A case in Scotland last Friday saw a pregnant woman suffer a miscarriage after being attacked by two schoolboys while waiting for her bus. Her husband later wrote on social media, after announcing the loss of their unborn baby: “This is a very traumatic, heartbreaking, and a horrible experience for us, especially to my wife and kids.”
There have been calls this year in Scotland to amend the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. The Ministry of Justice categorises “child destruction” as a “domestic violence offence” in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Scotland is out of step here. However, there is no reason why acts of violence against unborn children should be relegated to targeting domestic violence. There are many more cases which underline the need for a new, robust law establishing rights for unborn victims of violence. The murder last year of Natalie McNally and her unborn child in the North highlighted the lacuna within the law in these cases.
Several American states already have laws which address this. There is also a federal law in the US, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which creates a separate offence for the death or injury of the mother and child. This applies to a child at any gestational age and no knowledge of pregnancy is required. It would be fitting for more countries to consider introducing a law such as this in line with the growing number of harrowing cases of assaults which also claim the lives of unborn children.
