US Senate Passes 'Unborn Victims' Bill

[Guest guest]

Abortion Rights Debate

Related News Stories

• Senate Passes Fetus Protection Bill AP via News (Mar 25, 2004)

• Fetus Protection Bill Nears Passage AP via News (Mar 25, 2004)

 

Senate Passes 'Unborn Victims' Bill

 

By Joanne Kenen

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate, after an emotional debate, easily

passed legislation on Thursday to make it a federal crime to harm or kill an

"unborn child," an issue that spilled into the battle over abortion rights.

 

 

 

On a 61-38 vote, the Republican-led Senate sent the measure, earlier

approved by the House of Representatives, to President Bush (news - web

sites).

 

 

Bush applauded the Senate vote and said he was looking forward to signing

the legislation into law.

 

 

"Pregnant women who have been harmed by violence, and their families, know

that there are two victims -- the mother and the unborn child -- and both

victims should be protected by federal law," Bush said in a statement.

 

 

Earlier, the Senate rejected, by a 50-49 vote, an alternative championed by

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which would have punished

violence against pregnant women without treating an "unborn child" as a

separate person.

 

 

Displaying photos of the small lifeless bodies and quoting women describing

attacks, backers said the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act" would discourage

violence against women and recognize the loss and grief when a wanted

pregnancy was ended by a violent crime.

 

 

The anti-abortion National Right to Life Committee (news - web sites) backs

the legislation, which treats such crimes as having two victims, the

pregnant woman and the "unborn child."

 

 

But the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) called it a

"thinly veiled attempt to create fetal rights and erode women's reproductive

rights." The bill covers an "unborn child" at any stage of pregnancy.

 

 

Two Senate Republicans voted against the bill, while 13 Democrats broke

ranks with their party and supported it, even though many of those Democrats

also voted for the Feinstein alternative. Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)

of Massachusetts, the presumptive 2004 Democratic presidential nominee,

voted against the final bill and for the Feinstein proposal.

 

 

VICTIMS' RELATIVES LOBBIED FOR THE BILL

 

 

The bill has been nicknamed "Laci and Conner's Law" after Laci Peterson

(news - web sites), a California woman who was weeks from giving birth when

she was murdered in December 2002. Her unborn son was to have been named

Conner. Under state law, her husband Scott Peterson (news - web sites) is

facing double murder charges.

 

 

Opponents said the bill could undermine, or at least complicate, abortion

rights by treating the fetus as a person from conception. Sponsors say they

drafted the legislation to explicitly exclude abortion.

 

 

"It's simple justice," said Ohio Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, a lead sponsor

of the legislation.

 

 

"Abortion is not covered at all," said South Carolina Republican Sen.

Lindsey Graham, another backer of the bill. "We're talking about criminal

activity of a third party and I don't know why you would want to give a

criminal any more breaks than you had to if they go around beating on

pregnant women."

 

 

Laci Peterson's relatives and other families who have been victims of

similar crimes have lobbied for the federal legislation.

 

 

Carol Lyons, whose 18-year-old pregnant daughter was killed in Kentucky in

January, told reporters: "I know my grandbaby was real. I saw the

ultrasound. I saw his heart beat."

 

 

Cynthia Warner said her daughter, Heather Fliegelman, was stabbed at least

47 times in her eighth month of pregnancy. Fliegelman's husband was

convicted of her murder. He could have faced four additional years in jail

for killing the family cats under Maine law, but he faced no extra charges

for the death of the fetus, Warner said.

 

 

The DeWine legislation would apply to any assault or murder covered by 68

federal offenses or the code of military justice, such as an assault on

federal property. At least 29 states already have similar laws, although

some cover only portions of pregnancy.