The Death Penalty for the Crime of Being Unwanted

CNN ran an article that was headlined, “Woman who took abortion pill after UK term limit sentenced to 28 months.” It implies that due to a problematic and nuanced area of the law, the woman was unjustly sentenced. We are supposed to think that she’s the victim of a confused bureaucracy. Within the same article, the twisted narrative continued, for it was reported, “She was sentenced under the Offences Against the Person Act, which dates back to 1861.”

Thus, we are supposed to opine, as the author does, that the law that the woman was sentenced under is archaic and clearly shouldn’t be applied. Yet, most of our foundational laws are archaic. Murder has been against the law in Britain for quite some time, to take an obvious example. Still, the law is no less valid than if it were written yesterday. It administers justice for an objective wrong.

This woman took abortive drugs when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant, according to a post-mortem evaluation. In Britain, abortions can be legally procured up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. The British government began an abortions-by-mail scheme during covid lockdowns, in which women could receive the pills if they were less than 10 weeks pregnant. This woman lied about how far along her pregnancy was, so that she received the abortive drugs, which she took, causing the death of her baby and for her to enter labor. Before doing so, she had searched the Internet for, “how to lose a baby at six months”.

Even at 24 weeks, the maximum legally allowed in Britain, babies are so developed that they are literally cut apart in the womb, and removed limb by limb by abortionists. At 32-34 weeks, the baby would even have been capable of living outside the womb. It’s not particularly uncommon for such premature babies to arrive and live healthy lives. By this stage of pregnancy, the mother would have felt the baby kicking and responding differently to various stimuli. The baby’s sex, a girl, was never mentioned by CNN, nor by most media outlets that covered the story. They want to dehumanize her entirely.

What deemed the child worthy of death, according to the mother’s worldview? The child’s location. The child was inside her body, and therefore she claims the right to kill her. It’s impossible not to draw the analogy of the slave owners that believed that they had a right to kill the slaves that were on their property. In both cases, it comes down to the fundamental question: are they human beings?

In truth, a baby is alive as soon as it is conceived. It is life. Left alone, his or her body will grow to be capable of surviving outside of the womb. What’s interesting about this news story is that nobody seems to be engaging in argument about whether or not this was a human being that was murdered. Everybody agrees that a 32-week-old fetus is a human being. It would be ludicrous to state otherwise, so that’s not being done. The “clump of cells” argument never arises. Instead, a darker truth becomes clear: some just don’t think that the baby girl has any rights.

Labour MP Stella Creasy tweeted, “The average prison sentence for a violent offence in England is 18 months. A woman who had an abortion without following correct procedures just got 28 months under an 1868 act- we need urgent reform to make safe access for all women in England, Scotland and wales a human right.” (sic)

The irony of talking about human rights after destroying every right of a child is hard to miss. After all, by losing her life, the baby lost every opportunity she was owed. What that member of parliament is calling for is the legalization of abortions past 8 months, and presumably until birth. Even then, the child will still be completely dependent for a number of years, so it doesn’t seem entirely unfeasible that our culture will, in its total abandonment of the Christian understanding of man, eventually adopt the same practices as those cultures that believed that parents could kill their young children if they so wished.

The outrage at this legal judgment shows that we have already reached the point at which there is the candid acceptance of killing babies, not because there is doubt as to whether they are alive, but merely because they are unwanted. It ought to be a devastating reflection, for it shows a culture that deserves the collapse that is coming.