(no subject)

[novapsyche]

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA) creates a federal law making it a crime to cause harm to a "child in utero," recognizing everything from a zygote to a fetus as an independent "victim," with legal rights distinct from the woman who has been attacked. More than 30 states already have similar laws on the books. In practice, these laws treat the pregnant woman as little more than collateral damage in an attack portrayed to the public as one directed against the fetus. Moreover, pregnant women in states with such laws are more likely to be punished for behaviors and conditions that are not criminally sanctioned for other members of society.

Paradoxically, the UVVA does not make it a federal crime to attack pregnant women, and its sponsors explicitly rejected proposals to protect the woman herself under federal law. And yet homicide is the number-one killer of pregnant women.

The Pregnancy Police

Comments

[badsede.livejournal.com]

I'm fervently pro-life - comprehensively so - but I do not like this act. While I don't think it relegates women to collateral damage in an attack on the fetus, I just don't think it is the right law.

I think that the personhood of fetuses needs to be recognized and with it their human and civil rights. It is an unfortunate reality that sometimes the rights of one individual conflict with another .. but that should not prevent us from protecting the rights of an entire class of society.

In America today, the most dangerous place to live is in the womb .. what does that say about our society?

Meanwhile, all these back door and partial fix laws just add to the problem.