New laws offering greater support to expectant parents who lose an unborn child due to another person’s criminal act came into effect last week (29 March).
Attorney General, Mark Speakman said New South Wales had become the only jurisdiction in Australia to have a stand-alone offence of ‘Causing the loss of a foetus’.
“No law can ever repair the harm and distress caused in these circumstances, but these reforms better acknowledge the heartbreak suffered by families and hold offenders more appropriately to account through stronger sentences,” Mr Speakman said.
He said the new offences in the Crimes Act 1900 were ‘Causing the loss of a foetus’, which applied to a wide range of criminal acts, and ‘Causing the loss of a foetus (death of pregnant woman)’ which could be charged with a homicide offence where the foetus was lost and the pregnant woman was killed due to a third-party criminal act.
“The operation of the new offence of ‘Causing the loss of a foetus’ is unique in terms of the breadth and variety of third party criminal acts it covers,” Mr Speakman said.
“When either of the new offences are charged, families may be eligible for a one-off $3,000 payment.
“This bereavement payment can assist families to seek counselling and other support services.”
The Attorney General said under the reforms, improved support and recognition was also available to parents who had lost an unborn child of any age as a result of a third party criminal act.
Mr Speakman said the reforms meant family members could make victim impact statements that may be taken into account by the courts when sentencing offenders; the name of the unborn child could be included in the formal wording of charges against an accused (the indictment); and family members could claim funeral costs for the loss of an unborn child caused by a car accident.
“The laws do not affect reforms introduced by the Abortion Law Reform Act 2019 and expressly exclude any act or omission of the pregnant woman,” he said.
“The reforms have been carefully crafted not to displace the centuries old ‘born alive rule’, which states that a crime of violence, such as homicide, can only be committed on a legally recognised person – a status attained when someone is born and takes their first breath,” Mr Speakman said.
