By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister’s wife Ann Marie Davis believes last month’s killing of seven-month pregnant Lauren Saunders amounts to a “double murder” — a view that contrasts with National Security Minister Wayne Munroe’s position that the law does not treat a foetus as a separate life and changing the law could have unintended consequences.

Mrs Davis also said yesterday that abortion should be avoided “at all cost” unless a mother’s life is in danger.

She spoke at a Zonta Club press conference, saying she believed Saunders’ unborn child was far enough along to be considered a person.

Saunders’ body was found in bushes off Munnings Road on October 19.

“If it’s a foetus, it’s really a child — well that’s my opinion,” Mrs Davis said yesterday. “So I think that’s a double murder, in my opinion, because once the child is developed into a foetus, that becomes a living human being.”

Mrs Davis said she had not read the Protection Against Violence Act yet believed without evidence that it may touch on whether double homicide can apply. She emphasised Saunders’ stage of pregnancy. “She was seven months pregnant. A lot of babies are born, mature babies are born at six, seven months. So that was just about a fully grown child, that’s very sad. It’s like killing a baby.”

The case has again drawn attention to the country’s abortion laws, particularly the gap between public sentiment about foetal life and the legal framework that prevents a murder charge in such circumstances.

Mrs Davis said her personal position was that abortion should not occur unless the mother’s life is in jeopardy.

“Abortion, I think you should avoid that at all cost, even if you in college,” she said. “I know a lot of people who have had their babies and continue college and graduated, and everything is fine, but we really should not end a life. We really should not unless it’s a threat to your health or it’s a life or death situation.”

Earlier this week, Mr Munroe said the law does not classify a foetus as a separate life for the purposes of murder and that murder applies only when someone with independent circulation is killed, with foetal death treated as abortion under the law.

He noted that prosecutors can still consider all circumstances when laying charges and noted that the death penalty remains an option.

He also cautioned that expanding the murder statute to include unborn children could have unintended consequences, including criminalising medical terminations. “When people talk about it, a lot of the women's groups that talk about it don't mention that in the South American countries, where it would be two murders if a woman miscarries, often she is charged with murder,” he said. “You have to be careful when you engage changes in the law that you understand the full ramifications.”

While Bahamian law does not recognise the killing of an unborn child as murder, several other jurisdictions take a different approach. In the United States, for example, federal law under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act allows prosecutors to charge offenders separately for the death of a foetus if a pregnant woman is killed or injured.

Nearly 40 states have their own “foetal homicide” or “feticide” statutes that permit similar dual charges. Australia’s Queensland state also criminalises the unlawful killing of an unborn child as a distinct offence, while countries like El Salvador have some of the world’s harshest laws, where the killing of a foetus could result in a murder charge.