[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 776 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 776

  To protect the reproductive rights of women, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 1, 1995

Mr. Torkildsen introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To protect the reproductive rights of women, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Freedom of Choice Act of 1995''.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL STATEMENT OF FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) The 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade 
        established constitutionally based limits on the power of 
        States to restrict the right of a woman to choose to terminate 
        a pregnancy. Under the strict scrutiny standard enunciated in 
        Roe v. Wade, States were required to demonstrate that laws 
        restricting the right of a woman to choose to terminate a 
        pregnancy were the least restrictive means available to achieve 
        a compelling State interest. Since 1989, the Supreme Court has 
        no longer applied the strict scrutiny standard in reviewing 
        challenges to the constitutionality of State laws restricting 
        such rights.
            (2) As a result of the Supreme Court's recent modification 
        of the strict scrutiny standard enunciated in Roe v. Wade, 
        certain States have restricted the right of women to choose to 
        terminate a pregnancy or to utilize some forms of 
        contraception, and these restrictions operate cumulatively to--
                    (A)(i) increase the number of illegal or medically 
                less safe abortions, often resulting in physical 
                impairment, loss of reproductive capacity or death to 
                the women involved;
                    (ii) burden interstate commerce by forcing women to 
                travel from States in which legal barriers render 
                contraception or abortion unavailable or unsafe to 
                other States or foreign nations;
                    (iii) interfere with freedom of travel between and 
                among the various States;
                    (iv) burden the medical and economic resources of 
                States that continue to provide women with access to 
                safe and legal abortion; and
                    (v) interfere with the ability of medical 
                professionals to provide health services;
                    (B) obstruct access to and use of contraceptive and 
                other medical techniques that are part of interstate 
                and international commerce;
                    (C) discriminate between women who are able to 
                afford interstate and international travel and women 
                who are not, a disproportionate number of whom belong 
                to racial or ethnic minorities; and
                    (D) infringe upon women's ability to exercise full 
                enjoyment of rights secured to them by Federal and 
                State law, both statutory and constitutional.
            (3) Although Congress may not by legislation create 
        constitutional rights, it may, where authorized by its 
        enumerated powers and not prohibited by a constitutional 
        provision, enact legislation to create and secure statutory 
        rights in areas of legitimate national concern.
            (4) Congress has the affirmative power both under section 8 
        of article I of the Constitution of the United States and under 
        section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution to 
        enact legislation to prohibit State interference with 
        interstate commerce, liberty or equal protection of the laws.
    (b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this Act to establish, as a 
statutory matter, limitations upon the power of States to restrict the 
freedom of a woman to terminate a pregnancy in order to achieve the 
same limitations as provided, as a constitutional matter, under the 
strict scrutiny standard of review enunciated in Roe v. Wade and 
applied in subsequent cases from 1973 to 1988.

SEC. 3. FREEDOM TO CHOOSE.

    (a) In General.--A State--
            (1) may not restrict the freedom of a woman to choose 
        whether or not to terminate a pregnancy before fetal viability;
            (2) may restrict the freedom of a woman to choose whether 
        or not to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability unless 
        such a termination is necessary to preserve the life or health 
        of the woman; and
            (3) may impose requirements on the performance of abortion 
        procedures if such requirements are medically necessary to 
        protect the health of women undergoing such procedures.
    (b) Rules of Construction.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed 
to--
            (1) prevent a State from protecting unwilling individuals 
        or private health care institutions from having to participate 
        in the performance of abortions to which they are 
        conscientiously opposed;
            (2) prevent a State from declining to pay for the 
        performance of abortions; or
            (3) prevent a State from requiring a minor to involve a 
        parent, guardian, or other responsible adult before terminating 
        a pregnancy.

SEC. 4. DEFINITION OF STATE.

    As used in this Act, the term ``State'' includes the District of 
Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and each other territory or 
possession of the United States.
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