Just a few days before Christmas, we alerted you concerning an appalling story out of Campbell County in which a mother allegedly suffocated her infant to death when it was only moments old.  And worse yet, there have been no charges filed against the mother.  Why has this murder essentially been condoned by the authorities?  Because the child was umbillically attached when murdered.
 
Virginia law is unclear about whether a child who has been born, but remains umbilically attached, is a "separate and independent life" and therefore, as in this case, basic human rights (such as life!) are not always granted.  The legal standard was set in a case called Lane v. Commonwealth, where the state Supreme Court said that for the killing of a child to be chargeable it must be proven that the child 1) is born alive, 2) has an independent and separate existence from the mother and 3) the accused is the criminal agent that caused the death.  Incredibly, the court saw a distinction between a child "born alive" and one having an "independent and separate existence" from the mother.
 
But no matter what side a person falls on in the abortion issue, there is no reasonable argument for the murder of a newly born infant.
 
Abortion advocates are so desperate to protect their "right" to abortion that they blur the lines of homicide as well.  The law has been crafted in such a way as to allow for a class of cases in which the criminal code is no longer applied.  For those of us who are pro-life, murder and abortion are synonymous.  However, to our opponents, the start of life is ambiguous and even the infamous "I know it when I see it" pornography standard of former US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart is too "concrete" to be applied to life.
 
Virginia has a partial birth infanticide law and we are investigating whether that law could be applied here, but the action alleged in this Campbell County case is so heinous that is needs to be addressed in our criminal code.
 
Over a year ago state Senator Robert Hurt (R-19, Chatham) began investigating how to make Virginia's law stronger in this area.  He urged the Virginia Crime Commission to study the issue and propose legislative changes, but the Commission only did so after being forced to by Senator Hurt and Delegate Rob Bell (R-58, Charlottesville).  We have contacted the Alliance Defense Fund and they are reviewing possible legislative remedies for this situation.
 
Several years ago, a similarly disturbing incident took place in which a pregnant woman, who shot herself in the stomach on her due date, was not prosecuted for anything more than unlawful discharge of a firearm, paid a small fine, and nothing was added to her record.  The Family Foundation took legislative initiative to address this issue and the bill was defeated in the Senate Education and Health committee.
 
This year, The Family Foundation is supporting an Infant Born Alive Act in the General Assembly in response to the Campbell County incident.  Legislators will get yet another opportunity to fix the loophole in the law and protect Virginia's children.  Let's pray that they recognize life when they see it and support life-protecting legislation