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1 | AN ACT concerning civil law.
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2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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3 | represented in the General Assembly:
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4 | Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the | |||||||||||||||||||
5 | Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2023. | |||||||||||||||||||
6 | Section 5. Findings; purposes. | |||||||||||||||||||
7 | (a) The General Assembly finds that: | |||||||||||||||||||
8 | (1) Partial-birth abortion is a gruesome and inhumane | |||||||||||||||||||
9 | procedure that is never medically necessary and, as such, | |||||||||||||||||||
10 | should be prohibited. | |||||||||||||||||||
11 | (2) In 2003, the 108th United States Congress passed | |||||||||||||||||||
12 | the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 (18 U.S.C. | |||||||||||||||||||
13 | 1531), and President George W. Bush signed it into law. | |||||||||||||||||||
14 | (3) Later, on April 18, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court | |||||||||||||||||||
15 | upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 ("the | |||||||||||||||||||
16 | federal ban") in Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007), | |||||||||||||||||||
17 | specifically ruling that a ban on partial-birth abortion | |||||||||||||||||||
18 | need not include a maternal "health" exception to be | |||||||||||||||||||
19 | constitutional. | |||||||||||||||||||
20 | (4) This Act's language stems from and uses as its | |||||||||||||||||||
21 | primary influence the language of the federal ban as | |||||||||||||||||||
22 | upheld in Gonzales v. Carhart. | |||||||||||||||||||
23 | (5) This Act – a state ban on partial-birth abortion – |
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1 | is needed to supplement the federal ban. Importantly, the | ||||||
2 | federal ban was narrowly tailored to reach only those | ||||||
3 | partial-birth abortion procedures that implicate Congress' | ||||||
4 | power to regulate interstate or foreign commerce. U.S. | ||||||
5 | CONST. art. 1, 8, cl. 3. Without this Act, partial-birth | ||||||
6 | abortions performed, but not affecting these categories of | ||||||
7 | commerce, are not prohibited under the federal ban. | ||||||
8 | (6) A partial-birth abortion poses serious risk to a | ||||||
9 | woman's long-term health. | ||||||
10 | (7) There is a substantial evidentiary record upon | ||||||
11 | which the General Assembly has based its conclusion that a | ||||||
12 | maternal "health" exception is not constitutionality | ||||||
13 | required in a State ban on partial-birth abortion. | ||||||
14 | (8) Moreover, the medical evidence clearly supports | ||||||
15 | the informed judgment of this State that a partial-birth | ||||||
16 | abortion is never medically necessary to preserve a | ||||||
17 | woman's health and instead poses serious health risks to | ||||||
18 | the woman. | ||||||
19 | (9) Specifically, partial-birth abortion poses serious | ||||||
20 | risks, including, but not limited to: an increased risk of | ||||||
21 | cervical incompetence, as a result of cervical dilation, | ||||||
22 | that makes it difficult or impossible for a woman to | ||||||
23 | successfully carry a subsequent pregnancy to term; an | ||||||
24 | increased risk of uterine rupture, abruption, amniotic | ||||||
25 | fluid embolus, and trauma to the uterus, as a result of | ||||||
26 | converting the child to a footling breech position – a |
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1 | procedure which, according to a leading obstetrics | ||||||
2 | textbook, "there are very few, if any, indications for | ||||||
3 | other than for delivery of a second twin"; and a risk of | ||||||
4 | lacerations and secondary hemorrhaging, as a result of the | ||||||
5 | physician blindly forcing a sharp instrument into the base | ||||||
6 | of the unborn child's skull while he or she is lodged in | ||||||
7 | the birth canal – an act that could result in severe | ||||||
8 | bleeding and subsequent shock. | ||||||
9 | (10) There is no credible medical evidence that | ||||||
10 | partial-birth abortions are safer than other abortion | ||||||
11 | procedures. No controlled studies of partial-birth | ||||||
12 | abortion have been conducted nor have any comparative | ||||||
13 | studies been conducted to demonstrate its safety and | ||||||
14 | efficacy compared to other abortion methods. Furthermore, | ||||||
15 | there have been no articles published in peer-reviewed | ||||||
16 | journals that establish that partial-birth abortions are | ||||||
17 | superior in any way to established abortion procedures. | ||||||
18 | (11) In light of this overwhelming evidence, the State | ||||||
19 | has a compelling interest in prohibiting partial-birth | ||||||
20 | abortion. Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 | ||||||
21 | (1992), recognized a governmental interest in protecting | ||||||
22 | the life of a child during the birth process. This | ||||||
23 | interest is specifically implicated during a partial-birth | ||||||
24 | abortion because labor is induced and the birth process is | ||||||
25 | begun before an abortion is attempted or the child is | ||||||
26 | actually aborted. |
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1 | (12) In fact, partial-birth abortion kills a child who | ||||||
2 | is mere inches away from birth and being considered a | ||||||
3 | "person". Thus, this State clearly has a heightened | ||||||
4 | interest in protecting the life of the partially born | ||||||
5 | child. | ||||||
6 | (13) The public's perception of the appropriate role | ||||||
7 | of a physician during a child's birth is undermined by | ||||||
8 | aborting a child in the manner that purposefully seeks to | ||||||
9 | kill the child inches from birth. | ||||||
10 | (14) Partial-birth abortion is disturbingly similar to | ||||||
11 | the killing of a newborn infant and blurs the legal and | ||||||
12 | moral lines between infanticide and abortion. This Act | ||||||
13 | reinforces that line at birth while also preserving the | ||||||
14 | integrity of the medical profession and promoting respect | ||||||
15 | for human life. | ||||||
16 | (15) The vast majority of infants killed during | ||||||
17 | partial-birth abortions are alive until the very end of | ||||||
18 | the procedure. Medical science has established that an | ||||||
19 | unborn child can feel pain when subjected to painful | ||||||
20 | stimuli like that inflicted during a partial-birth | ||||||
21 | abortion procedure. Moreover, fetal pain experts believe | ||||||
22 | that an unborn child's perception of pain can be even more | ||||||
23 | intense than that of newborn infants and older children | ||||||
24 | subjected to the same stimuli. | ||||||
25 | (b) Based on the findings in subsection (a), the purposes | ||||||
26 | of the General Assembly are to: |
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1 | (1) conclusively establish that partial-birth abortion | ||||||
2 | is never medically indicated to preserve the health of the | ||||||
3 | mother and instead poses significant maternal health | ||||||
4 | risks; | ||||||
5 | (2) clearly define the line between abortion and | ||||||
6 | infanticide; and | ||||||
7 | (3) safeguard the role of a physician during | ||||||
8 | childbirth. | ||||||
9 | Section 10. Definitions; terms. | ||||||
10 | (a) As used in this Act, "partial-birth abortion" means an | ||||||
11 | abortion in which the person performing the abortion: | ||||||
12 | (1) deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers | ||||||
13 | a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first | ||||||
14 | presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of | ||||||
15 | the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, any | ||||||
16 | part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body | ||||||
17 | of the mother, for the purpose of performing an overt act | ||||||
18 | that the person knows will kill the partially delivered | ||||||
19 | living fetus; and | ||||||
20 | (2) performs the overt act, other than completion of | ||||||
21 | delivery, which kills the partially delivered living | ||||||
22 | fetus. | ||||||
23 | (b) The terms "fetus" and "infant" are used | ||||||
24 | interchangeably to refer to the biological offspring of human | ||||||
25 | parents. |
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1 | Section 15. Partial-birth abortions prohibited. | ||||||
2 | Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, any person who | ||||||
3 | knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills | ||||||
4 | a human fetus or infant is guilty of a Class 4 felony. A person | ||||||
5 | shall only perform or induce a partial-birth abortion on a | ||||||
6 | viable fetus if: (i) the person is a physician; (ii) the person | ||||||
7 | has a documented referral from another physician not legally | ||||||
8 | or financially affiliated with the person performing or | ||||||
9 | inducing the abortion; (iii) both physicians determine that | ||||||
10 | the life of the mother is endangered by a physical disorder, | ||||||
11 | physical illness, or physical injury, including a | ||||||
12 | life-endangering condition caused by or arising from the | ||||||
13 | pregnancy itself; and (iv) there is no other medical procedure | ||||||
14 | that would suffice for that purpose. | ||||||
15 | Section 20. Civil action. The maternal grandparents of the | ||||||
16 | fetus or infant, if the mother has not attained the age of 18 | ||||||
17 | years at the time of the abortion, may obtain, in a civil | ||||||
18 | action, appropriate relief unless the pregnancy resulted from | ||||||
19 | the plaintiff's criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented to | ||||||
20 | the abortion. The relief shall include money damages for all | ||||||
21 | injuries, psychological and physical, occasioned by the | ||||||
22 | violation of this Act and statutory damages equal to 3 times | ||||||
23 | the cost of the partial-birth abortion. |
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1 | Section 25. Prosecution of woman prohibited. A woman on | ||||||
2 | whom a partial-birth abortion is performed may not be | ||||||
3 | prosecuted under this Act, for a conspiracy to violate this | ||||||
4 | Act, or for an offense under Article 31 of the Criminal Code of | ||||||
5 | 2012 based on a violation of this Act, nor may she be held | ||||||
6 | accountable under Article 5 of the Criminal Code of 2012 for an | ||||||
7 | offense based on a violation of this Act.
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8 | Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon | ||||||
9 | becoming law.
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