Dutch Woman Faces Murder-By-Abortion Charge

By Cernig

Is this insane or what?

A Dutch woman is being prosecuted for murdering her unborn child in an unprecedented case after she travelled to Spain for an abortion when she was already 27 weeks pregnant.

Today a judge rejected the 24-year-old woman's request for an injunction ordering an end to the Dutch murder probe, her lawyer Gerard Spong said.

Spong believes his client has done nothing wrong because Spain has a provision in its abortion legislation that allows late-term abortions, "if there is a psychological need for it," he said in a telephone interview.

"My view was and is that as long as Spanish judicial authorities do not make any decision that this woman has committed an offense ... the Dutch judicial authorities should abstain (from investigating)," he added.

Abortion is legal in the Netherlands up to the 24th week of pregnancy and it is extremely rare for Dutch authorities to file murder charges linked to such a procedure. The fact that the woman is being prosecuted for an abortion carried out overseas makes the case unprecedented.

I mean, wtf? I know the E-Christian crowd will be happy about this, but is this really the way the rest of us want to go?

The Archbishop And Michelle

By Cernig

Much ado about the cyberweiller, Malkin, and her ilk's piling on a small boy and a normal family with unusual troubles today. My colleague Sha has covered it admirably but I just wanted to add in something I've just seen, which seems apposite to the debate.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, spoke today at a conference entitled: 'No bullsh*t - What matters to every child', organised by children's charity the Kids Company.

Here's the money quote:

"It's been said sometimes that you can gauge the temperature, the kind of moral climate of a society by looking at the way it treats its most vulnerable people."

"Are we a society where people are prepared to advocate for those who don't have voices of their own? Above all, are we prepared to put the necessary resource, skill and commitment, into the nurturing of human beings?"

It seems that Michelle and Dubya don't agree with the Archbishop that upholding Christian values means supporting the weakest in society. But it seems to me that the timing of the Archbishop's statement could hardly be more fortuitous. God, we are often told, works in mysterious ways - and Jesus would vote for SCHIP.

Update Think Progress notes that Michelle may have been a deliberately aimed, rather than loose, cannon. All the footprints lead back to the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY). And he would have got away with it too if it hadn't been for those pesky Scooby Gang kids liberal bloggers!

Archbishop Claims Condom Conspiracy

By Cernig

Here's a claim right up there with A-jad's one about there being no gays in Iran.

The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with the HIV virus deliberately.
Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected "in order to finish quickly the African people".

..."Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose," he alleged, refusing to name the countries.

"They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time."

Aids activists in the country have been shocked by the bishop's comments.

"Condoms are one of the best ways of getting protection against catching Aids," said Gabe Judas, who runs Tchivirika (Hard Work) - an theatre group that promotes HIV/Aids awareness.

"People must use condoms as it's a safe way of having sex without catching Aids," he told the BBC.

Archbishop Chimoio, who made the remarks at celebrations to mark 43 years of independence, said that fighting the disease was a serious matter.

"If we are joking with this sickness we will be finished as soon as possible.

"If we want to change the situation to face HIV/Aids it's necessary to have a new mentality, if we don't change mentality we'll be finished quickly," he said.

"It means marriage, people being faithful to their wives... (and) young people must be abstaining from sexual relations."

Almost 20% of Mozambique's 19 million people ar catholic and look to this guy as their spiritual leader. If some wild-eyed internet mystic claimed this, we'd all laugh and write it off. But what do we do when it's an actual Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church?

Marrying for the kids

by shamanic

From the "End of Civilization as We Know It" file, Amanda takes a look at a Pew Poll showing, unsurprisingly, that adults no longer equate marriage and children the way they once did. And why should they?

I read a statistic in a history text, back when I was being formally educated, that in Colonial America, one-third of first-born babies were born within eight months of their parents' wedding. Films and literature are chock full of more modern renditions of a terrified young woman telling her young boyfriend that she's pregnant. If he's to live up to his duties and "be a man", he must marry her. (Even last year's "The Good Shepherd" featured this situation, and of course there's "Knocked Up".)

Is it any surprise then that marriage and children were inextricably tied until very recently? Today, with readily available supplies of condoms and female birth control methods, saturation messaging of "safer sex" in the media, and legal abortion, adults are now free to marry for love and delay, or even opt out entirely, of parenthood.

Most people see this as progress. Being able to delay children until a relationship is mature and the couple has a baseline of financial stability should generally be viewed as positive, but of course there are dissenters among the traditionalist crowd, which would ban contraception, abortion, and reinstate shame! as the fundamental tool in controlling adults' sexual impulses.

I don't think they're going to get this genie back into the bottle though, and that's progress too.