This is a congressional action alert from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) in Washington, D.C., issued on January 14, 2004. For further information, visit the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/index.html.

WASHINGTON (January 14, 2004) -- NRLC and other pro-life forces are pushing for action in the U.S. Senate early in 2004 on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (S. 1019).

So far, 40 of the 100 senators have cosponsored the bill -- but the outcome remains in doubt, as senators allied with pro-abortion advocacy groups continue to obstruct the bill. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tn.) has said that he will push for full Senate action on the bill early this year. The House of Representatives may also take up the bill in the near future. (The House passed the bill in 1999 and 2001, and will readily do so again -- the real battle is in the Senate.)

The prime sponsor of the bill is Senator Mike DeWine (R-Ohio). There are currently 39 cosponsors. You can view the always-current list of co-sponsors at the NRLC website (www.nrlc.org) by going to the Legislative Action Center, then to "Current Legislation," then to "S. 1019."

All NRLC affiliates and other pro-life groups and citizens should promptly call their senators' offices and urge immediate approval of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, or "Laci and Conner's Law" (S. 1019).

HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR VIRGINIA SENATORS

Senator George Allen is a co-sponsor of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. Please thank him for his support. Please urge Senator John Warner to support it.

• PHONE CALLS: Senator Allen can be reached at 202-224-4024; Senator Warner can be reached at 202-224-2023. Other senators can be reached through the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Once connected, explain that you are a constituent, politely convey your position, and ask for a written response explaining the senator's position.
  
  
• FAXES can be sent to Virginia Senator Allen at 202-224-5432, and Senator Warner at 202-224-2023.
  
  
• E-MAIL can be sent to Virginia Senators using these hot links for Senator George Allen and Senator John Warner. E-mail addresses for other senators are available from the Senate website at www.senate.gov. Be sure to include your regular mailing address in the text of your e-mails, so that the senators know that the message comes from constituents.

In addition, pro-life groups and citizens should send letters for publication to local newspapers and websites, and call local radio talk shows, to generate public attention to the continued obstruction of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act in the U.S. Senate. Mention in your letters whether the two senators from your state have cosponsored S. 1019 (you can see a current list of cosponsors .

Here are some of the key points to get across:

• The basic argument boils down to this: When a criminal attacks a pregnant woman, injuring or killing her, and also injuring or killing her unborn child -- has he claimed one victim, or two? The Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA) would recognize that such crimes have two victims. But pro-abortion Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) and other opponents are pushing a phony "substitute amendment" that would recognize only one victim of such crimes -- the mother.
• According to a Newsweek poll released on June 1, 2003, 84% of the public believe that the killing of the unborn child during a crime should be recognized as a homicide (56% throughout development, another 28% after "viability"), while only 9 percent disagreed. According to a Fox News Channel scientific poll conducted this past July, 79% of Americans (including 69% of those who call themselves "pro-choice") agree that when "a violent physical attack on a pregnant woman leads to the death of her unborn child . . . prosecutors should be able to charge the attacker with murder for killing the fetus." For information on national polls on "fetal homicide," see: www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/UnbornPolls110703.html.
• The bill explicitly does not apply to abortion or to legal or illegal acts that a mother commits that affect her own unborn child. Nevertheless, pro-abortion groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood oppose the bill, because of their extreme ideological position that the law must always be blind to the existence of unborn human beings.
• In numerous decisions, federal and state courts have consistently ruled that unborn victim laws do NOT contradict Roe v. Wade or other U.S. Supreme Court rulings. These rulings are listed and summarized on the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/statechallenges.html.
• The UVVA does not create any new federal crimes. Rather, it would apply the "two-victim principle" to acts of violence that are already defined to be federal crimes -- for example, a bombing, an attack on a domestic partner after interstate stalking, or an attack that occurs on federal property. Other violent crimes will continue to be governed by state laws. (Currently, 28 states have laws that provide partial or complete coverage for unborn victims of violence. These laws are summarized on the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/index.html.)
• Surviving family members of unborn victims of violence, such as Sharon Rocha (grandmother of Conner Peterson) and Tracy Marciniak (mother of Zachariah) are imploring Congress to pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and to reject the "single-victim substitute" (Feinstein Amendment). In a letter to lawmakers, Rocha said that "adoption of such a single-victim amendment would be a painful blow to those, like me, who are left alive after a two-victim crime, because Congress would be saying that Conner and other innocent unborn victims like him are not really victims -- indeed, that they never really existed at all. But our grandson did live. He had a name, he was loved, and his life was violently taken from him before he ever saw the sun."
• For additional information and documents on unborn victims of violence, see "Key Facts on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act" in the January 2004 edition of National Right to Life News, and also posted at the NRLC website at: www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/keypointsuvva.html.

  NRLC Spokespersons Challenge Pro-Abortion Groups
  on Unborn Victims of Violence

  NRLC spokespersons are available for interviews on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, or for broadcast debates with representatives of organizations that are lobbying in support of the single-victim position.

  One such exchange, between NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson and Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Gloria Feldt, occurred on the program "Which Way, L.A.?" on NPR affiliate KCRW-FM in Los Angeles on May 29, 2003. Pressed by host Warren Olney, Feldt finally acknowledged that she believed that "the victim" (i.e., the only victim) in the Peterson murder case was Laci Peterson -- not her unborn son Conner. You can listen to audio file of the exchange on the NRLC website (requires free RealPlayer software) at www.nrlc.org.

  VSHL is the Virginia affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.