[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6536 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6536

To amend the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 to require 
abortion providers to notify the national human trafficking hotline of 
            victims of trafficking, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 1, 2022

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 to require 
abortion providers to notify the national human trafficking hotline of 
            victims of trafficking, 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 ``Stopping Traffickers and Their 
Accomplices Act of 2022''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Slavery and involuntary servitude are incompatible with 
        American society and law.
            (2) The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution 
        abolished legal slavery and involuntary servitude in the United 
        States.
            (3) Despite slavery being abolished in 1865, modern forms 
        of slavery still exist throughout the United States.
            (4) Every year, hundreds of thousands of Americans and 
        immigrants are coerced into commercial sex acts against their 
        will.
            (5) In addition to sexual exploitation, victims of 
        trafficking suffer repeated physical, mental, and emotional 
        abuse at the hands of their traffickers.
            (6) Abortion providers and facilities aid sex traffickers 
        by turning a blind eye to the plight of abused women.
            (7) The Department of State's 2017 Trafficking in Persons 
        Report indicated that sex traffickers coerce women into 
        receiving abortions against their will.
            (8) Research conducted by Laura J. Lederer and Christopher 
        A. Wetzel, entitled ``The Health Consequences of Sex 
        Trafficking and Their Implications for Identifying Victims in 
        Healthcare Facilities'' published in the Annals of Health Law 
        Journal, indicated that 71 percent of women coerced into 
        commercial sex acts reported at least one pregnancy and 21 
        percent reported five or more pregnancies while trafficked (23 
        Annals Health L. 61 (2014)).
            (9) Lederer and Wetzel's research found that almost a third 
        of women trafficked reported underwent numerous abortions as 
        victims of trafficking. More than half of respondents answered 
        that their abortion while a victim of sex trafficking was a 
        result of coercion. One victim of sex trafficking recounted, 
        ``[in most of my six abortions,] I was under serious pressure 
        from my pimps to abort the babies''.
            (10) A moral obligation exists to report suspected 
        instances of sex trafficking to authorities.
            (11) Section 2 of the 13th Amendment empowers Congress to 
        enact appropriate legislation to combat all forms of slavery 
        and involuntary servitude, including forced sex trafficking.

SEC. 3. COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING.

    Section 114 of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 
(34 U.S.C. 20709) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(g) National Human Trafficking Hotline Notification by Abortion 
Providers.--
            ``(1) Requirement.--
                    ``(A) Notification to national human trafficking 
                hotline.--Not later than 24 hours after consulting with 
                a patient, an abortion provider shall notify the 
                national human trafficking hotline if the provider has 
                a reasonable suspicion that the patient is a victim of 
                trafficking.
                    ``(B) Report to attorney general and local law 
                enforcement.--Not later than 24 hours after an abortion 
                provider notifies the national human trafficking 
                hotline under subparagraph (A), the Secretary of Health 
                and Human Services shall notify the Attorney General of 
                such notification by the abortion provider. Not later 
                than 24 hours after receipt of a notification from the 
                Secretary of Health and Human Services under this 
                subparagraph, the Attorney General shall notify the 
                appropriate State and local law enforcement agencies.
                    ``(C) Penalty.--An abortion provider who violates 
                subparagraph (A) shall be fined $10,000, imprisoned not 
                more than 6 months, or both.
            ``(2) Training.--
                    ``(A) Availability.--The Secretary of Health and 
                Human Services shall make available to abortion 
                providers the training entitled `Foundational (101) 
                Human Trafficking Trainings--SOAR For Health Care' (or 
                any substantially similar successor training).
                    ``(B) Requirement.--Each abortion provider shall 
                complete the training provided under subparagraph (A) 
                on an annual basis and prior to January 30 of each 
                calendar year, and certify such completion to the 
                Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons of the 
                Department of Health and Human Services. The 
                certification under this subparagraph shall include the 
                protocols that the abortion provider has in place to 
                identify and assist victims of trafficking.
                    ``(C) Penalty.--An abortion provider who fails to 
                comply with subparagraph (B) shall be subject to a fine 
                in an amount of $1,000 per day of noncompliance.
            ``(3) Rules of construction.--
                    ``(A) No requirement for victims of trafficking to 
                self-report.--Nothing in this subsection may be 
                construed to require a victim of trafficking to self-
                report.
                    ``(B) No right to abortion.--Nothing in this 
                subsection may be construed to provide a right to an 
                abortion.
            ``(4) Definitions.--In this subsection:
                    ``(A) The term `abortion provider' means a person 
                who--
                            ``(i) performs an abortion and is licensed 
                        to practice medicine and surgery or osteopathic 
                        medicine and surgery; or
                            ``(ii) is otherwise legally authorized to 
                        perform an abortion.
                    ``(B) The term `victim of trafficking' has the 
                meaning given to such term in section 103 of the 
                Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 
                7102).''.
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