House Passes Laci & Conner's Law; Pro-lifers Hope Senate Shows Same Sense
by Fred Jackson, Bill Fancher, and Jenni Parker
February 27, 2004
(AgapePress) - The Unborn Victims of Violence Act, the proposed law that would allow a person who hurts or kills an unborn child during an attack on a pregnant woman to be subject to additional criminal charges, has passed its first political hurdle.Before passing the measure by a vote of 254-163, Democrats -- under pressure from pro-abortion forces -- tried to push through an alternative bill that would simply increase penalties for an attack on a pregnant woman. Under that legislation, the crime would still have been considered an attack on just one person.
However, Republicans like Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania disagreed with the alternative measure. During debate she argued that passing the original bill, also known as "Laci and Conner's Law," would fill a void in federal law. "It's already against the law to attack a woman and cause her injury or death," she noted. "That shouldn't be a surprise to any of us. It is not, however, on the federal level, a crime to attack a woman and cause injury or death to the unborn child as a separate crime."
Speaking Up for Victims
In a recent letter to members of Congress, Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, expressed her support for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and urged defeat of attempts to weaken its provisions. She wrote that failing to recognize the unborn victims in cases like her daughter's and grandson's "would be like saying that Conner and other innocent unborn victims like him are not really victims -- indeed that they never really existed at all. But our grandson did live. He had a name, was loved, and his life was violently taken from him before he ever saw the sun."
And another bereft mother, Tracy Marciniak, whose unborn son Zachariah was killed in a criminal assault, addressed Congress in person. She asked representatives to vote for the alternative measure if they truly believed no one died in that attack, but added, "please remember Zachariah's name and face when you decide."
In a recent report, Congressman Roger Wicker of Mississippi noted that Congress has taken steps in recent years to help protect the most vulnerable in our society, including legislation to strengthen laws and increase penalties for crimes against women and children.
Wicker says passage of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act would "enhance those protections by ensuring that federal crimes against mothers and their unborn children are punished to the fullest extent of the law." The bill now heads to the Senate, where it is likely to face a tougher challenge.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told LifeNews.com that the bill will definitely come up before Senate "in the coming weeks," but he was unable to give a specific timetable.
Hailing One Victory, Hoping for Another
The news of the bill's success in the House was welcomed by the Family Research Council, whose spokesperson, Yvonne Lingo, said, "The House of Representatives [has] continued its trend of passing common-sense, pro-life legislation that recognizes the value of innocent human life."
Lingo notes that this act is favored by the majority of Americans, as are most life-defending measures. "Just like bans on partial-birth abortion and human cloning, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act is another example of pro-life legislation that is supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans, regardless whether they're pro-life or pro-choice," she says.
A Fox News opinion poll taken in 2003 affirms this, indicating that 79 percent of those surveyed believe prosecutors should have the authority to charge an assailant with the murder of an unborn child.
