Honorable John T. Smithee, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2197 by Money (Relating to the protection of an unborn child's rights and criminal liability and justification for prohibited conduct.), As Introduced
The bill would expand the applicability of criminal homicide and assaultive offenses to include unborn victims except in cases when unintentional injury or death result from spontaneous miscarriage or from procedures undertaken to save the life of a pregnant mother accompanied by certain steps to save the life of the unborn child.
Expanding the applicability of criminal offenses may result in additional demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.
The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to a lack of data to estimate the additional number of cases which could be prosecuted under the bill's provisions.