Sadistic baby murderer Lucy Letby has horrified the world.

The British nurse who killed seven babies in the neo natal unit of Countess Chester Hospital also tried to kill six others.

She is every mother and father’s worst nightmare.

Her crimes made her one of Britain’s worst serial killers and she was sentenced this week to life in prison.

Letby harmed the babies in ways difficult to detect such as injecting them with air or over-feeding them during a baby killing spree in 2015-2016.

Sentencing judge Justice James Goss said “there was premeditation, calculation and cunning” in her actions.

Addressing Letby in court he said, “there was a malevolence bordering on sadism in your action”.

“During the course of this trial, you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.”

A mother of a girl identified as Child I said in a statement read in court:

“I don’t think we will ever get over the fact that our daughter was tortured till she had no fight left in her and everything she went through over her short life was deliberately done by someone who was supposed to protect her and help her come home where she belonged.”

Now the sheer horror and outrage civilised people everywhere feel about this case raises an awkward question.

Why are babies routinely killed every day in our hospitals the only difference being the killing happens before birth?

In most states of Australia, abortion is now perfectly legal up until the moment of birth even when there is a healthy mother and a healthy baby.

This diagram demonstrates a dilation and evacuation abortion at 23 weeks, again perfectly legal in Australia.

If the mother of Child 1 is rightly angry that her baby was tortured to death, what should be our response to what is going on here?

Routinely babies younger than 23 weeks survive premature birth, are cared for in our hospitals and go on to live healthy lives.

In other parts of our hospitals, they are killed.

Whether babies are big or small, born or unborn – they deserve our protection.

There is a bill before the Australian Senate requiring babies born alive after botched abortions to be given medical care, instead of, as is current practice, being left to die.

How is it we recoil in horror at Lucy Letby but not at the abortion doctors and nurses doing the same thing?

After 50 years of abortion culture, this is a difficult question for us as a society.

But how long can we believe one thing about a baby after birth and something completely different right up until the moment of birth?