Date Published: May 25, 2006   

House approves fetal rights bill

The Associated Press

The House gave key approval Thursday to a bill that creates a separate criminal offense for harming a fetus during an attack on the mother.

Under the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act," if a pregnant woman is the victim of a violent crime, and the fetus is also killed or injured, the suspect is charged with a separate offense.

The measure, approved 81-18, is similar to a law signed by President Bush in 2004 for federal crimes. It protects women's existing abortion rights and applies only to violent crimes.

The bill doesn't allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty solely for killing a fetus.

The Senate approved the bill in March. The House passed similar bills in 2004 and 2005 that died in the Senate. The previous bills also allowed people to sue someone who harms a fetus through negligence, such as by driving recklessly.

Rep. Doug Jennings, D-Bennettsville, tried to add that provision to the latest bill but failed after Rep. Murrell Smith argued that would kill the bill again.

"We're going to have to take half the loaf," said Smith, R-Sumter.