Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2006
Latest action. On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Failed by the yeas and naysThe constitutional right of one-fifth of those present to force every member's vote onto the public record. The mechanism behind every roll call you can look up.Read the full definition (opens a new tab): (2/3 required): 250 - 162 (Roll no. 526).
Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2006 - 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 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 for certified medical emergencies.
Establishes civil penalties for willfully failing to comply with this Act. Authorizes: (1) the Attorney General to bring a civil action under this Act; and (2) private rights of action for violations of this Act.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on September 19, 2006. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
This bill failed the vote the record describes below. A measure that fails is not revived; the same text has to be introduced again as a new measure.
The record's latest action, on December 6, 2006: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Failed by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 250 - 162 (Roll no. 526).
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
CHRISTOPHER SMITH (R-NJ) introduced it on September 19, 2006, and 120 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 8 Democrats, 112 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseDid not advance · December 6, 2006
- SenateNot reached
- PresidentNot reached