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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 18, 2005 Abortion foes knock Repp bill focus By Sarah Lemon For the Tidings A debate over recognizing fetuses as human beings dominated a Thursday hearing on the state Senate bill named for murder victim Kerry Repp. The Senate Rules Committee brought a discussion on Senate Bill 712 to Ashland. If passed, the bill would enhance penalties for violence against pregnant women and make the murderer of a pregnant woman subject to the death penalty. Repp's parents, Ron and JoeAnn Johnson, of Medford, spoke in support of the bill, authored by Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, a Portland Democrat. "If it saves one woman and one child, that's worth it," said Ron Johnson. Kerry Michele Repp, 29, was murdered in her Central Point home on May 4, 2002. Repp was three months pregnant with another man's child when she was shot to death with her husband's handgun. Repp's husband, Gary Marvin Repp Jr., was acquitted of murder in March last year. But opponents of the bill pointed to the Johnsons' grief at the loss of their seventh grandchild in arguing for "human being" status for fetuses. Pending House and Senate bills - supported by Republican legislators - would create separate crimes committed against unborn children. "At the moment of conception, this child is separate," said Sue Ann Arnold, of Eagle Point. Arnold and nine others, including Bryan Platt, chairman of the Jackson County Republican Central Committee, voiced their support for Senate Bill 440 or House Bill 220. Platt called Brown's bill "merely an attempt to placate Oregonians." Present at Friday's hearing, Sen. Jason Atkinson, R-Central Point, sponsored Senate Bill 440, saying it has more "teeth" than Brown's bill. Republican Reps. Dennis Richardson, Central Point, and Sal Esquivel, Medford, sponsored the almost identical House version. Medford defense attorney Lisa Greif also voiced opposition on behalf of the Oregon Defense Lawyers Association because Senate Bill 712 expands the state's capital punishment laws. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange web conferencing Online Casinos Community Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams