While “pro-lifers” scuttle around for votes in the House of Commons on Stephen Woodworth’s infamous Motion 312, a woman has just been sentenced to eight years in prison in the UK for aborting her fetus. That’s more than the maximum penalty for infanticide in Canada.Pretty easy to say when you feel no outrage at the death of an unborn human being.
One could regard this as a kind of limit case—the fetus was apparently days away from being born. But, with Guardian commentator Simon Jenkins, I cannot see how a lengthy jail term accomplishes anything: as he says, it’s just another exercise in judicial machismo.
As if punishment didn't obtain justice or deter future cases...
