2011, contains the results of a 
thorough investigation of the policies and practices of Dr. 
Kermit Gosnell and the Women’s Medical Society of 
Philadelphia, which found multiple violations of law and 
public policy relating to abortion clinics, and rec-
ommended to the Pennsylvania Department of Health 
that these abortion clinics ‘‘be explicitly regulated as am-
bulatory surgical facilities, so that they are inspected an-
nually and held to the same standards as all other out-
patient procedure centers’’; 
Whereas the Report of the Grand Jury documented a pat-
tern, over a period of 2 decades, at the Women’s Medical 
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•HRES 206 IH 
Society of Philadelphia of untrained and uncertified per-
sonnel performing abortions, non-medical personnel ad-
ministering medications, grossly unsanitary and dan-
gerous conditions, violations of law regarding storage of 
human remains, and, above all, instances of willful mur-
der of infants born alive by severing their spinal cords; 
Whereas the violations of law and human dignity documented 
at the Women’s Medical Society of Philadelphia involved 
women referred to the facility by abortion facilities in a 
number of surrounding States, including Virginia, Mary-
land, North Carolina, and Delaware; 
Whereas abortion clinics in a number of States, particularly 
Michigan and Maryland, and including 2 clinics at which 
Dr. Kermit Gosnell performed or initiated abortions and 
2 Planned Parenthood facilities in Delaware, have been 
closed temporarily or permanently due to unsanitary con-
ditions, and the Planned Parenthood facilities in Dela-
ware have been described by former employees as resem-
bling a ‘‘meat market’’; 
Whereas the imposition of criminal and civil penalties on in-
dividuals and corporations involved in the deplorable 
practices described in this preamble is appropriate, but is 
not the only necessary response to such practices; 
Whereas it is essential that the Federal Government and 
State and local governments take action to prevent dan-
gerous conditions at abortion clinics; 
Whereas government accountability means that officials 
whose duty it is to protect the safety and well-being of 
mothers accessing health care clinics must have their ac-
tions made public and their failures redressed; 
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•HRES 206 IH 
Whereas the extent of, and purported justification for, legal 
and illegal abortions in the United States performed late 
in the second trimester of pregnancy and into and 
throughout the third trimester of pregnancy are not rou-
tinely reported by all States or by the Centers for Dis-
ease Control, and are therefore unknown; 
Whereas women and children in the United States deserve 
better than the 56,145,920 abortions that have been per-
formed in the United States since the Supreme Court 
rulings in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, and Doe v. 
Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, in 1973; and 
Whereas there is substantial medical evidence that an unborn 
child is capable of experiencing pain at 20 weeks after 
fertilization, or earlier: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) Congress and States should gather informa-
tion about and correct— 
(A) abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abor-
tion practices; and 
(B) the interstate referral of women and 
girls to facilities engaged in dangerous or illegal 
second- and third-trimester procedures; 
(2) Congress has the responsibility to— 
(A) investigate and conduct hearings on— 
(i) abortions performed near, at, or 
after viability in the United States; and 
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•HRES 206 IH 
(ii) public policies regarding such 
abortions; and 
(B) evaluate the extent to which such abor-
tions involve violations of the natural right to 
life of infants who are born alive or are capable 
of being born alive, and therefore are entitled to 
equal protection under the law; 
(3) there is a compelling governmental interest 
in protecting the lives of unborn children beginning 
at least from the stage at which substantial medical 
evidence indicates that they are capable of feeling 
pain, which is separate from and independent of the 
compelling governmental interest in protecting the 
lives of unborn children beginning at the stage of vi-
ability, and neither governmental interest is intended 
to replace the other; and 
(4) governmental review of public policies and 
outcomes relating to the issues described in para-
graphs (1) through (4) is long overdue and is an ur-
gent priority that must be addressed for the sake of 
women, children, families, and future generations. 
Æ 
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