WASHINGTON Ohio, Pa. lawmakers revive push for fetal-victim measure

The legislators received a letter of support from the family of Laci Peterson.
By DAVID ENRICH
STATES NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- On Capitol Hill, tragedies can pay political dividends.
Two Republican lawmakers -- Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Rep. Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania -- seized one such opportunity this week when they reintroduced a bill to make it illegal to kill or injure a fetus during the commission of a federal crime.
Although the House has twice approved a version of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act in recent years, the Senate has never voted on it.
But the family of Laci Peterson -- who was killed when she was eight months pregnant with a son to be named Connor -- wrote this week to DeWine and Hart.
The family wrote, "This bill is very close to our hearts. We have not only lost our future with our daughter and sister, but with our grandson and nephew as well."
The six family members asked that the bill be dubbed "Laci and Connor's Law" in their memory.
And so it was. In addition to getting a new name, the legislation's association with the high-profile slaying has given it fresh momentum.
"The recent nationwide publicity surrounding the murder ... has renewed public concern about violence against the unborn -- and rightfully so," DeWine said this week in a speech on the Senate floor. He described how "Baby Connor was found near his mother with his umbilical cord still attached."
Controversy
Abortion-rights groups, which see the measure as a step toward outlawing abortion, argue that Republicans and anti-abortion groups are taking advantage of the Laci Peterson tragedy.
"It is a sad statement that anti-choice leaders are willing to use a family's tragedy to continue their campaign to steadily take away a woman's right to choose," said Kate Michelman, president of NARAL: Pro-Choice America.
"The only thing new about this bill is the lengths to which anti-choice lawmakers and advocates are willing to go to exploit a family's pain in order to move their own political agenda."
NARAL and other groups point out that the bill wouldn't apply in the trial of Scott Peterson, who is Laci's husband and has been charged with her murder. Peterson is being tried under California law, and DeWine's bill deals only with federal crimes.
DeWine described examples of previous cases in which the law might have mattered.
In 1996, for example, a soldier stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton attacked his pregnant wife. The woman survived; the fetus did not.
Because Ohio is one of 26 states with laws against hurting fetuses, the soldier was prosecuted under state law on charges of assaulting his wife and killing the unborn child. But, DeWine said, "If it hadn't been for the Ohio law that was already in place, there would have been no opportunity to prosecute and punish" the soldier.
DeWine and Hart say they didn't seek out the endorsement of Laci Peterson's family; they say the family contacted them and offered to help.
In any case, though, proponents of the legislation say lawmakers frequently invoke tragedies to advance legislation.