Abortion fight

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

dipsydoodle (27,744 posts)

UK : Sarah Catt jailed for full-term abortion of baby
Source: BBC News

A woman who aborted her own baby in the final phase of her pregnancy has been jailed for eight years.

Sarah Louise Catt, 35, of North Yorkshire, took a drug when she was full term, 39 weeks pregnant, to cause an early delivery.

She claimed the boy was stillborn and that she buried his body, but no evidence of the child was ever found.

Catt made a "deliberate and calculated decision" to end her pregnancy, a Leeds Crown Court judge said.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-19621675

secondwind (3,467 posts)
1. She must have been so very desperate to resort to this. :-(

In a welfare state?

msanthrope (12,710 posts)
2. Indeed. Sucks when you are trying to hide an affair from your spouse.

She's a murderer. Read the while article....it's disgusting.

Scairp (2,096 posts)
21. Only if it took a breath

If it was stillborn then I don't know what the charge would be, except I don't understand why she waited until it was viable when she could have gotten a legal abortion months ago. If they can't find the body they have no way of knowing the cause of death.

happyslug (9,882 posts)
22. That is NOT the rule in Britain, in most states and under the Common Law.

Under the Common Law (Which Followed Catholic Rules of the Middle ages, rules that only changed in 1869) is that a fetus is treated as a Human Being once it had "Quickened".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickening

Now, to kill a Child that was NOT yet born, but had Quicken was considered Manslaughter (Through William Blackstone calls it a Misdemeanor).

Quickening took place at about 18-20 weeks (out of a 40 week pregnancy, i.e the Second and third trimester, please note under Medical rules the pregnancy is dated from the woman's last period, which is about two weeks before she would have ovulated and became pregnant, thus you see a lot of time period that vary about two weeks as people confuse the "start" of the pregnancy).

While Blackstone calls killing a Fetus that had Quicken a misdemeanor, the more accurate rule is it was Murder if done in the last trimester, but a lesser crime in the Second Trimester and NOT a crime if done in the first trimester. This was the Catholic Rule prior to 1869, defined by St Augustine who seems to have developed the rule from both Jewish sources in the Old Testament AND Aristotle who had opine that the start of life was when the Child had Quickened not when it was born.

The still born rule had to do with a woman's rights to her own property. If a child was born, alive, to a couple, the husband obtained complete use of his wife's estate for the rest of his life, even if the child later died. If no child was born alive, when the wife died her property went to her heirs and her husband obtain nothing. The definition of a live birth was if the child cried. Thus Doctors and midwives would spank the child to produce a cry, thus showing that the child was born alive. in an age with a high infant mortality rate. I bring this up for it had nothing to do with killing a child. If the Child would have been born alive EXCEPT for the killing of the child, it was treated as if born alive. This situation only occurred when they was no outside forces causing the death of a new born baby except for natural causes.

bitchkitty (6,350 posts)
25. Yea, well, she should have been desperate at 6 weeks

when she could have had a legal abortion.

I have no sympathy for this monster.

Horse with no Name (29,554 posts)
3. Even at 39 weeks, the baby is viable

She induced labor....she didn't have an "abortion" or terminate the pregnancy. She gave birth which is the natural progression and women every single day are induced at 39 weeks.

Women self-induce labor here all of the time...whether it is by nipple stimulation, failing to follow doctor's orders, taking castor oil or other old wives remedies.

They need to take the language out of this and call it infanticide--but it definitely is NOT abortion.


The question needs to be is WHAT happened after the birth of the child--my guess is that she murdered it. If she produced the body, it is very easy to tell if that child took a breath or not.

msanthrope (12,710 posts)
5. I think they charged her with 'abortion' because that was her intent--not to induce labor, but to

kill and expel the fetus past the legal limit.

Infanticide generally involves a live birth--since there is no body, you could not have proven that.

Because there is no body to autopsy, the prosecutors are limited in what they can charge.

Horse with no Name (29,554 posts)
7. I just hate to see this used as a prop for the "late term abortion" crowd

because it most definitely was not. 

The baby was term.

WTF do you think late-term abortion does you infanticidal scrunt?

azurnoir (19,803 posts)
13. abortion doesn't seem fitting here my son was born at 37 weeks

weighed 7lbs 3 oz did not spend a moment in an incubator and went home 3 days after he was born, she needs to give where the babies body is really located

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014234002

Obama would protect her.

[Jasonw560]

My boys were born at 35 weeks. Were in NICU for a month. What does that have to do with the price if eggs in China, DUmbass?

Premeditated intent to kill. Murder.

[Gina]

31/35/37 weeks here.  She murdered the baby.  Took it's life.  That is abortion.

[Undies]

Her body = her decision.  It's not the woman's fault some random baby crawled up inside her and tried to live off her.  It's the same way with airborne fertilized eggs.  A woman breaths one in, or sits on a contaminated toilet seat - it's not her fault.  Why should any woman want to harbor such a random fugitive?