Indiana lawmakers say feticide is murder

After an Indianapolis bank shooting that resulted in the death of a pregnant teller’s twins, the Indiana Senate is cracking down on those who commit feticide.

Current law calls for two- to eight-year prison sentences for those who kill a fetus that wouldn’t be viable outside the womb. The charge of murder can only be applied if the mother is more than seven months pregnant when her fetus is killed.

The Senate’s new proposal would criminalize the killing of a fetus at any stage in pregnancy and allow offenders to be sentenced to 55-year sentences.

While the bill does not cover attempted murder of a fetus, an amendment to the bill is planned. It would increase sentences for attempted feticide to 30 years.

With the penalty for the murder of a living, breathing person currently between 45 and 65 years in prison, the new bill would equate the life of a fetus as roughly equal to those already born.

One concern many have about the law is that it could be interpreted to limit abortion rights. Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, who worked with the authors of the bill, said, “This has nothing to do with reproductive rights.”

The bill is still troublesome when it is taken into consideration that anti-abortion activists have long considered such legislation to be an initial step in their fight to outlaw abortion. The thinking goes that once a fetus has separate legal rights, abortion will be made illegal as it would violate those rights.

Another concern is that the bill does not take into consideration whether the perpetrator is aware that a woman is pregnant.

And since the increased sentencing covers all stages of pregnancy, someone who unintentionally causes the death of an 8-week-old fetus could face the same lengthy sentence as someone who willfully kills an unborn child the day before it is born.

This legislation attempts to respond to an incredibly complex, painful issue.

While it is natural that legislators want to penalize the senseless killing of a bank teller’s twins, imposing 55-year sentences against anyone – even someone who causes a fetus’ death a few weeks after conception, when the woman might not even know she is pregnant – fails to appreciate the need to evaluate each crime on a case-to-case basis.

Harsher sentencing will not assuage the pain the killing of a fetus may cause. This is a clumsily constructed, emotionally charged piece of legislation that will do little to promote a greater respect for human life.