Bills to change fetus' status gain support in Washington

WASHINGTON -- Momentum is building behind legislation that would make it a federal crime to harm the fetus of a pregnant woman, spurred in part by outrage over the slaying of Californian Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner.

The measure, dubbed the "Laci and Conner's Law," seeks to treat fetuses in such cases as victims separate from their mothers, with all the rights of individuals. It would apply to federal crimes, which take place in areas such as national parks, military installations and Indian reservations, and would carry a sentence of up to life imprisonment.

This spring California authorities discovered the bodies of Peterson, who had disappeared Christmas Eve, and Conner, the eight-month fetus she was carrying. Police have charged Peterson's husband Scott with murder, and the case has generated enormous publicity.

While the legislation may affect the outcome of only a handful of trials each year -- Peterson is charged under state law -- it has symbolic significance for anti-abortion advocates, who have tried for several years to pass the measure but have encountered resistance in the Senate and the White House.

Republican control of the White House and Congress has given anti-abortion bills the best chance of passage in years. Last month Congress banned the procedure that abortion opponents refer to as "partial birth abortion," handing anti-abortion advocates their biggest win in more than a decade. Lawmakers are hoping to impose other restrictions, such as penalizing any adult who helps a minor cross state lines to obtain an abortion.

Supporters of the Peterson bill say it is only right that the federal government recognize the loss of an unborn child. Under the law, federal prosecutors treat such crimes as an assault on the mother, with the option of enhancing the penalty.

"The goal is to make sure victims are treated properly by the law," said Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Pa., the bill's author. "It's acknowledging that a person was a victim of crime."

But opponents say the legislation would subvert a woman's right to choose, by giving even recently fertilized cells the same rights as a child outside the womb.

"The real purpose of the law is to define a fetus at any stage of development as a person," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. "That undermines Roe v. Wade."

Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, said the measure is unrelated to abortion.

"It is a distortion," he said. "They're trying to change the subject."

The bill's critics acknowledge they can do little to block it. The House approved similar legislation twice before, and the Senate leadership hopes to bring the bill up before the end of the year.

"In the past we've managed to hold this bill off and people understood that legislation like this undermines Roe and there are other, far more effective ways to protect pregnant women from harm," said Louise Melling, director of the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project. "There is a real chance that this bill will pass."

The media attention surrounding Peterson's death has fueled support for Hart's bill, according to both sides. National polls have indicated many Americans now favor "fetal homicide" laws that exist in several states.

Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, has written GOP and Democratic lawmakers to say the law would recognize there is "a dead baby" as well as a dead mother in such cases.

"When a criminal attacks a woman who carries a child, he claims two victims," Rocha wrote. "I lost a daughter, but I also lost a grandson."

Hart said Rocha's plea has had an impact on lawmakers.

"Now when people have heard more about these kinds of cases, they're tragic," she said. "They understand exactly what we're talking about now."

Nadler said that while the Peterson case makes the legislation "emotionally effective," it's not reason enough to pass the bill.

A rival bill sponsored by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., would impose nearly identical sentences, but it would treat a federal assault on a pregnant woman differently. The GOP bill would make it a separate offense to harm an "unborn child," imposing a maximum life sentence as punishment for the "death of ... a child, who is in utero." Bodily injury to a child would carry a maximum 20-year sentence. Lofgren's Motherhood Protection Act would impose the same level of punishment but frames the crime in terms of terminating or harming a pregnancy.

Hart's bill could come to a floor vote this month. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, is sponsor of a companion bill, which the Senate could take up at any time, according to DeWine spokeswoman Amanda Flaig.