H.R. 21: Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

H.R. 21 does not write its own definition of what it means to be born alive. It borrows the one already in federal law, from the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. What the bill adds is enforcement: federal prison, a mandatory police report, and a private lawsuit.

The core duty falls on the practitioner present when an abortion or attempted abortion results in a live birth. That person must apply the same professional skill, care, and diligence a reasonably diligent practitioner would give any other child born alive at the same gestational age, and then ensure the child is immediately transported to a hospital and admitted.

A second duty reaches much further than the delivery room. Any health care practitioner, and any employee of a hospital, physician's office, or abortion clinic, who knows the care requirement was not met must immediately report it to state or federal law enforcement. Failing to make that call carries the same penalty as failing to provide the care: a fine, up to five years in prison, or both.

Intentional killing is handled on a separate track. The bill says anyone who performs or attempts an overt act that kills a child born alive would be punished under the federal murder statute instead of the five-year provision.

The civil side belongs to the woman. If the care requirement is violated, she can sue anyone who committed the violation and recover money damages for physical and psychological injury, punitive damages, and statutory damages fixed at three times the cost of the abortion or attempted abortion. A prevailing plaintiff also collects attorney's fees. The fee rule runs in both directions — if the defendant wins and the court finds the suit was frivolous, the plaintiff pays the other side's legal bill.

What she cannot be is a defendant. The bill bars prosecuting the mother under this offense, for conspiring to violate it, or as an accessory to it.

Two carve-outs sit inside the bill's definition of abortion: a post-viability procedure intended to produce a live birth and preserve the child's life and health, and the removal of a child who has already died. An attempt counts once someone takes a substantial step toward performing an abortion. Congress rests the whole structure on findings that an infant born alive after an abortion is a legal person for all purposes under U.S. law, entitled to the same protection as any other newborn.