Home | Join/Donate | Current Voices | Liturgical Calendar | What's New | Affirmation | James Hitchcock's Column | Church Documents | Search
E-mailed to WFF
PRESS RELEASE from NRLC
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday,February 17,2004 9:20 AM
Subject: House votes Feb. 26 on Bush-backed fetal homicide bill
MEDIA ADVISORY AND BACKGROUNDER:
CONGRESS TO VOTE ON UNBORN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE ACT
(FEDERAL FETAL HOMICIDE BILL) --
HOUSE WILL VOTE ON BILL THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26;
FIRST-EVER SENATE ACTION MAY FOLLOW SOON
PRESIDENT BUSH SUPPORTS BILL -- SENATOR KERRY OPPOSES IT
WASHINGTON -- This is a media advisory from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), Federal Legislation Department, issued Tuesday, February 17, 2004, at 9 a.m. For further information on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and state fetal homicide laws, visit the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org, send e-mail to [email protected] , or call 202-626-8820.
The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on Thursday, February 26, 2004, on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 1997), also known as "Laci and Conner's Law." This is a bill, sponsored by Congresswoman Melissa Hart (R-Pa.), to allow federal and military prosecutors to bring charges on behalf of a "child in utero" when he or she is a victim of a violent federal or military crime. The bill defines "child in utero" as "a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb."
Public attention to the fetal homicide issue has increased over the past year, due in part to widespread interest in the killing of Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner in December, 2002. The State of California will soon place Scott Peterson on trial for two counts of murder in that case. However, abortion-rights advocacy groups such as the ACLU and Planned Parenthood say that a crime like the Peterson case has only a single victim, the pregnant woman, and they strongly oppose state and federal bills to recognize fetal homicide.
In order to pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, it is necessary for the House to first reject a radically different bill backed by abortion-rights advocacy groups, the "single-victim substitute amendment" (Lofgren Substitute), which will be similar or identical to the language of H.R. 2247 <http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/lofgrenbill052203.html> . The substitute would increase penalties for a federal crime that victimizes a pregnant woman if it causes "interruption" of her pregnancy, but would also write into federal law the doctrine that such a crime has only a single victim. Family members who have lost loved ones in two-victim crimes have condemned this approach <http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/survivingvictims.html> .
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tn.) has indicated that the Senate, too, may turn to the issue very soon -- perhaps not long after House action. In the Senate, the UVVA is sponsored by Senator Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), and 39 others. The single-victim substitute amendment will be offered by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.). When the Senate votes to choose between the Feinstein Substitute and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, the outcome is in doubt. The Senate has never before considered the fetal homicide issue.
Three national polls <http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/UnbornPolls110703.html> found that about 80% of the public believes the law should recognize the killing of a "fetus" in a crime as HOMICIDE, and a solid majority believes this should be true throughout pregnancy. Only 7% to 10% said that the law should not regard the killing of a human fetus as a homicide at any stage of pregnancy -- but it is that 10% position that is incorporated into the Lofgren-Feinstein substitute amendments. The poll questions and responses are here:
http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/UnbornPolls110703.html
RESOURCES:
-- NRLC has created the most extensive resource on the Internet concerning unborn victims of violence and fetal homicide laws, at http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/index.html
-- President Bush says that a crime like the Peterson case in California has two victims, and he has repeatedly urged Congress to pass the bill, most recently on January 22. http://www.nrlc.org/marchforlife2004remarks.html
-- Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) opposes the bill; his letter is here:
http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/kerryemailUVVA.html
Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, has urged Kerry to change his mind and to reject the "single-victim" bill; her letter is here: http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/RochatoKerry.html
-- On February 5, National Review Online posted an article by NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson <http://www.nrlc.org/Federal/LegUpdates/NatReviewofDoug.html> that is a good summary of the main points in dispute regarding the Unborn Victims of Violence Act:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/johnson200402050947.asp
-- Twenty-eight (28) states recognize fetal homicide -- 15 throughout prenatal development, and 13 for some defined part of pregnancy. The laws are summarized here:
http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/Statehomicidelaws092302.html
-- Across the nation, federal and state courts have rejected every legal challenge to the state fetal homicide laws, consistently ruling that they do NOT conflict with Roe v. Wade. The cases are summarized here:
http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/statechallenges.html
-- Some prominent pro-Roe legal experts have in recent months declared that fetal homicide laws do not conflict with Roe -- among them, Prof. Walter Dellinger at Duke Law School, who once co-chaired a national commission to defend Roe and who later served as President Clinton's chief legal advisor on constitutional issues. Quotes from Dellinger and the other pro-Roe legal authorities are here:
http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/RoesupportersspeakUVVA.html
-- In increasing numbers, members of families who have lost loved ones <http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/MarciniakTestimony.htm> -- born and unborn -- are speaking out in favor of state and federal fetal homicide legislation, and against the "single-victim" ideology. For example: On January 7, 18-year-old Ashley Lyons and her unborn son Landon were murdered in Scott County, Kentucky. Current Kentucky law regards this crime as having only a single victim. But Carol Lyons, mother of Ashley and grandmother of Landon, says: "Nobody can tell me that there were not two victims -- I placed Landon in his mother's arms, wrapped in a baby blanket that I had sewn for him, just before I kissed my daughter good-bye for the last time and closed the casket." Read the full story in "Remember Their Names," by NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson, here: http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_Victims/Remembertheirnames.html
-- The official report of the House Judiciary Committee, explaining how the Unborn Victims of Violence Act would work, including discussion of pertinent court decisions, is here (PDF file -- requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader):
http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/UVVAHJCreport2004.pdf
FYI from WFF
To contact your Representative go to http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php
or call the Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121.
