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Excerpts from Senate floor debate on the Feinstein single-victim substitute March 25, 2004
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.), author of the
"single-victim substitute"]:
Everything will be the same [in her bill] except a few simple words that
inject the abortion debate into this issue by clearly establishing in
criminal law for the first time in history that life begins at the moment
of conception. I contend that if this result is incorporated in law, it
will be the first step in removing a woman's right to choice, particularly
in the early months of a pregnancy before viability.
Senator Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), chief Senate
sponsor of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act:
[The Feinstein Substitute] twists the reality of the common sense of
people when they look at this. When they see a pregnant woman who is
assaulted and her child dies, they intuitively know there is a victim
besides the mother. They know the mother is a victim, but they also know
there is a second victim. The vast majority of the American people, if
you ask them was there another victim, will say of course there are two
victims. Our bill recognizes the second victim. The Feinstein Amendment
refuses to recognize the second victim.. . . If you believe there is a
second victim, you cannot vote for the Feinstein amendment. It denies
there is a second victim.
Senator
Sam Brownback (R-Ks.):
When her mother's heart stopped, her in utero child does not die
instantly. Instead, the in utero baby dies slower. When the mother's heart
stops beating, the baby begins to suffocate for lack of oxygen. The baby
can feel. The baby is in pain. At four minutes, the baby begins to suffer
severe neurological damage. The process gets worse. [Unborn victim]
Ashley Nichole would have finally died 15 minutes after her mother
Christina had been shot and killed. Look at this photo again of Christina
and Ashley in the coffin. Is there one victim? Or are there two? Who
will say there is only one victim in this coffin? Yet this substitute
amendment we are considering will say there is only one victim. [To this,
Senator Feinstein responded, "It is extraordinarily difficult to respond
to the litany of atrocities the Senator from Kansas has just enumerated."]
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who originally
authored the Unborn Victims of Violence Act as a U.S. House member in
1999:
Prior to getting into politics, from 1982 to 1988, I served as a
prosecutor and a defense attorney in the U.S. Air Force domestically and
overseas. During that experience, I realized at the Federal level there
was a gap in law. We had a case involving a pregnant woman who was beaten
up, and her child was lost, and she was almost killed. I looked into the
idea of charging the offender with the damage done to the unborn child,
and under the Uniform Code of Military Justice there was no way to do
that. So I was sensitive to it from a prosecutor's point of view early on
in my legal career.
Senator
Russ Feingold (D-Wi.):
I will oppose H.R. 1997, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act . . . [which]
would make it a federal crime to injure or kill a fetus during the
commission of a federal crime against a pregnant woman. This separate
offense would be punished as if injury or death had occurred to the
pregnant woman. I believe that acts of violence against pregnant women are
deplorable and should be punished severely. Congress has taken and should
continue to take steps to protect women from violence and prosecute those
who attack them. But I am concerned that by recognizing the fetus as an
entity against which a separate crime can be committed, the Unborn Victims
of Violence Act may undermine women's reproductive rights as set forth by
the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade.
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