Augusta, maine - gov. John baldacci will
sign into law a bill that makes it a crime
punishable by up to 30 years in prison if
an assault on a pregnant woman results in
the death of the fetus, the governor’s
spokesman said.
By a vote of 35-0, the senate gave its
support monday to the bill that creates
the new crime of elevated aggravated
assault resulting in the termination of a
woman’s pregnancy. The house backed the
measure last week.
Sponsored by rep. Brian duprey,
r-hampden, the original bill that would
have created the crimes of fetal homicide
and fetal manslaughter created a firestorm
at the state house.
Senate democratic leaders who opposed the
house-backed bill repeatedly postponed
votes and decided instead to send it back
to the judiciary committee for a possible
rewrite.
Although the bill did not directly involve
abortion, the legislative battle played
out against a backdrop of conflicting
claims about whether the bill would affect
abortion rights.
That debate focused on whether the
proposal was fashioned as an attempt to
erode abortion rights, as opponents
insisted, or was simply a straightforward
attempt to protect the rights of all
homicide victims, as supporters claimed.
Activists on both sides were forced to
craft a compromise that creates the new
crime of "elevated aggravated assault on a
pregnant person."
a suspect can be convicted of that crime
if the assailant causes serious bodily
injury that "results in the termination of
a pregnancy." the bill does not apply to
fetal deaths resulting from an abortion or
medical care, which will not be treated as
assault.
Supporters of the prior bill would have
preferred that the state allow homicide or
manslaughter charges to be filed for the
death of a fetus, but they settled for the
creation of a crime that protects a
pregnant woman who loses her fetus during
an assault.
The senate passed the bill after a brief
debate in which republican sen. Debra
plowman of hampden, who ultimately voted
for the bill, said it has merit but fails
to recognize that there are "two victims"
if an attacker kills a pregnant woman and
her fetus.
Democratic sen. Barry hobbins of saco
countered that the bil* does something
that we do not have in the law now," by
creating a category of assault that
applies only to victims who are pregnant
and lose their fetuses.
The compromise closed the book on an
at-times acrimonious debate over
duprey’s so-called laci peterson bill,
which took its name from a pregnant
california woman who was killed in 2002 by
her husband, scott peterson.
California is one of 32 states that have
fetal homicide laws, and peterson was
convicted in 2004 of murdering both his
wife and her fetus. The federal
government also has such a law, but maine
and 17 other states do not.
Http
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ine/47629.Htm
