103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
HB2177

 

Introduced 2/7/2023, by Rep. Adam M. Niemerg

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
New Act

    Creates the Infant Born Alive Protection Act. Provides that any physician who intentionally performs an abortion when there is a reasonable likelihood or possibility of sustained survival of the fetus outside the womb shall utilize the method most likely to preserve the life and health of the fetus, and that failure to do so is a Class 3 felony. Prohibits the performance or inducement of an abortion when the fetus is viable unless there is in attendance a physician other than the physician performing or inducing the abortion who shall take control of and provide immediate medical care for any child born alive as a result of the abortion. Provides that any living individual organism of the species homo sapiens who has been born alive is legally an individual under the Criminal Code of 2012. Provides that a Class 3 felony is committed when a physician under specified circumstances intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly fails to exercise the same conduct to preserve the life and health of a child as would be required for a child born alive at the same gestational age. Provides that nothing in the Act requires a physician to employ a method of abortion which, in the medical judgment of the physician, would increase medical risk to the mother. Except in specified circumstances, requires specified persons to inform a woman upon whom an abortion is to be performed when an anesthetic or analgesic is available for use to abolish or alleviate organic pain caused to the fetus by the particular method of abortion to be employed and provides that failure to do so is a Class B misdemeanor.


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A BILL FOR

 

HB2177LRB103 26042 LNS 52397 b

1    AN ACT concerning health.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Infant
5Born Alive Protection Act.
 
6    Section 5. Method of abortion.
7    (a) Any physician who intentionally performs an abortion
8when, in his or her medical judgment based on the particular
9facts of the case before him or her, there is a reasonable
10likelihood of sustained survival of the fetus outside the
11womb, with or without artificial support, shall utilize that
12method of abortion which, of those he or she knows to be
13available, is, in his or her medical judgment, most likely to
14preserve the life and health of the fetus.
15    (b) The physician shall certify in writing, on a form
16prescribed by the Department of Public Health, the available
17methods considered and the reasons for choosing the method
18employed.
19    (c) Any physician who intentionally, knowingly, or
20recklessly violates the provisions of subsection (a) commits a
21Class 3 felony.
 
22    Section 10. Additional physician.

 

 

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1    (a) No abortion shall be performed or induced when the
2fetus is viable unless there is in attendance a physician
3other than the physician performing or inducing the abortion
4who shall take control of and provide immediate medical care
5for any child born alive as a result of the abortion. This
6requirement shall not apply when, in the medical judgment of
7the physician performing or inducing the abortion based on the
8particular facts of the case before him or her, there exists a
9medical emergency; in such a case, the physician shall
10describe the basis of this judgment on the form prescribed by
11the Department of Public Health. Any physician who
12intentionally performs or induces such an abortion and who
13intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly fails to arrange for
14the attendance of such a second physician in violation of this
15subsection commits a Class 3 felony.
16    (b) Subsequent to the abortion, if a child is born alive,
17the physician required by subsection (a) to be in attendance
18shall exercise the same degree of professional skill, care,
19and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as
20would be required of a physician providing immediate medical
21care to a child born alive at the same gestational age. Any
22such physician who intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly
23violates this subsection commits a Class 3 felony.
 
24    Section 15. Living individuals. The law of this State
25shall not be construed to imply that any living individual

 

 

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1organism of the species homo sapiens who has been born alive is
2not an individual under the Criminal Code of 2012.
 
3    Section 20. Reasonable possibility of sustained survival.
4    (a) Any physician who intentionally performs an abortion
5when, in his or her medical judgment based on the particular
6facts of the case before him or her, there is a reasonable
7possibility of sustained survival of the fetus outside the
8womb, with or without artificial support, shall utilize that
9method of abortion which, of those he or she knows to be
10available, is, in his or her medical judgment, most likely to
11preserve the life and health of the fetus.
12    (b) The physician shall certify in writing, on a form
13prescribed by the Department of Public Health, the available
14methods considered and the reasons for choosing the method
15employed.
16    (c) Any physician who intentionally, knowingly, or
17recklessly violates the provisions of subsection (a) commits a
18Class 3 felony.
 
19    Section 25. Increased medical risk to the mother. Nothing
20in this Act requires a physician to employ a method of abortion
21which, in the medical judgment of the physician performing the
22abortion based on the particular facts of the case before him
23or her, would increase medical risk to the mother.
 

 

 

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1    Section 30. Alleviating organic pain to a fetus.
2    (a) When the fetus is viable and when there exists
3reasonable medical certainty that (i) the particular method of
4abortion to be employed will cause organic pain to the fetus,
5and (ii) use of an anesthetic or analgesic would abolish or
6alleviate organic pain to the fetus caused by the particular
7method of abortion to be employed, then the physician who is to
8perform the abortion or his or her agent or the referring
9physician or his or her agent shall inform the woman upon whom
10the abortion is to be performed that such an anesthetic or
11analgesic is available, if he or she knows it to be available,
12for use to abolish or alleviate organic pain caused to the
13fetus by the particular method of abortion to be employed. Any
14person who performs an abortion with knowledge that any such
15reasonable medical certainty exists and that such an
16anesthetic or analgesic is available, and intentionally fails
17to so inform the woman or to ascertain that the woman has been
18so informed commits a Class B misdemeanor.
19    (b) The requirements of this Section shall not apply:
20        (1) when, in the medical judgment of the physician who
21    is to perform the abortion or the referring physician,
22    based upon the particular facts of the case before him or
23    her:
24            (A) there exists a medical emergency; or
25            (B) the administration of such an anesthetic or
26        analgesic would decrease a possibility of sustained

 

 

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1        survival of the fetus apart from the body of the
2        mother, with or without artificial support; or
3        (2) when the physician who is to perform the abortion
4    administers an anesthetic or an analgesic to the woman or
5    the fetus and he or she knows there exists reasonable
6    medical certainty that such use will abolish organic pain
7    caused to the fetus during the course of the abortion.
 
8    Section 35. Rules. The Department of Public Health shall
9adopt any rules necessary for the administration and
10enforcement of this Act.