This is a congressional alert from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), Federal Legislation Department, issued Tuesday, February 17, 2004. For further information, visit the NRLC Legislative Action Center at www.nrlc.org.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on Thursday, February 26, 2004, on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 1997), a bill to allow federal and military prosecutors to bring charges on behalf of a "child in utero" when he or she is a victim of a violent federal or military crime.

In order to pass the bill, it is necessary for the House to first reject the "single-victim substitute amendment" (Lofgren Substitute), a radically different bill backed by pro-abortion advocacy groups (it will be similar or identical to the language of H.R. 2247). The substitute would increase penalties for federal crimes that victimize a pregnant woman if they "interrupt" her pregnancy, but would also write into federal law the doctrine that such a crime has only a single victim.

The House has rejected the single-victim substitute and passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act twice before, in 1999 and 2001. Those bills died without any action in the Senate. Indeed, the Senate has NEVER before considered the issue, but pro-life Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tn.) has indicated he hopes to turn to the issue very soon -- perhaps not long after House passage. In the Senate, the single-victim substitute amendment will be offered by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.). The critical showdown will occur when the Senate votes to choose between the Feinstein Substitute and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act -- and the outcome of that vote is STILL IN DOUBT.

PLEASE TAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS IMMEDIATELY:

1. REVIEW THE 2001 HOUSE VOTES: Review how your U.S. House representative voted on the two bills on April 26, 2001. On these votes, the following Virginia Representatives voted pro-life (i.e., against the Lofgren substitute and for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act): Reps. J. Davis (R-1), Schrock (R-2), Goode (R-5), Goodlatte (R-6), Cantor (R-7), Wolf (R-10), and T. Davis (R-11).
   The following Virginia Representatives opposed the pro-life position (i.e., for the Lofgren substitute and against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act): Reps. Scott (D-3), Moran (D-8), and Boucher (D-9).
   [Note that the 4th District seat was vacant at the time of these votes.]

2. PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON HOUSE MEMBERS WHO VOTED IN 2001 FOR THE SINGLE-VICTIM SUBSTITUTE: Starting NOW, please call to the attention of local news media and other interested parties any lawmaker who voted for the "single-victim substitute" (3 Va. Congressmen are so noted above) in 2001. Point out that he was voting to say that a federal crime like the Laci-Conner Peterson killing has only A SINGLE VICTIM -- but three national polls in 2003 found that about 80% of the public says such a crime should be charged as TWO HOMICIDES. (Under the substitute, 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," just as they do under current federal law.) The substitute would increase penalties, but family members who have lost loved ones in two-victim crimes say that this misses the main point -- justice. Sharon Rocha, the mother of Laci and grandmother of Conner, wrote to lawmakers, "The single-victim substitute 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: www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/RochatoKerry.html.

3. GENERATE E-MAIL AND CALLS TO BOTH HOUSE MEMBERS AND SENATORS: E-mail senators and House members through the NRLC Legislative Action Center: www.capwiz.com/nrlc/home.

   Also, generate 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. Concentrate on urging defeat of the Feinstein "single-victim substitute."

4. KNOW YOUR OWN STATE'S LAW: In lobbying and debating this issue, it is important to know the law of the state you are working in. A feticide bill is currently being considered in the Virginia General Assembly. Currently, 15 states recognize the unborn child as a homicide victim throughout pre-natal development, and 13 others recognize fetal homicide for part of pregnancy. These 28 fetal homicide laws are summarized here.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND LINKS

1. NRLC has created the best resource on the Internet concerning unborn victims of violence and fetal homicide laws, at www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/index.html.

2. On February 5, National Review Online posted an article by NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson that is a good summary of the debate over the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The essay and links to the documentation are here.

3. Three national polls show that about 80% of the public believes the law should recognize the killing of a "fetus" in a crime as HOMICIDE, and a solid majority believes this should be true throughout pregnancy. To see a table summarizing these three polls, go here.

4. Pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and NARAL are telling lawmakers and editorial writers that recognizing a "child in utero" as a crime victim violates Roe v. Wade. But Roe v. Wade was concerned entirely with the "right" of a woman to abort her own unborn child. Roe did NOT remove the right of legislative bodies to recognize and protect the unborn child outside of the abortion context. Be sure that lawmakers, editorial writers, and reporters know that across the nation, the federal and state courts have rejected every legal challenge to fetal homicide laws. The cases are summarized here.

5. Recently a number of prominent pro-Roe legal experts have also said that fetal homicide laws do not conflict with Roe -- among these, Prof. Walter Dellinger at Duke Law School, who once co-chaired a national commission to defend Roe and who later served as President Clinton's chief legal advisor on constitutional issues. Quotes from Dellinger and the other pro-Roe legal authorities are here.

6. 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.

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