I find this story from the UK rather ironic, especially given its timing. Sarah Louise Catt of Sherburn-in-Elmet, North Yorkshire, used abortifacient drugs that she had obtained via the Internet to kill her unborn child. What is particularly interesting about this case is that her unborn child was 39 weeks gestation. Yes, you read that correctly.  Babies are born at 40 weeks gestation.

In a court case, she said that she had tried to have a legal abortion but discovered that she was over the legal gestational age limit of 24 weeks.

Here is what the judge said:

““What you did was end the life of a child that was capable of being born alive by inducing birth or miscarriage. What you have done is rob an apparently healthy child, vulnerable and defenseless, of the life which he was about to commence.”

Isn’t it incredible that in Canada, no such judgement could be rendered, because even a child at 40 weeks is not considered a human being.

He added that: ““The child in the womb was so near to birth, in my judgment all right-thinking people would think this offense more serious than unintentional manslaughter,” noting that she could have been charged with murder if she had only waited a few more days until after the baby was born.

Her sentence: 8 years in prison.

Wow. Just wow.

“They can put words in [Justice] Bertha Wilson’s [ruling] til they’re blue in the face, but it’s a fundamental right. There’s no such thing as voting your conscience,” NDP MP Françoise Boivin said.

And THIS is what M-312 is about. Do we research and uncover truth, or do we conceal and tell people to shut up?

Who knows if he really was. But this song was just released, which certainly speaks to the pro-life side of things. I haven’t heard the song yet. Strange that it is described as “upbeat.” I’d think abortion songs should be more in keeping with this one. (That song gets me every time.)

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5f9-b-Zfnw]

This is an absolutely fascinating read. The story of Jewels Green, who had an abortion, became a clinic worker and then became pro-life.

It’s not going to pass. But it’s still doing good out there. Not being so fond of legislation on abortion myself, this is the chief good I see in political action on the topic. Not whether it passes or fails but that it has the capacity to force media to report on the matter, gives bloggers something to talk about, and motivates apathetic Canadians to action.

He’s voting in favour of M-312.

Watch it here.

“Abortion in Canada is always the exception to the rule,” says Brian Lilley. He is right.

I agree with Andrew Coyne here:

Anyone with a distaste for politics as I’ve described it is unlikely to run; if they do, they are unlikely to win; and if they succeed, it is usually because politics changes them. Yes, it’s an adversarial system, like the law. But law is a profession; politics is a pathology. Twenty-four-hours-a-day, total immersion in partisan propaganda — my side good, their side bad, all the time, without exception — would drive anyone a little mad.

And this is precisely why I believe we must stop to admire the idealism of those pro-life MPs who stood up to so eloquently lay out their principles yesterday over M-312. They were putting forward new ideas. They did so at personal cost and against the desires of the Prime Minister. This is the success of yesterday.

I agree, for the most part, with Andrew Coyne’s article. However, I am not so bleak as he is. I think we can change culture and that politics is not the only way to do so. But there are moments when politics works to change culture even when what is at stake a small motion that won’t pass. Yesterday was one such moment for those who were paying attention.

Sometimes politics is so superficial, so dull, so politically correct, so lacking in integrity that I want to run into the Gatineau Hills, away from this city.

Not today. A great moment for Canada.