What Does Giving Rights to a Foetus Mean for Women? Ask Alicia Beltran
The NSW parliament is considering Zoe’s law, a bill designed to allow criminal liability for the grievous injury or death of a foetus at least 20 weeks old. This represents a fundamental shift in how our legal system defines personhood. The bill proposes to give legal personhood to a foetus by applying some (but not all) parts of the Crimes Act to anyone who injures a pregnant woman - as if a foetus was a separate legal person, instead of being an injury to the pregnant woman.
Supporters of the bill say it will not further restrict abortion, which is still unlawful in NSW (the procedure is only lawful if the woman’s doctor believes it is necessary to avoid a serious danger to her physical or mental health). Eminent legal and medical experts disagree - including the former director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Gynaecology, the NSW Bar Association and MDA National, a leading indemnity insurer of doctors.
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