By Anna Walsh

After a horror car crash that killed a young woman heavily pregnant with twins last year in NSW,[i] an attempt was made to re-enliven debate on ‘Zoe’s Law’, a bill which sought to recognise the unborn child as a victim of crime when killed through an assault on the pregnant woman.[ii] The bill made an exception for ‘anything done in the course of a medical procedure’, and ‘anything done by or with the consent of the mother of the child in utero.’[iii] Whilst the first exception refers to abortion, the ambit of the second exception is unclear and raises an interesting issue about criminalising behaviour of pregnant women known to cause damage to the child in utero.