By Liz Townsend
British Police Will Investigate Cleft Palate Abortion
Responding to a complaint by Anglican Rev. Joanna Jepson, police in West Mercia, England, will investigate a 2001 late-term abortion performed on a baby with a cleft palate. Jepson, 27, who herself was born with a cleft palate, was horrified when she learned the baby had been killed for a treatable birth defect.
The unborn baby was over 24 weeks old at the time of the abortion. British law bans abortions after 24 weeks except for a "serious threat to the mother's health, or if the baby would be born with a 'serious handicap,'" the Sunday Mercury reported.
"It is extremely encouraging to hear that West Mercia police have decided to re-investigate," Jepson said, according to The Guardian. "Their action affirms the value of this baby's life as well as the wider public and legal importance for this issue to be addressed."
West Mercia Chief Constable Paul West refused to investigate the case after Jepson first discovered the abortion when studying National Abortion Statistics in 2002, the Daily Telegraph reported. Jepson took the case to the British High Court, asking for a judicial review of West's decision.
Although the judicial review has not been completed, police officials decided to re-open the case. "Following a review of material submitted to a judicial review of the case and legal advice, the force has appointed a new team of officers to carry out further inquiries," acting Detective Chief Superintendent Ray Groves said in a statement, according to The Independent. "We will approach his investigation with an open mind and interview all people associated with this case."
Jepson and her attorneys will continue to pursue the judicial review, in order to clarify British law on late-term abortion and whether cleft palate should be considered a "serious handicap."
Court Supports Prison's Abortion Policy
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Louisiana prison's policy requiring inmates to receive a court order before undergoing elective medical procedures, including abortion, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Inmate Victoria W. brought the lawsuit against the Terrebonne Parish Jail in Houma, Louisiana, after she gave birth to a baby she wished to abort while in prison.
"It is undisputed that the abortion was not medically necessary," the court wrote in its April 30 decision, according to the AP. "Requiring a court order for an elective procedure that requires a round trip to and three-day stay in New Orleans is reasonable."
Victoria W. discovered she was pregnant while in prison for a misdemeanor conviction in 1999. Instead of a temporary release request to have the abortion, her lawyer filed for early release from her sentence. In order to qualify for a medically necessary early release, Victoria W. would have had to pay for a doctor's evaluation, which she said she couldn't afford, the AP reported.
When her sentence was finished on October 13, 1999, it was too late in the pregnancy to have a legal abortion. Victoria W. gave birth to the baby and placed the baby for adoption.
Pacemaker Saves Newborn Baby's Life
Doctors at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital in Tampa, Florida, successfully implanted a quarter-sized pacemaker in a newborn baby who has several severe heart defects. Kerrick Walker's heart now beats in a normal rhythm, although he faces more surgery in the future, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
An ultrasound at 21 weeks of pregnancy showed the heart problems Kerrick would face. He has a dime-sized hole in his heart, which also beats too slowly and is located on the right side of his chest instead of the left, the Times reported. His mother, Rica Walker of Lakeland, took medication that sped up her heart rate as well as her baby's, who was delivered at 37 weeks' gestation by Caesarean section March 25.
Mrs. Walker and her husband Derrick chose to name their son Kerrick, which means "warrior."
"When Kerrick came out he cried, and that was my first indication he was alive," Mrs. Walker told the Times. "I cried when I heard him cry."
Since doctors knew about Kerrick's problems before birth, a surgical team was ready to perform the pacemaker operation immediately. The pacemaker raised his heart rate from a dangerously low 40 beats per minute to a normal 120, according to the Times.
Less than two weeks after his first surgery, doctors operated again to install a tube to help regulate Kerrick's blood flow, the Tampa Tribune reported. He will also need valve surgery and a new pacemaker as he grows.
Mrs. Walker said she is grateful for the technology that allowed doctors to identify the defect and repair it so quickly. "It's amazing," she told the Tribune. "Ten years ago, my son may have been dead if we were in the same situation as now."
Martin Sentenced to 15 Months In Jail
New Zealand euthanasia activist Lesley Martin received a 15-month prison sentence after being found guilty of the attempted murder of her mother. She was taken to Wellington's Arohata Women's Prison immediately after her sentencing April 30, according to the New Plymouth Daily News.
Cancer patient Joy Martin, 69, died May 28, 1999, from an overdose of morphine. Her daughter, 40, a prominent supporter of euthanasia, included details about her mother's death in a book. Lesley Martin wrote that she gave her mother the morphine and also covered her face with a pillow as she died, the Sunday Star Times reported. A jury returned a guilty verdict March 31 on one count of attempted murder.
During the sentencing hearing, Justice John Wild chided Martin for her attitude of "arrogance." "You have both during and since your trial displayed a lack of remorse," Wild said, according to the Dominion Post. "You seem in some way to believe you are above the law."
"I see it as my duty to express the community's and the law's denunciation of actions which conflict with or devalue the sanctity of human life," Wild added, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Martin, who founded the group Exit New Zealand, and others used her trial to call for changes in New Zealand's laws against euthanasia. Australian euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke told the Dominion Post that the sentencing is "a damning indictment of a legal system which can't distinguish between acts of love and acts of malice."
Others, however, viewed the case as a sign that society needs to find better ways to help those in pain so they don't see killing themselves as an option. "Euthanasia involves taking people who are at their weakest and most vulnerable, who fear loss of control and abandonment, and placing them in a situation where they believe their only alternative is to kill themselves," Medical Association chairwoman Tricia Briscoe told the Dominion Post. "How a society treats its weakest, most in need and most vulnerable members tests its moral and ethical tone."
Student Banned from Handing Out Pro-Life Pamphlet
A 14-year-old girl cannot hand out pro-life pamphlets to fellow students in her middle school, a Florida judge ruled April 14. Michelle Heinkel wanted to distribute the information at Cypress Lake Middle School in Fort Myers on April 16, designated by a pro-life group as a "day of remembrance" for the unborn, according to the News-Press.
Her request was denied by school officials, who cited the policy of the Lee County School District that bans students from distributing literature that would "tend to create a substantial disruption in the school environment."
Heinkel and her family filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, saying that the school district's policy violates her right to free speech. However, Judge John E. Steele ruled that the district has a duty to "prescribe and control conduct in the schools," which can outweigh a student's free speech rights, the News-Press reported.
Steele also objected to "graphic" content in some pro-life brochures produced by the organization that sponsors the day of remembrance. "Some of the literature may well be age-appropriate," Steele wrote, according to the News-Press, "while other components of the literature contain graphic descriptions and diagrams which may be inappropriate in a middle school or to which other parents may reasonably object, particularly if distributed in a non-classroom setting."
Heinkel's mother insisted that her daughter was planning to distribute a pamphlet appropriate for middle school children. "As graphic as it gets is a picture at 16 weeks old of a baby in ultrasound," Heinkel told the News-Press.
Heinkel's attorney Joel L. Oster told the News-Press that an appeal will be filed.