[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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