The culture war seems to be operating on an unsuspected new front. While many pro-lifers have been focused on mothers not killing babies in the womb, a staggering new scientific study indicates that incidences of parents killing their newborn babies is five times higher than previously believed.

It’s all the rage.

Come on, you can’t be surprised, can you? You didn’t think a little thing like birth would stop people from killing their babies did you? Seriously, why should the much heralded “choice” end just because the baby is lying on a table rather than in the womb?

Sydney Morning Herald reports:

A team of paediatricians examined the court records of known infant homicides in three regions of France between 1996 and 2000 and found almost one third were cases of neonaticide, where the child was killed by their parent, often the mother, during the first day of their life.

The study found an average of 2.1 newborns were killed per 100,000 live births, while the official mortality statistics showed the rate of neonaticide was only 0.39 for the same regions.

There were a few other facts in the study that merit pointing out.

The study took place in France so it can hardly be argued that this study shows the need for more liberal abortion laws or less shaming of sexual relations. This is France, after all, which allows abortions on demand up to 12 weeks. After the twelfth week women have to convince two physicians that their mental health would be impaired by carrying the baby to term. So the get out of pregnancy card is pretty darn available.

Many of the mothers lived with the father of their child giving another shout out to the benefits of living together before people go and do something crazy like get married.

The study also showed that the women did not suffer from a mental disorder but from low self esteem. Imagine that? You mean cultures which encourage young girls to allow themselves to be used as sex dolls may have a negative impact on their esteem? Who’d a thunk it?

We should hardly be surprised in a culture where partial birth abortion is debatable, where women deliver babies early on purpose and babies are stuffed in hospital closets to die, where late term abortionists are heralded as heroes by many, and where abortuaries receive millions in government funding.

I’m not surprised. But that doesn’t mean I’m not horrified.