[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 39 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 39
Expressing the sense of Congress to support the case of Beatriz, a
young woman from a rural area of El Salvador, living in extreme poverty
and with lupus, who fought for her life against the state to allow her
to terminate a pregnancy that put her at risk, which exposed the
serious consequences of the absolute criminalization of abortion in El
Salvador, and urging the Salvadoran state to assume its international
obligations in the field of human rights.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 2, 2023
Ms. Williams of Georgia (for herself, Mr. Espaillat, Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Lee
of California, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Ms. Crockett, Ms. Schakowsky,
Ms. Barragan, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Escobar, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Wasserman
Schultz, Mr. Castro of Texas, Ms. Kamlager-Dove, Mr. Payne, Ms.
Sanchez, and Ms. Velazquez) submitted the following concurrent
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and
in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of Congress to support the case of Beatriz, a
young woman from a rural area of El Salvador, living in extreme poverty
and with lupus, who fought for her life against the state to allow her
to terminate a pregnancy that put her at risk, which exposed the
serious consequences of the absolute criminalization of abortion in El
Salvador, and urging the Salvadoran state to assume its international
obligations in the field of human rights.
Whereas, in March 2013, Beatriz, a young woman living in poverty with lupus, was
told she was 11 weeks pregnant with a high-risk pregnancy;
Whereas Beatriz's pregnancy was found to be unviable given the diagnosis of
anencephaly;
Whereas medical staff agreed that Beatriz's pregnancy had to be terminated due
to Beatriz's deteriorating health and life endangerment;
Whereas the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice denied
Beatriz's petition to provide her lifesaving abortion care and
necessitated the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to intervene
and grant temporary precautionary measures in Beatriz's favor on April
29, 2013, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a similar
order on May 29, 2013;
Whereas, on June 3, 2013, Beatriz underwent a cesarean section, and the
anencephalic fetus died 5 hours later;
Whereas Beatriz was denied access to a legal, early, and timely abortion in a
case of an anencephalic pregnancy, which not only damaged her health,
personal integrity, and life, but also violated the absolute prohibition
of torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and her
right to live a life free from violence and discrimination as is stated
in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
Whereas the United States has joined the international community in identifying
reproductive rights as human rights, including in connection with the
1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the 1995
Beijing World Conference on Women, and through its ratification of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in New York, on
December 19, 1966, the International Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination in New York, on December 21, 1965,
and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment in New York, on December 10, 1984;
Whereas General Comment No. 36 (2018) on article 6 of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, which was adopted by the Human Rights
Committee on October 30, 2018, asserts that states' parties--
(1) should ensure access for all persons to ``quality and evidence-
based information and education about sexual and reproductive health and to
a wide range of affordable contraceptive methods'';
(2) ``must provide safe, legal, and effective access to abortion where
the life and health of the pregnant woman or girl is at risk, or where
carrying a pregnancy to term would cause the pregnant woman or girl
substantial pain or suffering, most notably where pregnancy is the result
of rape or incest or is not viable'';
(3) ``ensure the availability of, and effective access to, quality
prenatal and post-abortion health care for women and girls''; and
(4) must not impose restrictions on the ability of women or girls to
seek abortion in a manner that jeopardizes their lives, subjects them to
physical or mental pain or suffering, discriminates against them,
arbitrarily interferes with their privacy, or places them at risk of
undertaking unsafe abortions;
Whereas United Nations treaty-monitoring bodies established that abortion
restrictions violate human rights, including the rights to life, health,
and privacy, and the right to equality and nondiscrimination or freedom
from torture and ill-treatment, among others;
Whereas United Nations treaty-monitoring bodies have repeatedly recognized the
connection between restrictive laws on abortion and maternal mortality
due to unsafe abortion;
Whereas access to the full range of sexual, gender-affirming, and reproductive
health care, including abortion, is essential to the health and well-
being of all people;
Whereas reproductive and sexual health care providers administer high-quality,
essential health care, and play a critical role in ensuring people are
able to make decisions about their bodies and lives with dignity,
empathy, compassion, and respect;
Whereas no one should be criminalized for any pregnancy outcome;
Whereas no one should be criminalized for providing essential health care;
Whereas the threat of criminalization or prosecution can result in negative
outcomes by intimidating people from seeking or providing care;
Whereas health care providers have an ethical obligation to provide essential
care to their patients and to protect the private medical information
integral to the patient-provider relationship;
Whereas Indigenous people, Afro-descendant people, people of color, people with
low incomes, people living in rural areas, people with disabilities,
migrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized individuals are
disproportionately likely to be surveilled, arrested, charged,
prosecuted, convicted, and heavily punished within the criminal justice
system;
Whereas Indigenous people, Afro-descendant people, people of color, people with
low incomes, people living in rural areas, people with disabilities,
migrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized individuals are
more likely, due to persistent disparities, to experience adverse
pregnancy outcomes that place them under the scrutiny of the legal
system;
Whereas limiting access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, including
access to abortion, also limits pathways to economic, social, and
political empowerment;
Whereas sexual and reproductive health and rights are intrinsically linked to
gender justice and improved health outcomes for women and their
children;
Whereas abortion is recognized as essential public health care as determined by
the World Health Organization (WHO);
Whereas self-managed abortion is a safe and scientifically documented health
service that can be performed without the participation of medical
professionals to increase access in the most remote locations;
Whereas the most recent WHO abortion guidelines recommend the full
decriminalization of abortion, the removal of grounds-based restrictions
on abortion, and gestational age limits on abortion provision, and
include self-managed abortion among the WHO-recommended methods and
models of care;
Whereas reproductive coercion, which is any behavior that interferes with
autonomous decision making about reproductive health outcomes, is a
violation of human rights;
Whereas the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision has decimated
abortion access in the United States, and cases like Beatriz's are being
seen across many of the States that have banned or severely restricted
abortion access, including a recent lawsuit brought by 5 women and 2
obstetricians and gynecologists against the State of Texas after the
women were denied abortion care even though they were facing severe and
dangerous pregnancy complications and even though the women's conditions
should have qualified under the State's abortion ban exceptions, and as
a result of the denials, their conditions worsened, posing great risks
to their fertility, health, and lives;
Whereas the United States Department of State included in its 2021 Country
Report on Human Rights Practices for El Salvador reports of
discrimination, wrongful incarceration, abuse, and mistreatment of women
who suffered pregnancy complications and miscarriages, and acknowledged
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights' 2021 ruling in Manuela v. El
Salvador that the government violated the right to personal freedom,
life, health, and justice in the case of Manuela, a woman sentenced to
30 years in prison after suffering a pregnancy loss; and
Whereas punishing people for their pregnancy outcomes or for providing essential
reproductive and sexual health care violates their human rights: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That Congress--
(1) condemns the absolute criminalization of abortion in El
Salvador and anywhere in the world;
(2) affirms that all people deserve access to high-quality
health care without fear of reprisal or punishment;
(3) calls upon the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to
recognize that total criminalization of abortion violates the
rights to life, health (including mental health), freedom from
torture, and information; and
(4) urges States that still have a total ban on abortion to
decriminalize abortion and protect and guarantee human rights.
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