Raised Roman Catholic, I have always opposed abortion. Then I became a reporter. And had to face across a picket line the very folks I thought I agreed with. Yet in more than 20 years of reporting, two things have never changed: I oppose abortion. And many abortion protesters make my skin crawl.

Toward the end of February she was down to or below 80 pounds; she couldn't eat-and new complications developed. She became nauseous, began to retch and vomit even without food in her stomach. I was stumped. I called in a senior medical consultant and when he examined her he was stumped too. But with a grin, almost facetiously, he asked me if I thought she could be pregnant.

I can still remember exactly how I felt: the suggestion was utterly ridiculous. Everything I knew about medicine added up to one conclusion: she was so ill, so weak that she couldn't possibly have conceived. Her body just wasn't up to it. Nevertheless I did take a pregnancy test-and to my astonishment it was positive. On the very outer frontier of life itself she now bore a second life within her. It was about as close to the impossible as you're ever likely to get, but it was true.

When I told her she smiled and sort of blushed.

Legally, medically, we could have taken that child through abortion because it imperilled a life that was already in jeopardy. At that time TB was the No. 1 medical reason for doing so. But we didn't do it. The patient and her husband were against it. We doctors at St. Martha's were against it, not only on religious grounds, but because we were certain the operation would kill her. Besides, she was so far gone, we were sure her body would reject the child anyway.

So we fed her intravenously, and watched her fight to sustain two lives in a body in which only some remarkable strength of character or divine intervention had allowed her to sustain even one.

The struggle went on for weeks, and never once did we alter our conviction that she was dying. And she kept her child. And then an incredible thing began to happen. By late March, 1948, I was confounded to find her temperature beginning to go down. For the first time we noted some improvement in her condition, and the improvement continued. She began to eat, and to gain weight. A chest x-ray showed that the growth of the TB cavity had stopped. Not long after, another x-ray showed that the diaphragm was pushing up against the lower lobe of her diseased lung to make room for the child she bore. Nature was doing exactly what we'd failed to do with pneumoperitoneum: it was pressing the sides of that deadly hole together. The child was saving the mother!

The child did save her. By the time it was born, a normal healthy baby, the TB cavity was closed. The mother was markedly better, so much better that we let her go home for good within a few months. Her smile had never been brighter.

I still find it hard to believe, and I've never heard of a comparable case since. I never discussed it with the young woman, even when she came in for checkups which confirmed the full return of good health. And never, until recently, have I cited the case publicly to make a point. The child didn't destroy its mother. It saved her. Call it the will of God, call it human love, call it the mystic quality of motherhood, the turning in upon herself to fight still more because she had still more to fight for, call it what you will: it happened. It doesn't matter if it never happens again. Indeed, it is not likely to happen again now that we have the drugs to cure tubercular cases like hers, but that's not the point. It happened, and it happened, I'm convinced, because there is a force in nature, a wisdom, a balance, a mystery beyond man's comprehension-and man should recognize and accept it.

It caught many people by surprise when Aradia Women's Health Center, a longtime Seattle abortion clinic, announced earlier this month that it would close at the end of January. But it shouldn't have. Nationally and locally, abortion clinics have been squeezed by dropping abortion rates. In this state, Department of Health statistics show that the rate has dropped by nearly 30 percent since 1990, to 18.9 abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age-an even bigger decline than experienced nationally.

At Aurora Medical Services, another prominent abortion clinic a few blocks from Aradia, owner and medical director Deborah Oyer says that she has cut her staff by about 20 percent in recent years due to a gradual falloff of patients. "It's certainly more difficult financially than it used to be," she says. While Aurora is not on the ropes, according to Oyer, it has diversified its services in part to beef up its client base. The clinic has started offering intrauterine (or artificial) insemination, targeting lesbian couples in particular.

Beverly Whipple, executive director of the Feminist Women's Health Center, which runs three abortion clinics around the state, including in Renton, says her organization has also downsized due to dropping numbers.

At Aradia, the situation was complicated by the fact that the drop in abortions, at least nationally, has been driven by affluent women. Among low-income women, the abortion rate has actually increased, according to the Guttmacher Institute in New York. "Aradia kind of become known as the place where lower-income women could go," says spokesperson Amie Newman. And so it was left with a lot of patients who couldn't pay for its services.

That was the troubling news that made the press in the days after the announcement. But even some abortion-rights advocates agree that the drop in abortion rates overall is good news, even if it hurts their business. "We're happy about this," says Cam McIntyre, medical director of Planned Parenthood of Western Washington. "Our mission is to prevent unintended births."

Neither McIntyre nor anybody else can say with certainty why abortion rates are dropping. People in the field tick off a variety of likely reasons: new and improved methods of contraception like the vaginal patch and ring, more consistent use of contraception in the age of AIDS, and a striking increase in abstinence among teens, as shown by the National Survey of Family Growth, conducted by the government. (A Guttmacher study released this month attaches far more importance to better birth-control use than to abstinence in analyzing the related decline in teen pregnancy rates.)

Oyer, who started performing abortions in 1991-the same year voters passed Initiative 120 codifying Roe v. Wade into state law-notices something else. "Women are coming in with more guilt and angst than they used to," she says. The other day, one of her abortion patients asked her: "What do you think of a woman like me?" Another common question, she says: "Do you think I'm going to hell?"

Last week, state Attorney General Phill Kline, a vocal abortion opponent, filed 30 charges against George Tiller, accusing him of performing 15 illegal late-term abortions in 2003 on patients ages 10 to 22 and not properly reporting details to the state.

Sedgwick County Judge Paul W. Clark dismissed the charges on jurisdictional grounds later the same day. Kline this week asked Clark to reinstate the charges, but the judge rejected that request during a hearing Wednesday.

Clark agreed with the Sedgwick County district attorney, who argued that Kline did not have authority to file the charges.

Pope Benedict ushered in Christmas at midnight mass on Monday, saying the image of the baby Jesus born in a manger should remind everyone of the plight of poor, abused and neglected children the world over.

The 79-year-old Benedict, marking the second Christmas season of his pontificate, celebrated the mass for more than 10,000 people in St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Thousands of others watched on large screens outside on a clear, starry night and millions more tuned in via television or radio round the world.

"The child of Bethlehem directs our gaze toward all children, particularly those who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn," the Pope said in his homily, making a reference to abortion.

"Toward children who are placed as soldiers in a violent world; toward children who have to beg; toward children who suffer deprivation and hunger; toward children who are unloved. In all of these it is the Child of Bethlehem who is crying out to us. It is the God who has become small who appeals to us."

Just as the shepherds of Bethlehem were called by an angel to seek the child lying in the manger, modern man was called to listen to the message of the baby Jesus, the Pope said.

"Let us pray this night that the brightness of God's love may enfold all these children. Let us ask God to help us do our part so that the dignity of children may be respected. May they all experience the light of love, which mankind needs so much more than the material necessities of life," he said.

Doctors who help couples terminate foetuses with deformity should stop playing god.

That's the stern reminder from Health Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Lee Kah Choon, who added that it was difficult to act against them unless someone was prepared to come forward with evidence.

But if the authorities succeed in obtaining incriminating evidence against these doctors, they would not only lose their licence but would also be facing a murder charge.

"It may be a lucrative business but let me warn that you risk losing your licence if caught," says Lee when asked to comment on couples aborting foetuses when amniocentesis tests show that their babies may suffer from some form of deformity.

Several doctors, speaking to the New Sunday Times on condition of anonymity, said such abortions were being carried out randomly, particularly at private clinics and hospitals.

"Enforcement is difficult because when we conduct raids at the alleged clinics, we could not find any evidence as such procedures can be done quickly," says Lee, adding that couples should know that what they did was illegal.

He said although the ministry did not have any statistic, this illegal practice is not a secret among the medical fraternity.

"The problem is that no one is prepared to testify," he said.

Lee said the country's abortion laws clearly stated that pregnancies could only be terminated if they endangered the mother's life.

Judge Paul W. Clark dismissed the charges against Dr. George Tiller at the request of Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston, who said her office had not been consulted by Attorney General Phill Kline.

Clark signed his one-page order only hours after Kline's complaint against Tiller was unsealed.

"We are pursuing a legal remedy to what we believe is a flawed decision," Kline said at a news conference.

Most of the 30 misdemeanor counts Kline filed against Tiller involve abortions performed on patients 17 or younger, including a 10-year-old, according to the criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Sedgwick County District Court.

"We're looking first and foremost at the mother's well-being," said Lloyd police Sgt. James Janso told the Times Herald newspaper.

"We're asking anyone who knows somebody who had a miscarriage or a botched abortion to contact us," Janso added.

A botched abortion could lead to criminal charges but a mother who had a miscarriage would not be charged for the death of her baby.

According to the newspaper, police believe the baby's body was flushed from one of the town's 1,400 sewage customers about 24 hours before officials found the baby's body.

They said the remains of the baby included the torso and head and measured about 4.5 inches long. An autopsy performed at The Kingston Hospital could not determine the sex of the baby but doctors said the mother was about 14 weeks into the pregnancy when the abortion or miscarriage occurred.

Police haven't found any additional information after contacting local hospitals, schools and other local establishments. They are worried the mother may be traumatized from the abortion or miscarriage and want to provide her help.

Tests by the Food and Drug Administration on the southern island of Hainan found not only that the pills were useless in preventing pregnancy but also contained toxic ingredients, the Beijing News said.

"The fake contraceptive medicines and abortion drugs have greatly harmed women's physical and mental health," it said, citing an expert.

In Dec. 13 remarks to the U.N. General Assembly on the occasion of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that took five years to shape, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio of the Holy See's permanent mission to the U.N., stressed that the protection of "the rights, dignity and worth of persons with disabilities remains a major concern for the Holy See."

"The Holy See has consistently called for disabled individuals to be completely and compassionately integrated into society, convinced that they possess full and inalienable human rights," the apostolic nuncio said. "Therefore, from the very beginning, my delegation has been a constructive and active partner in these negotiations."

Yet, the archbishop noted that the inclusion of a clause that requires access be provided to "sexual and reproductive health and population'based public health programs" may be used against the offering of protection of "the full enjoyment of all human rights by people with disabilities."

"The same convention created to protect persons with disabilities from all discrimination in the exercise of their rights," he said, "may be used to deny the very basic right to life of disabled unborn persons."

"For this reason, and despite the many helpful articles this convention contains, the Holy See is unable to sign it," Archbishop Migliore said.

The Uganda Joint Christian Council said, "legalising abortion would inevitably attract God's judgement. It would cause the nation to slide further away from our national motto of 'For God and my country'."

"Abortion is tantamount to murder which is a direct violation of God's commandment," they added.

In a statement signed by the Catholic Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, Anglican Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi and Metropolitan Jonah lwanga of the Orthodox Church, they said the proposal was similar to legalising a sin.

The clergy stressed that all human life is from God and is therefore sacred at all stages of its development.

O'REILLY: .. But Tiller himself, when he injected the fetus with the killing agent and then when he took the afterbirth, he never said anything to you at all?

KELLY: "This will all be over soon."

O'REILLY: "This will all be over soon." What happened to the body?

KELLY: I have no idea. I left my baby dead in the toilet.

O'REILLY: All right. Then when you got out from after the process was over, you went where?

KELLY: After he had finished the process that day?

O'REILLY: Right.

KELLY: To a hotel room and then back home.

O'REILLY: So you just left the clinic right after you discharged the baby, the dead baby, and you put your coat on and went out to a hotel.

KELLY: Yes.

O'REILLY: How do you feel about that, the whole thing?

KELLY: I'm disgusted. I'm disgusted that women are told that they have a choice, yet no one tells us what that choice is or what that choice is going to do to us or to the baby, for that matter. I mean, very few people, I think, know that this is what happens. It's not just an easy solution. It just - it's not an answer to any problem. It just creates other problems.

O'REILLY: What happened to you after the abortion?

KELLY: Many things. I mean, I was traumatized, so I had lots of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. I had very low self-esteem. I was promiscuous, I used drugs, I had eating disorders. Lots of horrible things.

And when I think that, you know, what would the worst-case scenario be, that I have my child? That would have been better than having gone through all of the affects of the depression, suicidal thoughts, all of that that happened afterwards.

No study has concluded that women get breast cancer because of having an abortion. For every statement that would lead someone to believe otherwise there are at least 10 that show no link.

Abortion is not murder. If a woman is having an abortion they are removing a fetus from their body, rest assured that is exactly what it is. It is not a child, a beating heart and innocent soul. It is a tiny fetus that feels no pain yet, as nerves are developed later in the pregnancy. It doesn't cry, because to cry it would require both oxygen and lungs - it has neither.

Scientists at the Medical College of Wisconsin have found what may be another alternative to embryonic stem cells. They have found that adult stem cells from hair follicles, which don't involve the destruction of human life to obtain, are different from other types of skin cells.

The researchers recently identified the molecular signature of hair follicle stem cells called epidermal neural crest stem cells.

The college says the study resolves conflicting scientific opinions by showing that these cells are distinctly different from other types of skin-resident stem cells.

The MCW research team has reported their findings in a recent issue of Stem Cells: The International Journal of Cell Differentiation and Proliferation.

Epidermal neural crest stem cells are found in the bulge of hair follicles and have characteristics that combine some advantages of embryonic and adult stem cells, according to lead researcher, Maya Sieber-Blum, Ph.D.

Similar to embryonic stem cells, they have a high degree of plasticity, can be isolated at high levels of purity, and can be expanded in culture.

Sieber-Blum says the hair cells are similar to other types of adult stem cells, as they are readily accessible through a minimally invasive procedure and could lead to using a patient's own hair as a source for therapy without the controversy or transplant problems associated with embryonic stem cells.

"We see the potential for cell replacement therapy in which patients can be their own donors, which would avoid ethical issues and reduce the possibility of tissue incompatibility," says Dr. Sieber-Blum.

Amid the rows of 167 white wooden crosses carefully placed outside the nation's most infamous abortion clinic, Women's Health Care Services in Wichita, Kansas, an angel statuette sits nestled in the brownish fall grass. While the crosses are numbered to represent the lives lost at George R. Tiller's abortion clinic in a month, the angel stands in silent memorial to one special life. It was placed there by a bereaved grandmother in memory of the grandchild whose life she could not save, the victim of a coerced abortion.

On a breezy November afternoon, a middle-aged woman we will call "Mary" stood at the abortion clinic gate crying and praying for the life of her grandbaby. Her teenaged son had gotten his girlfriend pregnant, she told the sidewalk counselors who were offering help to women that day. She knew it had been a mistake, but that did not stop her from loving the child and wanting to be a part of his or her life. She offered to pay medical expenses and raise the child until such time as the young couple could marry, if that was what they wanted.

The young man and his pregnant girlfriend wanted to keep their baby as well, but the pregnant teen's mother would not hear of it. In fact, everyone in the two families wanted this baby except the maternal grandmother. The more the family pled for this child, the less the girl's mother seemed to listen.

"Mary" had gone to the clinic in one final desperate effort to save her grandbaby's life. As she spoke with the sidewalk counselors, the awaited car pulled into the driveway carrying the obstinate woman and her pregnant daughter. The women at the gate called out, but she would not stop. They begged her to reconsider, but she would not listen.

The sidewalk counselors cried with "Mary", and the women prayed, but it was to no avail.

Against the wishes of the pregnant teen, the baby's father, and the father's entire family, the baby was aborted, a victim of coerced abortion.

Four days after her grandchild was aborted, "Mary" was seen at the abortion clinic again. Without a word, she placed the small statuette of an angel in the grass as a memorial to the precious life that was stolen from her.

"The duty to respect the dignity of each human being, in whose nature the image of the Creator is reflected, means in consequence that the person cannot be disposed of at will," the Pope writes.

"As far as the right to life is concerned, we must denounce its widespread violation in our society: alongside the victims of armed conflicts, terrorism and the different forms of violence, there are the silent deaths caused by hunger, abortion, experimentation on human embryos and euthanasia.

"How can we fail to see in all this an attack on peace? Abortion and embryonic experimentation constitute a direct denial of that attitude of acceptance of others which is indispensable for establishing lasting relationships of peace."

We've been told that Charlotte will go into foster care in two weeks, in a place outside of Portsmouth- neither Debbie nor Darren will be told where. Please pray that God would watch over her wherever she is, even if she is out of our reach. And we want so much for him to intervene in this situation- please pray that he would do so if it is his will.

On July 23, 2004 Valerie Dewier was seven months pregnant when she and her husband were struck in a terrible traffic accident by a driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel. Valerie delivered a premature daughter named Naomi by emergency Caesarean section, however it was too late to save the baby.

In this case, the Dewiers would never have received justice for their baby's death, except that a medical autopsy revealed that Naomi's lungs breathed in air at some point, making her a person.

A pale half-moon hung in the blue sky on a cold, windy morning Saturday as about 60 Catholics prayed across the street from Tulsa's only abortion clinic.

It was a ritual that has been going on several times a week for years.

But now it is different. They were standing on land owned by the Diocese of Tulsa.

Two months ago, the diocese bought just under a half-acre empty lot across the street from the Reproductive Services of Tulsa, 6136 E. 32nd Place.

"This gives us a place where we can hold prayer, and support of life, ... and a place to offer support for people that might otherwise choose abortion," said Tim Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities.

He said the diocese has not decided exactly how it will use the land.

"Our hope is to collaborate on an ecumenical basis with others who are supporting life, to come up with a plan to make a more prayerful atmosphere here, maybe gardens," he said.

"We don't want this to be a place of confrontation.

"We would want to use the property to send a message to every woman that is going into the abortion clinic that we don't

condemn them. We pray for them, and we will do anything we can to support them," he said.

Bishop Edward J. Slattery of the Diocese of Tulsa, who said a rosary for life on the property Saturday, said it was important to note that the land will be used for spiritual purposes.

"This is not a political thing," he said.

"Our message is that life is sacred from the moment of conception, and that we have to be consistent. We cannot simply stand by and allow abortions and say nothing.

"For us, to say nothing would be terribly wrong.

"We always deal in the present. We don't judge people. We take them as they are."

He said the diocese has a ministry to help women, Catholic and non-Catholic, dealing with emotional wounds after an abortion.

John Johnson, chancellor of the diocese, said one of the options being discussed for the land, which is zoned commercial high density, is a memorial garden for the unborn victims of abortion.

Another is putting up a building that would offer adoption services.

If abortion is strictly a question of "a woman's right to choose," who could possibly be against it? But if abortion actually hurts women, precisely because the choice revolves around taking human life, does it then contribute or detract from women's rights? And if women don't know what the debate is, how are their rights served at all?

Seeing an abortion in real life or on video prior to having one is not something that many women get to witness. Planned Parenthood says it won't resort to "hysterical" videos like that. That's like telling a student who wishes to learn about China and has an opportunity to travel there that she is actually better off staying home and reading her Lonely Planet.

We all know that medicine belongs in babies, babies don't belong in medicine!

So the FDA has recently opened a forum in which consumers and medical professionals can voice their opposition to the use of aborted fetal and embryonic cell lines in vaccines. Some common ones that currently use these cells are chicken pox and rubella. This forum expires on December 28th, 2006.

Click HERE for a link that takes you through the process of e-mailing both the FDA and the CDC.

The journal Science published an article in its December 2006 issue in which researchers claimed they successfully used the abortion drug, RU486 (mifepristone), to prevent breast cancer in mice carrying the BRCA1 gene. [1] The gene is associated with an increased risk of cancers of the breast and the ovaries.

RU 486 is called an "anti-progestin." Progestin is a substance that acts like the hormone, progesterone.

Progesterone is necessary for breast cancer to develop. When the hormone estrogen (a carcinogen) is in the presence of progesterone, progesterone increases the rate of cell division. An increased rate of cell division means an increased likelihood of developing cancer.

Although the drug may be useful in preventing breast cancer in mice, it's questionable that it can be used for the same purpose in humans. RU486 interferes with a hormone that humans absolutely require - cortisol - but which mice do not produce.

Cortisol is the body's major anti-stress hormone and serves many critical functions. Individuals who lack cortisol in their blood die of Addison's disease. At least seven women have died after using RU 486, deaths largely attributable to the anti-cortisol activity of the drug.

Professor Joel Brind, president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, offered his comments on the use of RU 486 for breast cancer prevention:

"There is reason to believe that RU 486 as an anti-progestin might suppress growth of breast cancer in an experimental system in mice, but RU486 also neutralizes the essential hormone cortisol which mice do not make. Therefore, there is good reason to believe that such a drug would not be an effective anti-cancer drug in people. It has been tried in certain forms of benign tumors in people, namely benign meningiomas and uterine fibroids, and it isn't effective.

"Basically, the reason that use of RU-486 is a non-starter for the prevention of breast cancer is that, by virtue of its action as an anti-cortisol drug, it would essentially give women Addison's disease by chronically neutralizing their cortisol. Of course, feedback regulation would make the patients' bodies produce more cortisol, which would then of course neutralize the drug. It could conceivably prevent breast cancer, but it would be more extreme than surgical removal of the breasts or ovaries....

"I would say that the clinical utility of RU-486 is likely to be limited to cases in which a disease state is characterized by excess cortisol. It is not likely to be any good in preventing breast cancer in healthy women, or even treating it by trying to reduce progesterone, because it is such a strong drug as an inhibitor of cortisol action.

"I would certainly suspect, however, that media interest in the mouse breast cancer prevention story is politically driven: rather like reporting that the guillotine has been found useful for slicing bread, to give an instrument of execution a better name."

Even a co-author in the study, University of California scientist Eva Lee, expressed doubts about the use of RU 486 for preventing breast cancer in humans. She told a journalist at Reuters that RU486 may act to suppress the body's immune system. She said:

"Mifepristone may not be the best for prevention purposes. The reason is that mifepristone actually has very broad activities, and we are aware that there are other compounds that are more specific. Those kind of compounds probably have greater potential in terms of prevention." [2]

Rep. Lincoln Davis, a Tennessee Democrat, hopes to do what some consider impossible -- get a pro-life bill approved while abortion advocates run the show.

Davis plans to reintroduce legislation next year he crafted in consultation with Democrats for Life of America, the national group of pro-life Democrats.

The bill takes a different tact to reducing abortions by providing more tangible support for pregnant women and minimizing the financial and practical concerns that research shows motivates most women to have an abortion.

As data from the Alan Guttmacher Institute shows, women who have abortions do so not because they are victims of rape or incest or have a life-threatening medical situation. Instead, they cite financial, educational, and practical concerns.

Davis' bill would provide additional funding and access to child care programs, health care, nutrition assistance, and help new mothers attend college.

The lawmaker told the Tennessean newspaper that his bill could attract support from both pro-life and pro-abortion members as it "gives both sides a chance to join legislation that could reduce abortion."

Marcela de Jesus Ferreira was born on November 20 in the small town of Santa Casa de Patrocinio Paulista. When her mother was four months pregnant, doctors diagnosed the unborn child with anencephaly, a congenital malformation that usually results in early death due to the insufficient development of the brain. Babies born with this condition usually survive hours or just a few days.

However, Claudia, the mother of the child and a 36-year old farmer, is praying for the life of her daughter and gives thanks to God for each minute she is able to spend with her.

When asked why she did not request an abortion in order to avoid the pain of seeing her child born with in this condition, Claudia replied, "I am suffering, but she does not belong to me, she belongs to God and I am just caring for her here."

"Each second of her life is precious to me," Claudia said. "I consider her life to be such a great miracle that I am going to wait until God wants her to go," she added.

"Abortion never crossed my mind. Nobody has the right to destroy a life, especially that of an indefensible child," the mother said.

It has been more than 15 years since I almost killed my son.

In my defense, all the doctors agreed it was the sensible thing to do. My wife did not want to go through with the abortion, so it fell to me to convince my wife to sign a medical consent form so her doctors could proceed with the abortion that would kill my son.

It all began 25 weeks into my wife's second pregnancy. Our first child, a girl, had been born less then two years before and there was no reason to expect complications with our second child. When my wife felt slight contractions, she insisted on going to the local hospital for observation. There, she was put on "bed rest" but, over the next several days, her doctors repeatedly dismissed my wife's concern that she was in premature labor.

After three days and nights at her bedside, one of my wife's doctors stopped by her room to tell us that they were now sure the whole thing had been a "false alarm" and that she was being sent home. The doctor suggested that I take a break for a few hours - go home, clean myself up and get something to eat - and that they would have my wife ready for discharge when I got back.

Several hours later, when I walked back into the maternity ward, a doctor I had never met approached me with a somber look on his face and said, "We can't save the baby, but we think we can save your wife."

Puzzled, I assured the doctor he must have me confused with someone else because my wife was being discharged. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the other doctor from earlier in the day and reached up to point her out. Seeing me motioning towards her, the color drained from her face. She quickly broke eye contact, opened a door and disappeared into a small closet.

Now, thoroughly confused, I listened in disbelief as this stranger ticked off the bad news: My wife was in premature labor, she was hemorrhaging badly, the baby was no longer viable, even if the baby survived the birth the hospital did not have a pediatric ICU to care for him, even if he lived he would likely end up with brain damage, blindness and other complications. The doctor was emphatic: The pregnancy needed to be terminated.

When I was finally taken to see my wife, I found her in tears, pleading with a nurse, "Don't let them take my baby."

Raised a Catholic, I was always vaguely opposed to abortion, but now there was no avoiding the issue. The doctors were demanding an answer, all the while whispering in my ear that they were prepared to proceed without a consent form. Under the circumstances, you could hardly blame me for agreeing to an abortion.

But I didn't. My son didn't die that day.

Here we live in a free society where supposedly information flows like a river, yet we have this elephant in the room that no one is allowed to see; that we kill our very own children.

Perhaps the truth is so grotesque that Americans can't bear to confess such wickedness. We do intellectual acrobatics to swerve around the elephant. After all it's too big to run over. For example, the reason 55% of South Dakotans rejected an abortion ban on November 7th was that many thought it was too stringent, including our President. You see, the ban did not leave room for abortion in the case of rape or incest. It's the same as the Germans voting to continue with the annihilation of Jews in 1942 because there were a select few Jews who definitely needed annihilation. Clearly someone missed the argument that the infinitesimal instances of rape or incest are not a balanced trade-off for the lives of a million children each year.

Getting rid of the elephant would be too difficult and many folks have quite frankly gotten comfortable with him being there. That is the only logical explanation why you can Google abortion photos and find the truth in two seconds yet no major news agency dares to print them. What an expose that would be? An undercover investigative reporter brings back video and photos from inside an abortion clinic. Oddly enough "abortion photos on CNN" turned up not one hit.

There's not much that can be added to make this elephant appear more evident. The sleight of hand used to hide him is in the minds of Americans themselves. Until people stop deceiving themselves with the lie that abortion does not kill a human being, they'll just keep walking around that elephant.

Thousands of women who take high doses of fertility drugs as part of IVF treatment may actually be harming their chances of ever having a baby, doctors are warning.

Increasing reliance on such powerful drugs could be preventing women from getting pregnant and damaging their eggs, new studies suggest.

A conference of fertility experts this month will call on the IVF industry to rethink its approach. They say hormones used to "kickstart" the ovaries could cause chromosomal damage to more than half of eggs, rendering them useless. The treatments may also affect the womb lining, preventing embryos from implanting.

CMA CEO Dr. David Stevens said, "One thing both sides of this issue should be able to agree upon is that women should be fully informed about the medical science concerning their developing babies. The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act states the medical science and requires that women be fully informed before proceeding with an abortion.

"The scientific findings in this Act are clear and compelling. Women deserve to know exactly what an abortion involves for their baby. Imagine the heartbreak a woman would experience after being led to believe that her 22-week developing baby is simply a 'blob of tissue' only to learn after an abortion that her baby likely experienced excruciating pain. This bill sets the record straight and makes sure women are provided with the facts."

When asked if "all abortions should be illegal" 50% of Catholic adults in the U.S. agreed while 49% disagreed. About 1% of respondents were undecided in the poll.

But, the divide regarding abortion is between those who attend church services every week or more and those who attend less than weekly.

Among those who never attend Mass only 30% believe all abortions should be illegal, the survey found while 60% of those who attend mass weekly or more believe all abortions should be illegal.

The poll also found that Catholics continue to be pleased with the new Pope, who has taken especially strong stances against abortion, embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia.

Most respondents (83%) agreed (45% strongly, 39% somewhat) that Benedict XVI is doing a good job leading the Catholic Church.

A leading expert on abortion complications is urging Amnesty International to delay adoption of a proposal to support an international right to abortion in cases of rape or incest.

"When people are ignorant of the real needs of victims, acts intended to be compassionate may cause far more harm than good," said Dr. David Reardon, who has co-authored more than a dozen studies on the psychological complications of abortion, including one study of 192 women who had experienced sexual assault pregnancies.

"The first and best thing the voting members of Amnesty International, the U.S. Congress, and legislators around the world can do for women impregnated through sexual assault is to listen to them," said Reardon, who directs the Springfield, IL-based Elliot Institute. "The second best thing they can do is to reassess the abortion issue in light of what they hear, instead of just assuming abortion is a panacea for sexual assault victims."

Reardon is asking Amnesty International to use its influence to support a petition by the Ad Hoc Committee of Women Pregnant by Sexual Assault (WPSA), asking Congress to hold hearings on the issue of sexual assault pregnancies and abortion. WPSA members say that because women who have actually had a sexual assault pregnancy have never been given a forum to describe their real experiences, public policies fail to offer pregnant sexual assault victims the care and support they need.

Amnesty, which has almost two million members from 74 countries, is to vote on a policy that would change its previously neutral stance on abortion. The organization said it is "not debating whether women have the right to terminate pregnancies under any circumstances." However, it is considering whether to adopt policies supporting access to health care for women suffering abortion-related complications, the removal of criminal penalties against abortion, and allowing abortion in cases of rape and incest or to save the mother's life.


Legalization May Increase Pressure to Undergo Unwanted Abortions

Amnesty also said that women who experience rape or incest are often doubly stigmatized if they become pregnant, and that "many feel they have no option but to terminate their pregnancies." But Reardon said that it is exactly these hostile social attitudes about rape and incest pregnancies that increase the pressure on sexual assault victims to undergo unwanted abortions. Further, in many cases having an abortion violates the woman's core moral beliefs and magnifies the risk of severe traumatic reactions to the procedure.

"Research on risk factors for psychological complications after abortion show that women with a history of trauma or who feel pressured to undergo an unwanted abortion are more likely to be at risk for severe reactions to abortion," Reardon explained. "As the women who have been there will testify, abortion following a sexual assault pregnancy is more likely to make their lives worse rather than better. Women who have already been subjected to violence should not be pressured by social expectations to undergo the additional trauma of abortion."

Reardon pointed to a survey of 192 women who became pregnant through sexual assault, which was published in a book he co-authored entitled Victims and Victors: Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions, and Children Resulting from Sexual Assault. Nearly 80" of the women who had abortions reported that abortion was not a good solution for them, with most saying it had caused more harm than good in their lives.

"The widely accepted idea that abortion is necessary or beneficial in cases of rape or incest speaks volumes about our individual fears, but it does not reflect the actual reality of those who have actually become pregnant following sexual assault," he said.


Abortion Causes More Harm than Good, Rape Victims Report

"Our survey found that most women who had abortions felt that this was a very harmful solution for women who became pregnant through sexual assault," Reardon said. "On the other hand, among women who carried to term, none of them reported any regret about having the baby and many said that giving birth actually helped them find resolution and healing."

Abortion following incest, Reardon says, nearly always violates the wishes of the pregnant girl.

"In most of these cases, the girl not only sees the pregnancy and expected birth as an opportunity to expose and escape the abuse, but she also hopes that the birth of her baby will bring her the true loving relationship she desires," he explained. "Instead, she is either forced to have an abortion by the perpetrator and is then returned to the abuse, or she is pushed and pressured by her parents and by experts to accept the abortion as the best or only thing that can be done and suffers a further traumatic reaction linked to the death of her child."

Kathleen DeZeeuw, who raised her son after becoming pregnant through rape at the age of 16, agrees with Reardon that attentive listening must precede any plans to help sexual assault victims. She says abortion advocates have used the issue of sexual assault pregnancy to push for abortion without considering the real needs of the women involved.

"I feel personally assaulted and insulted every time I hear that abortion should be legal because of rape and incest," she wrote in Victims and Victors. "I feel we're being used to further the abortion issue, even though we've never been asked to tell our side of the story."

"Women who have gone through the trauma of rape or incest need to be counseled, cared for, and listened to," she added. "A woman is most vulnerable at a time such as this and doesn't need to be pounced on by yet another act of violence. She needs someone to truly listen to her, care for her, and give her time to heal."


Legalization May Increase Pain and Suffering of Women

Reardon is also concerned that Amnesty International is echoing the unsubstantiated claim that legalizing abortion will reduce the risk of death and injury from illegal abortions. He argues that legalization of abortion simply makes it easier for women to be pressured into unwanted, dangerous abortions.

A survey published in the Medical Science Monitor found that among American women having abortions, 64% reported feeling pressured to abort by others. Reardon said that the pressure faced by women can range from abandonment, lack of support and emotional blackmail to intense coercion and violence.

"Legalization of abortion increases the social expectation that women should have abortions in certain cases; for example, when the male partner does not want the child," he said. "One of the unintended effects of legalizing abortion has actually been an increased risk of violence against women. Numerous studies have shown an elevated risk of physical abuse when women become pregnant."

"Indeed, the leading cause of death among pregnant women is homicide," he continued. "In many of these cases, witnesses have testified that the killing was motivated by the woman's refusal to have an abortion."

Further, Reardon said, legalizing abortion will only increase the pain and suffering of women.

"The number of legal abortions performed following legalization in the U.S. is ten to 15 times higher than the number of illegal abortions that were performed in the 1950's and 60's, but there has not been a corresponding drop in complications," he explained. "Instead, we have documented an increase in mental and physical health problems associated with abortion, including higher rates of death."

A number of major record-based studies from the U.S. and Finland have shown that abortion is associated with an elevation in death rates compared to women who give birth, miscarry, or do not become pregnant. The sharpest elevation in death rates in the year following an abortion occurs in the areas of deaths from suicide and accidents, but death rates from other causes are also elevated.

"Peer-reviewed studies have linked abortion not only to higher death and suicide rates, but also to higher rates of depression, substance abuse, sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts, psychiatric hospitalization, premature deliveries, and many other difficulties," Reardon said. "These complications may be even more harmful to individuals, families, and societies where women have less access to the medical and psychiatric care needed for proper post-abortion recovery programs."


Expanding Civil Liability May Be Key to Stopping Dangerous Abortions

While Amnesty has proposed decriminalizing abortion in order to protect women from injury and death due to illegal abortions, Reardon said that such a measure would actually increase the risk to women as abortion rates increase.

"Human rights groups like Amnesty need to be far more cautious about accepting the propaganda claims of population control zealots who promote abortion as a tool for social engineering," he said. "Increasing abortion rates will not help women; it will only further hurt them."

Instead, he argues that the best resource for women would be to give them the right to hold abortionists civilly liable for the death of the unborn child and for any other injuries the mother might suffer. As part of his proposal, he believes that women who have abortions should be exempt from criminal prosecution because in most cases the abortion is the result of coercion, fear, desperation, or violence.

"In addition, if women are exempt from prosecution, they will be more likely to testify against dangerous abortion practitioners in criminal and civil proceedings," he said. "If abortionists face the double threat of both criminal prosecution and lawsuits from injured women and their families, illegal abortionists will close up shop."

New research finds the chemical compound in RU486 prevented tumors from growing in mice that were genetically engineered to carry the BRCA1 breast cancer gene.

RU486, or mifepristone, blocks the production of the hormone progesterone, and this anti-progesterone effect could have prevented the growth of tumors in these mice, the authors speculated. RU486 aborts a pregnancy via the same mechanism.

Still, all this is a far cry from recommending RU486 as breast cancer therapy in people, experts cautioned.

"It's an interesting observation," said Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System, in Baton Rouge, La. "It's basically showing that this particular agent can change some of the mammary function, but it's a real leap to say that it may be useful in cancer prevention."

The study appears in the Dec. 1 issue of Science.

Missionaries to the Pre-born (MTTP) are reporting that an ambulance was summoned Tuesday to Affiliated Medical Services in Milwaukee and later transported a woman to the hospital suffering from what witnesses believed was a perforated uterus.

"Missionaries Jim Soderna and John Stambaugh were outside the death camp speaking up for the preborn and offering help to the moms, when at about 2:15 p.m., a Milwaukee Firefighter Paramedic ambulance approached with lights flashing and siren roaring," said Pastor Matt Trewhella, who heads MTTP. "The paramedics entered the facility and emerged about 10 minutes later with a woman on the stretcher. The ambulance pulled around to the back door in the alley to remove the woman from the abortion clinic."