An Ontario man was found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of his pregnant girlfriend, which investigators say was motivated by her courageous refusal to abort their preborn child.
Christina Yadram’s body was discovered in the woods of the Northern Bruce Peninsula in 2021. Law enforcement quickly matched the blood on the duct tape used to restrain the victim to the DNA of her boyfriend, Wazhir Gafoor.
Gafoor has received a life sentence without the chance of parole for at least 25 years after the jury rejected his defense team’s claims that he was guilty of manslaughter rather than murder. Gafoor’s legal representation attempted to argue he had not intended to kill his girlfriend, but rather cause a miscarriage when he bound and attacked her in the back of a van.
Notably, Gafoor was having an affair with Yadram while married to a wife with whom he shared four children. Gafoor and Yadram already shared one child from their affair; the other, estimated to be six months along in gestation, was killed along with his mother in the brutal attack. Yadram had been excited to be pregnant with a baby boy.
According to materials revealed by the prosecution, Gafoor was “obsessed” with killing his and Yadram’s preborn child, frequently referring to the infant as a “paracite [sic]” and at one point telling the mother, “I just want it dead and gone and I just want to be with you.” Gafoor was also found to have researched methods of forcing an abortion on a woman and purchased items such as a speculum to assist in accomplishing his homicidal goal.
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Yadram’s tragic slaying brings light not only to the immense strength of mothers to resist attempts to harm their preborn children, but also to the widespread pressure and violence women often face after refusing to undergo an abortion. According to a 2023 peer-reviewed study, almost 70% of women who have had an abortion said the procedure was coerced, unwanted, or inconsistent with their values.
“We tend to think of abortion coercion in countries with oppressive regimes like China. In fact, this shocking hidden epidemic is happening all around us,” shared Tessa Longbons, a co-author of the study and researcher for the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
“It’s time for a national conversation about abortion coercion that respects the range of women’s lived experiences, while acknowledging that the overwhelming majority of abortions are in some degree of conflict with what women actually want. Their stories deserve to be told and not erased from the conversation.”
Homicide is a leading cause of death among pregnant women. Research published in 2021 in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology revealed that pregnant women were more like to die by homicide. The researchers found, “Homicide during pregnancy or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy exceeded all the leading causes of maternal mortality by more than twofold.”
Editor’s Note: If you are a victim of domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline, or call 1-800-799-SAFE.
