"Noah's Law" Signed by Governor; Recognizes Unborn Victims of Violence.

Little Noah never had a chance. A brutal attack on his nine-months-pregnant mother last July at her home in Nampa, Idaho, fractured his skull. Adding to Lisa Smith's grief was the knowledge that her son's killer could only be charged with misdemeanor battery for beating her. Idaho law only recognized one victim of an assault against a mother and her unborn baby.

The story of this stillborn baby inspired the state legislature to pass a bill known as "Noah's Law," which recognizes an unborn baby as the second victim of a crime. Gov. Dirk Kempthorne signed it into law March 27. (The law does not apply to legal abortions.)

Idaho joins 13 states that acknowledge unborn babies at all stages of development as the second victim of a crime, according to Mary Spaulding Balch, NRLC state legislative director. In addition, another 12 states have unborn victims of violence laws that apply to babies at a certain point in pregnancy.

"Idaho is part of a growing trend in state law that recognizes unborn children, mainly because of scientific evidence," Balch told NRL News. "It's really cutting edge, but based on a truth that doesn't change -- unborn babies are human beings too."

The bill "recognizes that there are two victims -- the mother and her child -- when a pregnant woman is assaulted or killed, and her unborn child is harmed or killed as a result," Kerry Uhlenkott, legislative coordinator of Right to Life of Idaho, testified at a state senate hearing on Noah's Law. "This is a common sense and compassionate approach, consistent with the state's responsibility to protect vulnerable human life."

A similar bill became law in Nebraska February 27 when Gov. Mike Johanns signed that state's Homicide of the Unborn Child Act. Nebraska's law covers unborn children at any stage of development who are killed by someone (except in an abortion), not those who are injured.

"This is offering state protection of the unborn child outside the context of abortion," state Sen. Mike Foley told the Lincoln Journal-Star.