Charging Criminals for Crimes Against the Unborn

Surrounded by parents and grandparents of those who died in two-victim crimes, President George W. Bush signed into law the Unborn Victims of Violence Act on April 1, 2004. “As these and other families understand,” the President stated, “any time an expectant mother is a victim of violence, two lives are in the balance, each deserving protection, and each deserving justice. If the crime is murder and the unborn child’s life ends, justice demands a full accounting under the law.”

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act was sponsored in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Melissa Hart from Pennsylvania. A Senate companion bill (S. 1019) was sponsored by Senator Mike DeWine from Ohio. The House of Representatives approved the bill on February 26, 2004, (254-163) and the Senate approved it on March 25, 2004, (61-38).

Recognizing that when a criminal attacks a pregnant woman, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act establishes that when a “child in utero” is injured or killed during the commission of certain federal crimes of violence, then the assailant may be charged with a second offense on behalf of the second victim, the unborn child.

The exact charge would depend on which federal law is involved, the degree of harm done to the child and other factors. The law applies this two-victim principle to 68 existing federal laws dealing with acts of violence.

These laws cover a considerable number of activities defined as federal crimes wherever they occur, including interstate stalking, kidnapping, bombings, and offenses related to major drug trafficking, and attacks on federal employees. In addition, these laws cover federal geographical jurisdictions, such as federal lands and tribal lands and the military justice system.

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