An Act to amend the Criminal Code (violence against pregnant women)

Bill C-311 in 44-1 was a Conservative Private Member's Bill amending the Criminal Code (R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46) to add the act of being committed against a pregnant woman as an aggravating circumstance at sentencing under section 718.2. Sponsored by then-Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall (Yorkton-Melville). The bill was controversial as critics including the Canadian Bar Association and reproductive-rights advocates argued it could create a legal personhood basis for the unborn (the so-called fetal-rights framework rejected by R. v. Sullivan and Lemay, 1991 SCC). The bill did not pass second reading after the federal Liberal-NDP government voted against it, citing reproductive-rights protection concerns. Companion to similar provincial victim-impact-statement frameworks.