HOME      DISTRICT      CONTACT ME       CONSTITUENT SERVICES       NEWS      BIOGRAPHY       RESOURCES      CHILDREN'S ISSUES

WASHINGTON – House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today delivered heartfelt remarks in strong support of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as Laci and Conner’s Law. The bill, which recognizes the unborn child as a separate victim in a federal crime, passed by a bipartisan vote of 254-163.

“Civilized society has an obligation to punish injustice, no matter the size, strength, or political inconvenience of its victim,” DeLay said. “The Unborn Victims of Violence Act is a matter of common sense and common decency.

“That unborn victims of violence are separate victims is not a matter of interpretation – it’s a matter of plain fact,” DeLay said. “Any child could tell you that a man who kills a pregnant woman and her unborn child takes two lives. It’s so intuitive that most people think it’s already on the books.”

Under current law, an individual who commits a federal crime of violence against a pregnant woman receives no additional punishment for killing or injuring the woman's unborn child. Twenty-nine states have passed laws similar to the Unborn Victims of Violence Act to correct this injustice.

“Laci Peterson’s son may have been robbed from this world before he ever touched it, but he was here,” DeLay said. “Today he may be looking down on us from the nurseries of heaven, protected for eternity by the God who knit him together in the womb, nestled in the loving embrace of the mother who gave him his name. But before Conner Peterson was taken, he was here.”

The House of Representatives passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act by wide margins in 1999 and in 2001; however, it was never considered on the floor of the Senate.