Letter | Abortion: A murder is a murder - no matter state or federal level

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 ( Public Law 108-212),a United States law, states that a child in utero is a legal victim if injured or killed during the commission of over 60 listed types of federal crimes of violence. The law defines ‘a child in utero" as a "member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.

The law specifies ‘federal crimes, which would not apply to crimes that are prosecuted by individual states rather than the federal government. However, 38 States also recognize the fetus or unborn child as a crime victim.

Yet, the bill explicitly excludes abortion, stating that the bill would not ‘be construed to permit the prosecution’ of any person for conduct relating to an abortion that was consented to by a pregnant woman or anyone legally acting on her behalf.

The bill was also known as the Laci and Conner’s Law, after the mother Laci and her fetus child Conner were killed by Scott Peterson. He was convicted of double murder under California’s fetal homicide law.

How can any reasonable person accept the killing of a federally recognized ‘child in utero, member of the species Homo sapiens’ by a criminal act as described by law and, in the same breath, deny that that same child in the same uterus can be destroyed by abortion and not consider it a murderous act?

A murdered child is a murdered child, no matter the circumstances.

The writer lives in Pawleys Island.

This story was originally published May 4, 2015 at 8:52 AM with the headline "Letter | Abortion: A murder is a murder - no matter state or federal level."