The state legislature in Florida is proposing a new law to ensure that people who cause car accidents can be charged with vehicular homicide if they hit a woman who is pregnant and she loses the pregnancy.

Via The Florida Independent:

State legislators have introduced a new bill that has been popular among anti-abortion advocates for years. The bill would redefine the death of a “viable fetus” as the death of an “unborn child,” and would also change laws for vehicular manslaughter involving a pregnant woman.

In the state House, state Rep. Larry Ahern, R-St. Petersburg, and state Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, introduced the “Florida Unborn Victims of Violence Act.” State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey introduced the bill in the Senate.

House Bill 137 amends state statutes to say that “vehicular homicide … is the killing of a human being, or the killing of an unborn child, by any injury to the mother, caused by the operation of a motor vehicle by another in a reckless manner likely to cause the death of, or great bodily harm to, another.” The offense would be considered a second-degree felony, and would not require that the person know the woman involved was pregnant.

Of course, like all “unborn victims” acts, the legislation is usually created as another legal attempt to provide personhood status to a fetus or embryo at any stage of development.  By changing the current “viable fetus” to “unborn child” the legislature then provides the first step to saying there is no difference in any act that occurs at gestational age.