Religion & Law

Is here.  The news reports (that I've read, anyway) do not capture the horror.  (HT:  Mollie Wilson O'Reilly, at Commonweal, who also links to this worth-reading piece by Melinda Henneberger.)  Here are the opening paragraphs of the Report:

This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we

mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester

of pregnancy ? and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with

scissors. The medical practice by which he carried out this business was a filthy fraud in

which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal disease among

them with infected instruments, perforated their wombs and bowels ? and, on at least two

occasions, caused their deaths. Over the years, many people came to know that

something was going on here. But no one put a stop to it.

Let us say right up front that we realize this case will be used by those on both

sides of the abortion debate. We ourselves cover a spectrum of personal beliefs about the

morality of abortion. For us as a criminal grand jury, however, the case is not about that

controversy; it is about disregard of the law and disdain for the lives and health of

mothers and infants. We find common ground in exposing what happened here, and in

recommending measures to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.