Saving Children Act of 2019 (H.R. 956)

H.R. 956 would prohibit a physician from knowingly performing a ‘dismemberment abortion.’ The law would not apply to a an abortion that is necessary to save the life of a pregnant individual whose life is endangered.

The bill defines ‘dismemberment abortion’ to mean:

[…]the purpose of causing the death of an unborn child, knowingly dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child one piece at a time or intact but crushed from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush or grasp a portion of the unborn child’s body in order to cut or rip it off or crush it.

Any physician found guilty of performing such an abortion would be fined and/or imprisoned for up to two years.

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This law targets a procedure known as dilation and evacuation (D and E), which is frequently used during second-trimester abortions. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an abortion using suction aspiration can be performed up to 14 weeks’ gestation, but after 14 weeks the D and E procedure must be used to perform an abortion. As such, dilation and evacuation bans, depending upon their language, may ban all surgical abortion past 14 weeks’ gestation. (Source.)

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Related Legislation

Based on model legislation drafted by the National Right to Life Committee.

Nearly identical to S. 1035.

Identical to H.R. 1192, which failed to pass during the 2017-2018 legislative session.

Similar to H.R. 3515/S. 3306, which failed to pass during the 2015-2016 legislative session.

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Latest Action

2/4/19 – Introduced; referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

3/22/19 – Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

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People

Organizations

• National Right to Life Committee — Drafted Model Law