Some Reactions to the Enactment of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.

What follows is a selection of reactions to the final congressional approval of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act ("Laci and Conner's Law") by the U.S. Senate on March 25 and the signing of the bill by President Bush on April 1, 2004.

Supporters of the law

Congresswoman Melissa Hart (R-Pa.), chief House sponsor of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act: President Bush's signature on "Laci and Conner's Law" will close a gap that has existed in federal law for too long. I am grateful that we were able to get this done - - to bring to justice those who inflict terrible pain and loss on families around the nation.

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.): There are many people who fought very hard over the last five years to get this bill to the president's desk - - most importantly, the families of the victims. These families understand the value of human life, and the tragedy of loss. They understand that all victims of crime deserve justice.

Cathy Cleaver Ruse, spokesperson for the U.S. Bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities: We applaud the President for bringing justice to women and their children who are victims of violent crime. Thanks to him, and to a bipartisan majority of Congress, a woman who loses her child to a brutal attacker in a federal jurisdiction will no longer be told that she has lost nothing. The new law exempts abortion, but the abortion lobby fought it anyway, because it commits the unpardonable pro-choice sin: In the words of Senator Dianne Feinstein, it recognizes that a child in utero is "a human being."

James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family: [The act] affirms in law what is common sense to more than 80 percent of Americans - - there are two victims in violent crimes committed against pregnant women and their pre-born children.

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission: It is another reminder that we are slowly but surely winning the battle for the hearts and minds of the American public when it comes to the personhood of unborn human beings.