By Pamela Brogan and Carl Weiser
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - House lawmakers voted Thursday to recognize a fetus as a legal victim when it is injured or killed during a federal crime against a pregnant woman. Supporters call the measure compassionate and opponents deride it as an attack on abortion rights.

The bill passed on a 254-163 vote. If passed by the Senate and signed into law, it would grant federal legal status to fetuses. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, is sponsoring a similar measure in the Senate.

"This legislation treats such unborn victims with the respect and dignity under the law their loving mothers and the American people rightly demand for them," said Rep. Steve Chabot, the Westwood Republican who along with Pennsylvania Republican Melissa Hart originally introduced the bill.

Now in federal law, if an unborn child is injured or killed during a crime, only the woman is recognized as a victim. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act would correct that "glaring oversight," as Chabot put it.

But the Planned Parenthood Federation of America said the bill was written with the sole aim of undermining Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court decision legalizing abortion.

DeWine urged the Senate take up the bill as soon as possible and send it to President Bush, who has pledged to sign it.

"I'm pleased that my colleagues in the House have brought us a step closer to the day when justice will be available for even the tiniest crime victims," DeWine said.

Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-N.J., said approval of the bill "should be common sense to us all."

Opponents said the bill attempts to chip away at the right to obtain an abortion.

"Please don't insult our intelligence by saying this bill is not about abortion rights," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. "If the fetus is recognized as a legal person, the bill would open the door to barring abortions."

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., sponsored a measure that would have created stiffer penalties for attacks against pregnant women but would not have recognized fetuses as crime victims. That proposal failed on a vote of 186 to 228.

What states say Sixteen states recognize fetuses as potential crime victims at any stage of a pregnancy.

Thirteen other states have laws saying a fetus can be a crime victim only past a certain stage in a pregnancy.

The federal bill defines an "unborn child" as a member of the human race "at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb."

The House measure is only applicable when a pregnant woman is harmed during commission of a federal crime, such as terrorism or homicide on federal property.

Gannett News Service