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SAN FRANCISCO, April 6, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.) – California’s Supreme Court has upheld and given a broad reading to the state’s fetal homicide law. In a 6-1 ruling, the court decided that the law applies even if the assailant did not know a woman is pregnant.

In March 1999, Harold Taylor, fatally shot Patty Fansler, 33, at her Ukiah apartment. Fansler was 11-13 weeks pregnant and her pregnancy was not visible; Taylor claimed he was not aware of it. Taylor was convicted of killing Fansler and her child, and had been sentenced to 65 years in prison. The case has made its way to the state Supreme Court after an appellate court decided Taylor was not responsible, under the fetal homicide law, for the death of the unborn child.

The California law only considers fetal homicide after 8 weeks gestation, but the federal law that was signed by President Bush just days before the ruling, protects the unborn child from the first moment of conception. The ruling said that it is not necessary for the state to prove that an attacker knew of the existence of a fetal victim, as long as the state proves criminal intent towards some victim.

Justice Janice Rogers Brown wrote in the ruling that by shooting Fansler, Taylor acted with a “conscious disregard for all life, fetal or otherwise.” Brown further wrote, “Had one of Fansler’s other children died during the defendant’s assault, there would be no inquiry into whether the defendant knew the child was present for implied malice murder liability to attach.”

National Right to Life Committee page on Fetal Homicide laws:  https://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_Victims/index.html