In April of 2004, President George W. Bush signed into law a significant piece of federal legislation regarding the
legal status of unborn children, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 (“Laci and Conner’s Law”). This legislation extends the basic protections of the federal criminal law to unborn children, criminalizing acts of fetal homicide and fetal battery which would be federal crimes if committed against newborn infants or other persons. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act may come to serve as a model for state legislative reform efforts....