Last week the NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman introduced the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Loss of Foetus) Bill 2021 (Zoe’s Law) into the NSW Parliament. It is an important step in recognising the preciousness of each life.
Twelve years in the making, Zoe’s Law was drafted in memory of the unborn child killed when her mother, Brodie Donegan, was hit by a drug-affected driver on Christmas Day in 2009 whilst 32 weeks pregnant.
The Bill creates a separate offence of causing grievous bodily harm to a woman which causes the loss of a preborn child of at least 20 weeks gestation or a bodily mass of at least 400 grams. It allows for the charge to name the child and provides access to compensation for funeral expenses of the child. It does not apply to children killed by abortion.
“Zoe” means life. The Bill could be called Life’s Law, because it upholds and recognises the value of an unborn life, by the offence but also by naming the child.
On Wednesday, Alabama doctors announced the survival of the world’s youngest infant. Curtis Means (16 months old) was born about 19 weeks early, on 5 July 2020, at just 132 days (about 19 weeks gestation). Though he had to fight, he survived.
Though many states in Australia have legalised abortion to birth (and the Northern Territory Government is now promoting such a Bill) it is against the tide of science. We must keep praying, working and walking (SA Walk for Life is on 12 February – SA friends, be there!) until we see life laws established across this land.
