The Senate just passed The Unborn Victims of Violence Act. President Bush says he will sign it into law.
This would be the first time in federal law that an embryo or fetus is recognized as a separate and distinct person under the law, separate from the woman.
Abortion rights lawmakers contend that giving a fetus, from the point of conception, the same legal rights as its mother sets a precedent that could be used in future legal challenges to abortion rights.
The bill states that an assailant who attacks a pregnant woman while committing a violent federal crime can be prosecuted for separate offenses against both the woman and her unborn child. The legislation defines an "unborn child" as a child in utero, which it says "means a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb."
This would be the first time in federal law that an embryo or fetus is recognized as a separate and distinct person under the law, separate from the woman.
Abortion rights lawmakers contend that giving a fetus, from the point of conception, the same legal rights as its mother sets a precedent that could be used in future legal challenges to abortion rights.
The bill states that an assailant who attacks a pregnant woman while committing a violent federal crime can be prosecuted for separate offenses against both the woman and her unborn child. The legislation defines an "unborn child" as a child in utero, which it says "means a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb."





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