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The Crimes (Offences Against Pregnant Women) Amendment Bill 2005 passed by the Assembly on Tuesday does not adequately punish crimes of violence against women and their unborn children. The Labor Members and Greens Member Deb Foskey have missed an opportunity to treat the loss of an unborn child with the seriousness it deserves.

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope's provisions increase the penalty for an unlawful assault (or other reckless or culpable behaviour) on a woman where there is damage to 'the pregnancy'. So if a woman is not seriously injured by an assault and her baby is killed, then the convicted assailant simply has a 'loading' added to the penalty for the assault on the woman. Justice is not well served by this approach. No woman would approve of this ignoring of her baby's death nor would she think a penalty 'loading' is adequate recognition of her great loss.

Mr Stanhope rejected the preferable approach taken by Queensland in recent amendments to its criminal law. In those provisions if the child is killed, whether the mother suffers any substantial harm or not, the assailant is to be charged with manslaughter or murder of the child, depending on whether the assailant has been reckless or acted intentionally. This recognises that the child has a separate life and that life can be unlawfully taken by an assault on the mother. Mr Stanhope's claim that the child is legally, ethically and biologically one entity with the mother is plainly wrong. There are laws in every jurisdiction governing the crime of child destruction; and all jurisdictions, with the exception of the ACT, have laws relating to abortion.

One must be ethically challenged to say that the killing of an unborn child carries no ethical considerations. Any biologist can confirm that the unborn child is a separate developing human being; just over a half of unborn children are of the male gender.  (Email: actrtla@actrtla.org.au )

NB:  A similar lack of protection for the unborn child will occur in Victoria under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities - Editor.