I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 62
To protect health care providers and people seeking reproductive health care
services, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2023
Ms. J
ACKSONLEEintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee
on the Judiciary, 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 committee concerned
A BILL
To protect health care providers and people seeking
reproductive health care services, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safeguard Healthcare 4
Industry Employees from Litigation and Distress Act’’ or 5
the ‘‘SHIELD Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 7
In this Act: 8
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(1) The term ‘‘reproductive health care service’’ 1
includes, with respect to a current, potential, or an-2
ticipated pregnancy— 3
(A) a diagnosis; 4
(B) an evaluation; 5
(C) an assessment; 6
(D) a consultation or the provision of ad-7
vice, including with respect to decision making; 8
(E) a treatment; and 9
(F) an abortion-related health care service. 10
(2) The term ‘‘health care provider’’ means any 11
entity or individual (including any physician, cer-12
tified nurse-midwife, nurse practitioner, nurse, phy-13
sician’s assistant, pharmacist, or other medical pro-14
fessional) that is— 15
(A) engaged or seeks to engage in decision 16
making related to, or the delivery of, health 17
care services, including reproductive health care 18
services; and 19
(B) licensed or certified to perform such 20
service under applicable State law. 21
(3) The term ‘‘State’’ includes the several 22
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 23
of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, 24
American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Is-25
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lands, each Indian tribe, and each territory or pos-1
session of the United States. 2
SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON CERTAIN DEPARTMENT OF JUS-3
TICE LAW ENFORCEMENT FUNDING. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The funds that a State would oth-5
erwise receive under a covered grant program shall be re-6
duced by 50 percent if the State has in effect a law that 7
authorizes officers or employees of the State or of a unit 8
of local government to prevent (including through criminal 9
enforcement), restrict, impede, or retaliate against— 10
(1) a health care provider who seeks to initiate, 11
provide, or otherwise facilitate the provision of re-12
productive health care services to a patient or pro-13
spective patient; 14
(2) any person or entity that seeks to assist a 15
health care provider who seeks to initiate, provide, 16
or otherwise facilitate the provision of reproductive 17
health care services to a patient or prospective pa-18
tient; 19
(3) any person who seeks to gain access to— 20
(A) reproductive health care services; or 21
(B) a health care provider for the purpose 22
of accessing reproductive health care services; 23
or 24
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(4) any person or entity that seeks to assist an-1
other person who seeks to gain access to— 2
(A) reproductive health care services; or 3
(B) a health care provider for the purpose 4
of accessing reproductive health care services. 5
(b) C
OVEREDGRANTPROGRAM.—In this section, the 6
term ‘‘covered grant program’’ means grants under— 7
(1) part Q of title I of the Omnibus Crime Con-8
trol and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 13081 9
et seq.); and 10
(2) subpart 1 of part E of title I of the Omni-11
bus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 12
U.S.C. 10151 et seq.). 13
SEC. 4. INTERFERENCE BY OFFICERS OR EMPLOYEES OF A 14
STATE OR UNIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT 15
PROHIBITED. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.—No officer or employee of a State 17
or unit of local government may act under color of law 18
in any manner that would have a discriminatory effect on 19
a woman by preventing (including through criminal en-20
forcement), restricting, impeding, or retaliating against— 21
(1) a health care provider who seeks to initiate, 22
provide, or otherwise facilitate the provision of re-23
productive health care services to a patient or pro-24
spective patient; 25
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(2) any person or entity that seeks to assist a 1
health care provider who seeks to initiate, provide, 2
or otherwise facilitate the provision of reproductive 3
health care services to a patient or prospective pa-4
tient; 5
(3) any person who seeks to gain access to— 6
(A) reproductive health care services; or 7
(B) a health care provider for the purpose 8
of accessing reproductive health care services; 9
or 10
(4) any person or entity that seeks to assist an-11
other person who seeks to gain access to— 12
(A) reproductive health care services; or 13
(B) a health care provider for the purpose 14
of accessing reproductive health care services. 15
(b) E
NFORCEMENT BY ATTORNEYGENERAL.—The 16
Attorney General may bring a civil action for declaratory 17
and injunctive relief in the appropriate United States dis-18
trict court against any person who violates subsection (a). 19
(c) P
RIVATERIGHT OFACTION.—Any person who is 20
harmed by a violation of subsection (a) may bring a civil 21
action in the appropriate United States district court 22
against the person who violated such subsection for— 23
(1) declaratory and injunctive relief; 24
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(2) such compensatory damages as the court 1
determines appropriate, including for economic 2
losses and for emotional pain and suffering; 3
(3) such punitive damages as the court deter-4
mines appropriate; and 5
(4) reasonable attorney’s fees and costs of the 6
action that the court determines appropriate to 7
award to a prevailing plaintiff. 8
(d) C
RIMINALPENALTY.—Whoever, in violating sub-9
section (a), uses a deadly or dangerous weapon or inflicts 10
bodily injury, shall be fined under title 18, United States 11
Code, or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. 12
(e) N
OSTATEIMMUNITY.—A State shall not be im-13
mune under the eleventh amendment to the Constitution 14
of the United States from an action in a Federal or State 15
court of competent jurisdiction for a violation of this sec-16
tion. 17
SEC. 5. INTERFERENCE BY PERSONS NOT OFFICERS OR 18
EMPLOYEES OF A STATE OR UNIT OF LOCAL 19
GOVERNMENT PROHIBITED. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—No person who is not an officer 21
or employee of a State or of a unit of local government, 22
who, in a circumstance described in subsection (b), by op-23
eration of a provision of State law attempts to implement 24
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or enforce State law, may act or threaten to act in any 1
manner to prevent, restrict, impede, or retaliate against— 2
(1) a health care provider who seeks to initiate, 3
provide, or otherwise facilitate the provision of re-4
productive health care services to a patient or pro-5
spective patient; 6
(2) any person or entity that assists a health 7
care provider who seeks to initiate, provide, or other-8
wise facilitate the provision of reproductive health 9
care services to a patient or prospective patient; 10
(3) any person who seeks to gain access to— 11
(A) reproductive health care services; or 12
(B) a health care provider for the purpose 13
of accessing reproductive health care services; 14
or 15
(4) any person or entity that seeks to assist an-16
other person who seeks to gain access to— 17
(A) reproductive health care services; or 18
(B) a health care provider for the purpose 19
of accessing reproductive health care services. 20
(b) C
IRCUMSTANCESDESCRIBED.—For the purposes 21
of subsection (a), the circumstances described in this sub-22
section are that— 23
(1) any travel in interstate or foreign com-24
merce, or travel enabled by a means, channel, facil-25
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ity, or instrumentality of interstate or foreign com-1
merce, occurred in furtherance of or in connection 2
with the conduct described in subsection (a); 3
(2) a means, channel, facility, or instrumen-4
tality of interstate or foreign commerce was used in 5
furtherance of or in connection with the conduct de-6
scribed in subsection (a); 7
(3) any payment of any kind was made, directly 8
or indirectly, in furtherance of or in connection with 9
the conduct described in subsection (a) using any 10
means, channel, facility, or instrumentality of inter-11
state or foreign commerce or in or affecting inter-12
state or foreign commerce; 13
(4) any communication was transmitted in 14
interstate or foreign commerce, relating to or in fur-15
therance of the conduct described in subsection (a) 16
using any means, channel, facility, or instrumen-17
tality of interstate or foreign commerce or in or af-18
fecting interstate or foreign commerce by any means 19
or in manner, including by computer, mail, wire, or 20
electromagnetic transmission; 21
(5) any instrument, item, substance, or other 22
object that has traveled in interstate or foreign com-23
merce was used to perform the conduct described in 24
subsection (a); 25
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(6) the conduct described in subsection (a) oc-1
curred within the special maritime and territorial ju-2
risdiction of the United States, or any territory or 3
possession of the United States; or 4
(7) the conduct described in subsection (a) oth-5
erwise occurred in or affected interstate or foreign 6
commerce. 7
(c) E
NFORCEMENT BY ATTORNEYGENERAL.—The 8
Attorney General may bring a civil action for declaratory 9
and injunctive relief in the appropriate United States dis-10
trict court against any person who violates subsection (a). 11
(d) P
RIVATERIGHT OFACTION.—Any person who is 12
harmed by a violation of subsection (a) may bring a civil 13
action in the appropriate United States district court 14
against the person who violated such subsection for— 15
(1) declaratory and injunctive relief; 16
(2) such compensatory damages as the court 17
determines appropriate, including for economic 18
losses and for emotional pain and suffering; 19
(3) such punitive damages as the court deter-20
mines appropriate; and 21
(4) reasonable attorney’s fees and costs of the 22
action that the court determines appropriate to 23
award to a prevailing plaintiff. 24
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(e) CRIMINALPENALTY.—Whoever, in violating sub-1
section (a), uses a deadly or dangerous weapon or inflicts 2
bodily injury, shall be fined under title 18, United States 3
Code, or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. 4
SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY. 5
If any provision of this Act, or the application of such 6
provision to any person, entity, government, or cir-7
cumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder 8
of this Act, or the application of such provision to all other 9
persons, entities, governments, or circumstances, shall not 10
be affected thereby. 11
Æ
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