In a tragic event in Quebec City<\/a> on August 10, Marie-Pier Gagn\u00e9, 27, was struck by a car as she crossed a crosswalk by the hospital. Sadly, she died as the result of severe injuries, but, before she died, medical staff were able to safely deliver her pre-born baby girl. This newborn baby girl and her father have now received a massive outpouring of love and support, with over $30,000 raised in just one day to help support them in the difficult road they have ahead.<\/p>\n There is a painful beauty in the incredible generosity and outpouring of love seen for this tiny baby, who was saved by the quick and decisive actions of medical staff.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is also a troubling disconnect in the paradox of a medical system that (rightly) fights to save two lives, and a criminal justice system that recognizes only one. Had Gagn\u00e9 died as the result of violent crime, not in the vicinity of a hospital as she did, her baby would also have died, and then that little girl would not have counted.<\/p>\n A life that so obviously counts, that so obviously matters to the thousand-plus people moved to immediately\u00a0<\/span>donate to her future, THAT life would not have mattered if she had died somewhere, somehow, else. This is the story of babies like Molly<\/a>, whose mother Cassie was murdered at 7 months pregnant with no medical staff around to save her viable baby girl.<\/p>\n It is a testament to our medical system that those on scene responded without hesitation, knowing that the pre-born baby deserved care as much as her mother.\u00a0 It is to our legislature\u2019s and justice system\u2019s shame that no safeguards exist to protect pre-born children from crime, and no consequences exist for taking the life of a pre-born child through crime.<\/p>\n This oversight is even more inexcusable when we know from national polling<\/a> that close to 70% of Canadians support harsher sentences for criminals who take the life of a pregnant woman. The response to this baby\u2019s birth in Quebec City supports this, as people rally instantly around the beauty of life even in such a dark circumstance.<\/p>\n