The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 is a three-page law that defends those who cannot speak for themselves.

Unborn babies are too often dismissed as not human yet, but that’s not the case in this law.

The simplicity of the language is the beauty of this act. This passage alone says it all: “The term ‘unborn child’ means a child in utero … a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.”

No days, weeks, months are counted. It’s clear that if a killer knowingly or unknowingly murders or injures an unborn child he or she can be charged with the same crime as the murder or assault of the mother. Yes, the law states “pregnant woman,” no birthing people are mentioned.

It must be this direct. There can be no equivocation. A life taken at any stage of development — outside of the abortion process, the law stresses — can trigger a murder charge. Roe vs. Wade was still the law of the land in 2004, so what happens next is up to each state, based on our reading of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs vs. Jackson ruling. In Massachusetts, the unborn victims’ law stands as written because abortion is still on the books here.

“Whoever engages in conduct that violates any of the provisions of law listed … and thereby causes the death of, or bodily injury to, a child, who is in utero at the time the conduct takes place, is guilty of a separate offense under this section,” the first line of the act states.

As the Herald reported Sunday, this law could apply to the murder of Sandra Birchmore and her unborn child, allegedly at the hands of a former Stoughton cop who had impregnated her.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston had the courage — and smarts — to bring murder charges against the defendant in this case when the Norfolk DA’s office failed to do so. But, why not add the Unborn Victims of Violence Act to the tally of alleged crimes?

“It is hard to imagine a more clear-cut case for enforcing federal law for protecting unborn children than this one,” Roger Severino, the vice president of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, told the Herald, “when the very existence of the unborn child was the very evidence against this monster.”

Former Stoughton Police Detective Matthew Farwell is accused of murdering 23-year-old Birchmore in her Canton apartment not too long after she had excitedly revealed to him that she was pregnant with their child by texting him a photograph of a handmade card saying, “Congrats, we are going to be parents!”

Farwell, 38, of North Easton, is accused of entering Birchmore’s Canton apartment on Feb. 1, 2021, and strangling her to death as he knew she was weeks pregnant. Prosecutors say he then staged the apartment to make it look like Birchmore had committed suicide.

She was roughly two months pregnant.

We urge the U.S. Attorney’s office to keep probing and keep in mind the unborn child who will never learn to walk, giggle, play in the park, or be soothed, loved, and nurtured into adulthood.

Add to the list of heinous crimes the death of this unborn child by giving voice to yet another victim of domestic cruelty. use the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 to show everyone life matters — no matter the age of the victim.