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Bush signs unborn victims act { April 2 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43285-2004Apr1.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43285-2004Apr1.html
Bush Signs Unborn Victims Act
Federal Law Establishes 2 Crimes Against Pregnant Women
By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 2, 2004; Page A04
President Bush yesterday signed legislation, sought by social conservatives for years, that elevates the rights of fetuses by making it a separate offense to harm an "unborn child" while committing a violent federal crime against a pregnant woman.
The law is entangled in the politics of abortion, but Bush sidestepped the larger controversy, portraying the hard-fought measure as a matter of criminal justice. "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," the president said.
Democrats, civil liberties groups and abortion-rights lobbyists regard the law as part of a conservative strategy to lay groundwork for a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 law that legalized abortion, by establishing that fetuses have separate rights. The president and congressional Republicans deny any link.
The White House used the signing ceremony as visible evidence that Bush remains loyal to his conservative base. The president shared a small stage in the East Room with parents of several pregnant women who have been killed in recent years. Family members wept.
Among those relatives were the mother and stepfather of Laci Peterson, who was eight months pregnant with a son who was to be named Conner when she disappeared in California in December 2002. Their bodies were later found. Her husband faces separate murder charges for each of their deaths because California is one of 29 states that have laws addressing harm against fetuses. The highly publicized case galvanized efforts in Congress to pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The House had passed the bill twice before, first in the late 1990s, but it did not reach the Senate floor until last month.
Under the federal law, violence against a pregnant woman is considered two separate crimes, regardless of whether an assailant is aware of the pregnancy. It protects embryos and fetuses from conception. Yesterday, Bush used the word "children" in describing such fetuses. He said: "With this action, we widen the circle of compassion and inclusion in our society, and we reaffirm that the United States of America is building a culture of life."
Bush has taken a position that the nation is not ready for an abortion ban, but he has consistently sided with efforts to restrict the procedure and expand fetal rights. Last November, he signed into law a prohibition on a relatively uncommon but politically explosive procedure that opponents have labeled "partial-birth" abortion. The law is being challenged in the courts.
Immediately after taking office in 2001, Bush banned federal funding for family planning organizations overseas that provide abortions or abortion counseling with other sources of money.
The following year, the administration changed the rules for the Children's Health Insurance Program, a state-federal program for working families, to enable fetuses to qualify for benefits.
As with the previous changes, the bill signing drew praise from conservative groups and protests from abortion-rights supporters. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said, "We are now one giant step closer to rebuilding a culture of life." Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the law ignored the problems of violence against women and "is part of a deceptive anti-choice strategy to make women's bodies mere vessels by creating legal personhood for the fetus."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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