March (Web-only) 2004

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Fetal homicide bill "not about abortion," but it is about the promoting a culture of life and protecting the unborn
The U.S. Senate yesterday passed Laci and Conner's Law, also known as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, by a 61–38 vote. Two amendments to the bill, which makes it a separate crime to harm an unborn child during an attack on a pregnant woman, were narrowly defeated. One, from Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.), would have simply raised the penalty for an attack on pregnant women, but would have kept such an attack as a single crime with a single victim.

"Clearly, there is a concerted effort to codify in law the legal recognition that life begins at conception," she said. "If we allow that to happen today, or in any other law, we put the right to choose squarely at risk. … Anyone who is pro-choice cannot vote for this bill without the expectation that they are creating the first legal bridge to do in Roe v. Wade."

Not so, said Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.). "Senator Feinstein has suggested that this bill somehow may result in assigning legal status to the term 'embryo,'" he said. "But I cannot find the term 'embryo' anywhere in the bill. Nor, for that matter, can I find the term 'embryo' in the Feinstein amendment. In short, this bill does not affect abortion, embryos or, for that matter, stem-cell research."

Mike DeWine (R-Oh.), a chief sponsor of the bill, made the same case. "It does not affect abortion rights whatsoever," he said. "This bill recognizes that there are two victims," something that Americans "intuitively know."

The point is this: protecting the unborn means more than just opposing abortion. This bill truly has no direct application for the abortion issue, explicitly stating that it can't be used against the mother ...