Argument Against Abortion
WASHINGTON President Bush on Thursday signed into law a bill that would make it a separate crime to kill or harm an unborn child during an assault on the mother.
"As of today, the law of our nation will acknowledge the plain fact that crimes of violence against a pregnant woman often have two victims," Bush said before the signing of the measure.
"The death of an innocent unborn child has too often been treated as a detail in one crime but not a crime in itself," the president said.
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act (search) makes it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman. Bush signed the bill, which took five years to get through Congress, in an elaborate Rose Garden ceremony.
Raw Data: Unborn Victims of Violence …show more content…
"The bill's supporters claim they are trying to protect women from violence, yet they refused to allow any real violence prevention measures, or even aid to victims, into the bill."
The bill specifically states that legal abortions are not a crime, but critics fear the way it defines life could provide a legal precedent for those who would outlaw the procedure. The Senate narrowly rejected an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would have imposed the same penalties on assailants without referring to the legal status of a fetus.
"This law rights a blatant and indefensible wrong by establishing what everyone already knows that these children were here," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (search), R-Texas, said in a statement. "With the president's signature, common sense and common decency are finally placed into law."
Abortion opponents welcome the law as a step toward more protections for the unborn. Bush said he supported the legislation though he did not think the country was headed toward banning …show more content…
That position has become a standard line in most of his speeches.
"We stand for a culture of life in which every person counts and every person matters. We will not stand for the treatment of any life as a commodity to be experimented upon, exploited or cloned," the president told GOP donors to his campaign at a fund-raiser in Washington Tuesday night.
Sen. John Kerry (search), D-Mass., Bush's presumed opponent in this fall's election, voted against the bill, along with 34 other Senate Democrats, Independent Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont and Republican Sens. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Olympia Snowe of Vermont. The bill passed the Senate last week. The House approved the measure in February.
"John Kerry strongly supports making it a federal crime to commit an act of violence against a pregnant woman," said Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade. "He agrees with the vast majority of Americans who want tough punishment for anyone who would commit such heinous crimes and know we can do so without undermining a woman's right to
"As of today, the law of our nation will acknowledge the plain fact that crimes of violence against a pregnant woman often have two victims," Bush said before the signing of the measure.
"The death of an innocent unborn child has too often been treated as a detail in one crime but not a crime in itself," the president said.
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act (search) makes it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman. Bush signed the bill, which took five years to get through Congress, in an elaborate Rose Garden ceremony.
Raw Data: Unborn Victims of Violence …show more content…
"The bill's supporters claim they are trying to protect women from violence, yet they refused to allow any real violence prevention measures, or even aid to victims, into the bill."
The bill specifically states that legal abortions are not a crime, but critics fear the way it defines life could provide a legal precedent for those who would outlaw the procedure. The Senate narrowly rejected an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would have imposed the same penalties on assailants without referring to the legal status of a fetus.
"This law rights a blatant and indefensible wrong by establishing what everyone already knows that these children were here," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (search), R-Texas, said in a statement. "With the president's signature, common sense and common decency are finally placed into law."
Abortion opponents welcome the law as a step toward more protections for the unborn. Bush said he supported the legislation though he did not think the country was headed toward banning …show more content…
That position has become a standard line in most of his speeches.
"We stand for a culture of life in which every person counts and every person matters. We will not stand for the treatment of any life as a commodity to be experimented upon, exploited or cloned," the president told GOP donors to his campaign at a fund-raiser in Washington Tuesday night.
Sen. John Kerry (search), D-Mass., Bush's presumed opponent in this fall's election, voted against the bill, along with 34 other Senate Democrats, Independent Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont and Republican Sens. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Olympia Snowe of Vermont. The bill passed the Senate last week. The House approved the measure in February.
"John Kerry strongly supports making it a federal crime to commit an act of violence against a pregnant woman," said Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade. "He agrees with the vast majority of Americans who want tough punishment for anyone who would commit such heinous crimes and know we can do so without undermining a woman's right to