[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11358]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               SUPPORT THE UNBORN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE ACT

  (Mr. SMITH of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, last year I met a courageous 
woman named Tracy Marciniak who had been beaten by her husband when she 
was 9 months pregnant. She survived, but her baby Zachariah died from 
the beating. Her attacker was convicted of the assault on Tracy, and he 
did minimal time. No charges were brought against him for the murder of 
Zachariah.
  Tracy wrote: ``Congress should approve the Unborn Victims of Violence 
Act. Opponents of the bill have put forth a counterproposal known as 
the Lofgren amendment. I have read it,'' she goes on to say, ``and it 
is offensive to me, because it says that there is only one victim in 
such a crime; the woman who is pregnant.
  ``Please hear me on this: On the night of February 8, 1992, there 
were two victims. I was nearly killed, but I survived. Little Zachariah 
died.''
  Mr. Speaker, in a recent Fox News-Opinion Dynamics poll, 84 percent 
said that homicide charges are appropriate in the deaths of Laci 
Peterson and her unborn son Connor in the much-publicized Peterson 
murder case in California; only 7 percent said that a single homicide 
charge would be appropriate.
  Mr. Speaker, Congress must pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, 
also known as Laci and Connor's Law.

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