It has been a long trip but we are finally back from Ottawa where Cassie and Molly’s Law was presented to Parliament by MP Cathay Wagantall.
It was great to finally meet Cathay in person and to see in her eyes that she is genuinely concerned with protecting all Canadian women from violent crimes. She was very compassionate and understanding of our plight and has done so much work to make sure that it is treated with the integrity it deserves.
We are beyond grateful that the wording of her bill speaks exactly to the circumstances of our efforts with Molly Matters. The bill is simple and concise and will serve well to appease the concerns of others who see the delicacy of this issue.
Cassie and Molly’s Law serves to recognize a woman’s choice and protect it. It serves to provide restorative justice to the families affected by such a horrible crime, and more adequately punish the ones capable of committing such violence against women – not for what is legally convenient – but for the reality it holds to the women that become victims.
This bill could never be used to subtract from the rights of a woman. It is designed to be an aggravating factor and an offence committed against a woman has to exist first. It makes it so killing her preborn child can ONLY be a crime when the woman herself is first the victim of a violent attack. By doing it this way, it could never be used against a woman in any way.
It in no way gives personhood or “a kind of personhood” to an unborn baby and thereby negates the concern entirely that it can be used in the future by anyone’s “pro-life” agenda.
This is not a law that can be used on its own. First, there must be charges for a violent offence committed against a pregnant woman. This serves to nullify any fear that it can ever be used against a doctor when a woman seeks an abortion.
The wording of this bill is a perfect, logical compromise to anyone worried that there is even the slightest chance of devaluing a woman’s legal right to opt out of parenthood. In fact, with this law a woman’s choice would be strengthened in that it could become legally acknowledged when she chooses to become a mother.
That is what seems to be so often missed in all of this – the fact that there is no legal recognition for a woman’s choice when she becomes the victim of a violent crime. This bill rectifies exactly that.
Those who identify themselves as “pro-choice” should be ecstatic for the fact that Cassie and Molly’s Law offers to take into account a woman’s choice and makes it so that it can never be stripped away in a violent crime without accountability.
Those who consider themselves to be “pro-life” should also be pleased though it doesn’t accomplish their goal to have unborn babies regarded as human, it offers legal protection to women who are pregnant and their child as one.
In all, this issue has no business in abortion politics and the words of this bill speak perfectly to transcending beyond just that.
I hope that the voice of reason will speak loudest here, for I know that this voice is built right into the precise wording of Cassie and Molly’s Law. Because we should all be inclined to protect women when they need it most, we should all allow the words of this bill to speak for itself.
Thank you, Mrs. Wagantall, for staying true to our cause. We are very proud of the work you have done and I know that Cassie and Molly would be very proud of you too.
