or at least the end of the beginning, of abortion on demand. And, it’s been initiated in two VERY blue states.

Some personal background. I’m ardently pro-life and have been involved in the movement for well over 30 years. I also am a firm believer that there is next to nothing that a President can do to stop abortion, beyond a minimal impact with Executive Orders reinstating Mexico City, etc. A Constitutional Amendment would be DoA. Not only is 2/3 of the Congress not doable, 2/3 of the States is impossible. Add to that, there are seven versions of the Human Life Amendment (HLA) that have been introduced in Congress and five of them do not “stop” abortion, they simply get the feds out of the debate. I could expand on this, but I hope you get the idea. The Federal government won’t (and realistically can’t) outlaw abortion, the best they’re going to do is return the issue to the states IF we have a more conservative SCOTUS (+2 Justices) who overturn Roe.

So, why would I say that abortion is – or at least may be – on the way to being a bad memory? From the Associated Press today…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Authorities say two out-of-state doctors who traveled to Maryland to perform late-term abortions have been arrested and charged with multiple counts of murder, an unusual use of a law that allows for murder charges in the death of a viable fetus.
[...]
The investigation began in August 2010 after what authorities say was a botched procedure at Brigham’s clinic in Elkton, located near the border of Maryland and Delaware. An 18-year-old woman who was 21 weeks pregnant had her uterus ruptured and her bowel injured, and rather than call 911, Brigham and Riley drove her to a nearby hospital, where both were uncooperative and Brigham refused to give his name, according to documents filed in a previous investigation by medical regulators.

A search of the clinic after the botched abortion revealed a freezer containing 35 late-term fetuses, including one believed to have been aborted at 36 weeks, the documents show.

Brigham, 55, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, five counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy. Riley, 46, faces one count each of first- and second-degree murder and one conspiracy count.

Read the whole article, there’s a whole lot more there that will turn your stomach, but it’s an important read.

The bottom line here is that two very blue states – Connecticut and New Jersey – are cooperating in investigating and charging two doctors with first degree murder in the deaths of second and third trimester babies. They took the case to a Grand Jury and got an indictment. They will most likely go to trial, and you can bet they’ll be using photographs that no newspaper will run to make their case to the jury.

It’s going to be an uphill battle for sure, nothing worthwhile comes easily, but a win here gives us the opportunity to get courts to affirm that unborn children – at least those beyond the first trimester – are, in fact, “people” with a right to due process.

This is important because it gives the pro-life movement a real “camels-nose-under-the-tent” to begin to roll back the availability of abortion by law.

This action by Connecticut could be a landmark case that does what no President, no Congressional action and no Supreme Court decision involving current law can do.

2012 is going to be a landmark year in more ways than just TheOne. And, given that a conviction of the doctors involved here will most certainly be appealed, and likely all the way to SCOTUS, should give us all the reason we need to support a Presidential candidate who will nominate solidly conservative SCOTUS Justices.