I have been following, at least a little, the story of the Alberta woman who killed her newborn son, throwing his body over a fence into a neighbour’s yard.
The woman, Katrina Effert, received no jail time, merely a suspended sentence. The judge had this to say:
Judge Veit ruled, according to multiple media reports, that because Canada allows abortions it reflects how “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.”
Naturally, this is all very disturbing stuff. But the light sentence, although explained today in light of our abortion-friendly culture, would have likely been given prior to abortion being available on demand, precisely because a mother murdering her baby was viewed as so contrary to a woman’s nature. Lower sentences associated with infanticide, in short, recognize that a woman bonds with her baby over nine months gestation, and that subsequently killing that baby represents a break with normal maternal instinct.
It is in the same way that having an abortion breaks with normal maternal instinct–the desire to protect your baby.
In today’s day and age, we undoubtedly have to get rid of the lower sentences for infanticide, precisely because women have grown more and more distant from their own bodies, how they work, and what pregnancy is and what abortion does.
But if we lived in an abortion-free culture, I’d be in favour of lower sentences for women who kill their newborn infants. Some may well do so in cold-blood. I feel, however, that killing your own baby is such a strange thing that mental disorder may, in fact, be to blame.
I’m still thinking this one through. I thought to myself, hey, I should discuss this with someone. But then I realized I have a blog for such questions as this.
Thoughts?
by 
Mark Steyn’s comment on this:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/277027/fourth-trimester-abortion-mark-steyn
I get your point that the woman is probably not quite right. I think everyone could see that. But something bigger is going on here. The law is being pushed to overlook murder on the basis of a woman’s stress. Mark Steyn often has a very clear viewpoint on these things and I think he hits the nail on the head in this short post.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/277027/fourth-trimester-abortion-mark-steyn
Ah, I just see someone else has posted the link as well. Double whammy!
Heartbreaking, infuriating. Since she went to the trouble of giving birth, couldn’t she have (at the very least) called 911 and given the baby up for adoption?
Historically, one of the reasons why infanticide is a separate category of crime is that juries were reluctant to convict a woman of murder or manslaughter, especially when these crimes were capital penaltes. So it was very difficult to obtain a conviction, given that women were considered so vulnerable, as single parenthood was stigmatized and women were considered ignorant and seduced by more powerful men.
I don’t understand why this issue is being discussed only on blogs. Why is it not making news headlines? Even Sun News has not picked up on this one. Is everyone simply avoiding the abortion issue? I think this needs to be discussed publicly, loudly, and spread to all Canadians so they realise what is going on here. Laws being changed by judges, that is not democracy.
Brian Lilley talked about it on Byline Tuesday, and I talked about it on the morning show yesterday.
I don’t see feminists talking about this, though. As far as I can see, none of them addressed the contention that the mother deserves more sympathy than the infant being killed.
It’s not a matter of sympathy, it’s a matter of law.
Speaking as *one* feminist, there’s not much to say beyond the law was applied in what seems to me to be a humane and sensible way.
As Suzanne says, there is a separate category for infanticide because it is recognized that post-partum women are at risk of a number of mental problems, including post-partum depression. Post-partum depression is responsible for both infanticide and suicide and sadly, often both together.
It’s a sad story. Sympathy is deserved all round, but what would be achieved by putting this poor young woman in prison?
I followed this as well as possible with the way coverage of the event happened.
19 year old Katrina Effert gave birth in the basement of her mothers house. She did not want her mother to know she was pregnant. After the baby was born and started to cry she strangled the baby with her thong panties and threw the body over a fence into the neighbors yard. When questioned she claimed she was a virgin so it could not be hers. After being found out she then claimed that yes it was hers but after the birth she gave it to her boy friend trying to blame him.
The sentence in this case after being found guilty is atrocious. That judge should be fired or what ever they do to incompetent judges and KATRINA EFFERT SHOULD BE IN JAIL FOR THE REST OF HER NATURAL LIFE FOR MURDERING HER BABY!
My, you pro-life people are so compassionate.
Why not just hang her?
Actually, in 2009, Effert was sentenced to to life in prison with no chance of parole for ten years, according to this article.
I agree that sentences like in unfortunate cases like this should be lower, but I don’t think that it has to do with the so-called maternal instinct. Rather, I would advocate for a more compassionate look into the circumstances of this young woman, which directly led to her to kill her baby, i.e. she was broke, immature, could not rely on assistance from the father of the baby, and was obviously unable to tell her parents.
It appears that they were taken into consideration when the conviction was overturned, which in the end had far more influence than our “abortion friendly culture.”
@fern hill. I would have suggested that if our all seeing government had not discontinued capital punishment many years ago so that murderers could walk amongst us after they served their 6 month sentence for being naughty and kill again.