Last month an article titled "The Unborn Victims of Violence Act is Pro-Choice, But Protects Life" appeared in City Hall News, and was referenced in some blog entries. As an opponent of that bill I felt it important to respond. Below is an editorial being published this month in The Capitol, a new monthly paper covering state politics:

The goal of our State Legislature should be to serve the public good by passing laws that fix problems, fill loopholes, and protect New Yorker's rights. But sometimes there are bills that are riddled with errors, create new problems where none currently exist, or completely ignore the real problem at hand -- all because the sponsors have another, unstated, agenda.

Such is the case with the so-called "Unborn Victims of Violence Act" (UVVA). This legislation would amend the State's criminal code to create a new, separate offense if an individual causes the death of, or bodily injury to a person, stated in the bill as "a human being who has been born and is alive, or an unborn child at any stage of gestation". In short the bill gives an embryo or fetus full status as an independent "victim" of crime, with legal rights distinct from those of the woman who has been harmed by physical assault.

The real mission of such legislation is to undermine women's right to choice, by giving legal status to the unborn, undermining the recognized and established legal basis for Roe v. Wade.

Make no mistake, violence against women, pregnant or not, is a HUGE issue that our State must better address. It is just that this bill does nothing to that affect. A new study by the US Justice Department (Bureau of Justice Statistics) found that while violence against men has dropped, women continue to be assaulted at consistent rates—about 2.5 million women in the U.S. each year are victims of robbery, assault or rape. A key finding of the report was that a full 25% of women victims are being attacked by their partners. To quote from the findings: "violent crime against women is different than crime against men because it's six times as likely to be committed by their intimates."

Vicious attacks on pregnant women in New York since 2000 prove that justice can be served. For proof, one need not look further than outcomes of the cases referenced in a recent City Hall News Op-Ed: "The Unborn Victims of Violence Act is Pro-Choice, But Protects Life" by Assembly Member Michael Benjamin. His failure to completely review the cases he cited wrongly left readers with the impression that criminals did not face consequences for their heinous acts. The facts:

• In February 2005 Steven Schiovone killed his brother's ex-wife after impregnating her. He plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter and received a sentence of 30 years without parole;
• In July 2003, Sean Brown stabbed his pregnant girlfriend in the abdomen. The woman and her fetus survived the attack, and the man was sentenced to prison for 14 years;
• In June 2003, Anthony Puglia kicked and punched his girlfriend in the abdomen, causing a stillbirth. The man was charged with second-degree assault and first-degree criminal abortion;
• In March 2003, in a murder/suicide attempt, David Elesic tied his girlfriend to a chair and tried to cause an explosion by disconnecting the gas line. All survived and Elesic pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to a 15 year sentence;
• In April 2000, Dr. Stephen Pack attempted to end a woman's pregnancy by injecting her with methotrexate. He received three years in jail, while the woman gave birth to a healthy baby.

The problem with the UVVA bill is that does nothing about what we should really be focusing on: preventing injury to women. Our criminal justice goals should always focus on prevention strategies that are effective. Supporters of this misguided bill propose simply punishing the perpetrator after the fact. Like many who are outspoken in their opposition to this bill, I strongly support alternative approaches to punishing violence against women.

The UVVA bill completely misses the point and would do more harm than good. What we need are stronger protections, better enforcement and provision of preventive services and programs to avoid criminal violence toward women—pregnant or not—because the woman who is abused while pregnant is likely to be abused before and after pregnancy as well. There is a long agenda of important legislation to help protect women from violence awaiting action in the State Legislature – check out the legislative agendas of NY State's Coalitions for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and that of Family Planning Advocates to learn more about some of these great ideas.

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