Colorado GOP fetal homicide bill faces toughest test

A Republican measure to create a new crime of fetal homicide in response to an attack last month on a pregnant woman in Longmont faces its toughest test yet in a Democrat-led House committee.

The bill has already cleared the GOP-controlled Senate, but it is unanimously opposed by Democrats who argue it infringes on abortion rights by extending certain protections to unborn children.

The bill being heard Monday afternoon was inspired by the case of a woman accused of cutting into the belly of an expectant mother to claim the baby. The expectant mother survived, but her child died.

Current Colorado law includes a crime of unlawfully terminating a pregnancy. But murder charges can’t be brought in such cases because the baby isn’t born. Republicans argue that’s unjust.