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

This section declares congressional findings that an infant born alive after an abortion is a legal person entitled to all protections under U.S. laws and has the same legal protections as any newborn or patient in a medical facility. It also asserts Congress's authority to enact the bill under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment (to enforce equal protection) and Section 8 of Article I (necessary and proper clause, including the commerce power).

This section establishes criminal requirements, penalties, reporting mandates, and civil remedies pertaining to infants born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion (as defined in new 18 U.S.C. §1532(e), incorporating the "born alive" definition from 1 U.S.C. §8 (Born-Alive Infants Protection Act)) by inserting new section 1532 into chapter 74 of title 18, United States Code (which prohibits partial-birth abortions under current section 1531). Specifically, it requires any health care practitioner present to (1) exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the infant's life and health as would be rendered to any other child born alive at the same gestational age and (2) immediately transport and admit the infant to a hospital; mandates immediate reporting of violations by practitioners or clinic/hospital employees to state or federal law enforcement; imposes criminal penalties of a fine, imprisonment for up to 5 years, or both for violations, with intentional killing of such an infant punished as murder under 18 U.S.C. §1111; bars prosecution of the mother; and authorizes the mother to pursue a civil action for objectively verifiable monetary damages, statutory damages equal to three times the abortion cost, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney's fees (with fees also available to a prevailing defendant if the suit is frivolous). It also makes clerical amendments, including adding the new section to the chapter's table of sections and changing the chapter heading from "Partial-Birth Abortions" to "Abortions" (in both the chapter and part I table of chapters).