Chamber and committees

Petitioner submission of 24 August 2021

PE1887/B – Create an Unborn Victims of Violence Act

Why is “Brodie’s Law” important?

• Domestic violence has overtaken gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia as the leading cause of foetal death in the UK.
• Domestic abuse affects an estimated 1.3 million women each year.
• Around 30% of domestic abuse begins during pregnancy.
• 60% of women experiencing domestic abuse are abused during pregnancy.
• 60% of miscarriages can be attributed to domestic violence
• Forced abortion accounts for around 45% of all terminations - either by coercive control or administration of drugs without consent.

I have experienced the loss of three babies due to domestic violence and forced termination.

In 2009, my then partner subjected me to weeks of coercion, threats of violence and harm to our children and forced me against my will to have a termination of pregnancy. I was unprepared for just how much of an impact being forced against my will had on me. I reported this to the police who said it “wasn’t a criminal matter”. They didn’t understand why I was reporting it and said I should just be grateful for the children I already had. This left me feeling unsupported and therefore back in the clutches of my abuser.

In July 2013 my ex-partner hit me with his car. He was aware that I was 6 weeks pregnant at the time of the incident. I miscarried less than 48 hours later due to my injuries. He dragged out the case for months trying to coerce me into ‘dropping charges’ - eventually he admitted guilt and took a plea deal to ‘reckless and culpable conduct’ with a domestic abuse aggravator. His sentence was to pay me £300 compensation ‘for my loss’. He walked free. I have been left with permanent left side weakness, difficulty walking for long periods/distances, pain in my back, hip and pelvis and complex PTSD as well as the grief of my loss.

Young members of my family witnessed what happened that night and were traumatised, suffering nightmares and anxiety as a result.  I appealed the sentence as unduly lenient but was told my baby never existed in law therefore his sentence was appropriate. This left my family and I feeling extremely let down by the system.

Since ‘losing’ Brodie in 2017 I have met so many women who had suffered similar experiences to me - we all felt that the system minimised such losses and doesn’t recognise the lifelong impact on us as grieving mothers.

I set up Brodie’s Trust - a support group for women who’ve experienced pregnancy loss through domestic violence. I also conducted a study into ‘domestic abuse in pregnancy’ in 2018 and used a sample group of 40 female domestic abuse survivors including service users of Perthshire Women’s Aid. None of the women were Brodie’s Trust service users.

Our main findings were:

• 95% of respondents had been coerced into having a termination of pregnancy, of that 57.5% experienced this more than once.
• 90% had experienced a pregnancy loss or a still birth caused by domestic violence, of that 60% said this had happened more than once.
• 100% had experienced being attacked or threatened by their partner whilst pregnant.
• 92.5% had experienced sexual assault or rape by their partner whilst pregnant.
• Much like the revenge porn and upskirting specific charges, which were covered by existing laws, a specific act is required on this to adequately deal with perpetrators who are often not even charged or receive unduly lenient sentences.