HB3852 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB104 12285 JDS 22399 b

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
HB3852

Introduced 2/18/2025, by Rep. Adam M. Niemerg

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

New Act

Creates the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2025. Provides that any person who knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus or infant is guilty of a Class 4 felony. Provides that a person shall only perform or induce a partial-birth abortion on a viable fetus if: (i) the person is a physician; (ii) the person has a documented referral from another physician not legally or financially affiliated with the person performing or inducing the abortion; (iii) both physicians determine that the life of the mother is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury; and (iv) there is no other medical procedure that would suffice for that purpose. Provides that the maternal grandparents of the fetus or infant, if the mother has not attained the age of 18 years at the time of the abortion, may obtain appropriate relief unless the pregnancy resulted from the plaintiff's criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented to the abortion. Provides that a woman on whom a partial-birth abortion is performed may not be prosecuted under the Act, for a conspiracy to violate the Act, or for an offense under Article 31 of the Criminal Code of 2012, nor may she be held accountable under Article 5 of the Criminal Code of 2012. Effective immediately.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning civil law.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2025.

Section 5. Findings; purposes.

(a) The General Assembly finds that:

(1) Partial-birth abortion is a gruesome and inhumane procedure that is never medically necessary and, as such, should be prohibited.

(2) In 2003, the 108th United States Congress passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 (18 U.S.C. 1531), and President George W. Bush signed it into law.

(3) Later, on April 18, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 ("the federal ban") in Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007), specifically ruling that a ban on partial-birth abortion need not include a maternal "health" exception to be constitutional.

(4) This Act's language stems from and uses as its primary influence the language of the federal ban as upheld in Gonzales v. Carhart.

(5) This Act – a state ban on partial-birth abortion – is needed to supplement the federal ban. Importantly, the federal ban was narrowly tailored to reach only those partial-birth abortion procedures that implicate Congress' power to regulate interstate or foreign commerce. U.S. CONST. art. 1, 8, cl. 3. Without this Act, partial-birth abortions performed, but not affecting these categories of commerce, are not prohibited under the federal ban.

(6) A partial-birth abortion poses serious risk to a woman's long-term health.

(7) There is a substantial evidentiary record upon which the General Assembly has based its conclusion that a maternal "health" exception is not constitutionality required in a State ban on partial-birth abortion.

(8) Moreover, the medical evidence clearly supports the informed judgment of this State that a partial-birth abortion is never medically necessary to preserve a woman's health and instead poses serious health risks to the woman.

(9) Specifically, partial-birth abortion poses serious risks, including, but not limited to: an increased risk of cervical incompetence, as a result of cervical dilation, that makes it difficult or impossible for a woman to successfully carry a subsequent pregnancy to term; an increased risk of uterine rupture, abruption, amniotic fluid embolus, and trauma to the uterus, as a result of converting the child to a footling breech position – a procedure which, according to a leading obstetrics textbook, "there are very few, if any, indications for other than for delivery of a second twin"; and a risk of lacerations and secondary hemorrhaging, as a result of the physician blindly forcing a sharp instrument into the base of the unborn child's skull while he or she is lodged in the birth canal – an act that could result in severe bleeding and subsequent shock.

(10) There is no credible medical evidence that partial-birth abortions are safer than other abortion procedures. No controlled studies of partial-birth abortion have been conducted nor have any comparative studies been conducted to demonstrate its safety and efficacy compared to other abortion methods. Furthermore, there have been no articles published in peer-reviewed journals that establish that partial-birth abortions are superior in any way to established abortion procedures.

(11) In light of this overwhelming evidence, the State has a compelling interest in prohibiting partial-birth abortion. Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), recognized a governmental interest in protecting the life of a child during the birth process. This interest is specifically implicated during a partial-birth abortion because labor is induced and the birth process is begun before an abortion is attempted or the child is actually aborted.

(12) In fact, partial-birth abortion kills a child who is mere inches away from birth and being considered a "person". Thus, this State clearly has a heightened interest in protecting the life of the partially born child.

(13) The public's perception of the appropriate role of a physician during a child's birth is undermined by aborting a child in the manner that purposefully seeks to kill the child inches from birth.

(14) Partial-birth abortion is disturbingly similar to the killing of a newborn infant and blurs the legal and moral lines between infanticide and abortion. This Act reinforces that line at birth while also preserving the integrity of the medical profession and promoting respect for human life.

(15) The vast majority of infants killed during partial-birth abortions are alive until the very end of the procedure. Medical science has established that an unborn child can feel pain when subjected to painful stimuli like that inflicted during a partial-birth abortion procedure. Moreover, fetal pain experts believe that an unborn child's perception of pain can be even more intense than that of newborn infants and older children subjected to the same stimuli.

(b) Based on the findings in subsection (a), the purposes of the General Assembly are to:

(1) conclusively establish that partial-birth abortion is never medically indicated to preserve the health of the mother and instead poses significant maternal health risks;

(2) clearly define the line between abortion and infanticide; and

(3) safeguard the role of a physician during childbirth.

Section 10. Definitions; terms.

(a) As used in this Act, "partial-birth abortion" means an abortion in which the person performing the abortion:

(1) deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother, for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus; and

(2) performs the overt act, other than completion of delivery, which kills the partially delivered living fetus.

(b) The terms "fetus" and "infant" are used interchangeably to refer to the biological offspring of human parents.

Section 15. Partial-birth abortions prohibited. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, any person who knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus or infant is guilty of a Class 4 felony. A person shall only perform or induce a partial-birth abortion on a viable fetus if: (i) the person is a physician; (ii) the person has a documented referral from another physician not legally or financially affiliated with the person performing or inducing the abortion; (iii) both physicians determine that the life of the mother is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself; and (iv) there is no other medical procedure that would suffice for that purpose.

Section 20. Civil action. The maternal grandparents of the fetus or infant, if the mother has not attained the age of 18 years at the time of the abortion, may obtain, in a civil action, appropriate relief unless the pregnancy resulted from the plaintiff's criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented to the abortion. The relief shall include money damages for all injuries, psychological and physical, occasioned by the violation of this Act and statutory damages equal to 3 times the cost of the partial-birth abortion.

Section 25. Prosecution of woman prohibited. A woman on whom a partial-birth abortion is performed may not be prosecuted under this Act, for a conspiracy to violate this Act, or for an offense under Article 31 of the Criminal Code of 2012 based on a violation of this Act, nor may she be held accountable under Article 5 of the Criminal Code of 2012 for an offense based on a violation of this Act.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.