WASHINGTON, March 15, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tn.) has succeeded in winning agreement of the full Senate to vote on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as “Laci and Conner’s Law,” as early as the week of March 22.
The agreement limits debate to six and one-half hours. However, Senate Democrats insisted on the right to offer two killer amendments, and supporters of Laci and Conner’s Law must defeat those amendments. If the two killer amendments are defeated, then the bill can be sent directly to President Bush for his signature, since the House of Representatives already passed it on February 26, 254-163. The bill would include a “child in utero” as a victim when he or she is injured or killed during commission of a violent federal crime against his or her mother. The bill applies to specific existing federal laws, such as military crimes, crimes in federal jurisdictions, terrorism, and stalking across state lines. One amendment, the Feinstein Substitute Amendment, would increase penalties for a federal crime that interferes with a “pregnancy,” but also codify the doctrine that such a crime has only a single victim—the pregnant woman. The other amendment is a 157-page bill known to be little more than an attempt to mire the UVVA into a procedural dead-end. See the extensive resources on the UVVA from the National Right to Life Committee: https://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/index.html