NC governor signs pro-aborticide fetal homicide bill

Governor signs pro-aborticide fetal homicide bill

By Harlan Brown
April 30, 2011

RALEIGH, NC — An act to create criminal offenses for actions that cause the death or injury of an unborn child was signed into law yesterday by Gov. Beverly Perdue.

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act/Ethen's Law, H215, was introduced in an effort to secure justice for unborn victims of violence. The bill recognizes the unborn child as a second victim when he or she is injured or dies during the commission of a crime. However, the bill has a fatal flaw: The bill is not aborticide-neutral (abortion-neutral); instead, Section 14-23.7 ("Exceptions"), Paragraph 1 (the reference to G.S. 14-45.1), reinforces the "legitimate" intentional killing of an unborn child through aborticide.

American Right to Life recommends to all states aborticide-neutral UVVA legislation whose wording is based upon a model developed by Colorado Right To Life working with a county prosecutor:

If the commission of any crime codified in Title 18 of the Colorado Criminal Code is the proximate cause of death or injury to an unborn member of the species Homo sapiens at any stage of development, the respective homicide and assault charges for that death or injury may be brought contemporaneously with the underlying charges.

Before Roe v. Wade was issued in 1973, aborticide was legal in 19 states. As a result of "pro-life" legislation such as the fetal homicide bill signed Friday by Gov. Purdue, if Roe were reversed and the decision returned to the states, aborticide would be legal in most if not all states under various exceptions. This issue is discussed by Bob Enyart (pastor of Denver Bible Church), John Archibald (co-founder of Colorado Right to Life, National Right to Life Committee, and Americans United for Life), and Dr. Charles Rice (professor emeritus of law at the University of Notre Dame Law School) in Focus on the Strategy II.

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act/Ethen's Law becomes effective December 1, 2011, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.

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