‘Caleb’s Law’ bill advances in Virginia Senate

A key Senate committee will consider a bill that would make it so that any person who intentionally kills the fetus of another is guilty of voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter if the incident was accidental.

The bill, also known as Caleb’s Law, was originally tabled in 2020, and was re-introduced by Sen. Mark Obenshain R-Harrisonburg on Jan. 7.

In 2018, Taylor Shifflett, a woman from Elkton, Virginia who was six months pregnant, was involved in a car crash that left her in a coma and resulted in multiple surgeries. The other vehicle was going 90 mph and was fleeing from the police, she told WHSV.

Consequently, her unborn son, who she named Caleb, did not survive. Because Shifflett herself survived, the driver of the vehicle that hit her was not charged for the death of the fetus.

Shifflett contacted Obenshain, who was previously unaware of her story, about a year ago, Obenshain said.  Obenshain referred to Shifflett’s situation as an unfortunate loophole in SB 122.

“She told her story, and I was deeply moved by it,” he said. “And I agree it was an unintentional omission in the drafting of these laws.”

Shifflett spoke in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 26.

“As I sit before you today, with the inability to walk, still recovering from surgery No. 17, do you want to know what the most traumatic piece of my story is? It’s not the 17 surgeries, it’s not even the six months rehabilitation, nor is it the millions of dollars in medical debt,” she said at the hearing. “It was the exact moment the Commonwealth looked at me and informed me she was unable to process charges for the loss of my child.”

Shifflett cited data from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles that 105,600 car crashes occurred in the state in 2020.

“A question that should keep us all awake at night is to wonder how many of those accidents took the life of an unborn child,” Shifflett said at the hearing. “A child that received no justice or validation they existed, no matter how badly it was warranted. If you look at my baby, he was big enough, he didn’t need me anymore––babies younger than him have survived in the NICU unit.”

The amendment would still apply if the woman involved was previously unaware she was pregnant, Obenshain said.

After he introduced the bill, Obenshain said he received an email from the ACLU of Virginia that stated the organization was going to oppose Caleb’s Law because of concerns it would violate women’s reproductive rights.

An ACLU of Virginia representative, Breanna Diaz, video-conferenced into the Senate Judiciary hearing to oppose the bill on behalf of the organization.

“We strongly oppose Senate Bill 122 because it would grant independent personhood rights to fetuses with serious implications to the constitutional rights of all pregnant people,” Diaz said at the hearing. “Moreover, it adds charges for accidents when someone does not even know an individual’s pregnant, [is] in violation of long-standing principles, criminal law and has no benefit to public safety.”

The bill passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee 8-7 and is slated to be heard next by the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Obenshain denied that his support of the bill was a move toward establishing fetal rights in an attack against women’s reproductive rights.

“It has nothing to do with reproductive rights except to protect the right of women to make their own choices, not to have some drunk or reckless criminal deprive them of their own opportunity to choose to carry that baby or, frankly, make a different choice,” Obenshain said.