House Democrats defeated a fetal homicide bill on a party-line vote in committee Monday afternoon.
Senate Republicans passed the bill in response to a brutal crime in Longmont earlier this year, when a woman had her late-term fetus cut from her body.
Lawmakers in the Senate argued the language was similar to laws passed by numerous other states and the federal government.
But Democrats have characterized the measure as an attempt to erode a woman’s right to have an abortion and to control her body during pregnancy.
Colorado law already includes a crime of unlawfully terminating a pregnancy. But murder charges can't be brought in such cases because the baby isn't born. Republicans argue that's unjust.
