This is a press release from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) in Washington, D.C., issued Thursday, February 26, 2004.

WASHINGTON (February 26, 2004) -- The U.S. House of Representatives today recognized that a federal crime against a pregnant women claims two victims, passing the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 1997), also known as "Laci and Conner's Law," by a vote of 254-163.

The bill would recognize as a legal victim any "child in utero" who is injured or killed during the commission of a federal crime of violence. The bill defines "child in utero" as "a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb." The bill already explicitly exempts abortion or any act of a woman affecting her own unborn child.

Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist (R) has already been pressing for action on the bill in the Senate, which has never before voted on the issue of fetal homicide. But so far he has been blocked by procedural obstacles erected by Democratic senators.

In an audio-taped statement played today at a Capitol Hill press conference hosted by House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Sharon Rocha -- whose daughter Laci and unborn grandson Conner were murdered in a nationally publicized crime in California -- sharply rebuked Senate Democrats for obstructing the bill, including her own two senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. She called on senators who had previously not supported the bill, including Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Senator John Edwards (D-NC), to reconsider their positions.

"If Laci and Conner's Law is not enacted this year, I will keep fighting for it," Rocha said. "I will not hesitate to explain the issue to their voters. To vote against Laci and Conner's Law, or to obstruct it, is indefensible."

(A letter by Kerry opposing the bill, and a letter from Sharon Rocha to Kerry asking him to reconsider, are posted here.)

President Bush strongly supports the bill.

Twenty-nine (29) states already have laws that allow separate homicide charges for unlawful killing of an "unborn child" or "fetus," at least in some circumstances. For more info, click here.

The federal and state courts have consistently rejected all legal attacks on these laws, because they do not apply to abortion. For more info, click here.

Today, the House rejected the "single-victim substitute," an alternative bill offered by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Ca.), 186-229. This substitute would increase penalties for a violent federal crime if it causes "interruption" of a pregnancy -- but without recognizing an unborn victim. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) will offer a similar substitute proposal in the Senate. "Under the single-victim bill, if the mother survives the attack but loses her baby, federal authorities would have to tell her that the law says nobody really died," NRLC's Johnson said.

Carol and Buford Lyons of Scott County, Kentucky, visited Capitol Hill to tell lawmakers about the killing of their 18-year-old daughter Ashley and her unborn son Landon on January 7, just hours after Ashley and her mother had first viewed an ultrasound video of Landon. The Kentucky legislature enacted a fetal homicide law partly in response to an appeal from Mr. and Mrs. Lyons.

"Nobody can tell me that there were not two victims," Carol Lyons said. "I placed Landon in Ashley's arms, wrapped in a baby blanket that I had sewn for him, just before I kissed my daughter goodbye for the last time and closed the casket."

[VSHL Note: The following Virginia Representatives voted to reject the "single-victim substitute" and voted for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act:
1st District Representative Jo Ann Davis (R)
2nd District Representative Ed Schrock (R)
5th District Representative Virgil Goode (R)
6th District Representative Bob Goodlatte (R)
7th District Representative Eric Cantor (R)
10th District Representative Frank Wolf (R)
11th District Representative Tom Davis (R)

The following Virginia Representatives voted in favor of the "single-victim substitute" and voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act:
3rd District Representative Bobby Scott (D)
8th District Representative Jim Moran (D)
9th District Representative Rick Boucher (D)

4th District Representative Randy Forbes (R) did not vote.]

The NRLC website contains the most comprehensive collection of resources on the Internet on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and state fetal homicide laws: click here. Included there are national polls on the "fetal homicide" issue, statements by women who have lost their babies in two-victim crimes, NRLC letters to Congress and advertisements on the bill, summaries of state unborn victims laws, and summaries of the many court decisions upholding these state laws.

The National Right to Life Committee is the nation's major pro-life organization, representing affiliates in all 50 states.

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