This won't add any clarity to the often incoherent abortion debate:
Danielle Brookshire Steinberger already had her infant's safety seat in the car when she was hit head-on by another vehicle on New Year's Eve 2007.
If baby Drew had died in his car seat instead of in his mother's womb, his death could have been a crime.
Indiana law doesn't consider an unborn child a person, so causing its death isn't a crime. It's a loophole in the law Danielle and Dustin Steinberger of Campbellstown, Ohio, are working to change through legislation to be considered this week in the Indiana General Assembly.
Senate Bill 71, sponsored by state Sen. Allen Paul, R-Richmond, would add termination of pregnancy to the law that makes it a Class C felony to cause the death of another person by driving while intoxicated by alcohol or controlled substances.
Termination of pregnancy would also be added to the law covering reckless homicide, but excludes abortions performed in compliance with Indiana law.
So if you drive drunk and cause an accident killing an unborn child, you will be arrested and charged with a Class C felony. But if you call that same unborn child a fetus and kill it by abortion, you will have the state's blessing. That makes no legal, moral or philosophical sense whatsoever.
