INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Six days after a pregnant bank teller shot in a robbery lost the twins she had been carrying, Marion County's prosecutor and two state lawmakers proposed changing Indiana's murder statute to cover people who intentionally kill a fetus.

Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, Sen. Jim Merritt and Rep. Michael Murphy — all Republicans — said Wednesday they want to work with Democrats in the General Assembly next session to amend the murder statute to cover cases where a fetus is "knowingly and intentionally" killed.

Their proposal would cover the death of any fetus, regardless of whether it can survive outside the womb. They said the change would not infringe on women's right to an abortion.

Current Indiana law allows prosecutors to charge people with murder in cases where a fetus dies, but only if the mother is at least seven months pregnant.

Katherin Shuffield, a 30-year-old from Franklin, lost her twins last Thursday night, two days after she was shot in the abdomen by a gunman during a robbery at a Huntington Bank branch.

She was five months pregnant, so murder charges could not apply to the gunman, who remains at large. Officials could consider charges of feticide, however, which carries a lesser sentence.

Merritt, R-Indianapolis, said the Shuffield shooting and the deaths of the twins have illuminated a flaw in Indiana's law that needs to be addressed.

"This is a sad and tragic catalyst for change in the law and I believe Indiana ought to catch up with many states and make this murder," said Merritt, who plans to author the bill in the 2009 session.

The gunman in the Shuffield case could face a maximum of eight years under Indiana's current feticide law. The maximum prison time for murder is 65 years under state law.

Even if the murder statute were changed as Merritt suggests, the charges would not apply to the gunman since that crime already occurred.

The proposed legislation is likely to prove controversial because some might perceive it as an attack on women's right to an abortion.

The criminal penalties now in place under Indiana's feticide statute were vetoed by then-Gov. Frank O'Bannon, a Democrat, in 1997 because he said it would make it possible to file murder charges against doctors who perform late-term abortions. The Legislature overrode his veto in 1998.

Indiana is now one of 35 states with fetal homicide laws, but it is not one of at least 18 states that cover the earliest stages of a pregnancy, said Megan Foreman, a research analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Brizzi, Merritt and Murphy said Indiana's current feticide law is not sufficient.

"You can't tell Mrs. Shuffield or any other mother who's lived through a pregnancy that losing a baby or babies during that pregnancy because of a violent act like the one we saw last week is anything short of murder," said Murphy, R-Indianapolis.

Henry Karlson, a professor of criminal law at the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, said lawmakers should change the state's feticide law, not its murder statute.

Karlson has suggested making feticide, currently a Class C felony, a Class A felony. Under his proposed changes, feticide convictions would carry sentences of between 20 and 50 years. That time would be served separately from other convictions related to a crime.

Changing the feticide law would avoid the controversy that arises when lawmakers try to make killing a fetus the same as killing a human being, Karlson said.

"It removes the philosophical debate which has always been created when you try to call it murder, as to whether a nonviable fetus should be considered a human being," he said.

Brizzi said he, Merritt and Murphy expect that changes to the state's feticide law may be proposed next session, but they said they prefer changing the murder statute because "we believe the unborn ought to be considered a person."