Bill C-484, Legislation wont protect women

St. John's - It would have been nice if Ken Epp, the MP behind Bill C-484, had consulted women's and violence prevention groups before trying to push it through Parliament. We would have pointed out that the bill misses the point entirely.

Called the "Unborn Victims of Crime Act", Bill C-484 proposes to recognize fetuses as crime victims when pregnant women are injured or killed. For families who have lost pregnant loved ones to homicide, their anguish at the loss and their wish for justice is understandable. But C-484 is not the answer.

The real issue is violence against women. Statistics show that pregnant women are at increased risk of violence from husbands and boyfriends. Homicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant women and new mothers. In Canada, 10 pregnant women were murdered between 2005 and 2006.

Violence against women is about control. Pregnant women are especially at risk because abusive male partners feel threatened by changes in their relationship. When a woman is pregnant or has a new baby, her attention is diverted from her partner. An abuser feels a loss of control because he is no longer at the centre of his partner's universe.

Giving fetuses personhood status does not address the unhealthy causes of violence against pregnant women. Many U.S. states have adopted fetal protection laws, like Bill C-484. Yet these have not reduced violence against women. Instead, the laws have become tools for punishing and victimizing pregnant women. In those states, many pregnant women have been sentenced for behaviours not criminalized for others, such as drug or alcohol use, or mental health issues.

Mr. Epp says Bill C-484 exempts pregnant women from prosecution, but those exemptions have been ignored in the U.S.

After a similar bill was passed in 2003 in Texas, a district attorney informed physicians they were required to report pregnant women using illegal drugs.

As a result, doctors turned in over 40 women. In 1991, the state of California charged a 36-year-old woman with second-degree murder after she suffered a stillbirth.

The prosecution argued that exceptions were only meant to protect women who had abortions, not those who suffered stillbirth as the result of acts such as drug use. In 2004 in Utah, a 28-year-old woman was arrested after she gave birth to twins by caesarean section; one was stillborn. The mother was charged, based on her decision not to have the operation on an earlier recommended date.

This bill won't protect women but it will challenge their rights over their own bodies.
According to the Criminal Code of Canada, "A child becomes a human being …when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother." Mr. Epp's bill contradicts the Criminal Code. By giving a fetus personhood, the bill pits fetal rights against women's rights.

If Mr. Epp had consulted the experts who do anti-violence work every day, we would have told him that Bill C-484 will not stop violence against women. To keep pregnant women safe, we need to remove the unhealthy, sexist causes of violence against women. We need to make sure women and men are equal so no one feels he controls his female partner.

Pregnant women don't need Bill C-484. They need the men in their lives to stop being violent.

They need better services to help them get through their pregnancies and deliver their babies safely. They need the courts to give offenders maximum sentences when crimes against women are committed. They need access to support and shelters so they have a way out of abusive relationships. They need society's structure to change so that they make the same amounts as men, instead of $0.70 to every dollar a man makes.

If Bill C-484 passes, it will not stop men from battering and murdering pregnant women. But pregnant women may find themselves punished by the same law that is supposed to protect them.

The NDP, Bloc QuÉbÉcois, Quebec's National Assembly and Federation of Medical Specialists all oppose the bill. Hopefully, if the bill returns for third reading, Mr. Dion and his Liberals will take a logical stand and vote against it as well.

Vyda Ng is co-ordinator for the Coalition Against Violence - Avalon East, St. John's