Steve Lefemine's Literature

Correction/Revision:

It has been learned that there is also another personhood bill in the U.S. House, HR 227,
the "Sanctity of Life Act" - introduced January 7, 2009, with 60 co-sponsors, which Congressman
Gresham Barrett is a co-sponsor of - as are also two other Republican SC Congressmen. However,
unlike these two other Republican Congressmen, Gresham Barrett is not also a co-sponsor of HR 881,
the "Right to Life Act" which has 87 co-sponsors, as reported previously (see below). It is unknown
why Congressman Barrett is co-sponsoring HR 227, but not HR 881.

Lastly, there is a problem with HR 881, the "Right to Life Act" - unlike the previous version of this legislation in the
110th Congress (HR 618) - an additional sentence has been added in HR 881 which is problematic, i.e., "However,
nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the prosecution of any woman for the death of her unborn child."
This is problematic because theoretically a woman could self-abort and not be prosecuted under this Act. However
there are remedies. If this bill were to see progress in the 111th Congress (2009-2010), the sentence could be removed
by amendment at some point during the legislative process. As it is highly unlikely that HR 881 will be given a hearing
in the 111th Congress, probably the simplest remedy is for the primary sponsor of the bill, Congressman Duncan D.
Hunter, to simply not include this sentence if the bill is re-introduced in the 112th Congress. If Congressman Hunter
is unwilling to do that at initial introduction of the bill in the 112th Congress, the sentence could still be removed by
amendment at some point during the legislative process.

I apologize for these omissions and errors.