Miranda Devine: The law must recognise these unborn babies

WHY are we ignoring the precious lives of Katherine Hoang’s twin boys? All so activists can sleep better at night, writes Miranda Devine.

MISCARRIAGES used to be brushed under the carpet.

Women were not supposed to talk about losing a precious baby part way through a pregnancy.

Thankfully, the taboo about grieving for your miscarried child has evaporated in recent years.

But the law has yet to catch up.

There’s something wrong when the death of twin boys in a horrific head-on car crash just one week before they were due to be born does not count for anything in the eyes of the law.

The death last month of Katherine Hoang, 23, pregnant with twin boys, and of her 17-year-old sister-in-law, count for two charges of manslaughter against Richard Moananu, the allegedly drunk driver of the other car.

However, for the death of Hoang’s unborn boys, the law is silent.

Katherine and Bronco Hoang were both involved in a car accident that claimed the lives of Katherine and her two unborn sons. Picture: Facebook

Family friends have called for charges to be brought over the death of the twins and now there is a renewed push in the NSW parliament for a law which would recognise the separate existence of the foetus of a pregnant woman of at least 20 weeks’ gestation.

Zoe’s Law, is named after the unborn child of Brodie Donegan, who was 32 weeks pregnant with Zoe in 2009 when she was hit by a drug-affected driver. It would mean that if a criminal act leads to the death or injury of the unborn child, a person can be charged with murder or manslaughter.

Abortion activists oppose Zoe’s Law because they fear it will humanise a foetus.

But perpetuating the fiction that the Hoang twins never existed doesn’t help their cause and only hurts the family.