Race for fifty first state heats up with discovery of eleventh commandment

For some time I have been recommending Poland as a candidate to become the 51st state of the USA. They now appear to have a rival in Nicuragua which has voted not only to outlaw all abortions but any operations which would save a woman's life if it would result in the termination of her pregnancy. Nice huh? The legislation was strongly supported by God (in the form of the Catholic Church). Penalties for woman who have abortions and doctors who perform them range from six to thirty years in jail. The upside of this law could be a mass migration from the American bible belt to the Managuan suburbs.

Poland, of course, is not taking the competition lying down and if fighting back with a proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate rape and incest as grounds for abortion. The legislation was put forward by the League of Polish Families (LPR), a far right junior member of the coalition government. The rationale is explained by one of the party's MEPs, Professor Maciej Giertych:

"We are still not satisfied with the restrictions placed on abortion. We would like to see the restrictions cover life from conception, throughout pregnancy to birth. We do not want any exceptions. The current law allows exceptions for pregnancy which came from illegal sexual contact, i.e. incest or rape. There is no need to penalize the conceived children for the sins of the parents. There is also an exception which says that if the child is disabled, it should be killed. we want to protect the disabled from conception and not only from birth."

Mr. Giertych seems to have discovered an eleventh Christian commandment; "thou shalt not be raped or sexually abused".