# Plain Language Summary: Preventing Vigilante Stalking that Stops Women's Access to Healthcare and Abortion Rights Act of 2022

This bill makes it a federal crime to stalk, harass, or intimidate people who are trying to access abortion services or other reproductive healthcare. It specifically targets coordinated campaigns where groups of people follow, threaten, or surveil women, doctors, clinic staff, or anyone else involved in providing or receiving these medical services. The law applies whether someone is physically following a person, showing up at their home or workplace repeatedly, making threats, or using the internet and social media to track and intimidate them.

The bill recognizes a real problem: organized groups sometimes camp outside abortion clinics, follow patients to their cars, show up at doctors' homes, or use social media to identify and target people involved in reproductive healthcare. This bill says that kind of coordinated intimidation campaign becomes a federal offense, meaning the FBI and federal prosecutors can get involved rather than leaving it only to local police. People convicted under this law could face prison time and fines.

The law protects several groups of people: women seeking abortions or other reproductive healthcare, doctors and nurses who provide these services, clinic workers, and anyone else facilitating access to reproductive medicine. It also protects people seeking other types of healthcare that might be confused with abortion services. Importantly, the bill doesn't prevent peaceful protest or lawful free speech—it specifically targets stalking, harassment, and intimidation tactics designed to prevent people from accessing or providing healthcare services.

Preventing Vigilante Stalking that Stops Women’s Access to Healthcare and Abortion Rights Act of 2022

Jackson Lee, Sheila

Preventing Vigilante Stalking that Stops Women's Access to Healthcare and Abortion Rights Act of 2022 This bill increases the maximum prison term for a stalking offense, if the offense is committed with the intent to obtain an individual's health care information or prevent an individual's health care decisions.