On February 26, by a vote of 254 to 163, the House passed a bill (H.R. 1997) punishing violence against pregnant women by legally counting their unborn children as persons. The bill presented a quandary for supporters of abortion because they are skittish about treating the unborn as human beings.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Melissa Hart (R.-Pa.), was strongly supported by the family of murder victim Laci Peterson, who was killed along with her unborn son Conner last year in California.
Under current federal law, perpetrators of violence against pregnant women receive no additional punishment even if it results in the death of the woman's unborn child. Hart's measure contains an exception for the violence involved in an abortion consented to by a pregnant woman or a person authorized by law to act on her behalf. But this did little to staunch the anger of liberals fearing "women's choice" issues were at risk.
"The bill before us today would give a fetus the same recognition as you or I for the first time in Federal law," said abortion supporter Rep. Nita Lowey (D.-N.Y.), as if this recognition were a bad thing. Similarly, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D.-Calif.), called the bill "dishonest."
"This bill is a wolf in sheep's clothing," said Woolsey, who recently caused a stir by intervening in a California court case on behalf of a convicted rapist to minimize his sentence. She called the bill "a proposal to undermine reproductive rights dressed up as a bill to punish violent crimes against women."
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D.-Calif.) proposed a substitute that would have avoided treating an unborn person as a person by making it a federal criminal offense to assault a pregnant woman causing "injury or termination of her pregnancy." The substitute failed in a vote of 186 to 229.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D.-N.Y.) weighed in heavily against the bill: "We cannot agree to the bill, because the whole point of the bill is to establish legally separate fetal personhood, This would undermine the entire rationale of Roe v. Wade and undermine a woman's right to choose, because if a fetus is a separate legal person, how can she choose to terminate the pregnancy?"
Republicans insisted that this was not an abortion issue, but rather one strictly dealing with justice. Conservative Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind.) called the passage of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act a victory for justice in America. Pence said: "This is not a debate about life-this is about justice, this is about compassion, and this is about this Congress standing for what justice demands. This is not about the thorny issues that surround the debate over a woman's right to choose or the right to life."
Likewise, Rep. Mike Ferguson (R.-N.J.) said that the Unborn Victims of Violence Act "should be common sense" and that he was mystified by those who "seemed to be hysterical in their opposition to commonsense legislation."
A "yes" vote was a vote for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, to criminalize violence against the unborn. A "no" vote was a vote against the bill.
| FOR THE BILL: 254 | AGAINST THE BILL: 179 |
| REPUBLICANS FOR: 207 Aderholt Akin Bachus Baker Ballenger Barrett (SC) Bartlett (MD) Barton (TX) Beauprez Bereuter Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blunt Boehner Bonilla Bonner Boozman Bradley (NH) Brown (SC) Brown-Waite, Ginny Burgess Burns Burr Burton (IN) Calvert Camp Cannon Cantor Capito Carter Castle Chabot Chocola Coble Cole Cox Crane Crenshaw Cubin Culberson Cunningham Davis, Jo Ann Davis, Tom Deal (GA) DeLay DeMint Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Doolittle Dreier Duncan Dunn Ehlers Emerson English Everett Feeney Ferguson Flake Foley Fossella Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Gallegly Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Gibbons Gilchrest Gillmor Gingrey Goode Goodlatte Goss Granger Graves Green (WI) Gutknecht Hall Harris Hart Hastings (WA) Hayes Hayworth Hefley Hensarling Herger Hobson Hoekstra Hostettler Hulshof Hunter Hyde Isakson Issa Istook Jenkins Johnson, Sam Johnson (IL) Jones (NC) Keller Kennedy (MN) King (IA) King (NY) Kingston Kline Knollenberg LaHood Latham LaTourette Leach Lewis (CA) Lewis (KY) Linder LoBiondo Lucas (OK) Manzullo McCotter McCrery McHugh McKeon Mica Miller, Gary Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Moran (KS) Murphy Musgrave Myrick Nethercutt Neugebauer Ney Norwood Nunes Nussle Osborne Ose Otter Oxley Pearce Pence Peterson (PA) Petri Pickering Pitts Platts Pombo Porter Portman Pryce (OH) Putnam Radanovich Ramstad Regula Rehberg Renzi Reynolds Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Royce Ryan (WI) Ryun (KS) Saxton Schrock Sensenbrenner Sessions Shadegg Shaw Sherwood Shimkus Shuster Simpson Smith (MI) Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Souder Stearns Sullivan Sweeney Tancredo Tauzin Taylor (NC) Terry Thomas Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Toomey Turner (OH) Upton Vitter Walden (OR) Walsh Wamp Weldon (FL) Weldon (PA) Weller Whitfield Wicker Wilson (NM) Wilson (SC) Wolf Young (AK) Young (FL) DEMOCRATS FOR: 47 |
REPUBLICANS AGAINST: 13 Bass Biggert Boehlert Bono Greenwood Houghton Johnson (CT) Kelly Kirk Kolbe Paul Shays Simmons DEMOCRATS AGAINST: 149 INDEPENDENTS AGAINST: 1 |
NOT VOTING: 16
| REPUBLICANS (7): | DEMOCRATS (9): | INDEPENDENTS (0) |
| Brady (TX) Buyer Collins Forbes McInnis Northup Quinn |
Bell Doggett Honda Kleczka Kucinich Lantos Meeks (NY) Menendez Millender-McDonald |
