JANET BLOOMFIELD: Infanticide: de facto post-natal abortions, but only for women.

What the discussion surrounding post-natal abortion and infanticide fails to recognize is that we already have de facto post natal abortion rights in effect: some people who murder their newborns face no consequences even when criminally convicted.

Which people?

The mothers.

Fathers who kill their infants feel the full wrath of the law.

Let’s start with mothers. The usual profile for women who murder their infants? They tend to be young, poor, unmarried, with limited social supports, a history of mental illnesses and they have hidden their pregnancies from those around them. When the baby arrives, they panic and kill the child. The population most at risk of being murdered in the United States? Children under the age of one. The most likely murderer? Their mothers. The most likely victim? A son. . . .

In the overwhelming majority of cases, the baby’s best protection against being killed is absent from the woman’s life: the baby’s biological father. As noted, it is extremely rare for men to kill their newborns. The absence of the father is a contributing factor to the death of the infants, almost always.

Related: UK: Mother kills six-week-old daughter, gets three years supervision.