'Henry Wade, a Dallas County district attorney, was the named defendant when attorneys mounted a 1970 constitutional challenge to the Texas criminal statutes prohibiting doctors from performing abortions. Norma McCorvey ('Jane Roe'), a single woman, was signed up as the representative plaintiff. The challenge sought both a declaratory judgment that the Texas criminal abortion statutes were unconstitutional on their face, and an injunction restraining the defendant from enforcing the statutes. The lower court refused to grant Roe's desired injunction, but declared the criminal abortion statutes were void. Both sides cross-appealed. The case worked its way through the appellate process, culminating in the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal in the United States' (Wikipedia).

It is very very hard for the ordinary person to understand why five supreme court justices, four men and one woman and all of them Catholic, should be able to decide the fate of millions of American women. It is in fact incomprehensible. Here they are. When the first woman dies because it was medically necessary for her to have an abortion – but she has been denied it – we need to look at the photograph of the five justices. And despair.

This is a picture of the real 'Jane Roe' and here is an article in the New Yorker explaining everything

We thought the two Tory defeats would make us feel more cheerful and that at last the UK could regain some of its self-respect. But now America has stepped back into the 1950s! It's kind of unbelievable that a few right-wing Catholic men can enable these decisions for millions and millions of American women. And don't try to explain to a child how this has happened. This week on the Post: Roe v Wade and first a demo in 1970. The picture is taken from a New York Times article explaining why this disaster has happened, here.

Well, here in the UK it is a day of rejoicing for people who still care about decency and kindness and watching out for their fellow human beings – the Tories have lost two by-elections and there is a chance, a chance, that it is the beginning of the end for them. Though we are all so worn down by six years of this agony that one hardly dares hope... Thus the final National Trust garden this week is at Tiverton, where one of the by-election victories happened - Knightshayes. Many, many chapeaux to the people of Tiverton for giving us (some) hope for the future.

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A place of floral beauty, tranquillity and innovation, Tintinhull Garden is a gardener's paradise. Glittering pools, secluded lawns, colourful borders and clipped hedges provide the perfect spot to relax and unwind, not far from Yeovil'.

Spring bedding on the top terrace at Tyntesfield. It's not as near Bath as Prior Park and Dyrham but still within striking distance and a marvellous place to visit.