[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 464 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 464

Acknowledging that unborn children are legal and constitutional persons 
         who are entitled to the equal protection of the laws.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 5, 2023

  Mr. Lamborn (for himself, Mrs. Lesko, Mr. Aderholt, Mr. Banks, Mr. 
    Bergman, Mrs. Boebert, Mr. Brecheen, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Ezell, Mr. 
  Fulcher, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Harris, Mr. Jackson of Texas, Mr. Kelly of 
Pennsylvania, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Mann, Mr. Moolenaar, Mr. Rosendale, Mr. 
    Walberg, Mr. Weber of Texas, and Mr. Wilson of South Carolina) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                            on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Acknowledging that unborn children are legal and constitutional persons 
         who are entitled to the equal protection of the laws.

Whereas the Declaration of Independence declares it to be a self-evident truth 
        that ``all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator 
        with certain unalienable Rights,'' beginning with the right to life, and 
        that the primary purpose of all government is to defend that supreme 
        right;
Whereas among the stated purposes of the Constitution is to ``secure the 
        Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity'';
Whereas the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees ``due process of 
        law'' and ``the equal protection of the laws'' to ``any person'';
Whereas the Fourteenth Amendment situated its equal protection guarantee within 
        a common-law and statutory context that prohibited abortion and treated 
        the unborn human being throughout pregnancy as a ``person'', who under 
        ``common and civil law'' was ``to all intents and purposes a child, as 
        much as if born'' (Hall v. Hancock, 32 Mass. (15 Pick.) 255, 257-58 
        (1834) (Shaw, C.J.));
Whereas the Fourteenth Amendment, like the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that it was 
        meant to sustain, relied on an understanding of the fundamental rights 
        of persons, including the rights to life and personal security, that had 
        been expounded in Blackstone's Commentaries, which began its first book 
        (``Of the Rights of Persons'') with a discussion of the unborn child's 
        rights as a ``person'' across many bodies of law;
Whereas by the time the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, a supermajority of 
        States had codified laws to prohibit abortion at all stages, and many of 
        these statutes classified abortion as an ``offense against the person'' 
        and nearly all described the unborn victim of abortion as an ``infant'' 
        or ``child'';
Whereas the primary Framer of the Fourteenth Amendment, Representative John 
        Bingham, explained that the Amendment was written to ensure that ``no 
        State in the Union should deny to any human being . . . the equal 
        protection of the laws'';
Whereas Senator Jacob Howard, who sponsored the Amendment in the Senate, 
        declared that the Amendment's purpose was to ``disable a State from 
        depriving not merely a citizen of the United States, but any person, 
        whoever he may be, of life, liberty and property without due process'' 
        and to ensure that even the lowest and ``most despised of the [human] 
        race were guaranteed equal protection'';
Whereas Representative Thaddeus Stevens called the Amendment ``a superstructure 
        of perfect equality of every human being before the law; of impartial 
        protection to everyone in whose breast God had placed an immortal 
        soul'';
Whereas the drafters and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment expected the 
        Amendment to apply not only to freedmen and Black Americans, but to 
        every member of the human species within the jurisdictional reach of the 
        Constitution, they intentionally selected the expansive language of 
        ``any person'', to ensure that no State would ever again subject any 
        class of persons to inferior and invidiously discriminatory treatment;
Whereas a medical and scientific consensus exists establishing that each human 
        being begins his or her life cycle at fertilization;
Whereas abortion, the use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, drug, or 
        any other substance or device, to intentionally kill the unborn child of 
        a woman known to be pregnant, is destructive to the life, health, 
        personal security, and well-being of the unborn child;
Whereas unborn children have morally and legally protectable interests in life, 
        health, personal security, and well-being;
Whereas at least 38 States and this Federal Government (section 1841 of title 
        18, United States Code) have fetal homicide laws that provide for 
        prosecution of criminals who kill an unborn child during the commission 
        of a crime;
Whereas in recognition of the unborn child's right to life, the common law, 
        State law, and Federal law (18 U.S.C. section 3596(b)), all prohibit 
        imposition of the death penalty on a pregnant woman who has been 
        convicted of a capital crime;
Whereas State laws and Federal judicial decisions allowing abortion in the 
        United States denied constitutional rights to unborn children, causing 
        the tragic and unspeakable loss of more than sixty million children 
        before birth, increasing the pressure and anguish of countless women and 
        girls who are driven to abortion, and cheapening our respect for the 
        human person and the sanctity of human life;
Whereas nothing in the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's 
        Health Organization prevents Congress from recognizing the legal and 
        constitutional personhood of unborn children, and indeed, central to the 
        Dobbs holding was the fact that abortion terminates the life of an 
        unborn human being; and
Whereas President Ronald Reagan declared in his 1988 Proclamation of a National 
        Sanctity of Human Life Day that ``our nation cannot continue down the 
        path of abortion, so radically at odds with our history, our heritage, 
        and our concepts of justice,'' and that ``the well-being and the future 
        of our country, demand that protection of the innocents must be 
        guaranteed and that the personhood of the unborn be declared and 
        defended throughout our land'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) defines the term ``unborn person'' or ``unborn child'', 
        as used in this Resolution, to mean ``the unborn offspring of 
        human beings of the species Homo sapiens from the beginning of 
        the biological development of that human being, from 
        fertilization, throughout pregnancy until live birth, including 
        the human conceptus, zygote, morula, blastocyst, embryo, and 
        fetus'';
            (2) finds and declares based on sound historical, medical, 
        and scientific evidence that--
                    (A) the life of each human person begins at 
                fertilization (or the functional equivalent thereof);
                    (B) human persons at every stage of development 
                before birth have moral and legally protectable 
                interests in life, health, and well-being;
                    (C) the word ``person'', as used in the Fourteenth 
                Amendment to the Constitution, had a settled public 
                meaning that included any child living in the womb, and 
                the drafters and ratifiers of the Amendment intended to 
                include all human beings (including unborn children) 
                within the scope of the Amendment's protective embrace;
                    (D) permissive State abortion laws deprive an 
                unborn human person of the right to life and the 
                enjoyment of the equal protection of the laws 
                guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment; and
                    (E) the intentional destruction of human life prior 
                to birth through abortion is inimical to our national 
                values, history, and sense of justice;
            (3) acknowledges our constitutional duty and solemn 
        obligation to guarantee the equal protection of the laws to 
        every unborn child within the jurisdictional and geographic 
        reach of the Constitution, which shall not be construed to 
        permit the prosecution of any woman for the death of her unborn 
        child; and
            (4) calls upon the Congress to enact congruent and 
        proportional legislation to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment's 
        guarantee of equal protection for unborn children nationwide, 
        and upon the Supreme Court to acknowledge and vindicate the 
        right of unborn children to the enjoyment of the equal 
        protection of the laws in every State and Federal territory.
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