Entering Dangerous Territory !

The New South Wales government has signalled its intention to introduce legislation to recognise the death of an unborn child as a crime when this occurs during a criminal act.  The impetus for this was the recent death of a woman and her unborn twins in a road crash where the offending driver was under the influence of stimulants and driving at high speed without care for others.  Under the existing law, he could only be charged with the death of the mother.

This inability to consider the death of unborn children severely limits the  sentencing options available to the judge hearing the case.  The problem is that recognising the legal right for protection for the unborn will come into sharp conflict with the practice of women in this state accessing abortion.

Strange as it may seem, abortion is still a crime in the laws of New South Wales and the highly visible clinics that provide this service operate in  a grey area of the law.  Any new law is subjected to challenge in the court system and there is a fear that granting legal status to a foetus may proceed through the lower courts until it arrives at a High court decision - that may end what is now regarded as a women's right to terminate a pregnancy.

Of coursed the logical outcome would be to extinguish the law that forbids abortion but that would be strenuously fought by the churches and it is unlikely that conservative members of parliament would agree to this change.  Public opinion is sharply divided and any change would bring criticism from women's rights groups, medical bodies and the legal fraternity.

The state premier is adamant that legislation is possible without upsetting the delicate balance between abortion's legality as a medical procedure and the need to offer a form of foetus protection for the unborn.   We are constantly seeing a spate of domestic violence happening in our society and when this causes a pregnant partner to miscarry the only option for the law is to charge the offender with causing " grievous bodily harm " to the mother, whether or not she may have suffered any other injury.   This law change would make it a crime to cause serious harm or death to a foetus.

There is not sufficient time for such a law change to be debated and passed in the present sitting of parliament and it will be a matter for the next parliament after the coming election.  Once again strong opposition from religious groups is to be expected and every word in the legislation will receive intense scrutiny.   At present the definition of a foetus describes it as being of a minimum of twenty-four weeks and this could change from being referred to as " a child in utero " to " foetus of a pregnant woman ".

We are entering dangerous territory when we seek to put entirely different interpretations on a single outcome.  The unknown factor is what the courts may decide in their interpretation of the wording of any new law.   In this instance, the parliament will be tinkering with a system most people find unsatisfactory.   Whatever decision they reach will have final options decided in the law courts.