And in other medical news  from Britain, it seems the Blair government is considering a measure that would outlaw sex selection for non-medical reasons in fertility clinics. Today couples can choose to have a boy or girl for any reason at all.

There is no regulation of this practice in the United States – though it is well known that sex selection is widespread. Those who can afford (or whose insurance covers) fertility treatments can often choose the sex of their children. And among some subsets of the population, ultrasound technology is being widely misused to determine the sex of unborn children. Female children are nearly always the ones aborted when sex selection is the issue.

The British rules would apply only to in vitro and similar technologies.

But here’s the main thing that caught my eye: In Britain, it remains against the law to abort a fetus past 24 weeks gestation – and that is the most liberal law in Europe. In France, abortion is permitted only until the 12th week. After that, two doctors must certify that continuing the pregnancy would pose a risk to the woman’s health or that the fetus is seriously abnormal. In Sweden, abortions after 18 weeks require permission of a medical board.

The U.S. has the world’s most liberal abortion regime by far – yet any deviation from our current standard of anywhere, anytime, for any reason is treated as a step toward abolition. Since abortion advocates tend to think of Europe as more enlightened than the U.S., we should remind them that the Old World makes do with many more restrictions and the sky has not fallen.