Washington Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (SB 6612)

SB 6612 would prohibit a person from intentionally performing or attempting to perform an abortion with the knowledge that the pregnant woman is seeking the abortion solely on the account of the sex of the “unborn child.”

Any physician or person that violates this provision would be guilty of a class C felony and may also face civil action. A physician that violates this provision would also have their medical license suspended or revoked.

The bill prohibits a woman who undergoes an abortion in violation of this provision from being prosecuted or held criminally or civilly liable for any violation.

Sex-selection abortions are not a widespread problem in the United States. However, anti-choice activists cite three studies documenting the use of sex-selection abortion primarily among a small number of immigrant women. The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum notes that a ban similar to this ban “targets and thus limits reproductive health access for Asian American & Pacific Islander women, who anti-choicers say are the ones guilty of this abortion practice. We know the real solution to ending the preference for sons in some families is getting to the root of the problem: gender inequity. If lawmakers truly want to help us, we call on them to promote equal pay, access to education, health equity, and ending violence against women.”

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