[House Document 104-198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                                     

104th Congress, 2d Session - - - - - - - - - - House Document 104-198


 
                           VETO OF H.R. 1833

                               __________

                                MESSAGE

                                  from

                   THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                              transmitting

HIS VETO OF H.R. 1833, A BILL TO AMEND TITLE 18, UNITED STATES CODE, TO 
                      BAN PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTIONS




    April 15, 1996.--Message and accompanying bill referred to the 
          Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be printed
To the House of Representatives:
    I am returning herewith without my approval H.R. 1833, 
which would prohibit doctors from performing a certain kind of 
abortion. I do so because the bill does not allow women to 
protect themselves from serious threats to their health. By 
refusing to permit women, in reliance on their doctors' best 
medical judgment, to use this procedure when their lives are 
threatened or when their health is put in serious jeopardy, the 
Congress has fashioned a bill that is consistent neither with 
the Constitution nor with sound public policy.
    I have always believed that the decision to have an 
abortion generally should be between a woman, her doctor, her 
conscience, and her God. I support the decision in Roe v. Wade 
protecting a woman's right to choose, and I believe that the 
abortions protected by that decision should be safe and rare. 
Consistent with that decision, I have long opposed late-term 
abortions except where necessary to protect the life or health 
of the mother. In fact, as Governor of Arkansas, I signed into 
law a bill that barred third trimester abortions, with an 
appropriate exception for life or health.
    The procedure described in H.R. 1833 has troubled me 
deeply, as it has many people. I cannot support use of that 
procedure on an elective basis, where the abortion is being 
performed for non-health related reasons and there are equally 
safe medical procedures available.
    There are, however, rare and tragic situations that can 
occur in a woman's pregnancy in which, in a doctor's medical 
judgment, the use of this procedure may be necessary to save a 
woman's life or to protect her against serious injury to her 
health. In these situations, in which a woman and her family 
must make an awful choice, the Constitution requires, as it 
should, that the ability to choose this procedure be protected.
    In the past several months, I have heard from women who 
desperately wanted to have their babies, who were devastated to 
learn that their babies had fatal conditions and would not 
live, who wanted anything other than an abortion, but who were 
advised by their doctors that this procedure was their best 
chance to avert the risk of death or grave harm which, in some 
cases, would have included an inability to ever bear children 
again. For these women, this was not about choice--not about 
deciding against having a child. These babies were certain to 
perish before, during or shortly after birth, and the only 
question was how much grave damage was going to be done to the 
woman.
    I cannot sign H.R. 1833, as passed, because it fails to 
protect women in such dire circumstances--because by treating 
doctors who perform the procedure in these tragic cases as 
criminals, the bill poses a danger of serious harm to women. 
This bill, in curtailing the ability of women and their doctors 
to choose the procedure for sound medical reasons, violates the 
constitutional command that any law regulating abortion protect 
both the life and the health of the woman. The bill's overbroad 
criminal prohibition risks that women will suffer serious 
injury.
    That is why I implored Congress to add an exemption for the 
small number of compelling cases where selection of the 
procedure, in the medical judgment of the attending physician, 
was necessary to preserve the life of the woman or avert 
serious adverse consequences to her health. The life exception 
in the current bill only covers cases where the doctor believes 
that the woman will die. It fails to cover cases where, absent 
the procedure, serious physical harm, often including losing 
the ability to have more children, is very likely to occur. I 
told Congress that I would sign H.R. 1833 if it were amended to 
add an exception for serious health consequences. A bill 
amended in this way would strike a proper balance, remedying 
the constitutional and human defect of H.R. 1833. If such a 
bill were presented to me, I would sign it now.
    I understand the desire to eliminate the use of a procedure 
that appears inhumane. But to eliminate it without taking into 
consideration the rare and tragic circumstances in which its 
use may be necessary would be even more inhumane.
    The Congress chose not to adopt the sensible and 
constitutionally appropriate proposal I made, instead leaving 
women unprotected against serious health risks. As a result of 
this Congressional indifference to women's health, I cannot, in 
good conscience and consistent with my responsibility to uphold 
the law, sign this legislation.

                                                William J. Clinton.
    The White House, April 10, 1996.


One Hundred Fourth Congress of the United States of America, at the 
  Second Session, Begun and Held at the City of Washington on Wednesday, 
  the Third Day of January, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety-six


                                 An Act

 To amend title 18, United States Code, to ban partial-birth abortions.

    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 ``Partial-Birth Abortion Ban 
Act of 1995''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTIONS.

    (a) In General.--Title 18, United States Code, is amended 
by inserting after chapter 73 the following:

                 ``CHAPTER 74--PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTIONS

``Sec.
``1531. Partial-birth abortions prohibited.

``Sec. 1531. Partial-birth abortions prohibited

    ``(a) Any physician who, in or affecting interstate or 
foreign commerce, knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion 
and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined under this title 
or imprisoned not more than two years, or both. This paragraph 
shall not apply to a partial-birth abortion that is necessary 
to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a 
physical disorder, illness, or injury: Provided, That no other 
medical procedure would suffice for that purpose. This 
paragraph shall become effective one day after enactment.
    ``(b)(1) As used in this section, the term `partial-birth 
abortion' means an abortion in which the person performing the 
abortion partially vaginally delivers a living fetus before 
killing the fetus and completing the delivery.
    ``(2) As used in this section, the term `physician' means a 
doctor of medicine or osteopathy legally authorized to practice 
medicine and surgery by the State in which the doctor performs 
such activity, or any other individual legally authorized by 
the State to perform abortions: Provided, however, That any 
individual who is not a physician or not otherwise legally 
authorized by the State to perform abortions, but who 
nevertheless directly performs a partial-birth abortion, shall 
be subject to the provisions of this section.
    ``(c)(1) The father, if married to the mother at the time 
she receives a partial-birth abortion procedure, and if the 
mother has not attained the age of 18 years at the time of the 
abortion, the maternal grandparents of the fetus, may in a 
civil action obtain 
appropriate relief, unless the pregnancy resulted from the 
plaintiff's criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented to the 
abortion.
    ``(2) Such relief shall include--
            ``(A) money damages for all injuries, psychological 
        and physical, occasioned by the violation of this 
        section; and
            ``(B) statutory damages equal to three times the 
        cost of the partial-birth abortion.
    ``(d) A woman upon whom a partial-birth abortion is 
performed may not be prosecuted under this section, for a 
conspiracy to violate this section, or for an offense under 
section 2, 3, or 4 of this title based on a violation of this 
section.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of chapters for part I 
of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 
the item relating to chapter 73 the following new item:
``74. Partial-birth abortions....................................1531''.

                                   Bill Emerson,
               Speaker of the House of Representatives pro tempore.
                                   Strom Thurmond,
                               President of the Senate pro tempore.

[Endorsement on back of bill:]
I certify that this Act originated in the House of Representatives.

                                             Robin H. Carle, Clerk.

                                
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