Bill Text: HI SB345 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Penal Code; Crimes Against Unborn Children
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-05-11 - Carried over to 2010 Regular Session. [SB345 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2010-SB345-Introduced.html
Report Title:
Penal Code; Crimes Against Unborn Children
Description:
Creates new criminal offenses of murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, battery, and assault of an unborn child; defines unborn child.
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
345 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to crimes against unborn children.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The Hawaii Revised Statutes is amended by adding a new chapter to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
“Chapter
UNBORN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE ACT
§ -1 Definitions. As used in this Act:
"Unborn child" means the unborn offspring of a human being from conception until birth, but not yet completely born.
"Without lawful justification" means acting under circumstances in which the use of lethal force is not legally justified.
§ -2 Murder of an unborn child. (a) A person who causes the death of an unborn child is guilty of murder of an unborn child if the person, who is not the unborn child's mother, and without lawful justification:
(1) Intends to cause the death of or do great bodily harm to the unborn child, or knows that the acts will cause the death of, or do great bodily harm to, the unborn child;
(2) Knows that the acts create a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to another;
(3) Attempts or commits a felonious act that involves a high risk of violence; or
(4) Perpetrates an act eminently dangerous to another and evinces a depraved mind, without regard for human or fetal life.
(b) Murder of an unborn child is murder in the second degree.
§ -3 Voluntary manslaughter of an unborn child. (a) A person who causes the death of an unborn child is guilty of voluntary manslaughter of an unborn child if the person, who is not the unborn child's mother, and without lawful justification:
(1) Intends to cause the death of another in an immediate response provoked by such words or acts of another as would provoke a person of ordinary self-control under like circumstances;
(2) Commits or attempts to commit a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor offense with such force or violence that the death of or great bodily harm to another was reasonably foreseeable; or
(3) Intends to cause the death of an unborn child because the actor is coerced by threats made by someone other than a coconspirator and which causes the actor to reasonably believe that the act is the only means of preventing imminent death to the actor or another.
(b) Voluntary manslaughter of an unborn child is a class B felony.
§ -4 Involuntary manslaughter of an unborn child. (a) A person who causes the death of an unborn child is guilty of involuntary manslaughter of an unborn child if the person, who is not the unborn child's mother, and without lawful justification:
(1) Creates an unreasonable risk by culpable negligence and consciously takes a chance of causing death or great bodily harm to another;
(2) Sets a spring gun, pit fall, deadfall, snare, or other similar dangerous weapon or device; or
(3) Negligently permits any animal known by the actor to have vicious propensities, or to have caused great or substantial bodily harm in the past, to run uncontrolled off the owner's premises, or negligently fails to keep that animal properly confined.
(b) Involuntary manslaughter of an unborn child is a class C felony.
§ -5 Battery of an unborn child. (a) A person who is not the unborn child's mother, and who inflicts great or substantial bodily harm upon an unborn child who is subsequently born alive, by intentionally or knowingly touching a pregnant woman without consent and without lawful justification, is guilty of battery of an unborn child.
(b) As used in this section
"Great bodily harm" includes, but is not limited to, permanent disability or disfigurement.
"Substantial bodily harm" includes, but is not limited to, the birth of the unborn child prior to thirty-seven weeks gestation if the child weighs 2,500 grams or less at the time of birth. The term does not include the inducement of the unborn child's birth when done for bona fide medical purposes.
(c) Battery of an unborn child is a misdemeanor.
§ -6 Assault of an unborn child. (a) A person who is not the unborn child's mother, and who does any of the following without lawful justification commits assault of an unborn child:
(1) Commits any act with the intent to cause fear in a pregnant woman of immediate bodily harm to the pregnant woman or with the intent to cause fear in a pregnant woman of the death of the unborn child; or
(2) Intentionally inflicts or attempts to inflict bodily harm on an unborn child who is subsequently born alive.
(b) Assault of an unborn child is a petty misdemeanor.
§ -7 Exceptions. This chapter does not apply to:
(1) Acts which cause the death of an unborn child if those acts were committed during a legal abortion to which the pregnant woman consented; or
(2) Acts which are committed pursuant to usual and customary standards of medical practice during diagnostic testing or therapeutic treatment.
§ -8 Other convictions not barred. A prosecution or conviction under this chapter is not a bar to conviction of or punishment for any other crime committed by the defendant as part of the same conduct."
SECTION 2. If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the Act, which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are severable.
SECTION 3. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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