criminal-law virginia statutory-construction abortion interpretation
What would this VA bill have done?
<p>Virginia's 2012 HB 1 sought to define personhood as beginning at conception:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>§ 1. The life of each human being begins at conception.<br>
  § 2. Unborn children have protectable interests in life, health, and well-being.<br>
  § 3. The natural parents of unborn children have protectable interests in the life, health, and well-being of their unborn child.<br>
  § 4. The laws of this Commonwealth shall be interpreted and construed to acknowledge on behalf of the unborn child at every stage of development all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this Commonwealth, subject only to the Constitution of the United States and decisional interpretations thereof by the United States Supreme Court and specific provisions to the contrary in the statutes and constitution of this Commonwealth.<br>
  § 5. As used in this section, the term "unborn children" or "unborn child" shall include any unborn child or children or the offspring of human beings from the moment of conception until birth at every stage of biological development</p>
</blockquote>

<p><a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+HB1+pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+HB1+pdf</a></p>

<p>If this bill had become law, what would some of its effects have been? Would it have made a woman who got an abortion not specifically protected under Roe v. Wade criminally liable for murder? What other interesting consequences might it have had?</p>

<p>One consequence would be that rape or robbery of a pregnant woman which resulted in the death of the fetus (not the mother) would be <a href="http://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter4/section18.2-32/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">first degree murder</a>, since the death arises </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>in the commission of, or attempt to commit, arson, rape, forcible sodomy, inanimate or animate object sexual
  penetration, robbery, burglary or abduction</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Premeditated murder of a pregnant woman, like premeditated murder of a non-pregnant woman, is first degree murder. But with the redefinition of "person", under <a href="http://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter4/section18.2-31/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">18.2-31(7)</a>, premeditated murder of a pregnant woman becomes capital murder, because it is </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of <em>more than one
  person</em> as a part of the same act or transaction</p>
</blockquote>

<p><a href="http://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title18.2/chapter4/article9/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Unlawful abortion</a> is a crime (unlike lawful abortion):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Except as provided in other sections of this article, if any person
  administer to, or cause to be taken by a woman, any drug or other
  thing, or use means, with intent to destroy her unborn child, or to
  produce abortion or miscarriage, and thereby destroy such child, or
  produce such abortion or miscarriage, he shall be guilty of a Class 4
  felony.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>whereas under the redefinition of person, abortion under unlawful circumstances would be first degree murder.</p>

<p>There are other harder to calculate consequences regarding fertilized human eggs. Research using such eggs would be impossible, since the egg would fall under human subject research protection. A destroyed embryo would require a death certificate. Surrogate motherhood would more complicated since it would now involves implanting a person into a host mother, and the courts would need to intervene to protect the rights of the fertilized egg. Any facility that stores embryos for later implantation would be open to a wrongful death suit in case the embryo doesn't survive. There would be other complications related to divorce and such embryos, since as people the matter they would be subject to the protection of adoption and custody laws.</p>

<p>In sum, it would turn ordinary individuals into criminals for exercising a right recognized decades ago in <em>Roe v. Wade.</em></p>
