Bush signs Unborn Victims of Violence Act

Published: 2004-04-02

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- President Bush April 1 signed into law the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which recognizes an unborn child as the second victim when a violent federal crime is perpetrated against a pregnant woman. "We applaud the president for bringing justice to women and their children who are victims of violent crime," said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, director of planning and information for the U.S. Catholic bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. "Thanks to him, and to a bipartisan majority of Congress, a woman who loses her child to a brutal attacker in a federal jurisdiction will no longer be told that she has lost nothing," she said in a statement. During the signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Bush said, "As of today the law of our nation will acknowledge the plain fact that crimes of violence against a pregnant woman often have two victims, and therefore, in those cases, there are two offenses to be punished."

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