Oregon Bills Offer Competitive Approaches on Protecting Pregnant Women 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 19, 2005
Salem, OR (LifeNews.com) — Two competing bills are offering radically different approaches to protecting pregnant women who are victims of violence and find their unborn children killed or injured. One bill acknowledges that the baby is a second victim in such crimes while the other does not.
Pro-life groups support the two victim bill and are pointing to the murder of Kerry Michele Repp as a reason to pass it. Repp was 29 yeard-old and three months pregnant when she was shot and killed last May. Her unborn child also died.
Supporters of Senate Bill 440 and House Bill 220 point to the grief of Repp’s parents, Ron and JoeAnn Johnson, who lost both a daughter and a grandson and say that two victims should be recognized in such cases.
Sen. Jason Atkinson, a Republican, sponsored the Senate version of the two-victim bill and says it has "more teeth" than a one-victim substitute backed by Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, a Democrat.
JoeAnn Johnson told the Mal Tribune newspaper she is worried that the fight over one victim or two will prevent pregnant women from getting the justice they deserve.
"That’s the whole fear … that no one’s going to get anything done," she said.
Related web sites:
Oregon Right to Life – https://www.ortl.org
