WASHINGTON, D.C, – Today, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced the Forced Abortion Prevention and Accountability Act. The bill seeks to establish federal criminal penalties for individuals who deliberately give a woman an abortion-inducing drug without first obtaining her consent.
Senators Ted Budd (R- N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) John Cornyn (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), James Risch (R-Idaho), and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) are cosponsors of the bill.
Senator Jim Banks: (R-Ind.) “No woman should ever be tricked or forced into ending the life of her child. This bill is simple: it holds abusers accountable and protects mothers and their babies.”
Key Provisions of the Forced Abortion Prevention and Accountability Act are:
- Establishes federal penalties for the knowing and intentional administration of abortion-inducing drugs without a woman’s informed consent.
- If the non-consensual administration results in serious bodily injury, the offender will face enhanced dual penalties.
- The bill also penalizes those who attempt or conspire to commit the offense.
- Penalties apply to anyone who sells, ships, mails, or gives abortion-inducing drugs without taking reasonable measures to verify the recipient is a pregnant woman seeking an abortion.
This bill is endorsed by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Students for Life, American Principles Project, Concerned Women for America LAC, and National Right to Life Committee.
Full text of the bill can be found here.
Background:
Unsupportive partners, abusers, and traffickers have taken advantage of the deregulated safety protocols surrounding abortion pills to harm women and their unborn children. Since there are no checks on who is ordering the drugs on whether the individual is pregnant and accurately dated, abusers have purchased these drugs and given them to expecting mothers without their consent.
In a reported case in Texas, Justin Banta was charged with capital murder and tempering evidence for ordering abortion pills online and crushing the pills into his girlfriend’s coffee after her six-week ultrasound showing a healthy baby.
Unfortunately, not every abuser is charged with capital murder. Last year, David Coots was sentenced to only one year and one day in prison for assault, third degree rape, and forcing misoprostol into a woman, resulting in the loss of her baby.
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