Tuesday, September 7, 1999 IN THE COURTS ARKANSAS: Men Charged Under New Fetal Protection Law       Three Arkansas men who allegedly kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach, killing her nine-month fetus, are the first to be charged with first-degree battery and capital murder under the state's new Fetal Protection Law, the AP/Washington Times reports. Erik Bullock was also arrested and charged with murder Thursday for allegedly hiring the three brothers to pose as masked intruders and beat his girlfriend to cause the death of her fetus. Shawana Pace said she believed that the Aug. 26 attack was arranged by Bullock, who had encouraged her to have an abortion (AP/New York Times, 9/3). The murder charges mark the first test of the new law, and prosecutors said Thursday that it was enacted "just in the nick of time." Last spring, the state Legislature made injuring a fetus more than 12 weeks old a criminal offense, but allows exceptions for abortions. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Melody Piazza said, "If we didn't have this statute at this time, we would be questioning whether or not the fetus is a person." Arkansas is one of 26 states that has fetal protection legislation on the books (Brooks, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 9/3). Pulaski County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jack McQuary told Little Rock Municipal Court Judge Lee Munson that the state would seek the death penalty for the four defendants (Brooks, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 9/4). Wishy-Washy?       An editorial in Saturday's Washington Times weighed in on the Arkansas law, asking, "When is human life acknowledged as such and protected by the law? It all depends -- especially in Arkansas." Under that state's new fetal protection law, the measure makes it a crime to "injure a fetus more than 12-weeks old -- but allows exceptions for ... abortions, which remain perfectly legal. In other words, it's OK to kill a child in the womb if the act is performed by some doctor in a clinic -- but murder if the same act is performed by a group of thugs on behalf of a disgruntled boyfriend who doesn't want to be a father." The piece concludes that "[t]his is arrent legal nonsense. Either a fetus is a human life -- invested with human rights (including the right not to be murdered) or it's a blob of developing protoplasm that doesn't get any rights until it's outside the womb. You can't have it both ways" (Washington Times, 9/4). The Bigger Picture       The Family Research Council said Friday that the Arkansas case should serve as "a rallying cry for Congress" to pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which is scheduled to be considered by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee this week. The bill would allow federal prosecutors to charge offenders with a separate offense if a violent attack on a pregnant woman resulted in the injury or death of a fetus. "The Unborn Victims of Violence Act is not a bill about abortion," said spokesperson Janet Parshall, adding, "The Arkansas case reveals that those who attack pregnant women sometimes have one goal in mind -- to kill or injure her unborn child. That crime must be accounted for" (FRC release, 9/3). Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report