but, if an amendment to the Crimes Act passes the NSW upper house, there will be punishment for such an offence. PHOTO: ONLINE
NEW SOUTH WALES is a step closer to conferring the status of “personhood” on an unborn child for the first time.
Parliamentarians in the lower house voted 63-26 in favour of a controversial amendment to the Crimes Act, after two months of weekly debate on the bill.
The bill will now face a vote in the upper house, where the result is expected to be closer.
The proposed changes are a result of the tragic death of an unborn baby almost four years ago.
On Christmas Day 2009, a driver under the influence of drugs hit heavily pregnant Brodie Donegan, who was just metres from her home on the Central Coast of NSW.
While she recovered from the accident, she lost her unborn child, whom she later named Zoe.
The driver of the vehicle was not charged over Zoe’s death. Under the current laws in NSW, the death of an unborn child is classed as an injury to the mother.
The proposed amendment to the Crimes Act 1900 would include a separate charge of grievous bodily harm to the unborn child as a person, in the case of a car accident or assault.
The bill, which was tabled as a private member’s bill in August by Ms Donegan’s local member of parliament, Chris Spence, defines an unborn baby as a foetus of more than 20 weeks gestation or weighing more than 400 grams.
MPs who opposed the bill say such a definition is arbitrary, and will one day be used to justify criminalising abortion.
But the Coalition for the Defence of Human Life’s Richard Egan told The Record the legislation was entirely separate to abortion laws.
“People who describe themselves as pro-choice on the abortion question ought to be in agreement with those of us who are pro-life, this should really be a no-brainer,” he said.
“You can only describe the opposition to a law like this from those who describe themselves as pro-choice as revealing them to be so hostile to the unborn child that it’s moved beyond their claim that they’re defending the rights of women to make choices about their own lives to an actual hatred for unborn children.”
Mr Egan said the bill’s passing would be a positive for the pro-life cause.
“All these legal developments, just like the scientific developments, contribute in their own way to a day when the unborn child is, to use George Bush’s words, welcomed in life and protected in law,” he said.
For pro-lifers, there is a clear contradiction between, on the one hand, recognising an unborn child as a person in the case of assaults or car accidents causing harm or death, and yet, on the other hand, viewing abortion as a right of the woman.
But leading Australian bioethicist Nicholas Tonti-Filippini told The Record the majority of the Australian public don’t see any contradiction in such views.
“People tend to see the decision made by a woman about her own body as a different issue,” he explained.
“In the book John Fleming and I edited, Common Ground? Australian Attitudes to Abortion and Sex Education, we published research that showed that most people thought that abortion was wrong in most circumstances, but they also thought that it was a matter for the woman and the law should not intrude on her decision.”
Dr Tonti-Filippini’s research also found that most Australians recognise a foetus as a person, but place the woman’s rights above the rights of the foetus.
“They don’t see it as contradictory that you can recognise a foetus as a person and that the law would allow abortion,” he said.
“Most Australians would not see it as a contradiction because they see the rights of a woman to do what she wants with her own body as coming first… they see it secondary that a child dies as a result of that.”
Similar laws to the NSW amendment are under consideration in WA. In February 2012, the then Attorney General of WA, Christian Porter, announced that the State government would introduce foetal homicide laws and increase penalties for offences causing injury or death to an unborn child.
Under the planned laws, causing death or grievous bodily harm to an unborn child through an unlawful assault on its mother would be punished with life imprisonment.
The WA laws do not specify when an unborn baby can be considered a person.
But, almost two years since the proposed legislation was announced, it is still yet to be finalised and brought before parliament.
Member for the South Metropolitan Region Nick Goiran told The Record the debate over foetal homicide laws was not the same as that over abortion.
“Those who are ‘pro-choice’ on abortion should agree with those of us who are pro-life on abortion that when the life of an unborn child is ended against the wishes of the pregnant woman by any act of intentional or reckless violence this should be treated as a criminal offence and an appropriate penalty imposed,” he said.