The bill would require all courts to conduct hearings before sealing documents or closing court proceedings. Judges would have declare publicly why they took such action, and they would have to give notice of their plans to parties involved in the case.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) told Cybercast News Service that he had heard of teenwire.com promoting safer sex. "What you've shown me brings it to my attention in a serious way," he said. "You go back to Margaret Sanger and in the beginning of (Planned Parenthood), she is advocating promiscuity. (Teenwire.com) is advocating promiscuity.

"We should shut off all federal dollars to any organization that provides abortion services or counseling," King added. "There should be no money that goes to any Internet site that promotes promiscuity or sexual license in any way. If there is going to be sexual license promoted, let that happen some place else. But the federal government should not be subsidizing it," he said.

"(Teenwire.com) is another reason we should pull all federal funding from Planned Parenthood," Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) agreed. "Time and time again this organization has used taxpayer dollars to promote interests that are not in step with the values of the American people."

"I don't believe taxpayer funding should be going to groups that put sexually explicit material on the Internet targeted at minors," Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.) told Cybercast News Service. "Parents today already have their work cut out for them trying to keep their kids from viewing smut on the Internet.

"The federal government shouldn't be funding groups that produce this sort of material under the pretense that it is educational," he said.

Becky Weatherall and her partner Kriss Kramer where told by their doctors that their son would be born deaf and blind and would probably survive only for a couple of hours.

Little Brandon Kramer was diagnosed in utero with rhomboencephalosynapsis - a condition in which the brain fuses together rather than being in two halves - as well as hydrocephalus - water on the brain. Tests conducted twice a month indicated the condition was worsening and Becky was advised to abort her pregnancy up to just weeks before the birth.

The couple ignored the doctors' recommendation and Brandon was born healthy on October 1 last year.[...]

"Perhaps doctors shouldn't put so much confidence in scans," Becky said in the Daily Mail report. "One of the older doctors we spoke to said a scan is like a fuzzy image of a snowstorm - it cannot be relied upon - and he turned out to be right."

"I feel incredibly guilty thinking that I could have killed him - and then I find myself wondering how many other babies are killed who would have turned out to be completely healthy."

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved the Pre-natally and Post-natally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act on a unanimous vote.

This is a bill that would require giving families who receive a diagnosis of Down syndrome or any other condition, pre-natally or up until a year after birth, pertinent helpful information.

The information would include facts about the condition and connections to support services and networks that could offer assistance in raising a disabled child.

Kristin Brooks, 28, suffered from bipolar and borderline personality disorders. When she became pregnant in 1998, her moods stabilized. She was so happy she was able to go off her medications.

Tragically, the unborn baby was diagnosed as having 20 serious birth defects. The doctor offered an immediate abortion as the only option.

"I wish she'd had more time and more options presented, but that was not the case," H. Reese Butler, Kristin's husband, recalled.

They were sitting in a restaurant when Kristin felt the baby stop moving. She told her husband, "Our baby just died."

For months after the abortion, Kristin's moods seesawed from depression to mania. Back on her medication, she ended up in a psychiatric ward, where she committed suicide by hanging herself with an electrical cord.

Butler was left grief-stricken, begging God to help him understand why his beloved wife and baby were dead and he was alive.

One day he received his answer. He felt called to honor Kristin's memory by starting a toll-free hotline devoted to preventing suicide, particularly among women battling post-abortion depression and post-partum depression.

With funds from his late wife's life insurance and the sale of their home, he set up 1-800-SUICIDE, the first national suicide hotline in the United States.

Owned and operated by the Kristin Brooks Hope Center, the hotline served as a central switchboard to connect callers to crisis centers all across the country.

1-800-SUICIDE met a deep need. Today the hotline receives and routes 400,000 to 500,000 calls a year, with no advertising.

But Butler no longer runs it.

In 2001, he made the mistake of accepting a federal grant set up specifically for 1-800-SUICIDE through legislation sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. From day one, the federal government grabbed for control.

Last year, the federal government confiscated 1-800-SUICIDE and gave it to the Mental Health Association of New York City, through which pregnancy-related calls are routed almost solely to Planned Parenthood's abortion businesses.

An estimated 10% of the calls pouring into 1-800-SUICIDE come from girls and women struggling with crisis pregnancies. This means that, thanks to Uncle Sam, approximately 40,000 to 50,000 pregnant young mothers a year are now being routed almost solely to Planned Parenthood's abortion businesses.

You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel that you have insulted. Today the LORD shall deliver you into my hand; I will strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will leave your corpse and the corpses of the Philistine army for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field; thus the whole land shall learn that Israel has a God. All this multitude, too, shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves. For the battle is the LORD'S, and He shall deliver you into our hands. (1 Samuel 17: 45-47)

"This proposed constitutional amendment will define a person as a human being from the moment life begins at conception," Huckabee said in a statement.

He added, "With this amendment, Colorado has an opportunity to send a clear message that every human life has value."

In its ruling, the Court of Appeal for Western Sweden found the man guilty of aggravated assault for attempting to make his girlfriend of eight years miscarry by giving her a yoghurt containing three ground-up pills. The sentence also included a more minor count of assault.

The court documents said the woman had decided to have the baby even though he felt he was not ready to be a father. The man ordered some pills on the Internet and fooled his doctor into prescribing others for another condition.

The woman ate the yoghurt and suffered severe stomach pains and vaginal bleeding.

When she later realized what she had eaten, she decided to have an abortion, fearing that the fetus had been permanently damaged by the pills.

The Advocate, released phone recordings of Planned Parenthood staffers approving a donor's racist agenda, prompting students to begin a petition to request that UCLA administrators cut programs and affiliations with Planned Parenthood. The magazine conducted a seven-state probe to ascertain how Planned Parenthood development centers would respond to a caller who expressed explicitly racist motives behind his donation.

An actor, posing as a racist donor, called Planned Parenthood development centers and asked that his donation be used to abort African American babies in order to "lower the number of black people." Each branch agreed to process the racially earmarked donation, with some encouraging the racist motive behind it. None expressed concern about the racist reasoning for the donation.

New York has a proud history as the first state to legalize the procedure in 1970. Acting three years before Roe vs. Wade, New York lawmakers recognized women's right to control their own bodies and saved many from bleeding to death in back alleys.

But the fact that one in three New York pregnancies ends in abortion - a rate far higher than elsewhere in the developed world - is nothing to be proud of. Bringing that number down is a goal that all New Yorkers, anti-abortion and pro-choice, can get behind.

Spitzer's bill does nothing to make that happen. Instead, his proposal consists of symbolic and ideologically driven changes that are guaranteed to polarize New Yorkers - and unlikely to become law.

Drafted at the behest of pro-choice activists, the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act contains sweeping language declaring that women have a "fundamental right" to terminate their pregnancies - including in the third trimester, if necessary to protect the life or health of the mother. The bill also takes out any reference to the unborn child as a "person" - a change that will strike many New Yorkers as callous.

And if someone attacks a pregnant woman, and kills her baby in the process, his crime will be redefined as an assault on the mother rather than a homicide.

In both states, legislation would require doctors to provide the woman with the opportunity to view a sonogram of the embryo or fetus or listen to the heartbeat before performing the surgery. Abortion offices would be required to have a prominent sign stating that no one can force a woman to have an abortion.

In Missouri, two bills would require women seeking abortions to be shown brochures or a video developed by the state Health Department providing a description of the developing embryo or fetus. The materials would include "color photographs or images of the developing unborn child at two-week gestational increments" from conception to full term.

The woman would be given a list of adoption agencies and maternity homes that could assist her in maintaining her pregnancy. She also would be given a statement that she would be eligible for child-support payments if she carried the child to term.

The doctor would have to provide a list of potential medical complications from abortion and discuss theories about whether a fetus can feel pain.

Vianney "N" died on Feb. 15 at Balbuena Hospital from a hemorrhage that occurred when her baby was being sucked out of her by the aspiration method of abortion.

"Authorities were worried about the public repercussions of this case, almost a year after the penal code reform was approved, because they think anti-abortion groups will use it as a battle flag to repeal the law without considering the numerous successful cases," the Mexico City daily El Universal reported on Feb. 20.

[...]according to the Federal District Health Department, Vianney arrived at the hospital suffering from acute anemia two days before her abortion and nothing was done about it by those responsible for her care. So, when the hemorrhage began, Vianney's situation rapidly deteriorated, and she died.

Another aggravating factor was that the girl was in her 16th week of pregnancy, way beyond the 12-week limit established by the changes in the penal code.

The physician who performed the abortion didn't verify through an ultrasound exam the gestational age of the unborn child, as the abortion law mandates, nor did he check the patient's general health status before the abortion.

Emma Beck left a suicide note and said she faced such an intense period of grief afterwards and regret over the deaths of the babies that she killed herself "to be with them."

The court heard testimony that Beck asked doctors for help prior to the abortion but that no one was able to meet with her and they gave her the number of a counseling service.

Officials went ahead with the abortion even though she said beforehand that she had second thoughts.

Weeks later, following the abortion, she hung herself at her home.

According to the London Daily Mail newspaper, the note she left read:

"I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum. I told everyone I didn't want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies - they need me, no-one else does."

ARLINGTON, VA - On February 9, to wrap up the 2008 CPAC at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Tony Fabrizio of Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates, Inc. presented the straw poll results that had been gathered during the conference. After the presentation, Fabrizio and David Keene, President of the American Conservative Union, took questions about the results from the audience. The last questioner asked why "social values" were not options for the section about most important issues for a nominee to focus on.

Fabrizio responded promptly by claiming that illegal immigration was a social value, and "social values" were an option "at the end of the list". Fabrizio insisted that the results for it were simply too low to be shown in the results presentation. The audience member asked if "social values" then had less than 2% turn out; Fabrizio explained that, "When we ask them to divide up and say ok, what was more important to you, economic issues and reducing the size of government versus moral issues, it was better than a three to one margin."

This new explanation was in reference to another slide and question, which showed that at least 22% of CPAC respondents said they consider traditional values like marriage and the life of the unborn most closely in line with their core beliefs and ideology. This was the second highest chosen response for this question, showing that, contrary to what Fabrizio is trying to say, a large number of attendees would have likely picked issues to reflect this when asked which issues are most important for a presidential nominee to focus on.

Students for Life of America obtained a copy of the straw poll from Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates, Inc. The section in question did not, in fact, include any response choices along the lines of "social values," or any commonly recognized issues of this kind, such as abortion.

Students for Life Executive Director Kristan Hawkins said, "It is laughable that a 'conservative' poll taker would say that illegal immigration is a social value issue. Reagan himself said that the conservative movement was based on three legs, and this omission chops one of those legs off for CPAC poll takers. We would strongly encourage CPAC to consider employing a polling firm which understands conservative beliefs for next year."

Charissa Lloyd (Chairman of the UNC-Chapel Hill College Republicans, Co-Director of Outreach for Carolina Students for Life, and repeat CPAC attendee) said, "As strong supporters of CPAC, we cannot help but feel as though it does the conservative movement an injustice to ignore this essential part of the conservative ideology. Leaving this option out for CPAC attendees renders the poll results skewed, as attendees could not voice their opinion in favor of some of the most paramount issues of our time, such as abortion. I had to write it in as my choice, as did several others I know who took the poll."

The bill, called the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, was drafted by the administration of Governor Eliot Spitzer. Signaling that the bill's passage is a top priority for his administration, Gov. Spitzer recently called for its passage in his January State of the State address, while his wife Silda Wall delivered a speech dedicated to the legislation at a gathering marking the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

The legislation would establish abortion as a fundamental right for pregnant women prior to fetal viability and in later stages if the woman's health is at risk. Abortion regulations would be removed from state penal law to public health law. The authority to perform abortions would also be extended beyond physicians to "qualified licensed health care providers."

Its supporters say the chief purpose of the act is to ensure that abortion remains legal in New York if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

"The law in France never legalized abortion, it decriminalized it," Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, The Archbishop of Paris said in an interview with Ouest-France. "We hope the court of Appeals will decide to legitimize the registering of the embryo as a member of the family," he added.

"The position of the Church," he explained, "is that the embryo must be treated as a person."

Spouses, boyfriends, parents, bosses and school officials also could face new abortion coercion charges under a proposal pending in the Missouri Legislature, if they threaten to kick a pregnant female out of their home, cut off financial support, fire her or revoke a scholarship.

A large Penske box truck arrived at Women's Health Care Services on Monday, February 18, 2008, and was loaded with several boxes that appeared to contain documents, according to eye-witness Margaret Weaver, who was monitoring the late-term abortion mill. The clinic was not open to patients at the time, and no other vehicles came in or out of the parking lot.

What made the incident more suspicious was that the truck's license plate had been removed.

"Trucks of this nature are often leased to businesses," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "But driving a motor vehicle without a license plate is illegal. No legitimate business would operate like that. Something is obviously going on there that Tiller and his secret collaborator do not want anyone to know about."

What makes yesterday's incident even more suspect is the fact that currently Tiller is resisting subpoenas from a grand jury that has requested 2,000 abortion records, with patient identifying information redacted, in their investigation of illegal late term abortions.

The text of the bill (HB 1625), introduced by Representative Edgar Emery, states: "No licensed pharmacy in this state shall be required to perform, assist, recommend, refer to, or participate in any act or service in connection with any drug or device that is an abortifacient, including but not limited to the RU486 drug and emergency contraception such as the Plan B drug."

Professor Albert Harris told his embryology students last week that babies who have Down syndrome should be aborted.

"In my opinion, the moral thing for older mothers to do is to have amniocentesis, as soon during pregnancy as is safe for the fetus, test whether placental cells have a third chromosome #21, and abort the fetus if it does," he said, according to a Raleigh news and Observer report.

Harris has taught at the college for 35 years and he told the newspaper he's made the pro-abortion statement several times before in an attempt to spark discussion.

He told the newspaper he has no apologies for the remark.

"I know somebody who had a child like this, and it ruined their life," he said.

Twenty-five years ago, when Kanwaljeet Anand was a medical resident in a neonatal intensive care unit, his tiny patients, many of them preterm infants, were often wheeled out of the ward and into an operating room. He soon learned what to expect on their return. The babies came back in terrible shape: their skin was gray, their breathing shallow, their pulses weak. Anand spent hours stabilizing their vital signs, increasing their oxygen supply and administering insulin to balance their blood sugar.

"What's going on in there to make these babies so stressed?” Anand wondered. Breaking with hospital practice, he wrangled permission to follow his patients into the O.R. "That's when I discovered that the babies were not getting anesthesia," he recalled recently. Infants undergoing major surgery were receiving only a paralytic to keep them still. Anand's encounter with this practice occurred at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England, but it was common almost everywhere. Doctors were convinced that newborns’ nervous systems were too immature to sense pain, and that the dangers of anesthesia exceeded any potential benefits.

Anand resolved to find out if this was true. In a series of clinical trials, he demonstrated that operations performed under minimal or no anesthesia produced a "massive stress response" in newborn babies, releasing a flood of fight-or-flight hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. Potent anesthesia, he found, could significantly reduce this reaction. Babies who were put under during an operation had lower stress-hormone levels, more stable breathing and blood-sugar readings and fewer postoperative complications. Anesthesia even made them more likely to survive. Anand showed that when pain relief was provided during and after heart operations on newborns, the mortality rate dropped from around 25 percent to less than 10%. These were extraordinary results, and they helped change the way medicine is practiced. Today, adequate pain relief for even the youngest infants is the standard of care, and the treatment that so concerned Anand two decades ago would now be considered a violation of medical ethics.

But Anand was not through with making observations. As NICU technology improved, the preterm infants he cared for grew younger and younger - with gestational ages of 24 weeks, 23, 22 - and he noticed that even the most premature babies grimaced when pricked by a needle. "So I said to myself, Could it be that this pain system is developed and functional before the baby is born?" he told me in the fall. It was not an abstract question: fetuses as well as newborns may now go under the knife. Once highly experimental, fetal surgery - to remove lung tumors, clear blocked urinary tracts, repair malformed diaphragms - is a frequent occurrence at a half-dozen fetal treatment centers around the country, and could soon become standard care for some conditions diagnosed prenatally like spina bifida. Whether the fetus feels pain is a question that matters to the doctor wielding the scalpel.

STEUBENVILLE, OHIO - Agitated after being greeted by over a hundred pro-life students at a rally in Steubenville tonight, Clinton lost his temper yet again after losing his cool at an Obama supporter in Canton, Ohio. This time, Clinton lashed out during his speech at the pro-life students:

"I gave you the answer. We disagree with you," Clinton said. "You wanna criminalize women and their doctors and we disagree. I reduced abortion. Tell the truth, tell the truth, If you were really pro-life, if you were really pro-life, you would want to put every doctor and every mother as an accessory to murder in prison. And you won't say you wanna do that because you know, that you wouldn't have a lick of political support. Now, the issue is who, the issue is, you can't name me anybody presently in politics that did more to introduce policies that reduce the number of real abortions instead of the hot air putting out to tear people up and make votes by dividing America. This is not your rally. I heard you. That's another thing you need is a president, somebody who will stick up for individual rights and not be pushed around, and she won't."

Clinton's heated response came after being questioned on his support of abortion-on-demand. The outburst is on YouTube and is also being reported by MSNBC.

"Perhaps pro-abortion politicians will finally realize that they can't hide their views from pro-life students," said Billy Valentine, one of the Franciscan University of Steubenville Students for Life members who helped organize the protest of over 100 students. "Our generation is pro-life. It is amazing that these pro-abortion politicians think that they can continuously support the killing of millions of unborn children and no one will express their dissatisfaction. They think they don't ever have to answer questions about their pro-abortion policies or the money they receive from pro-abortion lobbying organizations. This generation will no longer tolerate these types of politicians, their rhetoric, or their pro-death policies," said Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life of America.

Arnesx Honore, 32, a teacher at the Hunting Park campus of Community Education Partners since 2003, was charged in 2006 with raping a minor. The charges were withdrawn, and school officials, who first became aware of the arrest during a routine records check last year, determined that it was a "domestic dispute," said Kevin Feeley, CEP spokesman.

School officials did not know the assault had involved a minor, he added. "We saw that the charges were withdrawn, and he remained employed," Feeley said.

But after those charges were dropped last year because the teenager was reluctant to testify, they were refiled a month later, in July. CEP, which the Philadelphia School District pays to run some of its disciplinary schools, did not know the charges had been refiled until this week, Feeley said.[...]

According to records filed at the courthouse, the birth of the teenager's daughter was the first of four pregnancies during the three years the girl was allegedly beaten, threatened and abused. Authorities said the girl had been living with Honore because of problems at home.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Honore is accused of forcing her to terminate at least two pregnancies and, during the second, when she was 15, telling her that if she did not have an abortion he would "kick her ass and do it for her."

At the time she reported the crimes, authorities noted she was four months pregnant with another of Honore's children, but court records did not specify whether that child was carried to term.

Washington, D.C. (14 February 2008) – After numerous articles and pressure from Catholic and online media, Google-sponsored YouTube cited a "technical malfunction" as the reason American Life League's pro-life video was censored by YouTube staff.

"Once word got out that YouTube had allowed the Planned Parenthood ads our report was based on to remain on their site, while at the same time censoring our report, a flurry of e-mails, blog posts, and complaints from the pro-life community pressured YouTube into reversing their decision," said Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League.

The original notification e-mail sent to American Life League by YouTube reads, "After being flagged by members of the YouTube community and reviewed by YouTube staff, the video below has been removed due to its inappropriate nature."

Three days later, American Life League received a second e-mail that said:

"This email is to inform you that a video was recently removed from your account due to a technical malfunction. The issue has since been remedied and we appologize (sic) for any inconvenience or distress this may have caused. The following video(s) have been reinstated and your account has not been penalized."

According to YouTube's user guide:

"When a video gets flagged as inappropriate, we review the video to determine whether it violates our Terms of Use-flagged videos are not automatically taken down by the system. If we remove your video after reviewing it, you can assume that we removed it purposefully, and you should take our warning notification seriously."

Praising the YouTube decision, Sedlak commented "We are pleased that YouTube has reversed their decision to remove our video. Our ALL News Report was neither objectionable nor inappropriate. While it is unfortunate that YouTube chose this tactic in the first place, it is encouraging to note that they corrected their poor decision in a timely fashion."

"Even when the contest was close and our disagreements were debated, the caliber of the man was apparent," the former Massachusetts governor said, standing alongside his one-time rival at his now-defunct campaign's headquarters. "This is a man capable of leading our country at a dangerous hour."

Emily Prigge is 23-years-old and unmarried and, she says school officials asked her to resign after they learned of her pregnancy.

Prigge teaches fifth grade at St. Felix School in Wabasha and says she spoke with the principal about her pregnancy and was applauded for not having an abortion.

"She said that I made the right decision in not having an abortion because that is what the Catholic Church wants," Prigge tells the Post-Bulletin newspaper.

Then, on February 6, Prigge says the principal and a priest met with her and informed her she would have to step down from her position. They told her she had violated a statement she had signed agreeing to be a positive Catholic example in the school.

Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles genetically altered human skin cells using four regulator genes, publishing their findings in the February 11 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.

Their process produced what are called induced pluripotent cells, or IPS cells, that are almost identical to human embryonic stem cells in function and biological structure.

The lead author of the study was Kathrin Plath, an assistant professor of biological chemistry and a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. She described the research in a prepared statement.

"Our reprogrammed human skin cells were virtually indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells," she said. "Our findings are an important step towards manipulating differentiated human cells to generate an unlimited supply of patient specific pluripotent stem cells. We are very excited about the potential implications."

"It is outrageous that YouTube would black-out our video warning the public about a Planned Parenthood sex video while it continues to carry the original Planned Parenthood video," said Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League.

The "inappropriate nature" cited by YouTube management is the very same centerpiece of a publicly aired Planned Parenthood television advertising campaign which is still being hosted by YouTube as of Monday afternoon and has not been flagged.

"Such duplicitous acts cannot go unchallenged. We’ve let them know we will not be silent. We have already filed a complaint with the online service and will do whatever we can to see that this discriminatory action is overturned by YouTube," said Judie Brown, President of American Life League.

"Ironically, if there was anything inappropriate in our report it came from Planned Parenthood's ads. Yet, their video remains while ours is removed," stated Sedlak.

Sedlak continued, "Our concern is that Planned Parenthood's attack dogs flagged our video to hide the truth, and then YouTube caved to pressure. Sadly, at a time when many young people are embracing YouTube as a place where they can get the truth, it seems YouTube has its own bias and is not afraid to censor the truth about Planned Parenthood."

The Planned Parenthood campaigns are criticized by many parents as a faulty argument that only encourages promiscuity and unhealthy relationships that often times lead to the tragedy of an abortion.

The e-mail sent to American Life League by Google-sponsored YouTube reads, "After being flagged by members of the YouTube community and reviewed by YouTube staff, the video below has been removed due to its inappropriate nature."

"I guess you can't criticize Planned Parenthood on YouTube," Sedlak concluded.

As I walked on to the street, I was physically sick. It had been such a shattering experience. Driving home, I realised my relationship with my baby had changed.

Every pregnant woman wants the little person growing inside her to be perfect - but my dreams had turned into a fearful vision.

Neil and I stayed at home for the four days it took for the CVS results to come through. In the three years we had known each other, we had been so happy. Now, for the first time, a black cloud was hanging over us.

It was mid-afternoon when the midwife called. As soon as she told me it was bad news, I broke down. The baby was seriously affected by Down's as well as the intestinal complications.

We didn't know what its life expectancy would be or what medical treatment it would need, but we did know that we would not be able to cope with a severely disabled child.

Going ahead with the pregnancy wasn't even up for discussion. Neil stayed strong and made all the necessary arrangements.

I saw a consultant the following day and talked through the abortion procedure.

The delay caused by my GP losing my notes meant that, at almost 16 weeks pregnant, I had passed the safe threshold for a surgical termination and would have to go through an induced labour.

The first step was to take drugs that block the pregnancy hormones and stop the baby's heart beating. I was booked to return a couple of days later for the abortion itself.

Neil and my mother came with me. At Farnborough Hospital (now replaced by the Princess Royal University Hospital) in Kent, I was put into the side room of a maternity ward.

I couldn't see what was going on around me, but I was aware of healthy babies being born nearby. A pessary was inserted to bring on contractions and I was moved into a delivery room.

Mum sat on one side of me, knitting, Neil rubbed my feet and I had gas and air and some pethidine to ease the pain. I was told the labour would take up to 16 hours; in the event, it was only six. The midwife had asked me at the outset whether I would want to see the baby when it was born.

My reaction had been, "Oh God, no."

I know a lot of people name and cuddle their baby.

But I couldn't do it - hold the dead and deformed being that had been inside me. I never even found out the sex, although I have always thought of it as a girl. In the years since, I have struggled hugely with the way I rejected my baby. I know it was a dreadfully unmotherly thing to do.

At the point of delivery, Neil and Mum left the room. On his way back, Neil saw someone taking away the baby in a bundle of tissue down the corridor - presumably to the incinerator. He often talks about that moment and it is extremely painful for him.

Every spring, a local boys' high school makes me their class project.

A stream of anti-abortion e-mail suddenly fills my in box, courtesy of male adolescents. How do these boys figure that a woman's womb is any of their business? How do men, for that matter?

Not long after I started writing this column in the fall of 2002, I lost a friend over abortion.

We had discussed countless issues, professional and personal, over the years. We often did not agree, but that just fed a spirited banter.

Then I wrote a few columns that made clear my support for women's reproductive freedom, including the right to abortion.

First, he sent me an e-mail expressing his "disappointment."

Then he sent another insisting that whenever I wrote about abortion, I sounded "angry," a trait he never had associated with me. I assured him that he was mistaking conviction for rage, and maybe we should agree to disagree.

That's when he started forwarding circulated e-mails that included "testimonials" from women who said they deeply regretted their abortions and had emotional scars that would never heal.

When I assured him that studies consistently show that most women who choose abortion do not suffer long-term psychological distress, he accused me of supporting murder. Before long, he was barely speaking to me.

Two-year-old Sorrel Mason, from Great Wratting in Suffolk, was given only a 30 percent chance of survival after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

Millions of stem-cell samples across the world were checked after no match was found in Europe. Doctors eventually found a partial match from stem cells taken from an umbilical cord frozen in Tokyo.

Sorrel made a complete recovery after undergoing treatment with the umbilical-cord stem cells from Japan at a Bristol children's hospital last year.

"We've known for some time that leukemia has been successfully treated using adult stem cells," said Dawn Vargo, associate bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action. "This story provides hope that the healing properties of adult stem cells can be harnessed even when the cells have been frozen."

Sorrel's mother, Samantha Mason, 38, thanked doctors for "pulling off a miracle."

Michelle Stepney, 35, was diagnosed with cervical cancer while pregnant with twin girls, both of whom were born healthy in December 2006. According to recent reports by doctors, if the twins had not kicked the tumor loose, it would not have been discovered until it was too late.

Doctors advised Stepney to have an abortion to undergo cancer treatment that would involve a hysterectomy. Stepney refused, waiting to undergo treatment until the twins were born.

"I owe my life to my girls, and that's why I could have never agreed with a termination," she said. "I knew I could have an operation straight away and it would cure me of the cancer, but that would mean getting rid of my babies and I couldn't do that."

I love my work. I get enormous personal and professional satisfaction out of helping people, and that includes providing safe, comfortable, abortions. The people that I work with are extraordinary, and we all feel that we are doing important work, making a real difference in peoples' lives.

I can take an anxious woman, who is in the biggest trouble she has ever experiences in her life, and by performing a five-minute operation, in comfort and dignity, I can give her back her life.

After an abortion operation, patients frequently say "Thank You Doctor." But abortion is the only operation I know of where they also sometimes say "Thank you for what you do."

Lauren Richardson is a 23-year-old woman who overdosed on heroin in August 2006 while she was three months pregnant with a baby girl.

Doctors kept Lauren on life support until she delivered her baby in February 2007. Shortly thereafter, her parents began a fight that is reminiscent of the battle over Terri's life and death.

As in the Terri Schiavo case, physicians have been quick to label Lauren as having a persistent vegetative state -- something Terri's family called dehumanizing and medically inaccurate as patients have recovered from it.

Edith Towers, Lauren's mother, wants to remove her feeding tube and starve and dehydrate her to death in the same manner that Michael Schiavo subjected Terri.

Towers claims Lauren would never have wanted to live as a permanently disabled person, but Lauren, as with Terri, did not have a living will or other advance directive spelling out her treatment wishes. She claims Lauren told her during Terri's battle that she would not want to live like her.

On the other side is Randy Richardson, Lauren's father is fighting to save her life and wants to be appointed as her guardian to ensure she receives appropriate medical care and treatment.

"She's committed no crime and doesn't deserve to have this death imposed on her," Richardson told the News Journal newspaper on Wednesday. "We just want to give her a chance."

Lauren no longer uses a ventilator or other breathing apparatus and is not on artificial life support -- something Randy contends is showing progress.

If we abort those with disabilities, how do we view children and adults with disabilities? I worry we will become less and less tolerant of them.

Sobia Wali, 22, had married Usman Gulzar in a secret ceremony in Scotland in December and then her family found out about the pregnancy and the wedding.

After they found out, Wali's family took her to their native Pakistan on December 15 where they forced her to have an abortion. She was five months pregnant at the time.

The abortion went awry and Wali was hospitalized from complications and eventually died last Thursday.