The 2003 pregnancy rate for all women of childbearing age, 15 to 44, is slightly higher than in 2002, but still consistent with an overall declining trend since 1990 when the rate reached its highest point at 96.0.

Abortion rates are also at a new low, according to the report. For all women of childbearing age the 2003 rate was 19.3; for teens it was 21.5.

If the only justification for the death penalty is to "save lives," as Bush has apparently stated many times, then why isn't embryonic stem-cell research justified by the same rule?

..the prevailing argument is that "life begins at conception", but, where is the evidence? The "evidence" relies on knowing the mind of God; it assumes that at that moment in the process, God sends down a soul from heaven. When would he send a soul if we placed an egg cell into the clone-o-matic - there is no "conception" there?

"I don't know if I just started getting bored with Operation Rescue, but I definitely started to get interested in what women were saying instead," recalled Johnston. She'd hear the protesters say, "You're killing your baby!" And then she'd sit in on a counseling session with a woman who'd say, "I feel like I'm killing my baby." At first, she said, she assumed that the patients were simply repeating what they'd heard outside, having internalized right-wing disinformation that Johnston needed to "correct." But "once I began listening more intently to her, I learned that she wasn't saying what the picketer was saying--although she used the same words."

During the course of counseling, Johnston would draw the disparate threads together. "I felt like they needed a place to say the worst and then work their way to the rightness of their decision. Some were on a journey to realize the power and responsibility of being a mother," said Johnston. "Which is that sometimes it's the power of saying no to a life."

Whether you think the Democrats were right or the Republicans were, their disagreement over judicial nominations was healthy. It informed the public about extent of judicial power today. For the first time in a generation (at least), Democrats were speaking eloquently about the glories of constitutional tradition and the need for the Senate to curb government activism. I may disagree with the substance of many of their points, but this was a grand teaching moment for the public and both parties. But nooooo, once again, the assumption was that arguments are a danger to the republic.

I'm sorry, but the Senate is a debating society. Its job is to debate and then vote on the strength of the arguments presented. Comity and collegiality are fine, but they are supposed to elevate the arguments, not obviate them. Besides, it is far more dangerous when democracies choose not to have arguments. This is because political arguments represent conflicts of legitimate interests and legitimate perspectives. Intellectually shabby compromises by their very nature don't settle the disagreements, they merely postpone and exacerbate them.

The main reason Liberals always seem to be fighting America's best interests is that we are too powerful, in their view. It's not fair that we have the most powerful economy and military on Earth. They never seem to see the good in America because they seek to highlight any bad they can find, no matter how small, in an attempt to bring America down to the same level as the worst of other countries -- again, the lowest common denominator. They want America to seem no better than North Korea or China in freedom, or the tiny island of Nauru in size or population. Liberals saw the Soviet Union as the military and ideological counterweight to America, a way of equalising the outcome in a zero-sum game. With the USSR gone, their only hope for bringing the US down to the lowest common denominator is the United Nations. Liberals see the UN as a place where all countries are treated as precisely equal, whether they're a nation that promotes freedom or slavery, democracy or totalitarianism. That's why Liberals excuse the UN for its many corruptions, crimes and scandals. Once again, it's an oversimplified sameness of result that Liberals seek, when the rest of us want the UN to be a place where all countries are encouraged to aspire to a higher standard.

A UK Observer exclusive has revealed that the trafficking of unborn baby body tissues for use as "beauty" treatments in Russia is a booming trade. The unborn children are purchased from Ukrainian women - some of whom are also 'duped' by racketeering doctors who convince the women that the unborn baby is defective and needs to be aborted - thereafter selling the aborted child. The babies are cryogenically frozen and advertised as providing "youth injections" claimed to reverse aging and cure many diseases.

An older baby is worth even more, as beauty spa workers are convinced that the so-called age-reducing effect is more plentiful in the older child. "When a doctor wants a foetus [to sell], he tells a girl there is a medical reason for an abortion later than 12 weeks," said Sergei Shorobogatko, a Kiev policeman investigating the illegal trade. "A special procedure extracts it with the placenta."

Women there fetch, on average, $180 USD per unborn child, but can make even more if they wait beyond the legal 12-weeks before aborting the child. A middleman cuts the child into separate organs before selling the child, whose sale can exceed $9,000 USD. The "beauty" treatments cost over $18,000.

a comprehensive campaign to encourage sexually active adults -- women and men -- to use contraceptives is long overdue... A major difference between the United States and Western Europe is our peculiar bipolar culture: We celebrate outsized sexuality while curiously neglecting to encourage birth control. Ads for Viagra, Cialis and Levitra -- drugs for male sexual dysfunction -- appear much more frequently than ads for contraceptives. That's because we value instant gratification so highly; the act is paramount, the consequences are of little concern.

As sensible as a crusade to encourage family planning would be, it would meet resistance in the current political climate. A small group of religious extremists is exaggerating its influence to hijack public policy. Their antediluvian agenda includes curbing contraceptive use as a means of hammering women back into a dark age in which they have value only as wives and mothers.

An OFD paramedic, who asked that his name be withheld to protect his job, said that at 10:23 a.m. on April 2 a friend of Angele's, who had driven her to the abortion clinic for day two of a "labor and delivery" abortion procedure, called 911 to report that the baby had been born alive. Three paramedics and one emergency medical technician sped to the scene at 609 Virginia Dr. They were greeted outside by an EPOC Clinic worker who told them that no baby had been born alive - that such a thing wasn't even possible. Instead, a woman scheduled for an abortion had "passed some tissue," was "hysterical," and was refusing to hand "the tissue" over to clinic workers.

According to the OFD paramedic who spoke with WORLD, fire personnel were not aware the "tissue" in question was in reality a fully formed baby boy. That, along with clinic workers' assertion that Angele was clinging hysterically to "the tissue," would explain why fire department medical workers, in their report, noted that they had assisted the Orlando Police Department (OPD) in handling a "disturbing the peace" call.

According to the medical assistant, all babies, dead or alive, were stuffed into red biohazard bags for later pickup by a medical waste service. She herself had delivered women with no doctor present, and disposed of babies' bodies that way. She added that no doctor was present during most deliveries, leaving medical assistants, and often unlicensed workers to care for patients. When she worked for Dr. Pendergraft, she said, she was one of two licensed workers among 10 on staff.

Florida's Florida's Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) has uncovered late-term abortion problems with the clinic before. In a 2003 survey it said in 11 out of 11 third-trimester abortions sampled, the facility failed to have two physicians certify "to a reasonable degree of medical probability" that the abortions were necessary to save the life or preserve the health of the woman as required by Florida law. AHCA allowed the clinic to amend its records to "correct" the discrepancies.

During one incident, the medical assistant said, she delivered a 28-week-old baby dead while Dr. Pendergraft was out having lunch. "When I turned it over [on its side], the baby's hands went together like it was praying... I was waiting for it to scream.... It looked so much like a living baby." That, she says, is when she decided she couldn't work there anymore.

I recently found out that several years before I was born, my mother had an abortion. I'm getting upset about it. I feel as if I've lost an older sibling.

My friends say it's not a big deal, that I can't really lose something I never had, but I don't agree. I want to talk to my mother about it, but my father says it would upset her and I was never supposed to know (she was barely out of high school at the time).

Am I blowing this way out of proportion? Is it realistic to mourn for a sibling who was never born?

Angele thought that if the abortion was completed, one of her problems would be over. She had not planned on meeting her problem face to face. She never expected to witness the consequence of her "safe and legal choice" - an innocent baby staring at his mother and reaching out to her in a heartbreaking struggle for life.

Is there any other scenario in the world in which a doctor can be sued for malpractice because the patient lived? Is there a more bizarre situation than that of a mother who paid to have her child killed later arguing that his ability to live a few moments is the result of negligence?

The attorneys are seeking disciplinary action against the abortionist, even though his business almost always results in a dead child. That is what abortion does, after all. The attorneys want the abortion clinic's license to be revoked because the clinic did not provide emergency intervention for the child who was born alive.

But wait a minute. An abortion clinic is a place where "good medical care" is a contradiction. Their business is killing persons, not saving their lives.

Abortionists are practitioners of an act that violates the very core of medical ethics to "do no harm". They market harm, and profit from the deaths of the youngest members of the human family.

Remember the facts: latex and female condoms are highly effective in preventing pregnancy, and they're the only forms of birth control that also help reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections. Condoms block the exchange of body fluids and help protect you and your partner during vaginal or anal intercourse. In order for condoms to be effective, they must be used with every partner, every time you have intercourse.

Oral sex isn't as high risk as vaginal or anal intercourse, but using a barrier can also help reduce the risk of infections. For safer oral sex, use a condom to cover the penis, or a Glyde dam or plastic wrap to cover the vulva or anus.

Want even more protection? Many clinicians recommend that a woman keep emergency contraception pills (ECPs) on hand, in case a condom breaks or she has unprotected sex. To find out where you can get ECPs, call 1-888-NOT-2-LATE.

Of course, there's more to safer sex than just using condoms and keeping ECPs (Emergency Contraception Pills) on hand. A lot of teens choose to skip intercourse and practice outercourse instead, which can include kissing, body rubbing (dry humping), and mutual masturbation. By keeping body fluids away from the vagina, anus, and mouth, partners greatly reduce the risk of pregnancy and infection.

"Women who choose abortion have their morality questioned. Women who choose to put a baby up for adoption have their maternal instincts questioned, and women who carry an unplanned pregnancy to full term when unmarried or financially insecure are often labeled irresponsible."

Suozzi asked questions that politicians on both sides of the issue often slide by: "Why do women choose abortion in the first place? Fear of the stigma or the economic burden of single motherhood? Concerns regarding the effect of the child on career or life plans? Worry about affording good prenatal medical care or housing? These are all valid questions -- and if we can answer them with more specificity, perhaps we will do more to reduce the necessity for abortions."

"Anyone who really wishes to reduce the number of abortions has an obligation to help those women who choose not to have an abortion yet find themselves alone."

Mae Magouirk died this morning at the Bryan Nursing Home in LaGrange Ga. of a stroke. Her vital signs had been causing concern since last Wednesday and by Sunday, an apparent stroke hit her, causing her difficulty to speak, her BP was only 60/30 and by this morning she died surrounded by family.

She was 81 years old.

Since the friends of Terri and the readers of World Net Daily and Glenn Beck had helped save her from starvation, she had responded to treatment by the University of Alabama Medical Center doctors , had then been transferred for convalescent treatment at the Bryan Nursing Home in LaGrange, Ga where her church family had surrounded her after learning of her ordeal in the media and from her Alabama family.

Although she was cognizant, speaking, sitting up, eating-drinking and communicating until her last day alive, her family had decided not to tell her of the terrible ordeal she had endured at Hospice LaGrange until she had been discharged from the nursing home. She was spared this final pain by GOD.

Scott, 34, suffered severe head injuries and brain damage in a highly suspicious incident at his Jacksonville home in early September when his wife, Eliza, 29, a Polish immigrant, says that he fell down in the kitchen striking his head.

No one else was home at the time of Scott's fall. Although his wife maintains that she was in another room at the time of the fall, she also relates the accident happened when he fell backwards after tripping over a dog.

According to Scott's mother, Eliza had entered the United States illegally. Scott was dating Eliza at the time of 9/11 and told him that they had to get married or she would be deported. But two years after they were married, Scott starting getting mysteriously ill with stomach problems and about every three months was hospitalized. His mother, Pamela Patton of Jacksonville says that although doctors did numerous tests, they could not diagnose the cause of her son's sickness. She said the doctors told her that no toxicology tests had been done.

His mother says that she told Eliza that they had to call in other doctors to find out what was wrong with Scott, to do a toxin test but that his wife had replied, "I really don't care. I have other things going on."

In early September, Scott was recovering at home from yet another bout in the hospital when he allegedly fell from a standing position in their open kitchen. "There was nothing for him to strike his head on", his mother says. She says that the blow to her son's head was so severe it knocked his brain to one side and caused serious neck damage. The doctors say that his injuries are not consistent with such a fall and believe the severe head trauma was caused by a blow to the head.

No police report has been filed. Although doctors initially suspected foul play, after speaking with Eliza and her telling them that he had tripped over his dog and fallen, the hospital did not report the incident to police.

His mother says that although her son has spoken only three words since September, that he does communicate using hand signals and with his eyebrows and that he forms words with his mouth. She relates one instance when her son, who she says is somewhat claustrophobic, was to be placed in a hyperbaric chamber, he looked at her and twice said, "Mom, I want out".

She said he is cognizant and the doctors have tested him, receiving correct responses about where he lives, where he went to school and other information. They have devised trick questions and phrased the questions to rule out that his responses are not simply involuntary responses.

Three days after the incident while her son was in the Intensive Care Unit, his mother went to his home to see her 11-month-old grandson. She says all of her son's pictures had been removed and Scott's wife was very cold to her. She said she left without seeing her grandson.

Thereafter, Eliza Patton notified the hospital staff that they were not allowed to give Scott's mother or any of his family members any information regarding his medical condition.

His mother says that when she told her daughter-in-law that Scott had an attorney to help with his affairs, Eliza snottily replied, "I get everything anyway".

The couple owns a house and several vehicles. His mother said they hope to be able to hire an investigator to determine, among other things, if there are any insurance policies on her son and who the beneficiary is.

Scott's mother said that plans have been made for Dr. William Hammesfahr, Clearwater neurologist and 1999 Nobel prize nominee in medicine and physiology, to examine Scott next week. Hammesfahr had written a complete report concerning the Schiavo case in September, 2002, revealing that medical tests conducted after her collapse did not show evidence of a heart attack as had been claimed. He testified at trial that she had sustained injuries consistent with abuse and that she had a chance for recovery. He has helped many patients with brain injuries leave long-term disability and return to work.

In November, Scott's mother received a six-month temporary guardianship of her son but Eliza is now seeking to become Scott's guardian even though he has indicated to his doctors and others that his wife allegedly tried to kill him by striking him in the head.

Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith said his hands were tied when it came time to decide whom to charge in the baseball bat beating death of a fetus being carried by a teenage girl.

He decided...to do the only thing one state statute allowed: charge the boyfriend who wielded the bat, hitting his girlfriend in the stomach repeatedly over a two-week period, but let the girl off the hook, uncharged.

The Richmond Township boy, 16, who may be arraigned as early as today in Macomb County Juvenile Court, is at home with his parents.He was charged as a juvenile with intentional conduct against a pregnancy or stillbirth, which is a felony. If convicted, he could remain in custody until age 21.

But the girl, also from Richmond - who was a willing participant in the induced abortion, law enforcement officials say - cannot be charged under that law because it specifically excludes the mother from criminal liability.

In part because it still was legal to abort the fetus, the decision renewed debate over the protection of fetuses and the fairness of charging just one of two juveniles who allegedly agreed to kill their unborn child.

"I thought she would potentially live in a vegetative state," DCF's chief medical director told The Post two months after examining 2-year-old Moesha Sylencieux on Jan. 26, 2001.

Then-DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney had sent Dr. Eric Handler to Palm Beach County to assess Moesha, who was admitted to Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach on Jan. 11, 2001, and transferred to Delray Medical Center's trauma unit the next day. She was unconscious with a swollen brain, bruised liver, broken bones and black-and-green welts. Some breaks and bruises were old — having been detected, though unexplained, during a monthlong stay at Miami Children's Hospital that had ended just weeks prior, with doctors and nurses pleading that DCF not release Moesha to her uninterested mother. The near-fatal injuries, investigators believe, had been caused by Moesha being held by her feet and shaken, possibly by her mother's boyfriend, though no one's been charged.

DCF asked a judge to appoint an attorney ad litem to pursue a Do-Not-Resuscitate order. The Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, whose attorneys are appointed by the court to represent children up to age 12 who have been abused, neglected or abandoned, opened the case on Feb. 1, 2001. Attorney John Walsh went to the hospital with his supervisor, talked to Moesha's nurses and then discussed her condition "in great detail" with her physician.

"Should I go ahead and get a DNR order?" Mr. Walsh said he asked the doctor, who replied: " 'What? What are you talking about? No, she's stable. We're not thinking about that at all.' I guess our appointment was, maybe, premature."

DCF's missteps were so obvious and horrific that a grand jury recommended the firing of nine DCF workers, and the cases of Moesha and two boys who died in 2000 became teaching tools for new DCF hires.