«We applaud the Senate for voting for justice for women and their children,» said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, spokeswoman for the bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. «No woman should ever be told she lost nothing when she loses her child to a brutal attacker.»
The bill, passed 61-38 on Thursday, recognizes an unborn child as a second victim in a violent federal crime against a pregnant woman. It now goes to President George Bush, who has promised to sign it into law.
The Senate voted down a substitute bill supported by abortion advocates that would have ignored the child as a second victim in violent federal crimes.
«We are grateful to the Senate for ignoring the offensive claims of the abortion lobby and its allies in Congress,» Ruse said.
«Abortion activists may recoil from the acknowledgment of a child’s existence before birth,» she added. «But their efforts to erase the child as a second victim in a violent crime are an insult to all women and families who have lost a loved one to violence.»
