Bush signs 'Unborn Victims of Violence Act'

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April 2004

Legislative updates from USCCB
Legislative updates from NETWORK—A Catholic Lobby
Bush signs 'Unborn Victims of Violence Act'

Bush signs 'Unborn Victims of Violence Act'
Passage of the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act" by the U.S. Senate drew praise from pro-life groups and criticism from advocates of keeping abortion legal. The bill, also known as "Laci and Conner's Law" in memory of murder victim Laci Peterson and her unborn child, makes it a separate offense to kill or harm a fetus during commission of a federal crime.

After a five-year legislative odyssey, the Senate approved the bill by a vote of 61-38 March 25. It had passed in the House February 26 by a vote of 254-163. President Bush said he looked forward to signing it 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," he said.

"We applaud the Senate for voting for justice for women and their children," said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq., spokesperson for the U.S. Bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. "No woman should ever be told she lost nothing when she loses her child to a brutal attacker."

Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, recently reiterated the need for this law in a letter to a California Assemblywoman:

"When a criminal attacks a woman who carries a child, he claims two victims. I lost my daughter, and, I also lost my grandson. Fortunately, California law allows a double homicide charge in such a case. But if Laci and Conner had been killed in a federal jurisdiction, or during commission of a federal crime of violence, Conner's death would not be recognized or charged."

The Senate voted down a substitute bill supported by abortion advocates that would have ignored the child as a second victim in violent federal crimes. "We are grateful to the Senate for ignoring the offensive claims of the abortion lobby and its allies in Congress," Ruse said. "Abortion activists may recoil from the acknowledgment of a child's existence before birth, but their efforts to erase the child as a second victim in a violent crime are an insult to all women and families who have lost a loved one to violence."

"Here, as elsewhere, abortion activists are working against the real interests of women. Women deserve better than this," Ruse added. "We urge the President to swiftly sign this important bill into law."

Prochoice advocates denounced the Senate vote, charging that the bill is a trojan horse meant to undermine legal abortion in the United States. "The so-called Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA) is not intended to protect pregnant women from domestic violence or punish individuals who harm them," said Planned Parenthood's President Gloria Feldt. "It is part of a deceptive anti-choice strategy to make women's bodies mere vessels by creating legal personhood for the fetus."

The National Right to Life Committee reports that, according to three national public opinion polls, about 80 percent of the public agrees that a crime like the killing of Laci and Conner Peterson in California has two victims and should be charged as two homicides. The position of opponents of the bill that such crimes have only one victim—the pregnant woman—is supported by only 7 to 10 percent of the public in the three polls cited.

As a matter of law, the UVVA is not likely to have wide-reaching impact because it applies only when a fetus is harmed during a the commission of a federal crime against the mother, such as an attack on federal land or a terrorist strike. The harming of a fetus during a crime has long been recognized in state law as a punishable offense; 29 states have laws protecting fetal rights, though not all cover the entire pregnancy.

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