VIOLENCE AGAINST PREGNANT WOMEN:
BILL C-484 NEEDS ATTENTION
by Ashley Beaudin
Niagara This Week April 4, 2008
The recent Bill C-484, introduced Feb. 29 by Conservative MP Ken Epp (Edmonton-Sherwood Park), passed its second reading and is expected to go to the Justice and Human Rights Committee. This bill, also known as the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, would create "a separate offence when an unborn child is harmed or killed during the commission of an offence against the child's pregnant mother."
Currently, if an attacker kills a pregnant woman and her child, no charges can be laid to recognize the fetal victim. This leaves the families of the victim, who are left grieving the death of two lives with a feeling of injustice. Canada has an opportunity to take a stand for progression and protection; advancing even beyond the world's biggest superpower.
A woman and a child are indeed within the same physical body, but are two separate lives. It seems discriminatory to charge an attacker with one account of homicide when it took two separate lives. In some cases, an attacker attacks a pregnant woman for her baby. When the attacker is only charged for the case of the mother, society affirms the intention of the attacker under the reasoning that the life of the fetus was insignificant.
We are looking at an issue of women's rights. Canada has been applauded for giving an equal voice to all people and being a land of choice. Yet the lack of this legislation is a direct attack on a woman's power to choose. A woman is choosing to receive her baby and beginning to establish a family. When a woman is attacked, suffers a loss of the baby she is carrying and is unable to see any legal action made, that is a degradation of her choice. It also expresses the message that the choice never belonged to her as the baby was taken from her by human hands without any legal repercussions. When a mother chooses life for her child, that child -- unborn or not -- should be protected under law.
The presence of this legislation must be demanded by every man and woman. Let's simply be known as a nation who determined to unite for the purpose of protecting our children, rather than be found fighting in the complexity and hype of political agendas that may or may not be affected.
Ashley Beaudin
Smithville
Niagara This Week April 4, 2008
The recent Bill C-484, introduced Feb. 29 by Conservative MP Ken Epp (Edmonton-Sherwood Park), passed its second reading and is expected to go to the Justice and Human Rights Committee. This bill, also known as the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, would create "a separate offence when an unborn child is harmed or killed during the commission of an offence against the child's pregnant mother."
Currently, if an attacker kills a pregnant woman and her child, no charges can be laid to recognize the fetal victim. This leaves the families of the victim, who are left grieving the death of two lives with a feeling of injustice. Canada has an opportunity to take a stand for progression and protection; advancing even beyond the world's biggest superpower.
A woman and a child are indeed within the same physical body, but are two separate lives. It seems discriminatory to charge an attacker with one account of homicide when it took two separate lives. In some cases, an attacker attacks a pregnant woman for her baby. When the attacker is only charged for the case of the mother, society affirms the intention of the attacker under the reasoning that the life of the fetus was insignificant.
We are looking at an issue of women's rights. Canada has been applauded for giving an equal voice to all people and being a land of choice. Yet the lack of this legislation is a direct attack on a woman's power to choose. A woman is choosing to receive her baby and beginning to establish a family. When a woman is attacked, suffers a loss of the baby she is carrying and is unable to see any legal action made, that is a degradation of her choice. It also expresses the message that the choice never belonged to her as the baby was taken from her by human hands without any legal repercussions. When a mother chooses life for her child, that child -- unborn or not -- should be protected under law.
The presence of this legislation must be demanded by every man and woman. Let's simply be known as a nation who determined to unite for the purpose of protecting our children, rather than be found fighting in the complexity and hype of political agendas that may or may not be affected.
Ashley Beaudin
Smithville
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