US Senate Passes the Unborn Victims of Violence Act
For Immediate Release: March 26, 2004
US Senate Passes the Unborn Victims of Violence Act: A Misguided Bill Attempting to Undermined a Woman’s Right to Choose.
NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon and NARAL Pro-Choice America denounced the Senates passage of S. 1019, the so-called Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA). This bill makes it a separate offense to harm a fetus or embryo in a federal crime committed against a pregnant woman. The UVVA is part of a national movement to undermine the constitutional right to abortion by recognizing the fetus as a person, with separate rights from the mother. The true intention of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act is to create a separate legal status for a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus, even if the woman does not know she is pregnant.
UVVA was created with the sole aim of undermining the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that "the word 'person' as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn."
While the UVVA legislation passed the Senate 61 to 38, the Senate narrowly defeated Sen. Feinstein's amendment to allow criminals to be charged with a second offense for their horrific acts harming a fetus or terminating a pregnancy without granting new legal status to the fetus.
“With potential Supreme Court vacancies looming, opponents of abortion are doing everything possible to create the conditions in which a court that's had its anti-choice numbers bolstered could achieve the goal of reversing that historic Roe v. Wade decision. This anti-choice legislation is part of the deceptive strategy by advocates against abortion to reverse Roe v. Wade,” stated Caroline Fitchett, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon Executive Director.
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Contact: Caroline Fitchett 503.223.4510 ext. 11
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