CLC Blog

February 23, 2022 (Campaign Life Coalition) – An “unborn child” was publicly recognized by the Government of Nova Scotia as one of the 23 victims in the country’s worst mass shooting that took place almost two years ago.

“This week marks the beginning of the inquiry into the April 18 and 19, 2020, mass casualty that took the lives of 22 Nova Scotians and an unborn child,” a February 22 statement from Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston reads.

Over the course of a 12-hour murderous rampage in April 2020, gunman Gabriel Wortman, impersonating a police officer in a vehicle that looked like a police cruiser, pulled over random motorists and executed them. He also torched houses and cars that contained victims. He was eventually killed in a shootout with police.

One woman the gunman pulled over was 33-year-old Kristen Beaton, a wife and mother who, with her husband Nick Beaton, was expecting her second child.  Beaton, a healthcare worker in rural Nova Scotia, was on her way to work. The pregnant mom was a complete stranger to the gunman.

In her obituary, Beaton is described as a mom who “would do anything” to put a smile on her young son’s face. “Kris's greatest accomplishment in her short life was her son Daxton. Kris loved that boy more than life itself.”

The obituary also mentions the passing of her “unborn, baby Beaton.”

Beaton’s husband Nick revealed to CNN in May of 2020 how devastated he was at the loss of his wife and their pre-born baby.

“She was pregnant with my unborn baby,” he said at that time. “I know in my heart what it would be like if she was here right now, we had the whole week planned out because I was off too. We were going to get the spare room ready for the baby."

In response to the tragedy and outcry from the public, the Government of Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia has established the Mass Casualty Commission and is in the process of conducting a full review of what happened during the rampage. Family and friends of the victims say that more could have been done by police and emergency service providers to prevent the crimes that took place.

The government of Nova Scotia mentioning Kristen and “Baby Beaton” was in relation to the government showing support for a public inquiry on the matter.

It’s certainly appropriate that the government should recognize the pre-born baby as one of the victims.

What was inside Kristen Beaton’s womb was not simply a “product of conception,” a “fetus,” or a “blob of tissue” but a member of the human family who was separate from the mother’s body and who became an additional victim of a violent act.

To acknowledge the life of this baby is to honour this baby as a unique individual with his or her own dignity and worth.

In Canada, there is currently no legal protection for children in the womb. Their humanity remains unrecognized. In fact, under Canadian law, a baby does not become a “human being” until it has “completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother.” Such a definition has allowed over 100,000 babies to be aborted in Canada annually during all nine months of pregnancy. Governments, unfortunately, do not recognize the humanity of children targeted for abortion.

It’s a step in the right direction for a government to publicly recognize that Baby Beaton was a member of the human family and that his or her life mattered.

Acknowledging that a pre-born baby’s life matters, that they are a “somebody” with a distinct life of their own, is moving in the right direction of one day granting them legal protection in the womb. The truth is that pre-born babies’ lives matter. Baby Beaton proves it.

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