The Texas house of representatives voted 100-1 to advance an unborn victims of violence act this morning. Helping sway the vote was a letter from Laci Peterson’s mother—Conner Peterson’s grandmother:
[I]f the same crime had occurred in Texas, only a single homicide charge would have been permitted” without the bill, Rocha wrote, adding, “This bill is necessary to ensure that in the future, no mother who loses her baby in a criminal attack is later told by state authorities, ‘We are sorry, but nobody died in that crime.’”
Currently 27 states have similar laws. Congress is currently considering a bill that would give similar protections to unborn children who are killed in federal jurisdictions.