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To: T L Comiskey who wrote (38494)	2/26/2004 9:08:35 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 89467

If this Bill passes.. Lets Hope that Bush's views on the Environment come back to Haunt him T House to Vote on Unborn Victims Bill Thu Feb 26, 1:51 AM ET By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The legal rights of the fetus are at issue in a House vote on legislation that would make it two separate crimes to harm both a pregnant woman and her unborn child. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act, expected to pass the House Thursday, has the strong endorsement of the White House and was near the top of the election-year wish list for President Bush (news - web sites)'s conservative base. Backers said the measure was needed to bring federal law in line with 29 states where those who attack pregnant women can be charged with two crimes when the fetus is harmed, including murder when it dies. One of those states is California, where Scott Peterson (news - web sites) is on trial for the murder of his wife Laci and her unborn boy Conner. The bill has also been designated Laci and Conner's Law. The Democratic-led opposition, however, says the real aim of the legislation is to undermine abortion rights by giving the unborn the same legal rights as the born. They charge that abortion politics was taking precedence over the need to protect abused women. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said it would affect a woman's reproductive rights. It "is not about women and it is not about children. It's about politics." Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., is offering an alternative that would increase penalties for attacks leading to the interruption of a pregnancy but would not confer separate legal rights to the fetus. The White House, in a statement, said it opposed such an amendment but voiced strong support for the base bill. The House passed similar bills in 1999 and 2001. The bill again faces an uphill fight in the Senate with its stronger abortion rights forces. The Senate did not take up the two previous House bills. The legislation would apply only to attacks on women that qualify as federal offenses. Those would include such crimes as terrorist attacks, bank robberies, drug trafficking or assaults on federal land. The sponsors of the bill, led by Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Pa., said they were not out to undermine abortion rights and their bill specifically precludes from prosecution those who perform legal abortions. "This bill is not about the debate over the sanctity of human life. This bill is just about justice," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. Groups on both sides of the abortion issue have weighed in heavily on the bill. The National Right to Life Committee (news - web sites) urged its supporters to lobby for the legislation and carried on its Web page a 2003 e-mail from Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) voicing opposition to a Senate version. NARAL Pro-Choice America said Congress must do more to protect pregnant women from violence but said the unborn victims bill was a "deceptive attempt to erode Roe v. Wade (news - web sites)," the Supreme Court decision affirming a woman's right to end a pregnancy. The legislation defines "unborn child" as "a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb." It also states that an offense does not require proof that the assailant had knowledge that the victim was pregnant. Hart noted that murder is a leading cause of death among pregnant women and in many cases the attack is made with the intention to kill the unborn child. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Dear MoveOn member, Under energy industry pressure, President Bush’s EPA plans to defer controls on mercury emissions by power plants for at least a decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 4.9 million women of childbearing age in the U.S. -- that's 8 percent -- have unsafe levels of mercury in their blood. The people hit hardest will be new-born infants -- every year over 630,000 infants are born with levels of mercury in their blood so high they can cause brain damage. We have just a few weeks to get public comments to the EPA on this plan to defer mercury controls. It's time to tell the EPA and the White House that our kids come first. You can submit your comment by clicking this link: moveon.org From a public health standpoint, the EPA's new policy is a disaster. But for Bush's energy industry allies, who are responsible for most mercury pollution, it's yet another bonanza. Increased pollution levels will allow these companies to save millions, while their top managers keep writing big campaign checks to support George W. Bush -- it's a pretty sick cycle. On January 30th, the EPA announced its intention to weaken its own earlier proposal that would have required a 90 percent reduction in mercury pollution by power plants by 2008. The new proposal doesn't force every power plant to limit mercury pollution, leaving many communities vulnerable. It would also delay implementation of even these weaker requirements until 2018, leaving a whole new generation of kids needlessly at risk. The first responsibility of the Bush administration and the EPA is to protect our nation's most vulnerable citizens. Time and again, we've seen the Bush administration try to weaken environmental protections, starting with its proposal to roll back stricter limits on arsenic in our drinking water. We must boost the visibility of the mercury issue so that, as with arsenic, the Bush administration is shamed into adopting a more rigorous standard. Please join our effort to protect our environment and our children from the debilitating effects of mercury poisoning. Your comments will bolster the efforts of MoveOn members and other concerned people who are showing up today at public hearings on this issue in Chicago, Philadelphia and Raleigh. Tell the Bush administration to protect children's health by reducing power plant mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2008 and ensuring that these reductions occur at each and every power plant, by clicking here: moveon.org Thanks for all your efforts. Sincerely, - Joan and Wes MoveOn.org February 25th, 2004 ___