By Dave Andrusko
Last July we reported on Sarah Catt, the British mother of two, who had just pleaded guilty to administering poison with intent to “procure a miscarriage” of her unborn baby in her final week of pregnancy in 2010. Today she was sentenced to eight years for the abortion that took place in the 39th week.
Catt “bought a drug used to terminate pregnancy or induce labour over the internet from a company in Mumbai, India, in May 2010,” according to SkyNews. “The drug was delivered to her home address when she was 38 weeks pregnant and she is believed to have taken it towards the end of May 2010 when she was nearly 40 weeks.”
Abortions are forbidden in Britain after the 24th week unless the woman’s life is at risk or meets the very elastic criteria of involving a substantial risk the child would suffer serious physical or mental handicap. None of that applied in Catt’s case.
In sentencing Catt, who reportedly showed no emotion, Justice Cooke said,”The critical element of your offending is the deliberate choice made by you, in full knowledge of the due date of your child, to terminate the pregnancy at somewhere close to term, if not actually at term, with the full knowledge that termination after week 24 was unlawful and in full knowledge your child’s birth was imminent.”
“What you did was end the life of a child that was capable of being born alive by inducing birth or miscarriage,” the judge continued. “What you have done is rob an apparently healthy child, vulnerable and defenceless, of the life which he was about to commence,” SkyNews reported.
The judged pointedly added that if the baby had been born a few days later and she had then killed him, Catt would have been charged with murder.
After being arrested in September 2010, Catt initially claimed she had had an abortion at a Marie Stopes clinic in March. An analysis of her computer, however, showed she had secured a drug over the Internet to “induce a miscarriage,” as most press accounts described the near-full term abortion. She then claimed the baby boy was stillborn and that she buried his body but no evidence of the child was ever found.
Your feedback is very important to improving National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha