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Women's Rights
What's New? - Archive
WomenMatter will continuously post updates on all this and other issues as we monitor the continuing philosophical and practical debates nationwide.
Please check back often for updates. Past updates are available for reference on the Women's Rights Archives page.
Since Women's Rights is in many ways an umbrella issue, WomenMatter will highlight related updates from other Life Issue areas here:
The Politics of Pregnancy: The Laci Peterson Act Reveals Important Issues
On April 1, 2004, President Bush signed into law a bill that makes it a separate federal crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman.
The bill is the latest development in the long-standing debate on fetal rights. Proponents argue that the new law is simply an increased protection for pregnant victims of violence, while opponents claim it is an effective attack on abortion rights.
The details- state vs. federal
The new federal law is not unique. It mimics 29 state laws (some of which have been around since the 1900s) that say a violent crime against a pregnant woman is actually two crimes against two separate people: the mother and the fetus.
The bill does not extend the law to the remaining 21 states. Rather, it applies to crimes committed on federal property, crimes involving drug-related shootings, and crimes against witnesses in a federal trial.
Some say that few federal crimes against pregnant women occur, so this law will be exercised very rarely. Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, disagrees. He says that there are thousands of these crimes each year and that the law will be applied often.
The Laci Peterson Act
Although usually referred to as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, the bill is also named the Laci Peterson Act, in honor of the seven-months-pregnant woman who disappeared Christmas Eve 2002 and was found dead four months later. Peterson’s family has endorsed the bill, but critics say bill supporters are using Laci Peterson and her family for political purposes.
Attaching the much-publicized Laci Peterson case to the bill makes it difficult for legislators to vote against.
Contrary to its title, the bill does not affect the Laci Peterson case directly. Scott Peterson, Laci’s husband, has already been charged with two counts of capital murder because of California state law, not the new federal law.
The arguments
Many pro-choice activists, including Kate Michelman of NARAL Pro-Choice America, feel that the legislation is primarily designed to undermine abortion rights.
By granting the fetus independent, individual rights, Congress has created tension between a woman’s right to choose and a fetus’ right to life. This law, along with a law passed by Congress in 2003 that bans an abortion procedure called "partial-birth" by proponents of the law and "dilation and evacuation," or "D&E" by opponents, creates the legal rationale to overturn Roe v. Wade, Michaelman says. (For more on the "partial-birth" abortion bill, click here.)
Supporters claim that the bill was designed to protect pregnant women and their unborn babies, not chip away at Roe v. Wade. Douglas Johnson argues that this bill is valuable in its own right and denies that it is merely a beard for anti-abortion activism.
Michelman rebuts that legislators had the option to increase penalties for assaults on pregnant women without creating independent rights for fetuses. In her view, the fact that lawmakers refused Senator Dianne Feinstein’s amendment was proof of their interest in securing fetal rights.
The Feinstein amendment
Dianne Feinstein (D- California) offered an amendment called the Motherhood Protection Act, which would have increased penalties for offenders without engaging the fetal rights debate.
Feinstein’s amendment acknowledges that a pregnant woman endures additional trauma after an assault damages or destroys her pregnancy. Her legislation would therefore increase the sentence for offenders who attack pregnant women, but, the bill also aims to protect abortion rights by not establishing fetal rights.
Feinstein’s amendment lost by one vote in the Senate.
Does this bill protect or threaten pregnant women?
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act does not make a pregnant woman liable for the death of her own fetus.
Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee reports that most state laws do not make a pregnant woman’s actions - including abortion - punishable by law.
However, South Carolina law allows women to be prosecuted for behavior during pregnancy that results in death or injury to the fetus. In South Carolina, 24-year-old Regina McKnight was convicted of homicide because her drug use may have contributed to the stillbirth she suffered in 1999. She was convicted in 2001 and is currently serving 12 years in prison for taking cocaine while pregnant.
While this law is unique to South Carolina, its foundation is the concept that a fetus is an individual -- a person separate and distinct from the mother. This concept is also the base of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.
The philosophy behind the policy
Although laws change and evolve, the philosophical questions surrounding this issue have remained the same: When does life begin? Who do we want to call a person? What are the rights of the mother?
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act declares that life begins at conception. Therefore, it does not matter if the mother is in her first month of pregnancy and is not showing; someone who assaults her and compromises her pregnancy can be charged with two crimes.
Daniel Callahan, Co-founder of the Hastings Bioethics Research Center says that the answers to the above questions are shifting as technology develops. Sonograms, more effective contraception, and better pre-natal health care affect people’s perceptions of pregnancy. Callahan says that we cannot use biology alone to determine when life begins or personhood begins. He suggests that we ask ourselves more subtle questions, such as; do all forms of life deserve equal protection? How can we remain sensitive to the life contexts of pregnant women?
To discuss these questions with other WomenMatter readers, logon to one of our online forums. If Women’s Rights are of importance to you, sign up for an e alert, and we’ll let you know about developments in this Life Issue. Don’t forget to register to vote and contact your representatives to let them know what you think.
Update Posted on: 4/20/2004
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