Mr. Speaker, a publication by Statistics Canada on family violence states that 11% of Canadian female spousal victims were pregnant during violent incidents between 2004 and 2009. Within this five-year period, 63,000 pregnant women were violently victimized by their spouse while carrying their child.
Choosing to become a mother should be joyful and exciting, but clearly too many pregnant women in Canada are victims of violent crimes that injure the child they carry, jeopardizing a woman's choice to have a family.
Cassie and Molly's law is named in reference to one of the latest murders of a pregnant Canadian woman, Cassie Kaake. Cassie was murdered in her Windsor, Ontario, home in December 2014, when she was just weeks away from giving birth to her daughter Molly.
This new legislation is precise and robust, amending the Criminal Code to create a new sentence for crimes against a pregnant woman that injure her preborn child. Cassie and Molly's law will also codify pregnancy as an aggravating factor.
I invite my colleagues to join me in supporting these new protections for pregnant women.