RICHMOND — Bills to close a loophole that apparently allowed a Campbell County woman to cause the death of her newborn child in December are being sponsored by 15 lawmakers in the General Assembly.
Killing an infant that is still attached to its mother by an umbilical cord would become a murder and punishable by imprisonment under the bills pending in the Senate and House of Delegates.
Campbell County law enforcement officials were frustrated in the December death because Virginia law didn’t prohibit the mother from suffocating her child while it was still attached to her by umbilical cord and placenta.
The act would have been a crime in 45 other states, said Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg.
Led by Newman and Del. Kathy Byron, R-Campbell County, 10 state senators and five delegates have signed on as full sponsors of two measures that would punish actions like that of the Campbell County woman.
Sheriff’s investigators said the woman apparently smothered her newborn child while other family members in the house were not aware she was giving birth.
The child’s grandmother called police several hours after the 1 a.m. birth. The infant was found under a pile of bedding, with its airway blocked.
Campbell County Sheriff Terry Gaddy in a news release soon afterward that “in this case the law is severely flawed and let our people down.”
In a similar circumstance several years ago, Campbell County officials were unable to persuade legislators to sponsor a bill to prohibit such infant deaths. Those lawmakers said the matter was too close to the abortion issue.
Signing on as sponsors of the measure are Newman and Sens. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham; Charles Colgan, D-Manassas; Emmett Hanger, R-Mt. Solon; Stephen Martin, R-Chesterfield; Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg; Phillip Puckett, D-Tazewell; Frank Ruff, R-Clarksville; Ralph Smith, R-Roanoke; and Richard Stuart, R-Montross.
Fully sponsoring the Byron-introduced bill in the House of Delegates are Dels. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford; Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge; Scott Garrett, R-Lynchburg; and Mark Cole, R-Fredericksburg.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement