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WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a member of House Democratic Leadership, spoke on the House floor in opposition to H.R. 21, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivor Protection Act, which she dubbed the GOP’s Reproductive Health Care Surveillance Act.

“Mr. Speaker, we’re more than three weeks into January, and yet Republican leadership in this chamber has failed to call a vote on a single piece of legislation to address the pressing needs of hardworking families,” Congresswoman Trahan said. “So, what’s the priority for the Republicans this week? A vote on H.R. 21, the so-called ‘Born-Alive Abortion Survivor Protection Act,’ a bill that will give politicians here in Washington the power to monitor women’s pregnancies and criminalize doctors and nurses who provide lifesaving care to women in need. I wish I was kidding.”

CLICK HERE or the image below to view Trahan’s full remarks.

House Republicans have continued to prioritize this bill despite the situation described in H.R. 21 almost never occurring. After Texas passed a law to require reporting on abortions that result in a baby being born alive, the state reported zero live births from 2013 to 2015, the years with reported results. A similar law in Oklahoma also found zero live births post-abortion from 2012 to 2014 and again in 2016. In Florida, the state reported six reported cases out of 70,083 abortions in 2018, just two of which occurred in the third trimester due to life endangerment and serious fetal abnormality.

“So, what is this bill actually targeting? As we dig into H.R. 21, it becomes clear that this legislation purposely distorts what abortion care really is. It sweeps up highly complex and deeply personal medical situations, including those where a mother learns her life is in danger because her baby has a fatal abnormality and cannot survive outside the womb,” Congresswoman Trahan continued.

Instead of allowing parents and their physicians to determine the best path forward for their health care, H.R. 21 creates new criminal and financial penalties for doctors and nurses who provide reproductive care. While the legislation claims to only target “abortions or attempted abortions,” medical experts argue that the bill’s vague wording sweeps up complex medical situations, including situations where fatal and potentially dangerous fetal abnormalities require inducement to save a mother’s life.

“This bill is not about protecting life. It’s about pushing blatant lies about women’s health care. And it’s about control. It’s about extreme Republican politicians inserting themselves into the most personal, private, and heartbreaking decisions a family has to make,” Congresswoman Trahan argued.

The U.S. Senate failed to advance this same legislation yesterday.

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Congresswoman Lori Trahan

Remarks as Delivered

Floor Speech Opposing H.R. 21

January 22, 2025

Mr. Speaker, we’re more than three weeks into January, and yet Republican leadership in this chamber has failed to call a vote on a single piece of legislation to address the pressing needs of hardworking families. Nothing to ease the burden of grocery prices, nothing to lower the costs of prescription drugs, and nothing to make it easier for an American to buy a home.

So, what’s the priority for the Republicans this week? A vote on H.R. 21, the so-called “Born-Alive Abortion Survivor Protection Act,” a bill that will give politicians here in Washington the power to monitor women’s pregnancies and criminalize doctors and nurses who provide lifesaving care to women in need. I wish I was kidding.

Now, over the next couple days, we’re going to hear Republicans get up here and use scare tactic after scare tactic attempting to justify this vote. So, let’s set the record straight about what this legislation does. At first glance, its stated goal might sound reasonable: To [prohibit] “a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.”

Now, that sounds logical on paper. But here’s the reality: This situation almost never happens. When Texas passed a law requiring reporting on abortions resulting in live births, they reported zero live births over three years – zero. The same was true in Oklahoma.

So, what is this bill actually targeting? As we dig into H.R. 21, it becomes clear that this legislation purposely distorts what abortion care really is. It sweeps up highly complex and deeply personal medical situations, including those where a mother learns her life is in danger because her baby has a fatal abnormality and cannot survive outside the womb.

Now, imagine the agony of a mother, a woman who dreamed of holding her child, now forced to make the unthinkable decision to induce labor to save her own life. And as her baby is born in agonizing pain with just minutes or hours to live because no amount of medical intervention can save them, this bill seeks to make that horrifying situation even worse by overruling any decision by the mother and her doctor to provide compassionate, appropriate medical care. Instead, it threatens doctors and nurses with jail time, even if the only alternative is prolonging the pain, the suffering, and tragically, the inevitable death of the baby.

Tell me, Mr. Speaker, how does that make sense? Why do Republican members of Congress insist they know what’s better for a mother and her baby than she and her doctor do?

This bill is not about protecting life. It’s about pushing blatant lies about women’s health care. And it’s about control. It’s about extreme Republican politicians inserting themselves into the most personal, private, and heartbreaking decisions a family has to make. And the cost? Women’s lives put at risk because some here would rather legislate ideology than acknowledge the complexity of real-life medical decisions.

To my colleagues across the aisle: Instead of advancing a dangerous, divisive bill that exploits women’s health for political gain, let’s focus on what Americans actually are asking us to do. Let’s work to lower costs. Let’s expand access to health care. Let’s give families the tools they need to thrive. The American people sent us here to do that work together.

I urge my colleagues to vote no on the GOP’s “Reproductive Health Care Surveillance Act,” and I yield back the remainder of my time.

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