One week after a subcommittee hearing on the subject, the House Judiciary Committee on July 26 approved, 22-1, a bill (H.R. 4292) to change the definition of an individual under the United States Criminal Code. Sponsored by Rep. Charles Canady (R-FL), the bill states that “the words ‘person,’ ‘human being,’ ‘child,’ and ‘individual,’ shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born at any stage of development.” Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) was the only Member to vote against the bill.
Speaking in support of the bill, Rep. Canady stated, “H.R. 4292…is designed simply to reaffirm and codify in the federal statutes the long accepted legal principle that infants who are born alive are persons entitled to the protection of the law.”
Rep. Watt expressed concern that Members and staff had not had adequate time to review the bill. “CRS has indicated that there are over 15,000 sections in the United States Code affected by this…but no one has had the time to see what impact this has on those 15,000 sections….For example, what is the impact on the child tax credit?” he asked.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) offered an amendment aimed at clarifying the bill’s language. Under the bill, the term born alive is defined as “the complete extraction from its mother…at any stage of development…” The amendment would have replaced the words “its mother” with “the mother’s body.” Expressing concern about the definition of mother, Rep. Nadler asked Rep. Canady to clarify that the bill intended for there to be a physical separation between the fetus and the mother. Rep. Canady, while opposing the amendment, agreed with Rep. Nadler’s interpretation. “Complete physical separation is the meaning of the bill,” he stated. As a result, Rep. Nadler withdrew the amendment.
