II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 2974
To require public institutions of higher education to disseminate information
on the rights of, and accommodations and resources for, pregnant stu-
dents, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
SEPTEMBER28 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER22), 2023
Mr. R
UBIO(for himself, Mr. LANKFORD, Mrs. HYDE-SMITH, Mr. SCOTTof
Florida, Mr. W
ICKER, and Mr. BRAUN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu-
cation, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To require public institutions of higher education to dissemi-
nate information on the rights of, and accommodations
and resources for, pregnant students, and for other pur-
poses.
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 ‘‘Pregnant Students’ 4
Rights Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
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(1) Female students who are enrolled at institu-1
tions of higher education and experiencing un-2
planned pregnancies may face pressure that their 3
only option is to receive an abortion or risk academic 4
failure. 5
(2) 27.6 percent of all abortions in the United 6
States are performed on women of college age, be-7
tween the ages of 20 and 24, according to a 2019 8
report by the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-9
vention. 10
(3) A significant proportion of abortions in the 11
United States are performed on women of college 12
age who may be unaware of their rights under title 13
IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 14
U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) or deprived of an alternative to 15
receiving an abortion. 16
(4) Additionally, women on college campuses 17
may fear institutional reprisal, loss of athletic schol-18
arship, and possible negative impact on academic op-19
portunities. 20
(5) An academic disparity exists because of the 21
lack of resources, support, and notifications available 22
for female college students who do not wish to re-23
ceive an abortion or who carry their unborn babies 24
to term. 25
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SEC. 3. NOTICE OF PREGNANT STUDENT RIGHTS, ACCOM-1
MODATIONS, AND RESOURCES. 2
Section 485 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 3
U.S.C. 1092) is amended by adding at the end the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘(n) P
REGNANTSTUDENTS’ RIGHTS, ACCOMMODA-6
TIONS, ANDRESOURCES.— 7
‘‘(1) I
NFORMATION DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES ; 8
ESTABLISHMENT OF PROTOCOL .— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each public institu-10
tion of higher education participating in any 11
program under this title shall— 12
‘‘(i) in a manner consistent with title 13
IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 14
(20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.), carry out the in-15
formation dissemination activities de-16
scribed in subparagraph (B) for admitted 17
but not enrolled and enrolled students (in-18
cluding those attending or planning to at-19
tend less than full time) on the rights and 20
resources (including protections and ac-21
commodations) for pregnant students (or 22
students who may become pregnant) while 23
enrolled at such institution of higher edu-24
cation that— 25
‘‘(I) exclude abortion services; 26
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‘‘(II) may help such a student 1
carry their unborn babies to term; and 2
‘‘(III) include information on how 3
to file a complaint with the Depart-4
ment if such a student believes there 5
was a violation of title IX of the Edu-6
cation Amendments of 1972 (20 7
U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) by the institution 8
on account of such student’s preg-9
nancy; and 10
‘‘(ii) establish a protocol to meet with 11
a student described in clause (i)(III), 12
which shall include a meeting with relevant 13
leadership at the institution of higher edu-14
cation, and other relevant parties. 15
‘‘(B) D
ESCRIPTION OF INFORMATION DIS -16
SEMINATION REQUIREMENTS .—The information 17
dissemination activities described in this sub-18
paragraph shall include— 19
‘‘(i) annual campus-wide emails; or 20
‘‘(ii) the provision of information in 21
student handbooks, at each orientation for 22
enrolled students, or on the publicly avail-23
able website of the institution of higher 24
education. 25
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‘‘(2) ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS .— 1
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each public institu-2
tion of higher education participating in any 3
program under this title shall— 4
‘‘(i) on an annual basis, compile and 5
submit to the Secretary— 6
‘‘(I) responses to the questions 7
described in subparagraph (B) from 8
students enrolled at such institution 9
of higher education who voluntarily 10
provided such responses; and 11
‘‘(II) a description of any actions 12
taken by the institution of higher edu-13
cation to address each complaint by a 14
student that there was a violation of 15
title IX of the Education Amendments 16
of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) by 17
the institution on account of such stu-18
dent’s pregnancy, including any ac-19
tions taken in accordance with the 20
protocol established under paragraph 21
(1)(A)(ii); and 22
‘‘(ii) ensure that any such responses 23
remain confidential and do not reveal any 24
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personally identifiable information with re-1
spect to a student. 2
‘‘(B) Q
UESTIONS FOR ENROLLED STU -3
DENTS.—The questions described in this sub-4
paragraph shall include— 5
‘‘(i) if such student experienced an 6
unexpected pregnancy while enrolled at the 7
institution of higher education; 8
‘‘(ii) if such student felt there were 9
adequate resources on campus relating to 10
protections, accommodations, and other re-11
sources for pregnant students besides abor-12
tion-related services; 13
‘‘(iii) if such a student believes there 14
was a violation of title IX of the Education 15
Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et 16
seq.) by the institution on account of such 17
student’s pregnancy; and 18
‘‘(iv) if such student considered drop-19
ping out or withdrawing from classes be-20
cause of pregnancy, new motherhood, still-21
birth, or miscarriage. 22
‘‘(C) R
EPORT.—The Secretary shall, on an 23
annual basis— 24
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‘‘(i) prepare a report that compiles 1
the responses received under subparagraph 2
(A) from each public institution of higher 3
education participating in any program 4
under this title; and 5
‘‘(ii) submit such report to the author-6
izing committees, and the Committees on 7
Appropriations of the House of Represent-8
atives and the Senate.’’. 9
Æ
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