S 14 · 111th Congress 2009–2011, ended

Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2010

Fact sheet

Latest action · Sep 29, 2010 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

  1. IntroducedSep 29, 2010
  2. Passed SenateNot reached
  3. Passed HouseNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2010 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require an abortion provider who knowingly performs an abortion of a pain-capable unborn child (defined as an unborn child who has reached a probable stage of development of 20 weeks or more after fertilization), to first: (1) inform the woman of the probable age of the child; (2) provide to the woman an Unborn Child Pain Awareness Brochure (unless she waives receipt); (3) provide information that pain medicine administered to the mother may not prevent pain in the child, but in some cases anesthesia or pain-reducing drugs can be administered directly to the child; (4) give the woman the provider's best medical judgment of the risks and costs of such anesthesia or analgesic; and (5) obtain the woman's signature on the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Decision Form and her explicit request for or refusal of the administration of drugs to the child. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Brochure that includes a statement that there is substantial evidence that the process of being killed in an abortion will cause the unborn child pain and that the mother has the option of having pain-reducing drugs administered directly to the child.

Creates an exception to save the life of the mother.

Establishes civil penalties for willfully failing to comply with this Act. Authorizes: (1) the U.S. Attorney General to bring a civil action under this Act; and (2) private rights of action for violations of this Act.

Cosponsors 18

Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Sep 29, 2010.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
R-LADavid VitterOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-IDJames E. RischOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-SCJim DeMintOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-NVJohn EnsignOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-AZJohn McCainOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-SDJohn ThuneOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-GAJohnny IsaksonOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-AZJon KylOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-SCLindsey GrahamOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-WYMichael B. EnziOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-IDMike CrapoOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-UTOrrin G. HatchOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-KSPat RobertsOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-NCRichard BurrOriginalSep 29, 2010
R-UTRobert F. BennettOriginalSep 29, 2010

Actions 3

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Sep 29, 2010Introduced in Senate
  2. Sep 29, 2010Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  3. Sep 29, 2010Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S7791-7792)

Related bills 1

Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.

BillTitleRelationshipLatest action
HR 5276Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2010Identical billMay 11, 2010

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Health.

Text 1

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. Sep 29, 2010Introduced in Senate

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Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.