Newsweek Examines Fetal Rights Debate In Courts, Legislatures

Courts across the country are deliberating cases challenging state laws affording rights to fetuses and grappling with questions about fetal rights and the rights of pregnant woman, Newsweek reports.

The magazine highlights the case of Samantha Burton, a Florida woman who was forced by court order to remain in a hospital on bed rest while pregnant because her physician believed the fetus's life was at risk. Burton, who was 25 weeks pregnant at the time of the court order, miscarried three days later. She is now challenging the court order as unconstitutional. Burton's attorney, David Abrams, said she "literally became a ward of the state, incompetent to make her own medical decisions, simply because she was pregnant." The court order stated that Burton, who had sought a second opinion, was required to comply with her doctor's advice to "preserve the life and health of [her] unborn child."

Meanwhile, Vermont state senators are debating legislation that would allow crimes resulting in the death of a pregnant woman to be prosecuted as double homicide. The legislation was introduced by state Sen. Vincent Illuzzi (R), who supports abortion rights and says that his bill notes in three separate places that it is not meant to curb a woman's right to an abortion. Thirty-seven other states have so-called "feticide" laws, 19 of which apply to early pregnancy and the rest of which specify a certain point in gestation when fetal rights begin.

According to Newsweek, the debate over fetal rights "underscores a national schizophrenia in our thinking about pregnant women, how they ought to act, and whose interests they must consider." Supporters of fetal rights say the state has an obligation to intervene to protect the safety of a fetus, just as the government would for a neglected child. Opponents say the laws strip pregnant women of their own rights. Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, said, "It makes me think we're still engaged with a fundamental question of whether, upon becoming pregnant, women are still full citizens."

Generally, courts -- including the Supreme Court -- have ruled against the state's ability to enforce fetal rights because fetuses are not recognized as people under federal law. However, the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, signed by President Bush in 2004, recognizes the "child in utero" as a legal victim if it is injured or killed during the commission of any of 68 federal violent crimes. Despite attempts by antiabortion-rights groups to pass state "personhood" laws that codify fetuses as people with legal rights, no state has done so (Kliff, Newsweek, 1/19).


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