The Virginia General Assembly opened for a 60-day session on January 9 and once again will be addressing pro-life concerns.

Of particular interest will be a bill introduced by Del. Terry Kilgore (R-1st District) making the killing of an unborn child, other than by abortion, a homicide. This bill, H.B. 149, would cover a variety of circumstances where a pregnant woman is deliberately attacked, causing the death of her preborn baby.

Specifically, the bill calls it homicide “if any person knowingly or recklessly causes the death of a fetus, at any stage of its development, by a physical injury to the mother that would be sufficient to convict such person of homicide if the mother had died.” Exceptions are included in cases of “lawful abortion or abortion to which the pregnant woman consented” or where the pregnant woman caused the injury herself.

This bill would complement the Unborn Victims of Violence Act which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last April and is still awaiting Senate action (see the Lifesaver, June 2001). The federal bill applies only in connection with federal crimes of violence; the feticide bill addresses crimes of violence covered by state law. Twenty-four other states have already enacted laws that recognize unborn children as victims of violence and these laws have been upheld by the courts.

Feticide bills with varying wordings have been offered several times in the past. In 1996, the Senate passed a bill introduced by then Senator Mark Earley but a House committee refused to vote on it and carried it over to the next year. In 1997, the bill was significantly modified to remove all mention of the unborn child and instead provide an increased penalty for injury causing the “involuntary termination of her pregnancy.” Although the bill passed and became law, it still refused to make the killing of unborn children a crime but rather treated it only in relation to injury to a pregnant woman. Another bill was introduced in 1998 by then Senator Randy Forbes but it was killed by the Senate Courts of Justice Committee.

Last year, a bill substantially identical to H.B. 149 passed the House by a 63-36 margin but was killed in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee on a 6-9 vote. Voting to kill the bill were Senators Edwards (D-21), Howell (D-32), Lucas (D-18), Marsh (D-16), Puller (D-36), Reynolds (D-20), Saslaw (D-15), Stolle (R-8), and Trumbo (R-22). Previously, Senators Stolle and Trumbo had voted for the 1996 feticide bill on the Senate floor, and Senators Reynolds and Stolle had voted for the 1998 feticide bill in committee.

Please contact your delegate and state senator and ask them to support the feticide bill, H.B. 149. For those of you who are in or near the districts of those Senators who voted last year against the bill, please make a special effort to urge them to reexamine their positions and support this important legislation.

Other Issues

Other bills of pro-life interest are in preparation as we go to press (e.g., on parental consent). Please be sure to keep up with the fast moving events in the General Assembly through this VSHL web site. Then, when action is needed, contact your legislator with your request (you below). You may also use the General Assembly constituent input number, 1-800-889-0229 (or 698-1990 in Richmond).

Contacting Your Legislators

Virginia has updated its web site to reflect the new district boundaries adopted as a result of the 2000 Census. You can use the web address below to find out who your delegate and state senator (and also your congressman) is. There are also hot links to pages with addresses (mail and e-mail) and telephone numbers for all delegates and state senators. The web address is: conview.state.va.us/whosmy/constinput.asp

Published in VSHL Lifesaver, January 2002