TOWN HALL: Law would protect unborn from crime (poll)
Colorado took another step toward becoming more civilized for women, when the House Judiciary Committee passed 6-5 on Tuesday a bill that would protect their unborn children from violent crimes. The bill specifically excludes from prosecution all medical professionals who conduct abortions for which mothers provide consent. Amazingly, at least one Colorado Springs senator dislikes this 100 percent pro-woman bill.
In Colorado, a criminal is able to kill a woman’s unborn child — violently and against her will — without facing any charge having to do with killing. It’s a barbaric omission in state law. Even if the mother is in labor, on her way to deliver a fully gestated baby, a drunken driver can cause the baby to die without facing so much as a manslaughter charge. A domestic abuser may kill an unborn child. A father, who resents his partner’s pregnancy, may kill the child without facing manslaughter or homicide charges.
The bill is nearly identical to a California law used against sociopath Scott Peterson, who killed his wife and unborn child. It is sponsored by Rep. Janak Joshi, R-Colorado Springs, and is similar to one introduced last year by Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs. The Waller bill specified that it would not define an unborn child as a “person,” which generated opposition from some anti-abortion activists. Waller supports Joshi’s bill, which makes no mention of personhood for unborn babies.
Waller introduced his bill after a hit-and-run criminal ran over a pregnant medical student in Denver and killed her nearly full-term baby. The mother lived. If found, the perpetrator will face no charges having anything to do with killing. It wasn’t the first time, by any stretch, that a criminal had killed an unborn Colorado child. Logan Lage, of Grand Junction, drove drunk and crashed into a car driven by Shea Lehnen in 2007. He killed her nearly 9-month-old unborn girl. Lehnen survived. Lage was charged with nothing pertaining to the death of Lehnen’s daughter. In court, Lehnen explained that Lage’s crime would change lives forever. Other exampled abound.
Do unborn babies in Colorado deserve protection from violent crimes, as they have in California and a majority of other states? Vote in poll to the right. Must vote to see results.
Senate Majority Leader John Morse, a Colorado Springs Democrat, apparently doesn’t care much about these victims and wants this bill to die. Morse told Gazette Reporter John Schroyer in January that the bill was a “solution in search of a problem.” Tell that to the grieving mother of a dead child, Senator.
“It wouldn’t be tantamount to banning abortion, but it’s pandering to their base,” Morse said.
It is hard to imagine a more callous politician.
This isn’t about abortion, Sen. Morse, and you know it. The bill specifically protects consent abortions. It’s about protecting women from violent crimes that involve babies they love. It’s about making sure we have laws in place to deal with abusers, drunken drivers and the likes of Scott Peterson. It’s about making Colorado at least as civilized as California, the federal government, and 37 other states that protect women from deadly assaults on their babies. Opponents, such as Sen. Morse, don’t seem to care much about that. We don’t begin to understand why.
That's our view. What's yours? Please initiate or join in a Facebook discussion below, and vote in poll to the upper right.
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