 Unborn Victims of Violence Act :o) (14 views) Subscribe   
  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Mar-26 7:52 am  
To:  ALL   (1 of 4)  
 
  845.1  
 
Unborn Victims of Violence Act Heads to President Bush

by Steven Ertelt
www.LifeNews.com Editor
March 26, 2004

Washington, DC (www.LifeNews.com) -- The Unborn Victims of Violence Act now heads to President Bush after the U.S. Senate on Thursday handed pregnant women and their unborn children a major victory. 

The legislation will be the third major pro-life bill to become law since Bush took office, following the Born Alive Infants Protection Act and a ban on partial-birth abortions.

The legislation would ensure that criminals who attack pregnant women and kill or injure their unborn children, on federal property in during the commission of federal crimes, can be charged with two crimes.

Senators voted 61-38 in favor of the bill after turning back two amendments that lawmakers said would gut the intent of the legislation. Earlier, members of the Senate defeated a one-victim substitute offered by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA). 

The legalization of abortion has allowed some who would shirk their responsibility as fathers to attack their wives or girlfriends and attempt to kill the baby.

Sen. Lyndsey Graham (R-SC) said that three people in Arkansas were in prison "for the express purpose of killing a child ... because they were hired by the boyfriend who didn't want to pay child support."

Most the day's debate centered on the dispute between pro-life lawmakers and abortion advocates about whether there are two victims in such crimes, both mother and child, or whether the unborn victims bill would overturn legal abortion.

Feinstein accused backers of the bill of wanting to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision and limiting embryonic stem cell research.


"That is exactly what the Right to Life movement wants to do. Once you have the egg being a human being than that egg during any stage of development deserves protection ... this law makes that egg a victim."

"If you give a fertilized egg rights in federal law, it will have repercussions down line," Feinstein added. "The bill covers children that are not children, that are day old in the womb after conception."

But Graham disputed that contention, saying the bill focused solely on pregnant women and their children who are victims of horrible cases of violence.

The bill was about "when criminals attack pregnant women," Graham countered, saying the legislation contained an abortion exemption.

"I don't know why you'd want to give a criminal a break if he goes around beating on pregnant woman," Graham added. "If you attack a woman of childbearing years, you do so at your own peril."

At one point in the debate, after Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, discussed the specifics of numerous cases of violence against pregnant women, Sen. Feinstein admitted the cases were "tragic" and that there are two victims.

"In fact, that child is a victim," Feinstein said, though she indicated law shouldn't define unborn children as persons.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who has drawn criticism from pro-life groups for his support of destructive research involving human embryos, said the bill would not stop such research.

Massachusetts senator John Kerry, who backs abortion, voted no on the unborn victims bill. President Bush has long supported the pro-life legislation. 


 



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Apr-1 5:28 pm  
To:  ALL   (2 of 4)  
 
  845.2 in reply to 845.1  
 
Dear David,

As a vital member of our online team standing in support of pro-
life issues, Grassfire wanted to alert you to a key legislative
victory last week.

**Senate Passes Unborn Victims Bill

After a five-year battle, and by a vote of 61-38, the Senate passed
the Unborn Victims of Violence Act that criminalizes the
harming of a fetus during the commission of a violent federal
crime.

Critics of the bill, including pro-abortion organizations and a
number of Democratic lawmakers, say that giving an unborn
baby the same legal rights as its mother sets a dangerous
precedent that could be used to challenge abortion rights.

With passage in the Senate, the bill now lands on President
Bushs desk to await his signature. At an earlier speech to the
National Association of Evangelicals, the President emphasized
his Administrations commitment to the unborn--specifically his
signing into law the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and the
Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

+ + Encourage the President Today!

David, when one considers how long we've fought to
even put a dent in the pro-abortion armor, its especially
comforting to hear our President come out so strongly in
favor of pro-life legislation.

That's why Grassfire is urging everyone who receives this
message to take a moment to send the President an e-mail of
support. First, encourage him to sign into law the Unborn
Victims of Violence Act; and second, thank him for his courage
to stand firm amidst withering pro-abortion attacks.

You can e-mail the President at: president@whitehouse.gov

+ +Other Key Victories Await

Also during his speech, he noted his opposition to cloning and
stem-cell research--two of the most intensely debated areas in the
pro-life issue.

With this kind of key support, the Pro-Life movement can make
real headway this year on the most critically debated issues
provided we are mobilized and ready to act.

However, with support for cloning gaining steam in a number of
states including New Jersey, who recently signed into law
legislation that some believe will eventually pave the way to
fetus harvesting farms, the time to sound the alarm is now.

+ + Grassfire to Announce Major Pro-Life Initiative

Within the next two weeks, Grassfire will be announcing a Major
Pro-Life Initiative that is designed to put the cloning debate back
on center-stage in Washington.

Until this announcement, we are asking all of our pro-life friends
to forward this message to a minimum of 15-25 friends, family
and clergy and invite them to sign our "Petition for Life"
petition:

http://grassfire.org/21/life.asp?RID=1246062

Thank you for e-mailing the President and taking action with us.

Grassfire.org

+ + + + +
Grassfire.org Alliance is a non-profit 501(c)4 issues advocacy
organization dedicated to equipping our 1.5 million-strong
network of grassroots conservatives with the tools that give you a
real impact on the key issues of our day. Gifts to Grassfire.org
are not tax deductible.

Comments? Questions?

http://www.grassfire.org/email.asp?ind=10

+ +
To sign our Petition for Life petition:

http://grassfire.org/21/life.asp?RID=1246062

+ +
To see your personal impact on this issue:

http://grassfire.org/21/impact.asp?CID=21&RID=1246062

 



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Apr-2 8:29 am  
To:  ALL   (3 of 4)  
 
  845.3 in reply to 845.1  
 
President Bush Signs Pro-Life Unborn Victims of Violence Act

by Steven Ertelt
www.LifeNews.com Editor
April 1, 2004

Washington, DC (www.LifeNews.com) -- In a touching ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President Bush signed a bill that will afford additional legal protections to pregnant mothers and their unborn children. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act will allow criminals to be punished twice when they kill or injure an unborn child as a result of attacking a pregnant woman.

"As of today, the law of our nation will acknowledge the plain fact that crimes of violence against a pregnant woman often have two victims," President Bush said. "And therefore, in those cases, there are two offenses to be punished. 

"Under this law, those who direct violence toward a pregnant woman will answer for the full extent of the harm they have done, and for all the crimes they have committed," the president added.

Pro-life groups applauded President Bush's latest pro-life action.

"We applaud the President for bringing justice to women and their children who are victims of violent crime," said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq., spokesperson for the U.S. Bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. 

"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," Ruse added.

Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins said the law "merely recognizes what common sense tells us all: there are two victims when a pregnant woman is harmed."

Sharon Rocha and her husband, Ron Grantski, the parents of Laci Peterson, attended the ceremony along with the families of other women who have been victimized during their pregnancy.

Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant when she disappeared. Authorities later discovered she had been killed and the bodies of her and her unborn son Conner washed up on the shores of San Francisco Bay.

Laci's husband Scott is undergoing the second week of a double-murder trial against him in their deaths. Prosecutors are able to use a California unborn victims law to charge him with two crimes.

"They have laid to rest their daughter, Laci, a beautiful young woman who was joyfully awaiting the arrival of a new son. They have also laid to rest that child, a boy named Conner, who was waiting to be born when his life, too, was taken," Bush explained.

"His little soul never saw light, but he was loved, and he is remembered," the president said. "All who knew Laci Peterson have mourned two deaths and the law cannot look away and pretend there was just one.''

"The success of this legislation is due in large part to the work of those families who have lost their pregnant daughters to violent crimes," FRC's Perkins said. "They have used their tragic experiences to bring about a monumental positive change in our legal system."

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry opposed the bill. He voted against it and for a substitute opposed by families of women who have died that said there was only one victim when both mother and child perished.

Related web sites:
President Bush's remarks - http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040401-3.html

 



David A. Brown
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www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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   From:  David (DavidABrown)    Apr-3 7:47 am  
To:  ALL   (4 of 4)  
 
  845.4 in reply to 845.1  
 
Source: www.engageculture.com

April 2, 2004 by Nigel M. de S. Cameron 
Dear Concerned Citizen, 
Ive just come from the White House, where I was privileged to watch the President sign into law the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.

This is known to many as Conners law in recognition of the ghastly homicide of Laci Petersen and her unborn son. That dreadful crime put wind in the sails of this legislation, which brings federal law into line with that of many states. The Unborn Victims of Violence act treats those who are murdered in the womb in the course of the commission of a crime against their mothers as victims too. 

 The issue here is not, of course, abortion, and there were pro-choice as well as pro-life members of Congress voting it through. Abortion is not in general a crime, so the Unborn Victims Act offers no protection against it. But by drawing attention to the significance of crimes committed against the unborn it underlines the deep ambivalence of Americans on this most divisive of questions. For while their mothers carry them in the womb, unborn babies are distinct individuals. Of course, we know this in experience. The pro-choice mother who conceives a child she plans to carry to term speaks about my baby as much as the pro-lifer. 

More than thirty years after Roe v. Wade the question of abortion is unresolved in American life. From one point of view, the Court took the matter out of the hands of legislators, and therefore the people who elect them. Yet it has not proved to be quite so simple. 

Look at the furor over partial-birth abortion, a gruesome late-term procedure that has now been prohibited in federal law. Plenty of people who are generally pro-choice support the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, including politicians who generally vote down pro-life legislation. Why is that? Because, plainly, the closer the baby gets to birth, the harder it is for anyone to overcome the intuitive acknowledgement that it really is a baby. And the harder it gets for them to stomach the grisly killing techniques involved. 

Yet courts in three states have blocked enforcement of the law, while they hear challenges to its constitutionality. Earlier state laws have been struck down as unconstitutional, and while those who drafted the ban on partial-birth abortion sought to make it challenge-proof it is inevitable that these federal cases will end up in the Supreme Court. We should follow their progress, in Nebraska, New York City, and San Francisco, follow the arguments, see who gives evidence  as the drama of ambivalence is played out for all to see.

The point is this: as a society we are thoroughly ambivalent about the unborn. 

Side by side with this ambivalence we find a wide range of opinions that do not always reflect the pro-life v. pro-choice alternatives we find in the media. Plenty of Christians check the pro-life box when they are asked, but when push comes to shove and they face problem pregnancies they resort to abortion. Plenty more, including large numbers of priests and pastors, do little or nothing about the issue, even though they toe the line and say they are against it. By the same token, there are pro-choice women who would never have an abortion, but who defend the principle. And there are others who are deeply happy with abortions done in response to fetal handicap and inherited disease  the kind of eugenic abortion that not so many years ago some evangelicals supported.

Some people, though, are not ambivalent at all. A few weeks ago I was debating Peter Singer, Princeton bioethics professor who has been called the worlds most influential living philosopher. Singer candidly believes that handicapped babies should be killed if their parents wish. He has no illusions about abortion, so he is happy to call the embryo and fetus a human being, and to argue that since as a society we kill them before birth, why should it trouble us to kill some of them after they are born?

Ironically, when he opens his mouth and comes out with the logic of what someone has called his robotic utilitarianism, people listen. But he is so candid that they draw back. Even pro-choice listeners have been made to think again, since when Singer says that there really is no difference between taking the babys life before and after birth, they are more liable to believe him than us. Of course, hes right, as we have been saying all along. Let us continue to work for the day when logic will prevail and the unborn be fully welcomed into the human community.

When I get home what Im most looking forward to is holding Tessa, our latest grandchild, four weeks old and still as little as many an unborn baby. Thats when I find our ambivalence hardest to understand.




David A. Brown
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