President Bush signs into law unborn victims act

WASHINGTON — In an elaborate Rose Garden ceremony April 1, President Bush signed into law the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The law — which took five years to get through Congress — makes harming an unborn child during an assault on a pregnant woman a federal crime.  The bill acknowledges what pro-lifers say is obvious: when a pregnant woman and her unborn child are injured, there are two victims, not just one.

The legislation had stalled in Congress several times in recent years, but gained new support in 2002 following the murder in California of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner. California is one of 29 states with laws protecting unborn victims of violence. Laci Peterson’s husband, Scott Peterson, has been charged with two counts of murder in connection with the deaths.

The new bill applies only to injuries an unborn child sustains during a federal crime — such as terrorist attack or a drug-related shooting. The bill specifically states that legal abortions are not a crime. The law defines an “unborn child” as “a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.”

Pro-life advocates hope the legislation’s language — essentially saying life begins at conception — will bolster their efforts to protect unborn children from any assaults — including legal abortions. President Bush also praised the bill’s passage, saying, “We stand for a culture of life in which every person counts and every person matters.”