April 03, 2012 05:20 PM UTC

Well Played, Headline Writer

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone, who (to be fair) may not have written the headline:

GOP takes fetal position on crime bill

The Senate Judiciary Committee delayed action on HB1130 at the request of its sponsor, Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, but the bill appears poised to die on a 4-3 party-line vote with Democrats who control the committee…

The bill would allow separate criminal charges against a defendant for harm done to an unborn child in the course of a crime committed against its mother while she is pregnant. Current law provides for enhanced sentencing of offenders for certain serious crimes committed against women who they reasonably should have known were pregnant.

Denver lawyer Kevin Paul, whose firm represents Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, testified against the bill. He argued that Colorado law already provides for prosecution of suspected criminal termination of a pregnancy.

“To adopt the concept that an embryo, a fetus or anywhere – any stage in pregnancy that can be identified – is vested with the rights of personhood under our law would be a fundamental change in our law would also be contrary, I would assert, to the stated perspective of the voters of Colorado,” Paul said.

We’re thinking that the straight-shooting Patrick Malone might have preferred a bit more neutral of a headline than this (assuming as we do that he didn’t write it)–but that didn’t stop us from blowing a small amount of coffee out through our nose when we saw it this morning. Unfortunately the Chieftain doesn’t participate in the Newseum’s front page archive, so we’ll have to rely on a local subscriber to tell us if this headline is how it appeared in print.

Without spoiling the discussion, we definitely think this headline says, if you will, a few things.