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House passes bill to block executions of pregnant women on death row

From CNN Capitol Hill Producer Ted Barrett

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pregnant women, sentenced to death by a state, could not be executed until after giving birth if a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, 417-0, Tuesday becomes law.

The bill, the "Innocent Child Protection Act," expands a current ban on such executions by the federal government and many individual state governments.

The bill, pushed by Republicans, was triggered by a recent question to Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore who said it would be up to the condemned women to decide whether to postpone execution until they give birth.

"The principle of a woman's right to choose governs in that case," Gore said.

GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush, whose home state of Texas already bans executing pregnant women, said he did not think the sentence should be carried out "because there's a second life involved."

The bill may be more about abortion-related politics than practical concerns in that representatives of the National Right to Life Committee, which lobbied for passage of the bill, said they are not aware of any executions of pregnant women being carried out in the United States.

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