Politics

House Passes 'Fetus Protection' Bill

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 24, 2001 / 10:32 AM EDT / CBS

Armed with the support of the White House, abortion rights foes moved their first bill of the year through the House on Thursday — legislation that would make it a federal crime to harm a fetus.

The House, by a 252-172 vote, passed the measure after a lengthy and charged debate. Moments earlier, Republicans held off a Democratic amendment that would have stiffened penalties for assaulting a pregnant woman but not made harming the fetus a separate crime.

"Life and death should not be subsumed beneath a semantic fog," said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican.

Republican sponsors who brought the bill to the House floor Thursday shunned the word abortion. Rather, they characterized the measure as an effort to get tough with criminals who harm "unborn children."

"This is not an abortion bill," said Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "Without this bill, crimes against these innocent victims will go unpunished."

Abortion rights advocates derided the GOP measure as a bid to get a fetus declared a separate person — an idea they say was rejected by the Supreme Court in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

"This would be the first time in the federal legal system that we would begin to recognize a fertilized egg, a zygote, an embryo or a fetus. That's what the bill is trying to do," said John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat "No sneaking around today, fellas. We're going to have to put it all on the table."

The measure, titled the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, would apply only to crimes in federal jurisdiction, but similar statutes are on the books in 24 states. The House passed virtually identical legislation, 254-172, last session, only to see it never addressed in the Senate.

President Bush has said he would sign the bill. "The administration supports protection for unborn children and therefore supports House passage," the White House said in a statement Tuesday.

Rep. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who wrote the bill, said safeguards are in the measure to prohibit the prosecution of mothers or people who perform or assist in abortions.

"It only applies to criminal activities," Graham said. "America is deeply divided about government interfering with the right to choose, but that doesn't mean we consider the unborn child an enemy."