In December 2014, a pregnant woman named Cassie Kaake (pronounced “cake”) was murdered. Her baby was 30 weeks gestation, named and known as Molly to her mother and her loved ones.
The family in their grief after her murder were surprised to learn that the fact that she was pregnant doesn’t register in Canadian law. They knew they had lost not just Cassie but a very much chosen and wanted Molly.
Father of the child, Jeff Durham, who happens to be pro-choice, is helping spearhead Molly Matters. Cassie chose to be a mom and as the slide show on their web site would indicate, was excited about the prospect.
And so yesterday, Cassie and Molly’s Law was born: “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (injuring or causing the death of a preborn child while committing an offence).”
This enactment amends the Criminal Code to make it an offence to cause injury or death to a preborn child while committing or attempting to commit an offence against a pregnant woman and to add pregnancy as an aggravating circumstance for the purpose of sentencing.
This Act may be cited as the Protection of Pregnant Women and Their Preborn Children Act (Cassie and Molly’s Law).
It means something when a woman is 30 weeks pregnant–the loss of that child not yet born is profound. Importantly, this forces the judge to account for the gravity of killing two people, not just one, in sentencing. Finally, we all know pregnant women are more vulnerable to attack and abuse, and I believe this will raise the profile of pregnancy, making it matter more. Molly matters, Cassie matters, pregnancy matters, women’s lives matter–all of this matters. These are points to ponder for the inevitable backlash. (Some people can’t handle a Doritos ad, so I expect this will not be smooth sailing.)
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