GREENSBORO -- It's been 10 months since 22-year-old Jenna Nielsen, a pregnant newspaper carrier, was found dead in south Raleigh. Police have not yet found her killer, and when they do, that person would only face charges connected to her death.

Nielsen’s father says he finding the strength to cope by trying to change the way North Carolina prosecutes the murderers of pregnant women.

“You'd be amazed at how many people do not know that this is not a law,” Kevin Blaine said about the unborn victims bill. “Why are we one of the only states, only 14 states left in the country, that don't have this law?

“They need to look at it, they need to read it and they need to understand it from a personal perspective.”

Blaine took his message Saturday to the Conservative Leadership Conference in Greensboro. He's working with lawmakers to get a bill introduced.

“What we're hoping to do in the short session is to put North Carolina in line with the other 39 states and have an unborn victims bill that punishes people who murder pregnant women in North Carolina,” state Rep. Dale Folwell, of Winston-Salem, said.

Folwell says too many pregnant women in North Carolina have fallen victim to this type of crime. He hopes stiffer penalties could make a difference.

“Bad circumstances can result in good legislation and that's what the unborn victims bill represents,” he said. “Bad circumstances that we are going to take and turn into legislation to protect the two victims that suffer anytime a pregnant woman is killed.”

Keeping other families from what Blaine and his family have gone through is why Folwell says he's at the conference.

“We had three pregnant women killed in 2007, including my daughter,” Blaine said. “That's not getting better, that's getting worse, and until we start making a stance or making these laws tougher, they're just going to keep doing it.”