Mark Steyn: Fourth Trimester Abortion

And back in the day when we Second Wave Feminists were fighting for legalized abortion ("to prevent all those back-alley coat-hanger deaths"), we scoffed at the old fuddy-duddies who spoke of slippery slopes.

Aside from the fact that for nearly 40 years we have been killing 1.5 million/year, fully one third of the younger generations (who, btw, are supposed to be footing the bill for the humongous demographic bulge known as the Baby Boomers). turns out the Slippery Slopers were downfight prophetic:

FOURTH-TRIMESTER ABORTION

by Mark Steyn

National Review Online: The Corner

September 13, 2011

From the Court of Queen's Bench (the appellate court) in Alberta:

The Wetaskiwin, Alta., woman convicted of
infanticide for killing her newborn son, was given a three-year
suspended sentence Friday by an Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench judge.

Katrina Effert was 19 on April 13, 2005, when
she secretly gave birth in her parents' home, strangled the baby boy
with her underwear and threw the body over a fence into a neighbour's
yard...

Effert will have to abide by conditions for the
next three years but she won't spend time behind bars for strangling
her newborn son.

Indeed. As Judge Joanne Veit puts it:

"While many Canadians undoubtedly view abortion
as a less than ideal solution to unprotected sex and unwanted
pregnancy, they generally understand, accept and sympathize with the
onerous demands pregnancy and childbirth exact from mothers, especially
mothers without support," she writes... "Naturally, Canadians are grieved
by an infant's death, especially at the hands of the infant's mother,
but Canadians also grieve for the mother."

Gotcha. So a superior court judge in a
relatively civilized jurisdiction is happy to extend the principles
underlying legalized abortion in order to mitigate the killing of a
legal person - that's to say, someone who has managed to make it to the
post-fetus stage. How long do those mitigating factors apply? I mean,
"onerous demands"-wise, the first month of a newborn's life is no picnic
for the mother. How about six months in? The terrible twos?

Speaking of "onerous demands", suppose
you're a "mother without support" who's also got an elderly relative
around with an "onerous" chronic condition also making inroads into your
time?

And in what sense was Miss Effert a
"mother without support"? She lived at home with her parents, who
provided her with food and shelter. How smoothly the slick euphemisms -
"accept and sympathize... onerous demands" - lubricate the slippery slope.

from National Review's The Corner

HT: von

If you're not familiar with Mark Steyn, your world will be richer if you make his acquaintance. He is a brilliant writer with an exceedingly quick wit. Visit all his writing at Mark Steyn Online.



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