Law: Fetal Harm Bill Moves to Senate
Legislation is first of several bills backed by prolife groups
Sheryl Henderson Blunt | posted 5/21/2001 12:00AM
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The RU-486 Patient Protection Act, which would impose restrictions on doctors prescribing the abortion drug Mifepristone.
Prolife groups are also trying to reintroduce a bill banning partial-birth abortion, despite a Supreme Court ruling last June striking down a similar Nebraska ban. Last month the conservative American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) began delivering more than 300,000 signatures in support of the ban to members of Congress. ACLJ chief council Jay Sekulow said he hopes the effort will bring prolife issues to the top of the legislative agenda.
The House passed the measure after defeating a substitute bill, backed by abortion-rights groups, that would have increased penalties for assaults on pregnant women but would not have established a separate crime on behalf of unborn children.
A Senate leadership aide says that heavy prochoice lobbying of self-described moderates will make passage much more difficult in the Senate.
During the last Congress, the measure passed the House 254-172 but died in the Senate after President Bill Clinton threatened a veto.
Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere
Check out the summary and status of HR503, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2001, at the Library of Congress' Thomas search engine. You can also see how your representative voted.
Other media coverage of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act includes:
Bush backs law against harming unborn babies — The Daily Telegraph (Apr. 29, 2001)
House backs penalty for fetal injury in assault — USA Today (Apr 27, 2001)
House Approves Bill Criminalizing Violence to Fetus — The New York Times (Apr. 27, 2001)
House OKs Bill to Give Fetuses Separate Status — Los Angeles Times (Apr 27, 2001)
Unborn Victims Act Wins In House — The Washington Post (Apr 27, 2001)
House OKs bill on fetus as a victim — Chicago Tribune (Apr 27, 2001)
House OKs bill banning harm to fetus — The Dallas Morning News (Apr. 27, 2001)
House votes to outlaw fetal assault — The Boston Globe (Apr 27, 2001)
House OKs bill to make assault on fetus a crime — San Francisco Chronicle (Apr 27, 2001)
House bill aims to protect fetus — The Philadelphia Inquirer (Apr 27, 2001)
House backs measure making it a crime to harm a fetus — The Miami Herald (Apr 27, 2001)
Abortion foes claim House win — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Apr. 27, 2001)
US House reopens abortion debate — BBC (Apr 27, 2001)
House Passes Fetus Harm Bill — Associated Press (Apr 26, 2001)
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