Source: U.S. Newswire

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=173-04012004

On April 1, 2004 U.S. Newswire issued a press release from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, responding to the proposed Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The release included the following statement from Reverend Carlton W. Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice: "President Bush's signing today of the so-called "Unborn Victims of Violence Act" has radical implications for freedom of religion and conscience in America. As of today, this nation has enacted into law a narrow religious belief about human personhood. This law explicitly states that a fertilized egg or fetus at any stage of development is a 'child,' which is a religious belief held by some - but by no means all or even most - religions. With this law, the Religious Right has succeeded in laying the foundation for its overriding purpose of outlawing abortion rights and reinstating government control of women's reproductive lives. Americans have very strong feelings about abortion. Some believe, on the basis of religious tenets, that the fetus is a person and therefore they are unalterably opposed to abortion. Millions of others - for equally conscientious and religious reasons - believe that human life does not begin at the moment of conception and that abortion is a permissible option. Enacting this law makes one religious view a matter of public policy, and that is wrong in a nation admired throughout the world for its respect of religious diversity and tolerance."