[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 64 (Wednesday, May 8, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S3263]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


SENATE RESOLUTION 133--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT CONGRESS 
AND THE STATES SHOULD INVESTIGATE AND CORRECT ABUSIVE, UNSANITARY, AND 
                       ILLEGAL ABORTION PRACTICES

  Mr. LEE (for himself, Mr. Toomey, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Scott, Mr. Cruz, Mr. 
Inhofe, Mr. Burr, Mr. Vitter, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Blunt, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. 
Thune, Mr. Johanns, Mr. Paul, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Coats, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. 
Cochran, Mr. Chambliss, Ms. Ayotte, Mr. Isakson, and Mr. Graham) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions:

                              S. Res. 133

       Whereas the Declaration of Independence sets forth the 
     principle that all people are created equal and are endowed 
     by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that 
     among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
     happiness;
       Whereas the dedication of the people of the United States 
     to this principle, though at times tragically marred by 
     institutions such as slavery and practices such as 
     segregation and the denial of the right to vote, has summoned 
     the people of the United States time and again to fight for 
     human dignity and the common good;
       Whereas the people of the United States believe that every 
     human life is precious from its very beginning, and that 
     every individual, regardless of age, health, or condition of 
     dependency, deserves the respect and protection of society;
       Whereas the people of the United States believe that early 
     and consistent care for mothers, with due regard both for the 
     well-being of expectant mothers and for the children they 
     carry, is a primary goal of any sound health care policy in 
     the United States;
       Whereas no woman should ever be abandoned, by policy or 
     practice, to the depredations of an unlicensed, unregulated, 
     or uninspected clinic operating outside of the law with no 
     regard for the mothers or children ostensibly under its care;
       Whereas the Report of the Grand Jury in the Court of Common 
     Pleas of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, 
     certified on January 14, 2011, contains the results of a 
     thorough investigation of the policies and practices of Dr. 
     Kermit Gosnell and the Women's Medical Society of 
     Philadelphia, which found multiple violations of law and 
     public policy relating to abortion clinics, and recommended 
     to the Pennsylvania Department of Health that these abortion 
     clinics ``be explicitly regulated as ambulatory surgical 
     facilities, so that they are inspected annually and held to 
     the same standards as all other outpatient procedure 
     centers'';
       Whereas the Report of the Grand Jury documented a pattern, 
     over a period of 2 decades, at the Women's Medical Society of 
     Philadelphia of untrained and uncertified personnel 
     performing abortions, non-medical personnel administering 
     medications, grossly unsanitary and dangerous conditions, 
     violations of law regarding storage of human remains, and, 
     above all, instances of willful murder of infants born alive 
     by severing their spinal cords;
       Whereas the violations of law and human dignity documented 
     at the Women's Medical Society of Philadelphia involved women 
     referred to the facility by abortion facilities in a number 
     of surrounding States, including Virginia, Maryland, North 
     Carolina, and Delaware;
       Whereas abortion clinics in a number of States, 
     particularly Michigan and Maryland, and including 2 clinics 
     at which Dr. Kermit Gosnell performed or initiated abortions 
     and 2 Planned Parenthood facilities in Delaware, have been 
     closed temporarily or permanently due to unsanitary 
     conditions, and the Planned Parenthood facilities in Delaware 
     have been described by former employees as resembling a 
     ``meat market'';
       Whereas the imposition of criminal and civil penalties on 
     individuals and corporations involved in the deplorable 
     practices described in this preamble is appropriate, but is 
     not the only necessary response to such practices;
       Whereas it is essential that the Federal Government and 
     State and local governments take action to prevent dangerous 
     conditions at abortion clinics;
       Whereas government accountability means that officials 
     whose duty it is to protect the safety and well-being of 
     mothers accessing health care clinics must have their actions 
     made public and their failures redressed;
       Whereas the extent of, and purported justification for, 
     legal and illegal abortions in the United States performed 
     late in the second trimester of pregnancy and into and 
     throughout the third trimester of pregnancy are not routinely 
     reported by all States or by the Centers for Disease Control, 
     and are therefore unknown;
       Whereas women and children in the United States deserve 
     better than the 56,145,920 abortions that have been performed 
     in the United States since the Supreme Court rulings in Roe 
     v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, and Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, in 
     1973; and
       Whereas there is substantial medical evidence that an 
     unborn child is capable of experiencing pain at 20 weeks 
     after fertilization, or earlier: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) Congress and States should gather information about and 
     correct--
       (A) abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion practices; 
     and
       (B) the interstate referral of women and girls to 
     facilities engaged in dangerous or illegal second- and third-
     trimester procedures;
       (2) Congress has the responsibility to--
       (A) investigate and conduct hearings on--
       (i) abortions performed near, at, or after viability in the 
     United States; and
       (ii) public policies regarding such abortions; and
       (B) evaluate the extent to which such abortions involve 
     violations of the natural right to life of infants who are 
     born alive or are capable of being born alive, and therefore 
     are entitled to equal protection under the law;
       (3) there is a compelling governmental interest in 
     protecting the lives of unborn children beginning at least 
     from the stage at which substantial medical evidence 
     indicates that they are capable of feeling pain, which is 
     separate from and independent of the compelling governmental 
     interest in protecting the lives of unborn children beginning 
     at the stage of viability, and neither governmental interest 
     is intended to replace the other; and
       (4) governmental review of public policies and outcomes 
     relating to the issues described in paragraphs (1) through 
     (4) is long overdue and is an urgent priority that must be 
     addressed for the sake of women, children, families, and 
     future generations.

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