By law, the maximum amount of sentencing time in prison for infanticide is five years however the local media reported that “Effert will have to abide by conditions for the next three years but she won’t spend time behind bars for strangling her newborn son.”

In 2005, Effert, who was nineteen at the time, gave birth to a baby boy, strangled him with her underwear and then threw his body over the fence into a neighbor’s yard. Mark Steyn from National Review Online appropriately labeled this act a “Fourth Trimester Abortion” in a post earlier this week.

The Calgary Herald reports that “Veit called it a “classic infanticide case” and sentenced her to a three-year suspended sentence with probation.” Judge Joanne Veit also expressed sympathy for Effert. “[M]any Canadians . . . generally understand, accept and sympathize with the onerous demands pregnancy and childbirth exact from mothers, especially mothers without support…Canadians are grieved by an infant’s death, especially at the hands of the infant’s mother, but Canadians also grieve for the mother.”

Ethicist Wesley Smith pointed out the irony that had Effert strangled a dog, she would have received no sympathy whatsoever. He’s right. Michael Vick received 23 months in jail for participating in dog fighting. So, in our culture as it stands you can participate in dog fighting (which I am not advocating, by the way – I love animals) and end up in the slammer for close to two years. But strangle your baby and you might be able to get off with a little community service time.  

Participants:

• Tony Perkins, President, FRC Action
• Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
• House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)
• Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.)
• Ken Blackwell, former Ohio Secretary of State
• Doug Johnson, National Right to Life Committee
• Bishop Harry Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
• Wesley J. Smith, Senior Fellow in Human Rights & Bioethics, Discovery Institute
• Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel
• Mark Kellen, M.D., President, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
• Kathryn Serkes, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
• Dr. David Prentice, FRC Senior Fellow for Life Sciences, FRC
• David Christensen, Senior Director for Congressional Affairs, FRC
• Tom McClusky, Senior Vice President, FRC Action

Resources mentioned:

• The Capps Abortion Amendment To Affordable Health Choices Act
• Family Coverage: An alternative to the President’s Plan
• Q & A on Health Care
• Ten Reasons Rationing is Included in the Health Care Bill
• Personal Faith, Public Policy by Tony Perkins and Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr.
• Saving Freedom, by Senator Jim DeMint
• More Health Care Resources…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, September 10 at 8:30 pm ET, FRC Action, the legislative lobbying arm of Family Research Council, will host a special one hour “National Townhall on Health Care Reform” Webcast. FRC Action President Tony Perkins will be joined by Congressional leaders and policy experts to discuss the moral, ethical, and financial dangers of President Obama’s health care plan.

Webcast viewers will be able to:

* get their questions answered.
* dissect the dangers inherent in the President’s proposed plan.
* and examine the life and death implications this will have for themselves and their loved ones

Who: Tony Perkins, President, FRC Action
Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC)
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA)
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Ken Blackwell, former Ohio Secretary of State
Doug Johnson, National Right to Life Committee
Cathy Ruse, Senior Fellow for Legal Studies, Family Research Council
Bishop Harry Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
Wesley J. Smith, renowned ethicist
Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel
Dr. David Prentice, Senior Fellow for Life Sciences, Family Research Council
Tom McClusky, Senior Vice President, FRC Action

Where: www.frcaction.org/webcast

What: “National Townhall on Health Care Reform”

When: Thursday, September 10 at 8:30pm ET

Register for the webcast here.