Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Stopping Traffickers and Their Accomplices Act of 2024”.
Stopping Traffickers and Their Accomplices Act of 2024
A BILL
To amend the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 to require abortion providers to notify the National Human Trafficking Hotline of victims of trafficking, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress finds the following:
Slavery and involuntary servitude are incompatible with the society and law of the United States.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States abolished legal slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States.
Despite slavery being abolished in 1865, modern forms of slavery still exist throughout the United States.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people of the United States and immigrants are coerced into commercial sex acts against their will.
In addition to sexual exploitation, victims of trafficking suffer repeated physical, mental, and emotional abuse at the hands of their traffickers.
Abortion providers and facilities aid sex traffickers by turning a blind eye to the plight of abused women.
The Department of State’s 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report indicated that sex traffickers coerce women into receiving abortions against their will.
Research conducted by Laura J. Lederer and Christopher A. Wetzel entitled “The Health Consequences of Sex Trafficking and Their Implications for Identifying Victims in Healthcare Facilities” and published in the Annals of Health Law Journal indicated that 71 percent of women coerced into commercial sex acts reported at least 1 pregnancy, and 21 percent reported 5 or more pregnancies while being trafficked.
Lederer and Wetzel’s research found that almost a third of trafficked women reported undergoing numerous abortions as victims of trafficking. More than half of respondents answered that their abortion while a victim of sex trafficking was a result of coercion. One victim of sex trafficking recounted, “[in most of my 6 abortions], I was under serious pressure from my pimps to abort the babies”.
A moral obligation exists to report suspected instances of sex trafficking to authorities.
Section 2 of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States empowers Congress to enact appropriate legislation to combat all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude, including forced sex trafficking.
Sec. 3 Combat human trafficking
Section 114 of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 (34 U.S.C. 20709) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(g) National human trafficking hotline notification by abortion providers
“(1) Definitions—In this subsection:
“(A) Abortion provider—The term abortion provider means a person who performs an abortion, including by providing to a pregnant woman a drug that induces abortion.
“(B) Victim of trafficking—The term victim of trafficking has the meaning given the term in section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102).
“(2) Requirement
“(A) Notification to National Human Trafficking Hotline—Not later than 24 hours after consulting with a patient, an abortion provider shall notify the National Human Trafficking Hotline if the provider has a reasonable suspicion that the patient is a victim of trafficking.
“(B) Report to attorney general and local law enforcement
“(i) Notification to Attorney General—Not later than 24 hours after an abortion provider notifies the national human trafficking hotline under subparagraph (A), the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall notify the Attorney General of the notification.
“(ii) Notification to law enforcement agencies—Not later than 24 hours after receipt of a notification from the Secretary of Health and Human Services under clause (i), the Attorney General shall notify the appropriate State and local law enforcement agencies.
“(C) Penalty—An abortion provider who violates subparagraph (A) shall be fined $10,000 for each violation, imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both.
“(3) Training
“(A) Availability—The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall make available to abortion providers the training entitled “Foundational (101) Human Trafficking Trainings—SOAR For Health Care” (or any substantially similar successor training).
“(B) Requirement—On an annual basis and not later than January 30 of each year, each abortion provider shall—
“(i) require each employee of the abortion provider to complete the training provided under subparagraph (A);
“(ii) submit to the Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons of the Department of Health and Human Services a certification of the completion of the training required under clause (i); and
“(iii) include in the certification required under clause (ii) the protocols that the abortion provider has in place to identify and assist victims of trafficking.
“(C) Penalty—An abortion provider who fails to comply with subparagraph (B) shall be subject to a fine in an amount of $1,000 for each day of noncompliance.
“(4) State enforcement
“(A) In general—In any case in which the attorney general of a State has reason to believe that an interest of the residents of the State has been or is threatened or adversely affected by an action of an abortion provider that violates this subsection, the attorney general of the State may, as parens patriae, bring a civil action on behalf of the residents of the State in an appropriate district court of the United States.
“(B) Jurisdiction—The attorney general of a State may bring a civil action under subparagraph (A) against any abortion provider that violates paragraph (2)(A) or (3)(B) within that State.
“(C) Relief—In a civil action under subparagraph (A), the court may fine an abortion provider—
“(i) in the case of a violation of paragraph (2)(A), $10,000 for each violation; and
“(ii) in the case of a violation of paragraph (3)(B), $1,000 for each day during which the abortion provider is in violation of that paragraph.
“(5) Rules of construction
“(A) No requirement for victims of trafficking to self-report—Nothing in this subsection may be construed to require a victim of trafficking to self-report.
“(B) No right to abortion—Nothing in this subsection may be construed to provide a right to an abortion.”