Canada is one of the worst countries in the world for protecting unborn babies’ rights.
A recent assault of a pregnant women and her unborn baby in Montreal is drawing attention to the poor legal protections in the country. Fortunately, in the most recent case, the baby will be protected under the law because he or she was born alive after the attack. Reports do not indicate the baby’s sex.
CBC reports the baby’s mother, Raja Ghazi, was between seven and eight months pregnant on Monday when she was stabbed – allegedly by her husband, Sofiane Ghazi, 37 – in the neighborhood of Montreal North. According to police, she was taken to the hospital where her baby was delivered by C-section. A few hours later, the baby died, the report states.
Because the baby was born alive, Sofiane Ghazi has been charged with first-degree murder of the child, as well as attempted murder of his wife and other charges, according to the report.
Here’s more from the report:
Under Canada’s Criminal Code, “a child becomes a human being … when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother, whether or not (a) it has breathed; (b) it has an independent circulation; or (c) the navel string is severed.”
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“So, if the child was alive, even for a moment, outside the child’s mother’s body, it would be considered a legal person such that you could be charged with murdering that child if the child didn’t survive,” said Toronto-based lawyer Daniel Brown, a specialist in criminal law.
The legal situation really comes down to abortion activists’ agenda; they readily admit that they do not want any rights to be given to babies before birth, no matter how far along in the womb they are and no matter whether their mother has them killed in an abortion or someone else commits violence against them and their mother.
Abortion is legal for any reason up until birth in Canada, and a fetal homicide law, like the ones most states have in America, could cause more Canadians to question these laws. Abortion activists do not want that.
According to the report:
Joyce Arthur, president of the organization, said she has no problem with how the Criminal Code is applied to those who are charged in the killing of a baby if an attack on a pregnant woman leads to the baby’s death after it has emerged from the womb.
“I think the law is fair in that sense,” she said.
But Arthur said her group opposes any kind of “fetal homicide law” that would ascribe rights to the fetus. She said if something happens to a fetus while it is inside a woman, it should be considered an attack against “her and her alone” because the fetus is not a human being under the law.
“As soon as you ascribe rights to a fetus, it compromises women’s rights, so that’s what we don’t want.”
Last year, private citizens in Canada urged lawmakers to pass a bill protecting pregnant women and their unborn babies from acts of violence outside the womb – such as what occurred in Montreal this past week. However, abortion activists lobbied heavily against the bill.
Arthur and her pro-abortion group were among the leading advocates against the bill.
“It is shocking that Ms. Arthur is opposed to a bill that is designed to protect choice,” said Mike Schouten of WeNeedaLAW.ca, last year when the bill was proposed. “Cassie, who the bill is named for, chose life for her daughter Molly, but Cassie was murdered before her baby could be born. Under our laws their killer will not be brought to justice for taking the life of her daughter without her consent.
“If they truly believed that a woman’s choice is paramount, then they would have no problem justifying a woman’s choice to have a legal abortion while also supporting a law against the violent crime of killing a fetus when the pregnant woman has not chosen abortion. If they cannot do this, the only option they support is abortion, which is really no longer a choice at all,” he continued.
