H.R. 636 — Pregnancy Resource Center Defense Act

This section revises penalties under 18 U.S.C. §248 (prohibiting force, threats, or physical obstruction interfering with access to reproductive health services facilities or places of religious worship) for conduct involving a facility that exclusively provides abortion-alternative services or a place of religious worship, if the conduct did not involve exclusively nonviolent physical obstruction, as follows: (1) limits imprisonment for a first criminal offense to not more than 3 years; (2) provides statutory civil damages of $20,000 per violation; and (3) provides a civil penalty of $25,000 for a first violation.

This section revises the penalty under 18 U.S.C. 844(i) to impose a mandatory minimum seven-year term of imprisonment (previously required only if personal injury results) for the malicious destruction by fire or explosive of a building used in interstate commerce if the building is a facility described in 18 U.S.C. 248(a)(3) that exclusively provides abortion-alternative services or is a place of religious worship. (Thus, such destruction carries the same seven-year minimum as cases involving personal injury, with a maximum of 20 years in all cases.)