When a pregnant woman is killed, is that one victim or two?

Unborn Victims of Violence Act

The U.S. House of Representatives  passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, providing that when someone attacks a pregnant woman and kills her and her unborn child, the attacker can be charge with two deaths.  (In order to win passage of the bill, this specifically exempts the case in which the woman chooses to kill her child in abortion.)  The measure will be considered in the Senate next.

Currently under federal law, only the death of the woman can be considered.

Also currently, if the mother survives the crime but loses her baby, federal prosecutors would have to tell her, "We're sorry you were assaulted, but the law says nobody died."  Under state law, many state prosecutors would have to echo the statement.

Sharon Rocha, the mother of Laci Peterson and grandmother of Conner considers that simply increasing the penalty for attacking the woman “would be a step away from justice, not toward it.  For example, if Congresswoman Lofgren's legal philosophy was currently the law in California, there would be no second homicide charge for the murder of Conner." 

In a letter to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), she wrote, "There were two bodies that washed up in San Francisco Bay, and the law should recognize that reality."  Read Sharon Rocha's letter to Kerry here: http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/RochatoKerry.html

Three national polls in 2003 found that about 80% of the public says that the perpetrator of the killing of a pregnant woman should be charged with two homicides, not just one.

On January 7, 18-year-old Ashley Lyons and her unborn son Landon were murdered in Scott County, Kentucky.  Current Kentucky law regards this crime as having only a single victim.  But Carol Lyons, mother of Ashley and grandmother of Landon, says:  "Nobody can tell me that there were not two victims -- I placed Landon in his mother's arms, wrapped in a baby blanket that I had sewn for him, just before I kissed my daughter good-bye for the last time and closed the casket."  Read the full story in "Remember Their Names," by Douglas Johnson, here: http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_Victims/Remembertheirnames.html

This measure will come before the Senate soon.  Let your senators know your views.  You can reach them through the NRLC Legislative Action Center: http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=1985751

You can also make phone calls to their Washington offices via the Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121), or call their in-state offices.  Don't use regular mail due to security-related delays on Capitol Hill. 

And, while you’re at it, you might want to thank your House Representative if he/she supported the measure in the House and express your disappointment if he/she did not.

Much of this information comes from the National Right to Life Committee

Updated on RARTL March 2004