After five months of marriage — and a turbulent history including several episodes of domestic abuse — Goberdhan left husband Nicholas Baig and moved back home.
On the night of April 7, 2017, Baig stabbed her 17 times in his Pickering parents’ house and left her and their baby to die — just as he’d hoped they would.
The leading cause of death for pregnant women isn’t any complication from the birth — it’s murder. A study from the Journal of the American Medical Association found the risk of dying from homicide is twice as great in pregnant women as it is for those who aren’t.
Yet a murdered mother’s unborn child isn’t considered a homicide victim under Canadian law: only if the infant dies “after becoming a human being” when it has “completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother.”
Goberdhan’s family wants to change that.
Their petition, found at www.ariannaslaw.com , calls on Parliament to pass legislation recognizing that, “when an assailant in a commission of a crime attacks a pregnant woman and injures or kills her pre-born child, then the assailant may be charged with an offence on behalf of the pre-born child.”
Arianna’s father believes such a law could deter other abusive partners from harming pregnant women.
A similar private member’s bill died in 2016 after opponents argued its hidden agenda was to erode abortion rights.
