Australia's largest state passes law to recognize life of unborn baby

The New South Wales parliament has passed a law as the first jurisdiction in Australia, proposing that a fetus is separate from the mother, and causing its death is a discrete criminal offence.

The Crimes Amendment Bill, also known as Zoe's Law, is named after the daughter of Brodie Donegan, an New South Wales woman who was hit by a drunk driver on Christmas Day in 2009 and lost her unborn daughter eight months into her pregnancy.
The new law will impose tougher penalties for criminals convicted of injuring pregnant women.
Punishment for killing a fetus will range from five to 28 years in jail; and if both the mother and baby are killed, the sentence can be extended by three years to recognize the unborn child.
The charges can be brought once the baby has reached 20 weeks gestation or weighs 400g.​

Since this law did not previous exist, the driver could not be charged over the death of Donegan's baby and was sentenced to merely nine months imprisonment. The death of Zoe was classified as just another one of the mother’s injuries.

It has taken over a decade of campaigning by the Donegan family, but the new law will finally come into force next year.
One of the reasons it has taken so long is due to lobbying from pro-choice groups.

The government-funded Women's Legal Service (of New South Wales) views the Bill as a threat to women's rights as it is concerned that treating the fetus as a legal person may affect the legality of abortions.​

Australia's largest city, Sydney, is also in New South Wales.


These are some pictures from various news articles I happened to scrounge together.

This one shows the woman before she lost her baby in the accident. You can see the bump in her belly and that she is obviously pregnant.



Here you can see the woman in the hospital with the baby. I don't have all the details of the story but it looks like the baby came out but they knew it would not survive very long, due to its injuries and trauma that it suffered in the womb.
click here to see picture

A picture of the family with their surviving daughter, obviously in grief after the fact



'Zoe's law' passes in NSW Parliament - Sky News Australia

Zoe’s Law: NSW Government Moves to Criminalise Foetal Homicide | NSW Courts
https://nswcourts.com.au/articles/zoes-law-nsw-government-moves-to-criminalise-foetal-homicide/

picture of the pregnancy before the terrible vehicular homicide that led to the baby dying:
https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/j6Iw9o3y67595Khl2XjeKefVGGQ=/500x0/https://prod.static9.net.au/fs/32606ce2-8894-4d03-89a9-623f44608824

picture of the family in the hospital, with their dead baby who was born but did not survive, due to the impact of the crash:
https://www.marieclaire.com.au/media/20488/3.jpg?width=720&center=0.0,0.0

another picture of the grieving family:
https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/3e17cfcc08f1b5d92fda97a583ed497a

Several US states also have similar laws like this, which respect the fetus as a separate entity from the mother.

Pro-Choice groups don't like these laws because of the type of precedent they set and political message they send, even though these Pro-Choice groups are perfectly fine with the perpatrators getting extra punishment when a woman's unborn baby is killed. (It's a "baby" if the woman wants it, but a "fetus" if the biological mother wants an abortion)

 

It doesn't sound like its about abortion.

 

It is, indirectly.

They recognize that killing a fetus is a homicide.

It is thought provoking that someone who kills the fetus gets extra punishment (specifically for that killing), even if it is only when they do not have permission from the woman to kill that fetus.

Society recognizes that it is killing. It's just the law seems to hold a woman's choice as being more important than the rights of the fetus.

 

And you want a fetus to have more rights than women ...or anyone else.....that's weird...

 

Great. Australia is going to lock up women who have a miscarriage. After all, it’s her body that killed the fetus, so, murder.

This planet gets dumber by the day.

 

I know why you like to post that picture of a pregnant woman...uh, people do know what a pregnant woman looks like...but fantasize away

BTW, the article is not about abortion...just an Australian UVVA

 

So does the US. The AUS thing is not about abortion, its about assault on pregnant women, where the attacker will be held accountable.

 

You do realize that's the whole point. It's NOT just all about the woman. This law separately recognizes the life of the fetus, in addition to the life of the woman.

Try as you might, there's no way for you to just make this all about the woman.

 

This happened in Texas, too. Why worry about Australia?

In Texas, it was already a significant crime to cause the death of someone's fetus as part of an attack - a crime that included significant punishment.

The law was reworked in order to CREATE fake evidence that a fetus is a person - as if a law could do that.

There was NO OTHER justification for the legal change other than that political objective.

 

Correct. Its about the person who assaults the pregnant woman. Its not an abortion bill.

In this situation, the law is same in practically every country

 

Damage done in a situation like that has NEVER been "all about the woman".

But, it IS about the woman. It is HER loss. And, that loss is significant.

It didn't take some new law in order to punish the perp.

 

You are talking as if the woman "owns" the fetus.

One human being having "ownership" rights over another, an idea that is absurd, unless we go all the way back to the days of slavery.

 

The embryo or fetus is part of the woman's body.

So, your "ownership" ideas are absurd.

 

We've already discussed your "theories" on this.

No reason to repeat in another thread.

If it were just a disposable part of her body, like a fingernail or hair, it would really be of little consequence to her concerning her natural inherent rights.

Unlike what you think, it doesn't violate her inherent "natural rights" to prevent her from having a baby.

 

NOBODY on either side has suggested preventing a woman from having a baby.

Everybody agrees that women can have all the babies they want to have and are physically capable of having. No imposed limits.

I'm a little shocked by your lack of understanding of this issue.

Or, was that some sort of elaborate typo?

 

What's the big deal then? Can't she just try for another one? another pregnancy
Doesn't seem to me that her rights are being violated too much here.

But you desperately have to make this about her, because if it's not about her, then it's about the inherent rights of the fetus.

 

NO, it's about harming a woman which is wrong even if you don't think so.

 

You need to think more about what you are saying.

It is YOU who is demanding restrictions on the rights of women.

And, yes, this IS about HER. It is HER body. It is HER health.

 

It isn’t

NSW aid pro-choice even though there are technical anti abortion laws on the books they are not prosecuted

 

Take it from me - if they tried that the people involved would not be able to sit down for weeks because we would have kicked arse so hard their butt would be wrapped around their heads

 

yes, forcing someone to abort is as wrong as forcing someone to give birth

the right wants government making this choice, rather than the woman

 

You seem to be trying to deflect from the topic. FreshAir, you have a bad habit of repeatedly making comments in threads that are likely to derail the discussion of the thread.

 

Not sure what your point is here .. other than to illustrate that Australia has moron's too..

Regardless of what one thinks of abortion .. this is an anathema in law .. violating equal justice .. turning the Auzi system the way of the Kangaroo .. go figure

 

I was on topic, you are off topic, as I am not the topic

 

Absolutely disgusting. They're all a pack of satanic low lives. The baby relies on the mother via the umbilical tube, that's being attached to a tether to the mum. So it is not separate from the mother until birth.