Mothers killing their children in Germany is a monthly occurrence and a state Governor, Wolfgang Böhmer, has caused massive controversy by publicly stating to a German newsmagazine Focus, it "may be the legacy of East Germany's communist rule."
Wolfgang Böhmer, the Governor that made that controversial statement, made it in response to recent research that showed that the risk of a baby being killed by its mother (infanticide) is three to four times higher in the east than it is in the west of Germany.
Böhmer further stated in that interview that "Statistics don't necessarily imply a causal link. But the accumulation cannot be denied. I think it can mainly be explained with a more casual approach to new life in eastern Germany."
These statements have caused people to call on Böhmer to resign as governor of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Today in Germany to obtain an abortion in the 12th week of pregnancy, women are required to receive professional counseling.
"Some came to us in the hospital and just said with a grin 'get rid of it' because they had booked a vacation on the Black Sea coast. That attitude to life has influenced today's attitude. I have the impression that child killings -- and there always been -- are a means of family planning."
Böhmer said "widespread fixation on the state during GDR times had led to the abandonment of individual responsibility."
The problem of infanticide in East Germany has gotten so bad that clinics have installed what they call "hatches" , which are heated boxes with an alarm that goes off when a baby has been deposited into them.
This allows mothers a way to get rid of their children without murdering them.
Wolfgang Böhmer did not say what was politically correct, but he said what was needed to be said and if his words and obvious observations are causing him this much flack, the Germany has not come as far as they think they have.
The article cites an example of one tragic case where a mother killed eight of her children and was found guilty of manslaughter back in 2006 for those killings.
The prosecutors wanted to charge her with murder but she claimed she was so drunk when each child was born, between 1988 and 1998, that she could not remember what had happened to them.
Those eight babies were found the summer before, in her parents' garden shed, buried in plant pots, an aquarium and an old bathtub.
That woman, Sabine Hilschenz, was sentenced to 15 years.
For more information on infanticide, Dr. Larry S. Milner, in 1998, wrote an article for The Society for the Prevention of Infanticide, which deals with history of infanticide throughout the centuries in many cultures and for a variety of reasons.
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