II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 78
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit taking minors across
State lines in circumvention of laws requiring the involvement of parents
in abortion decisions.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY25, 2023
Mr. R
UBIO(for himself, Mrs. HYDE-SMITH, Mr. RISCH, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr.
T
HUNE, Mr. CRUZ, Mr. SCOTTof South Carolina, Mr. CRAMER, Mr.
B
RAUN, Mr. HAWLEY, Mr. KENNEDY, Mrs. FISCHER, Mr. CASSIDY, and
Mr. M
ARSHALL) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit taking
minors across State lines in circumvention of laws requir-
ing the involvement of parents in abortion decisions.
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 ‘‘Child Interstate Abor-4
tion Notification Act of 2023’’. 5
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SEC. 2. TRANSPORTATION OF MINORS IN CIRCUMVENTION 1
OF CERTAIN LAWS RELATING TO ABORTION. 2
Part I of title 18, United States Code, is amended 3
by inserting after chapter 117 the following: 4
‘‘CHAPTER 117A—TRANSPORTATION OF 5
MINORS IN CIRCUMVENTION OF CER-6
TAIN LAWS RELATING TO ABORTION 7
‘‘Sec.
‘‘2431. Transportation of minors in circumvention of certain laws relating to
abortion.
‘‘2432. Transportation of minors in circumvention of certain laws relating to
abortion and incest.
‘‘§ 2431. Transportation of minors in circumvention of 8
certain laws relating to abortion 9
‘‘(a) O
FFENSE.— 10
‘‘(1) G
ENERALLY.—Except as provided in sub-11
section (b), whoever knowingly transports a minor 12
across a State line, with the intent that the minor 13
obtain an abortion, and thereby in fact abridges the 14
right of a parent of the minor under a law requiring 15
parental involvement in a minor’s abortion decision, 16
in force in the State in which the minor resides, 17
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not 18
more than 1 year, or both. 19
‘‘(2) D
EFINITION.—For the purposes of this 20
subsection, an abridgement of the right of a parent 21
of a minor occurs if an abortion is performed or in-22
duced on the minor, in a State other than the State 23
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in which the minor resides or in a foreign country, 1
without the parental consent or notification, or the 2
judicial authorization, that would have been required 3
under a law requiring parental involvement in a mi-4
nor’s abortion decision had the abortion been per-5
formed in the State in which the minor resides. 6
‘‘(b) E
XCEPTIONS.— 7
‘‘(1) L
IFE-ENDANGERING CONDITIONS .—The 8
prohibition under subsection (a) shall not apply if 9
the abortion is necessary to save the life of the 10
minor because her life is endangered by a physical 11
disorder, physical injury, or physical illness, includ-12
ing a life endangering physical condition caused by 13
or arising from the pregnancy itself. 14
‘‘(2) M
INORS AND PARENTS .—A minor trans-15
ported in violation of this section, and any parent of 16
that minor, may not be prosecuted or sued for a vio-17
lation of this section, a conspiracy to violate this sec-18
tion, or an offense under section 2 or 3 of this title 19
based on a violation of this section. 20
‘‘(c) A
FFIRMATIVEDEFENSE.—It is an affirmative 21
defense to a prosecution for an offense, or to a civil action, 22
based on a violation of this section that the defendant— 23
‘‘(1) reasonably believed, based on information 24
the defendant obtained directly from a parent of the 25
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minor, that before the minor obtained the abortion, 1
the parental consent or notification took place that 2
would have been required under the law requiring 3
parental involvement in a minor’s abortion decision, 4
had the abortion been performed in the State in 5
which the minor resides; or 6
‘‘(2) was presented with documentation showing 7
with a reasonable degree of certainty that a court in 8
the minor’s State of residence waived any parental 9
notification required by the laws of that State, or 10
otherwise authorized that the minor be allowed to 11
procure an abortion. 12
‘‘(d) C
IVILACTION.—Any parent who suffers harm 13
from a violation of subsection (a) may obtain appropriate 14
relief in a civil action unless the parent has committed 15
an act of incest with the minor described in subsection 16
(a). 17
‘‘(e) D
EFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this sec-18
tion— 19
‘‘(1) the term ‘abortion’ means the use or pre-20
scription of any instrument, medicine, drug, or other 21
substance or device to intentionally— 22
‘‘(A) kill the unborn child of a woman 23
known to be pregnant; or 24
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‘‘(B) prematurely terminate the pregnancy 1
of a woman known to be pregnant, with an in-2
tention other than to— 3
‘‘(i) increase the probability of a live 4
birth or of preserving the life or health of 5
the child after live birth; or 6
‘‘(ii) remove a dead unborn child; 7
‘‘(2) the term ‘law requiring parental involve-8
ment in a minor’s abortion decision’ means a law— 9
‘‘(A) requiring, before an abortion is per-10
formed on a minor, either— 11
‘‘(i) the notification to, or consent of, 12
a parent of that minor; or 13
‘‘(ii) proceedings in a State court; and 14
‘‘(B) that does not provide as an alter-15
native to the requirements described in sub-16
paragraph (A) notification to or consent of any 17
person or entity not described in that subpara-18
graph; 19
‘‘(3) the term ‘minor’ means an individual who 20
is not older than the maximum age requiring paren-21
tal notification or consent, or proceedings in a State 22
court, under a law requiring parental involvement in 23
a minor’s abortion decision; 24
‘‘(4) the term ‘parent’ means— 25
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‘‘(A) a parent or guardian; 1
‘‘(B) a legal custodian; or 2
‘‘(C) an individual standing in loco 3
parentis— 4
‘‘(i) who has care and control of the 5
minor; 6
‘‘(ii) with whom the minor regularly 7
resides; and 8
‘‘(iii) who is designated by the law re-9
quiring parental involvement in the minor’s 10
abortion decision as an individual to whom 11
notification, or from whom consent, is re-12
quired; and 13
‘‘(5) the term ‘State’ includes— 14
‘‘(A) the District of Columbia; 15
‘‘(B) any commonwealth, possession, or 16
other territory of the United States; and 17
‘‘(C) any Indian Tribe or reservation. 18
‘‘§ 2432. Transportation of minors in circumvention of 19
certain laws relating to abortion and in-20
cest 21
‘‘(a) O
FFENSE.—Notwithstanding section 22
2431(b)(2), whoever has committed an act of incest with 23
a minor and knowingly transports the minor across a 24
State line with the intent that the minor obtain an abor-25
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tion, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more 1
than 1 year, or both. 2
‘‘(b) D
EFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this section, 3
the terms ‘abortion’, ‘minor’, and ‘State’ have the mean-4
ings given those terms in section 2435.’’. 5
SEC. 3. CHILD INTERSTATE ABORTION NOTIFICATION. 6
Part I of title 18, United States Code, is amended 7
by inserting after chapter 117A (as added by section 2) 8
the following: 9
‘‘CHAPTER 117B—CHILD INTERSTATE 10
ABORTION NOTIFICATION 11
‘‘Sec.
‘‘2435. Child interstate abortion notification.
‘‘§ 2435. Child interstate abortion notification 12
‘‘(a) O
FFENSE.— 13
‘‘(1) G
ENERALLY.—A physician who knowingly 14
performs or induces an abortion on a minor in viola-15
tion of the requirements of this section shall be fined 16
under this title or imprisoned not more than 1 year, 17
or both. 18
‘‘(2) P
ARENTAL NOTIFICATION .— 19
‘‘(A) A
CTUAL NOTICE.—A physician who 20
performs or induces an abortion on a minor 21
who is a resident of a State other than the 22
State in which the abortion is performed or in-23
duced shall provide, or cause his or her agent 24
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to provide, not less than 24 hours actual notice 1
to a parent of the minor before performing or 2
inducing the abortion. 3
‘‘(B) C
ONSTRUCTIVE NOTICE .—If actual 4
notice to a parent under subparagraph (A) is 5
not accomplished after a reasonable effort has 6
been made, not less than 24 hours constructive 7
notice shall be given to a parent of the minor 8
before the abortion is performed or induced. 9
‘‘(b) E
XCEPTIONS.—The notification requirement 10
under subsection (a)(2) shall not apply if— 11
‘‘(1) the abortion is performed or induced in a 12
State that has in force a law requiring parental in-13
volvement in a minor’s abortion decision and the 14
physician complies with the requirements of that 15
law; 16
‘‘(2) the physician is presented with documenta-17
tion showing with a reasonable degree of certainty 18
that a court in the minor’s State of residence has 19
waived any parental notification required by the laws 20
of that State, or has otherwise authorized that the 21
minor be allowed to procure an abortion; 22
‘‘(3) the minor declares in a signed written 23
statement that she is the victim of sexual abuse, ne-24
glect, or physical abuse by a parent, and, before an 25
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abortion is performed on the minor, the physician 1
notifies the authorities specified to receive reports of 2
child abuse or neglect by the law of the State in 3
which the minor resides of the known or suspected 4
abuse or neglect; 5
‘‘(4) the abortion is necessary to save the life 6
of the minor because her life was endangered by a 7
physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness, 8
including a life endangering physical condition 9
caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, ex-10
cept that an exception under this paragraph shall 11
not apply unless the attending physician or an agent 12
of such physician, not later than 24 hours after com-13
pletion of the abortion, notifies a parent of the 14
minor in writing that an abortion was performed on 15
the minor and of the circumstances that warranted 16
invocation of this paragraph; or 17
‘‘(5) the minor is physically accompanied by a 18
person who presents the physician or his or her 19
agent with documentation showing with a reasonable 20
degree of certainty that he or she is in fact the par-21
ent of that minor. 22
‘‘(c) C
IVILACTION.—Any parent who suffers harm 23
from a violation of subsection (a) may obtain appropriate 24
relief in a civil action unless the parent has committed 25
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an act of incest with the minor described in subsection 1
(a). 2
‘‘(d) D
EFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this sec-3
tion— 4
‘‘(1) the term ‘abortion’ means the use or pre-5
scription of any instrument, medicine, drug, or other 6
substance or device to intentionally— 7
‘‘(A) kill the unborn child of a woman 8
known to be pregnant; or 9
‘‘(B) prematurely terminate the pregnancy 10
of a woman known to be pregnant, with an in-11
tention other than to— 12
‘‘(i) increase the probability of a live 13
birth or of preserving the life or health of 14
the child after live birth; or 15
‘‘(ii) remove a dead unborn child; 16
‘‘(2) the term ‘actual notice’ means the giving 17
of written notice directly, in person, by the physician 18
or any agent of the physician; 19
‘‘(3) the term ‘constructive notice’ means notice 20
that is given by certified mail, return receipt re-21
quested, restricted delivery to the last known ad-22
dress of the person being notified, with delivery 23
deemed to have occurred 48 hours following noon on 24
the next day subsequent to mailing on which regular 25
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mail delivery takes place, excluding days on which 1
mail is not delivered; 2
‘‘(4) the term ‘law requiring parental involve-3
ment in a minor’s abortion decision’ means a law— 4
‘‘(A) requiring, before an abortion is per-5
formed on a minor, either— 6
‘‘(i) the notification to, or consent of, 7
a parent of that minor; or 8
‘‘(ii) proceedings in a State court; and 9
‘‘(B) that does not provide as an alter-10
native to the requirements described in sub-11
paragraph (A) notification to or consent of any 12
person or entity not described in that subpara-13
graph; 14
‘‘(5) the term ‘minor’ means an individual 15
who— 16
‘‘(A) has not attained the age of 18 years; 17
and 18
‘‘(B) is not emancipated under the law of 19
the State in which the individual resides; 20
‘‘(6) the term ‘parent’ means— 21
‘‘(A) a parent or guardian; 22
‘‘(B) a legal custodian; or 23
‘‘(C) an individual standing in loco 24
parentis— 25
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‘‘(i) who has care and control of the 1
minor; and 2
‘‘(ii) with whom the minor regularly 3
resides, 4
as determined by State law; 5
‘‘(7) the term ‘physician’ means— 6
‘‘(A) a doctor of medicine legally author-7
ized to practice medicine by the State in which 8
the doctor practices medicine; or 9
‘‘(B) any other person legally empowered 10
under State law to perform an abortion; and 11
‘‘(8) the term ‘State’ includes— 12
‘‘(A) the District of Columbia; 13
‘‘(B) any commonwealth, possession, or 14
other territory of the United States; and 15
‘‘(C) any Indian Tribe or reservation.’’. 16
SEC. 4. CLERICAL AMENDMENT. 17
The table of chapters at the beginning of part I of 18
title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 19
the item relating to chapter 117 the following new items: 20
‘‘117A. Transportation of minors in circumvention of
certain laws relating to abortion....................2431
‘‘117B. Child interstate abortion notification........................2435’’.
SEC. 5. SEVERABILITY AND EFFECTIVE DATE.
21
(a) S
EVERABILITY.—The provisions of this Act shall 22
be severable. If any provision of this Act, or any applica-23
tion thereof, is found unconstitutional, that finding shall 24
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not affect any provision or application of the Act not so 1
adjudicated. 2
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This Act and the amend-3
ments made by this Act shall take effect 45 days after 4
the date of enactment of this Act. 5
Æ
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