[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 133 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 133

Expressing the sense of the Senate that Congress and the States should 
   investigate and correct abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion 
                               practices.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 8, 2013

 Mr. Lee (for himself, Mr. Toomey, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Scott, Mr. Cruz, Mr. 
Inhofe, Mr. Burr, Mr. Vitter, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Blunt, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. 
Thune, Mr. Johanns, Mr. Paul, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Coats, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. 
   Cochran, Mr. Chambliss, Ms. Ayotte, Mr. Isakson, and Mr. Graham) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
               on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the Senate that Congress and the States should 
   investigate and correct abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion 
                               practices.

Whereas the Declaration of Independence sets forth the principle that all people 
        are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain 
        unalienable rights, and that among these rights are life, liberty, and 
        the pursuit of happiness;
Whereas the dedication of the people of the United States to this principle, 
        though at times tragically marred by institutions such as slavery and 
        practices such as segregation and the denial of the right to vote, has 
        summoned the people of the United States time and again to fight for 
        human dignity and the common good;
Whereas the people of the United States believe that every human life is 
        precious from its very beginning, and that every individual, regardless 
        of age, health, or condition of dependency, deserves the respect and 
        protection of society;
Whereas the people of the United States believe that early and consistent care 
        for mothers, with due regard both for the well-being of expectant 
        mothers and for the children they carry, is a primary goal of any sound 
        health care policy in the United States;
Whereas no woman should ever be abandoned, by policy or practice, to the 
        depredations of an unlicensed, unregulated, or uninspected clinic 
        operating outside of the law with no regard for the mothers or children 
        ostensibly under its care;
Whereas the Report of the Grand Jury in the Court of Common Pleas of the First 
        Judicial District of Pennsylvania, certified on January 14, 2011, 
        contains the results of a thorough investigation of the policies and 
        practices of Dr. Kermit Gosnell and the Women's Medical Society of 
        Philadelphia, which found multiple violations of law and public policy 
        relating to abortion clinics, and recommended to the Pennsylvania 
        Department of Health that these abortion clinics ``be explicitly 
        regulated as ambulatory surgical facilities, so that they are inspected 
        annually and held to the same standards as all other outpatient 
        procedure centers'';
Whereas the Report of the Grand Jury documented a pattern, over a period of 2 
        decades, at the Women's Medical Society of Philadelphia of untrained and 
        uncertified personnel performing abortions, non-medical personnel 
        administering medications, grossly unsanitary and dangerous conditions, 
        violations of law regarding storage of human remains, and, above all, 
        instances of willful murder of infants born alive by severing their 
        spinal cords;
Whereas the violations of law and human dignity documented at the Women's 
        Medical Society of Philadelphia involved women referred to the facility 
        by abortion facilities in a number of surrounding States, including 
        Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Delaware;
Whereas abortion clinics in a number of States, particularly Michigan and 
        Maryland, and including 2 clinics at which Dr. Kermit Gosnell performed 
        or initiated abortions and 2 Planned Parenthood facilities in Delaware, 
        have been closed temporarily or permanently due to unsanitary 
        conditions, and the Planned Parenthood facilities in Delaware have been 
        described by former employees as resembling a ``meat market'';
Whereas the imposition of criminal and civil penalties on individuals and 
        corporations involved in the deplorable practices described in this 
        preamble is appropriate, but is not the only necessary response to such 
        practices;
Whereas it is essential that the Federal Government and State and local 
        governments take action to prevent dangerous conditions at abortion 
        clinics;
Whereas government accountability means that officials whose duty it is to 
        protect the safety and well-being of mothers accessing health care 
        clinics must have their actions made public and their failures 
        redressed;
Whereas the extent of, and purported justification for, legal and illegal 
        abortions in the United States performed late in the second trimester of 
        pregnancy and into and throughout the third trimester of pregnancy are 
        not routinely reported by all States or by the Centers for Disease 
        Control, and are therefore unknown;
Whereas women and children in the United States deserve better than the 
        56,145,920 abortions that have been performed in the United States since 
        the Supreme Court rulings in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, and Doe v. 
        Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, in 1973; and
Whereas there is substantial medical evidence that an unborn child is capable of 
        experiencing pain at 20 weeks after fertilization, or earlier: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) Congress and States should gather information about and 
        correct--
                    (A) abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion 
                practices; and
                    (B) the interstate referral of women and girls to 
                facilities engaged in dangerous or illegal second- and 
                third-trimester procedures;
            (2) Congress has the responsibility to--
                    (A) investigate and conduct hearings on--
                            (i) abortions performed near, at, or after 
                        viability in the United States; and
                            (ii) public policies regarding such 
                        abortions; and
                    (B) evaluate the extent to which such abortions 
                involve violations of the natural right to life of 
                infants who are born alive or are capable of being born 
                alive, and therefore are entitled to equal protection 
                under the law;
            (3) there is a compelling governmental interest in 
        protecting the lives of unborn children beginning at least from 
        the stage at which substantial medical evidence indicates that 
        they are capable of feeling pain, which is separate from and 
        independent of the compelling governmental interest in 
        protecting the lives of unborn children beginning at the stage 
        of viability, and neither governmental interest is intended to 
        replace the other; and
            (4) governmental review of public policies and outcomes 
        relating to the issues described in paragraphs (1) through (4) 
        is long overdue and is an urgent priority that must be 
        addressed for the sake of women, children, families, and future 
        generations.
                                 <all>