Friday, February 7, 12:15am
By Dave Thomas
New Set of Murder Charges Stir Abortion Rights Issue

The Luzerne County District Attorney says the law treats killing an unborn child the same as killing an adult. That's why he charged a Luzerne County man yesterday with two murder charges: One for his girlfriend and one for her unborn baby.

Twenty-six year old Matthew Bullock admitted to Wilkes-Barre Police he killed his girlfriend on New Year's Day. But his girlfriend, 33-year-old Lisa Hargrave, was pregnant. So he's charged with killing the unborn baby too.

The fetal homicide charge is the first of its kind in Luzerne County and one of a few in Pennsylvania since the law passed in 1999.

The Unborn Child Law is considered controversial by some. The way the state defines a life is the same way anti-abortion protestors define a life. Luzerne County District Attorney Dave Lupas say, "This is not an abortion issue. The statute is a statute that deals with crimes against unborn children and it defines an unborn child as beginning at the time of fertilization."

But, that definition is why pro-life protestors have argued for years. In their opinion, life begins at conception. Courts have upheld abortion as legal, because they say it's the mother's right to choose whether to abort her pregnancy and doesn't define when life begins.

The Pennsylvania Crimes Against the Unborn Child Act states abortion is a separate issue, but the law is open to interpretation because it deals with the life of an unborn child. Many of the law's supporters are also pro-life supporters and they say anytime the law is upheld in court, it's a victory for them.

Joseph Casciano is a Catholic pro-life advocate and executive director of Parish Ministries for the Scranton Diocese. He says, "Certainly it is for us an important stand because there's recognition of life and not just something other than life. So, yes for us it's a very important message, that's it's a life."

On the other side are the pro-choice supporters. Lorraine Pierotti of Planned Parenthood of Northeast Pennsylvania told us on the phone, "It's a tragedy that this woman was killed and carrying a child, but this law should not give person-hood status to the fetus. Abortion is a separate issue." That's the way D.A. Lupas approaches it. He's using the law in an attempt to get two life sentences: One for the death of a woman and one for the death of her unborn child.