Law would give legal rights to fetuses

TALLAHASSEE - State Sen. Mike Fasano is pushing legislation that would give legal rights to a fetus during any stage of a woman's pregnancy.

He says the bill is not intended to affect a woman's right to have an abortion, but opponents disagree.

Fasano's proposed legislation would change Florida's legal definition of "viable fetus" to "unborn child."

Currently if someone kills a pregnant woman, in a car crash or by injuring the mother, the person can be charged separately with killing a viable fetus. That's defined as being able to live outside the womb with standard medical procedures.

Fasano's bill would change the term "viable fetus" to "unborn child," which is defined as any stage of development in a pregnancy.

Fasano says he wants to make it clear that a fetus at any stage is an unborn child and someone should be charged with murder if the fetus dies from an injury to the mother.

"If that mother is killed, murdered if you will, that person should be charged with double homicide, not only killing the mother but killing the unborn child as well. They are taking a life in my opinion," Fasano said.

"We want to make it very clear that the fetus is an unborn child and if that life is taken because of a criminal offense against the mother at the same time, then that unborn child would be considered murdered as well and that person would be charged for that crime," he added.

But the ACLU argues the bill would erode women's abortion rights by elevating an embryo to a fully developed human and also erode parts of Roe v. Wade.

"This is not about protecting women. This is about eroding women's rights and this is not the direction we need to go," said Courtenay Strickland of the Florida ACLU.

She says the bill is an attempt to get a case before the U.S. Supreme Court to try to overturn the federal court decision legalizing abortion.