Bishop Simeon Hall this week called on lawmakers to change the law to allow for the recognition of murdered fetuses.
The former president of the Bahamas Christian Council and chairman of the Ingraham government's crime commission said in a letter sent to several women MPs and senators: "I write praying your attention to the fact that at least two of several women murdered this year were pregnant and the law, in its present form, does not follow the Judeo-Christian position that human life begins at conception."
Bishop Hall's call comes after two high profile murders of pregnant women in recent months.
On July 30, Erica Ward was one of three people murdered at a residence on Montgomery Ave., off Carmichael Road. Ward was around eight months pregnant.
Weeks later, Baresha Glinton-Lewis, who was five months pregnant, was shot to death in the presence of her 10-year-old son.
Hall, a Baptist clergyman,  argues that a child in any stage, from conception to birth, should be protected from murder by law, and its homicide considered separate from the mother.
Under existing Bahamian law, unborn children are not considered murder victims. And when two men were charged with Ward's murder, there was no charge leveled for the death of Ward's unborn child.
As it stands now, there is a contradiction in our law. Abortion is a crime in The Bahamas. A person could get up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of abortion.
If it is a crime to terminate a pregnancy voluntarily, why is it not a crime when an unborn child is killed by a bullet or knife or some other weapon?
In 2004, the United States passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which created a federal law that makes it a crime to harm a child in the womb.
Under the U.S. law: "The Unborn Victims of Violence Act provides that, under federal law, any person who causes death or injury to a child in the womb shall be charged with a separate offense, in addition to any charges relating to the mother."
The government is expected to soon bring to Parliament a new penal code.
We have said it in this space before but it bears repeating, there needs to be a change in our law ensuring that the killing of a mother and her unborn child or children is considered a multiple murder. The sanction for such a crime should be severe.
In what will surely not be long from now, the country will record another record-breaking murder count. It will mark the fifth in five years. And we are on pace to far surpass the 94 recorded in 2010.
It is not yet clear if any of the anti-crime initiatives implemented by the government will help to slow violent crime in the future.
It is also unclear if any of the opposition political parties have anti-crime plans that will make a difference.
What is clear is that much needs to be done to reform our criminal justice system.
This simple change to the penal code could send a message to those out there with the criminal intent that harming expecting women is unacceptable.

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