Bill Text: IL HB5296 | 2019-2020 | 101st General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Creates the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2020. Provides that any person who knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus or infant is guilty of a Class 4 felony. Provides that a person shall only perform or induce a partial-birth abortion on a viable fetus if: (i) the person is a physician; (ii) the person has a documented referral from another physician not legally or financially affiliated with the person performing or inducing the abortion; (iii) both physicians determine that the life of the mother is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself; and (iv) there is no other medical procedure that would suffice for that purpose. Provides that the maternal grandparents of the fetus or infant, if the mother has not attained the age of 18 years at the time of the abortion, may obtain appropriate relief unless the pregnancy resulted from the plaintiff's criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented to the abortion. Provides that a woman on whom a partial-birth abortion is performed may not be prosecuted under the Act, for a conspiracy to violate the Act, or for an offense under Article 31 of the Criminal Code of 2012, nor may she be held accountable under Article 5 of the Criminal Code of 2012. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-02-18 - Referred to Rules Committee [HB5296 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2019-HB5296-Introduced.html

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101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2019 and 2020 HB5296 Introduced , by Rep. Patrick Windhorst SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
New Act
Creates the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2020. Provides that any person who knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus or infant is guilty of a Class 4 felony. Provides that a person shall only perform or induce a partial-birth abortion on a viable fetus if: (i) the person is a physician; (ii) the person has a documented referral from another physician not legally or financially affiliated with the person performing or inducing the abortion; (iii) both physicians determine that the life of the mother is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself; and (iv) there is no other medical procedure that would suffice for that purpose. Provides that the maternal grandparents of the fetus or infant, if the mother has not attained the age of 18 years at the time of the abortion, may obtain appropriate relief unless the pregnancy resulted from the plaintiff's criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented to the abortion. Provides that a woman on whom a partial-birth abortion is performed may not be prosecuted under the Act, for a conspiracy to violate the Act, or for an offense under Article 31 of the Criminal Code of 2012, nor may she be held accountable under Article 5 of the Criminal Code of 2012. Effective immediately.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning civil law.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2020.
Section 5. Findings; purposes.
(a) The General Assembly finds that:
(1) Partial-birth abortion is a gruesome and inhumane
procedure that is never medically necessary and, as such,
should be prohibited.
(2) In 2003, the 108th United States Congress passed
the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 (18 U.S.C.
1531), and President George W. Bush signed it into law.
(3) Later, on April 18, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court
upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 ("the
federal ban") in Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007),
specifically ruling that a ban on partial-birth abortion
need not include a maternal "health" exception to be
constitutional.
(4) This Act's language stems from and uses as its
primary influence the language of the federal ban as upheld
in Gonzales v. Carhart.
(5) This Act – a state ban on partial-birth abortion –

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is needed to supplement the federal ban. Importantly, the
federal ban was narrowly tailored to reach only those
partial-birth abortion procedures that implicate Congress'
power to regulate interstate or foreign commerce. U.S.
CONST. art. 1, 8, cl. 3. Without this Act, partial-birth
abortions performed, but not affecting these categories of
commerce, are not prohibited under the federal ban.
(6) A partial-birth abortion poses serious risk to a
woman's long-term health.
(7) There is a substantial evidentiary record upon
which the General Assembly has based its conclusion that a
maternal "health" exception is not constitutionality
required in a State ban on partial-birth abortion.
(8) Moreover, the medical evidence clearly supports
the informed judgment of this State that a partial-birth
abortion is never medically necessary to preserve a woman's
health and instead poses serious health risks to the woman.
(9) Specifically, partial-birth abortion poses serious
risks, including, but not limited to: an increased risk of
cervical incompetence, as a result of cervical dilation,
that makes it difficult or impossible for a woman to
successfully carry a subsequent pregnancy to term; an
increased risk of uterine rupture, abruption, amniotic
fluid embolus, and trauma to the uterus, as a result of
converting the child to a footling breech position – a
procedure which, according to a leading obstetrics

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textbook, "there are very few, if any, indications for
other than for delivery of a second twin"; and a risk of
lacerations and secondary hemorrhaging, as a result of the
physician blindly forcing a sharp instrument into the base
of the unborn child's skull while he or she is lodged in
the birth canal – an act that could result in severe
bleeding and subsequent shock.
(10) There is no credible medical evidence that
partial-birth abortions are safer than other abortion
procedures. No controlled studies of partial-birth
abortion have been conducted nor have any comparative
studies been conducted to demonstrate its safety and
efficacy compared to other abortion methods. Furthermore,
there have been no articles published in peer-reviewed
journals that establish that partial-birth abortions are
superior in any way to established abortion procedures.
(11) In light of this overwhelming evidence, the State
of Illinois has a compelling interest in prohibiting
partial-birth abortion. Both Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113
(1973), and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833
(1992), recognized a governmental interest in protecting
the life of a child during the birth process. This interest
is specifically implicated during a partial-birth abortion
because labor is induced and the birth process is begun
before an abortion is attempted or the child is actually
aborted.

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(12) In fact, partial-birth abortion kills a child who
is mere inches away from birth and being considered a
"person" under Roe. Thus, this State clearly has a
heightened interest in protecting the life of the
partially-born child.
(13) The public's perception of the appropriate role of
a physician during a child's birth is undermined by
aborting a child in the manner that purposefully seeks to
kill the child inches from birth.
(14) Partial-birth abortion is disturbingly similar to
the killing of a newborn infant and blurs the legal and
moral lines between infanticide and abortion. This Act
reinforces that line at birth – just as the Supreme Court
established in Roe v. Wade – while also preserving the
integrity of the medical profession and promoting respect
for human life.
(15) The vast majority of infants killed during
partial-birth abortions are alive until the very end of the
procedure. Medical science has established that an unborn
child can feel pain when subjected to painful stimuli like
that inflicted during a partial-birth abortion procedure.
Moreover, fetal pain experts believe that an unborn child's
perception of pain can be even more intense than that of
newborn infants and older children subjected to the same
stimuli.
(b) Based on the findings in subsection (a), the purposes

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of the General Assembly are to:
(1) conclusively establish that partial-birth abortion
is never medically indicated to preserve the health of the
mother and instead poses significant maternal health
risks;
(2) clearly define the line between abortion and
infanticide; and
(3) safeguard the role of a physician during
childbirth.
Section 10. Definitions; terms.
(a) As used in this Act, "partial-birth abortion" means an
abortion in which the person performing the abortion:
(1) deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers
a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first
presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of
the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, any
part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body
of the mother, for the purpose of performing an overt act
that the person knows will kill the partially delivered
living fetus; and
(2) performs the overt act, other than completion of
delivery, which kills the partially delivered living
fetus.
(b) The terms "fetus" and "infant" are used interchangeably
to refer to the biological offspring of human parents.

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Section 15. Partial-birth abortions prohibited.
Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, any person who
knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a
human fetus or infant is guilty of a Class 4 felony. A person
shall only perform or induce a partial-birth abortion on a
viable fetus if: (i) the person is a physician; (ii) the person
has a documented referral from another physician not legally or
financially affiliated with the person performing or inducing
the abortion; (iii) both physicians determine that the life of
the mother is endangered by a physical disorder, physical
illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering
condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself; and
(iv) there is no other medical procedure that would suffice for
that purpose.
Section 20. Civil action. The maternal grandparents of the
fetus or infant, if the mother has not attained the age of 18
years at the time of the abortion, may, in a civil action,
obtain appropriate relief unless the pregnancy resulted from
the plaintiff's criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented to
the abortion. The relief shall include money damages for all
injuries, psychological and physical, occasioned by the
violation of this Act and statutory damages equal to 3 times
the cost of the partial-birth abortion.

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Section 25. Prosecution of woman prohibited. A woman on
whom a partial-birth abortion is performed may not be
prosecuted under this Act, for a conspiracy to violate this
Act, or for an offense under Article 31 of the Criminal Code of
2012 based on a violation of this Act, nor may she be held
accountable under Article 5 of the Criminal Code of 2012 for an
offense based on a violation of this Act.
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.