Bill Making Violence against Fetuses a Federal Crime is Passed by U.S. Senate
Mar 29th, 2004 • Posted in: NewsWASHINGTON
The U.S. Senate last week passed a bill that would make it a federal crime to commit a violent act against a pregnant woman’s fetus, a move critics claim is part of a backdoor strategy to eventually outlaw abortion.
The new law, strongly backed by President Bush, would make it a crime to harm a fetus during the commission of any of 68 violent federal crimes, such as interstate kidnapping or a crime on federal land.
The bill’s wording, deeming a fetus to be a human “at any stage of development,” will write into law a new definition of personhood that extends from conception to birth, said Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.
“Once you give an embryo at the point of conception all of the legal rights of a human being you’ve created the legal case to go against” the constitutionally protected right to choose,” Feinstein charged.
Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), lead sponsor of the Senate bill, insists the measure is “about simple justice” and further penalizing those who attack pregnant women, noting that the bill specifically does not cover women who choose to have an abortion.
Such assurances failed to assuage the concerns of pro-choice proponents, who say the terminology of supporters, including President Bush and anti-abortion activists pushing for such a law since 1999, suggest otherwise.
“We must continue to build a culture of life in our country, a compassionate society in which every child is welcomed in life and protected by law,” Bush said in a statement after the vote.
By writing into law a premise that likely will be used later to challenge the legality of abortion, the new law could lead to court findings that “embryonic stem cell research becomes murder and abortion in the first trimester becomes murder as well,” Feinstein claimed.
An alternative law proposed by Feinstein, which would have allowed for double charges to be filed against those who attack pregnant women without wading into the firestorm over the debate about when life begins, was defeated on a largely party-line 50-to-49 vote, reported the Times.
The Senate bill gained momentum after the 2002 murder of Laci Peterson, who was eight months pregnant at the time of her death. Her husband Scott, charged with murder, has pleaded not guilty.
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