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A Somerset woman who lost her baby in a car accident is urging the government to grant rights to unborn children.

Jackie Luxon and her partner Tom are campaigning for a change in legislation so unborn babies over 24 weeks are recognised as a person in their own right.

This would allow charges to be brought when an unborn child is seriously injured or killed in a road traffic collision, Somerset Live reports .

The couple, from Axbridge, lost their unborn child at 26 weeks in March last year after a motorist swerved into the wrong lane on the B3151 in Somerset.

The motorist then collided with Ms Luxon's vehicle, lifting it into the air.

She was freed from the wreckage by emergency services and rushed to hospital with serious injuries.

However, her unborn child had no heartbeat and was pronounced dead.

In a statement after the incident, Ms Luxon said: "My heart was torn to pieces when we were informed that my baby girl no longer showed signs of life.

"It's heart-breaking that no prosecution can be brought for the loss of her life...we hope that consideration is made for changes to this law going forward."

"It was a day that tore our lives apart."

Grace's Law

The driver of the vehicle which collided with the couple's Seat Ibiza pleaded guilty to two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and another count of dangerous driving.

He was given a prison sentence of three years and seven months.

However, the Luxons say his punishment did not represent justice for the death of their unborn baby girl, Grace.

Currently, the Road Traffic Act 1988 does not recognise an unborn child in any way if they are injured, seriously injured or killed in a road traffic collision.

Therefore, charges could not be brought as a direct result of her death.

Yet the bereaved parents say she was fully recognised as a person in other aspects of the law.

"After Grace's death, we had to legally register her as a person and then give her a funeral, either bury her or cremate her," Mr Luxon said.

"And then, on the other side of that, if the hospital had focused on Grace's life instead of Jackie's, or if she had been born even for a second, then she would still be identified as a person."

The couple are rallying road safety charities and local MPs for support of the proposed change, which they are calling Grace's Law.

'There is an anomaly in the law'

Wells MP James Heappey has already vowed to back the family's campaign.

He told Somerset Live: “I’ve been aware of this tragic case for a number of months and have already raised the matter with the Secretary of State for Transport, who in turn has undertaken to discuss the matter with the Lord Chancellor.

"It appears that there is an anomaly in the law where if an unborn child is killed in some circumstances, it is punished differently to others; clearly this cannot be right.

"I am intending to raise this important issue further but early conversations suggest that this is something that the Government will want to look at.”

In the meantime, the family says they will continue to share their story in the hope it will encourage others to come forward with support.

Mr Luxon said: "Maybe other parents this has happened to might turn around and see it and think, 'Maybe I didn't have the courage to do this at that particular time, but definitely I'd like to jump on the back of this and try and promote change'.

"It's only when something truly terrible happens that you think, 'Actually, now I've got a chance to change that'."