National Right to Life Committee: Letter in Support of Unborn Victims of Violence Act.(Brief Article)

The following is excerpted from a letter in support of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act was sent by NRLC to members of the U.S. House of Representatives on March 12, 2001. For more information on the bill, see the article that begins on page one. The Action Request that appears on page 12, and the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org/Unborn_Victims/index.html.

RE: Support for the Unborn Victims of Violence (H.R. 503), and opposition to the anticipated "one-victim" substitute

Dear Member of Congress:

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) urges you to support the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R.503), and to oppose the gutting substitute amendment that we anticipate may be offered when the bill reaches the House floor during the weeks ahead.

If a criminal assaults a pregnant woman and her unborn child, and injures or kills the unborn child, common sense recognizes that the criminal has harmed two victims - - the mother and the child. But current federal law does not reflect this commonsense recognition. Federal law (including military law) considers that such an assailant has harmed only one victim. Even if the aggressor has purposefully killed an unborn child who has been named and whose birth is eagerly anticipated, he has not thereby committed a crime under federal law, beyond the crime of the assault on the mother.

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act would correct this conspicuous gap in federal law. The bill would establish that if an unborn child is injured or killed during the commission of an already-defined federal crime of violence, then the assailant may be charged with a second offense on behalf of the second victim, the unborn child. For additional information regarding the provisions of the bill, please see the factsheet titled "Key Points on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act" at www.nrlc.org/ Unborn_Victims/keypointsuvva.html.

H.R. 503 explicitly states that nothing in the bill "shall be construed to permit the prosecution of any person for conduct relating to an abortion for which the consent of the pregnant woman... has been obtained." Nor does the bill pertain to any action by a woman that results in harm to her own unborn child. The bill does not conflict with any U.S. Supreme Court decisions currently in force. Indeed, the bill is less expansive than the Missouri "Unborn Child" law that the U.S. Supreme Court revived in its 1989 Webster ruling. Moreover, 24 states already enforce criminal laws that explicitly recognize the unborn child as a separate victim, and all legal challenges to such laws have failed. (See NRLC's factsheet on state unborn victims laws at www.nrlc.org/Whatsnew/sthomicidelaws.htm.)