Unborn

In May of last year, Howard County police found 23-year-old Shameka Fludd fatally shot in the head in her Stevens Forest apartment in Columbia's Oakland Mills Village. She was four to five months pregnant, according to police. Today, Tjane Charmeise Marshall of Suitland - who police believe was the father of Fludd's unborn child - faces prosecution on first-degree murder charges in Fludd's death in Howard County Circuit Court. "Mr. Marshall is not guilty; he did not do this," Assistant Public Defender Janette DeBoissiere said.

CHICAGO - One of the most dramatic medical advances of recent years has been the use of surgery to correct birth defects - before birth. Surgeons can operate on fetuses in the womb for a variety of conditions, from life-threatening tumors to spina bifida. When they operate, it may surprise you to learn, they provide anesthesia not only to the mother but also to the fetus. Or maybe it doesn't surprise you. Maybe it seems obvious that fetuses can feel pain long before they emerge into the world.

Suddenly on April 27, 2004; JOHN SUPERCZYNSKI, SR., beloved husband of Tammy Superczynski (nee Dawson); devoted father of Nicholas Superczynski and his unborn son John Superczynski, Jr.; loving son of Frances (nee La Mara) and Frank Superczynski; dear brother of Jason and Jennifer Superczynski; grandson of Lillian Mc Glaughn; son-in-law of Cheryl (nee Madea) and Steven Dawson. Also, survived by several nieces and nephews. Friends may call at the family owned Bruzdzinski Funeral Home, PA, 1407 Eastern Avenue, Essex, at Route 702 (Beltway Exit 36)

LAST WEEK, President Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, a bill that creates a separate federal offense if bodily injury or death of a "child in utero" occurs during the commission of certain crimes. This new federal law recognizes everything from a zygote to a fetus as an independent "victim," with legal protection distinct from the pregnant woman who has been harmed. At the signing, Mr. Bush declared proudly that "with this action ... we reaffirm that the United States of America is building a culture of life."

WASHINGTON - President Bush signed legislation yesterday making it a separate crime to harm a fetus during the commission of a violent federal crime against a pregnant woman, and he declared that, with the new law, the United States was "building a culture of life." In a ceremony suffused with the politics of abortion, the president said, "Any time an expectant mother is a victim of violence, two lives are in the balance, each deserving protection, and each deserving justice." The Unborn Victims of Violence Act protects a fetus at any stage of its development.

Maryland won't be enacting this year its own version of the federal Laci and Conner Law, which would have created additional charges for someone who harms a pregnant woman and her fetus. In a 25-22 vote yesterday, the state Senate agreed to indefinitely postpone consideration of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. At issue: whether someone who assaults a pregnant woman, resulting in the injury or death of her fetus, should face charges for harming one person or two. Sen. Leo. E. Green, a Democrat from Prince George's County who sponsored the bill, sounded resigned as he pleaded with legislators to vote against the motion to table the bill.

An amendment to legislation aimed at recognizing the rights of the unborn shifted the bill's thrust from protecting only the fetus to protecting their mothers when it was approved by a slim margin yesterday on the Senate floor. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act was originally drafted to outlaw bringing intentional harm to an unborn child. As amended after a lively debate and a 25-22 vote, the renamed bill would create a new first-degree assault charge for use when someone assaults a woman with the intent of causing miscarriage or stillbirth.

WASHINGTON - Spurred by the high-profile killing of Laci Peterson and her unborn child, the Senate sent a bill to President Bush yesterday that would make it a separate crime to harm a fetus during the commission of a violent federal crime against a pregnant woman. Bush has pledged to sign the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act." The 61-38 Senate vote to approve the bill, after House passage last month, came after a debate dominated by the abortion issue. Abortion rights advocates view the bill as a disguised effort to overturn a woman's right to an abortion, saying it treats the fetus as a legal entity separate from the pregnant mother.

Maryland is a step closer to enacting a state version of the proposed Laci and Conner federal law, after a Senate committee approved a bill yesterday to outlaw bringing intentional harm to an unborn child. Members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee voted 7-4 to send the bill to the floor, barely a week after a brief hearing on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. Among the testimony presented to the committee was a letter from Sharon Rocha, whose daughter Laci Peterson was killed two years ago in Modesto, Calif.

A Prince George's County man has been arrested on charges that he killed the mother of his unborn child in May in her Columbia apartment. Tjane Charmeise Marshall, 27, of Suitland was charged Thursday evening with first- and second-degree murder, first-degree assault and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime in the shooting of Shameka Fludd, 23, in her apartment in the 5800 block of Stevens Forest Road in Oakland Mills. Marshall was being held without bond last night at the Howard County Detention Center.