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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
04/24/2024 01:57 AM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20150&cosponId=17333
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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

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House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: February 10, 2015 10:20 AM
From: Representative Angel Cruz
To: All House members
Subject: Penalties for murdering an unborn child (Former HB 953)
 
In the near future, I plan to re-introduce legislation that would amend Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to strengthen penalties for the murder of an unborn child.

Under my legislation, a person who commits murder of a pregnant woman in the first degree and therefore causes the death of her unborn child shall also face first degree charges for the murder of the child. Additionally, in cases where a person commits murder in the second or third degree, or commits voluntary manslaughter of a pregnant woman, they will also face the corresponding charge for the murder of her unborn child. My bill specifies that an individual can be charged with this crime regardless of whether they had prior knowledge that the murdered woman was pregnant or not.

When a person kills a pregnant woman, they are taking not one, but two lives. Such careless disregard for human life should not be treated lightly. I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this simple but very important change to our law. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Previous co-sponsors: YOUNGBLOOD, MILLARD, BIZZARRO, CLAY, F. KELLER, BARRAR, TOOHIL, GALLOWAY, V. BROWN, D. COSTA, THOMAS, GINGRICH AND QUINN

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Introduced as HB540