It comes on the eve of the 30th anniversary, next Wednesday, of the Supreme Court's ROE V. WADE decision legalizing abortion nationwide. That decision still provokes strong opposition from religious conservatives, and in Congress that opposition is now centered on giving embryos and fetuses legal status as persons. Betty Rollin has our report.BETTY ROLLIN: Twenty-year-old Corrine Wilcott kicked and hit Sheena Carson who, Wilcott said, was sleeping with her husband. Carson herself is fine now, but Wilcott is charged with first-degree murder and could face life imprisonment without parole. The murder victim was Carson's 15-week-old fetus, who died after the assault.
Pennsylvania is one of 26 states with unborn victims laws, and a bill, just introduced in the Senate, would apply the law to federal crimes. Pro-choice advocates, such as Susanne Martinez of Planned Parenthood, see such laws as part of a new strategy on the part of antiabortionists.
SUSANNE MARTINEZ (Planned Parenthood): If they can shift the dialogue to believing that a fetus is a person, they will have set the groundwork for overturning ROE V. WADE. ROLLIN: So that's what you really think is going on?
Ms. MARTINEZ: That is absolutely the ultimate goal here.
President GEORGE W. BUSH (in January 11 speech): Our nation should set a great goal that unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law.
HELEN ALVARE (Catholic University Law School , Washington, D.C.): The love and protection extended to the embryo ought to be no different [than that] extended to any other fellow human being. Jesus on earth took special care for vulnerable human life, not just equal treatment, but even better.ROLLIN: Affording greater legal protection to the embryo has had other effects, such as restrictions on stem cell research. Although the research is not illegal, President Bush banned using federal money, except for a limited number of cell lines that already exist. Research scientists, among them Dr. Larry Goldstein at University of San Diego's School of Medicine, say such restrictions hamper research.
Dr. LARRY GOLDSTEIN (University of San Diego School of Medicine): My concern is that many people within the coming years will needlessly suffer or die because we won't attack the research vigorously enough or with sufficient will.Senator RICK SANTORUM (R-PA): These are little babies and they are asking us to help them.
Sen. SANTORUM: You could always come up with a utilitarian approach that says for the greater good we are going to sacrifice somebody else, unless of course you are the other person. And of course the utilitarian argument wins out because these are faceless, nameless little people.
ROLLIN: Before the 19th century it was unclear as to when life began. Not until 1825, when scientists discovered the relationship between the sperm and the egg, did the Catholic Church see conception as the beginning of life -- a life the Church deemed worthy of protection.
Reverend CARLTON VEAZEY: We do respect the sacredness of a potential life, but it's not a person. But we also believe that potential life that's being utilized, the stem cell, can bring life to others. It can bring life to the person with Parkinson's, with heart disease, with brain tumors. If we can utilize the stem cell to accomplish good, that's in keeping with religious beliefs.
ROLLIN: And the battle will continue as long as people -- religious included -- disagree as to when human life truly begins. The question is whether giving greater legal status to the embryo, combined with the possibility of a more conservative Supreme Court, will ultimately result in the overturning of ROE V. WADE. 
