Kansas Family Lobbies for Law to Protect Pregnant Women, Unborn Babies 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 26, 2006
Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) — A Kansas family is continuing their efforts to push for a law that would offer protection for pregnant mothers and their unborn children who are victims of violent assaults. The family lost their 14 year-old daughter Chelsea Brooks, who was murdered while she was nine months pregnant.
Two men, Elgin Robinson and Theodore Burnette, are awaiting trial on charges in Chelsea’s death but can’t be charged with killing her baby.
While a new law wouldn’t change that, it would offer justice and hope for other women and families who may face the same sort of violence in the future.
Though the legislative session is four months away the family is gearing up for it and starting a campaign to make sure pregnant Kansas women have the justice they deserve following any future violence against them.
Under Kansas law, anyone responsible for the assault and killing of a pregnant woman and her unborn child can’t be held responsible for the deaths or injuries to the baby. That makes Kansas one of the exceptions as 34 states offer legal protection for pregnant women and their unborn children during all or part of the pregnancy.
"We will continue to pursue just punishment for the person or persons responsible for the death of our daughter and granddaughter," the family said in a statement in June. "Two lives were taken from us last week and we will do whatever it takes to make sure that the law, in the future, recognizes all life, even if it is too late for our girls."
Kansans for Life says pro-abortion Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Senate President Steve Morrison and Senate Judicial Chair John Vratil are to blame for the lack of a law protecting pregnant women.
"It was their inaction in this year’s Kansas legislative session which halted such unborn protection (HB 2300) after it was passed by the Kansas House of Representatives by a vote of 85-38," KFL legislative director Kathy Ostrowski explained in a statement provided to LifeNews.com.
Ostrowski also blamed abortion advocates, such as Planned Parenthood, NOW and the National Council for Jewish Women for claiming to lobby for women’s interests but failing to protect pregnant women from violence.
Their opposition to the measure is "sadly ironic given the fact that both victims in the Brooks murders were female," Ostrowski said.
The groups say they don’t favor protecting pregnant women and their babies because it could undermine their efforts to keep abortion legal but persuading the public that the unborn deserve legal protection before birth.
Kansans for Life calls upon state legislators to refile the language of HB 2300 for the 2007 session as "Alexa’s Law."
"Hopefully, lawmakers who have been listening to the abortion industry, will instead hear the pain of families who suffer violent crime," Ostrowski said. "Victims of violent crime, like the Brooks family, should not also become victims of the politics of Kansas abortion interests."
Related web sites:
Kansans for Life – https://www.kfl.org
