Amendment 48, entitled "Definition of a Person," was approved for a statewide vote on Thursday by Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman, whose office validated 103,000 signatures on petitions for the ballot initiative -- 27,000 more than required.

The petition drive -- which actually collected 130,050 signatures -- originated with 20-year-old Kristi Burton, who said in a news release that she developed a deep passion for the pro-life movement at 13 years of age.

"All humans should be protected by love and by law, and this amendment is a historic effort to ensure equal rights for every person," Burton noted in her statement.

Gilary Massa, vice-president external of the York Federation of Students, said student clubs will be free to discuss abortion in student space, as long as they do it "within a pro-choice realm," and that all clubs will be investigated to ensure compliance.

"You have to recognize that a woman has a choice over her own body," Ms. Massa said. "We think that these pro-life, these anti-choice groups, they're sexist in nature ... The way that they speak about women who decide to have abortions is demoralizing. They call them murderers, all of them do ... Is this an issue of free speech? No, this is an issue of women's rights."

"Life is inviolable from the moment of conception. The elimination of an innocent human being is ethically and medically speaking always unacceptable," they said.

They went on to note that "science teaches that life begins and conception. If this truth is also affirmed by religions it does not therefore cease to be a strictly scientific truth to only become a debatable religious opinion. Whoever denies that life begins at conception doesn’t have an issue with religion but rather with science. To deny this certainty of biology is not an expression of a lack of faith, but rather a lack of an elementary knowledge of human genetics, or even worse, of simple general culture," the doctors said.

"No matter what name is given to this new human person," they continued, "zygote, morula, blastocyst, embryo, fetus, newborn, infant, teenage, young person, adult, elderly, terminally ill... They are all denominations of the one and same human person in the different stages of development through which he or she passes."

The doctors acknowledged that certain pregnancies can present dilemmas, "but we know what not to do: directly kill the child, making ourselves into the owners and masters of life and death. Doctors are agents of life and not ambassadors of death," they said.

The venerable Spectator, a leading British magazine of political news and commentary, has published excerpts from a letter from a British nurse who, in 2005, described babies surviving late-term abortions who are left to "gasp for breath for ten minutes on the side of a sink" until they die.

The nurse, identified only as "Kay" in a newspaper column, said, "I know of two nurses who went off work with stress as a result of their experience with late terminations. I suffered horrendous nightmares and guilt for months. The guilt comes from the fact that you as a nurse cut the umbilical cord and, as dramatic as it sounds, we felt like murderers."

The Democratic-led House passed the ban by a 74-32 vote late Tuesday. The Republican-controlled Senate has approved similar legislation. But Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm doesn't support the bill and might veto it because it doesn't include an exception for the health of the mother, setting the scene for a possible override showdown.

A new memoir reveals that those closest to Love encouraged her to abort her child with Kurt Cobain, front man of the rock band Nirvana, due to health complications Love's heroine use was expected to cause her child.

"You're not telling me to have a [bleep]-ing abortion, are you?' asked Courtney, her voice rising with her trademark hostile whine. 'I mean I'm pro-choice, but that doesn't mean that anyone has the right to tell me to have a [bleep]ing abortion.'" reports former CEO of Warner Bros. Records and Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg in his new book "Bumping Into Geniuses."

"[The doctor] suggested that it might not be safe for the baby, and Courtney, who was only six weeks pregnant, went into a confrontational mode. 'Is that a medical fact, or is that just your opinion? I want to see it in a medical book.' She was interested in medical facts, not a sermon."

"[He] sheepishly acknowledged that at this early stage of pregnancy a woman could discontinue heroin use with no physical or psychological damage to the fetus. Courtney looked triumphant as she towered over the doctor seated at his desk," recalled Goldberg.

After ending heroine use, Love gave birth to a completely healthy child named Frances Bean in August 1992.

Ten police officers worked on the case, he said, tracking the Craigslist posting to a west-end apartment.

"Police knocked at the door and asked if there was a baby in the apartment," Const. Fanning told reporters at a news conference.

He said the 23-year-old mother was found nursing a seven-day-old baby.[..]

The couple were initially arrested for questioning about the ad.

"They said it was just a hoax," Const. Fanning explained.

The father, who placed the ad using a computer found in the apartment, was taken to jail.

Police sent a report to Crown recommending a charge of public mischief, but the Crown didn't feel there was enough evidence to support the charge, he added.

The baby was taken from the couple by a social worker and placed in care, Const. Fanning said.

Dr Greg Gardner, from Cape Hill Medical Centre, Smethwick, and Dr Laurence Crutchlow, from Kingfisher Practice, Walsall, have told expectant mothers that they will not consent to terminations.

Dr Gardner, a GP for 20 years, said he believes all abortions are harmful to women's physical and mental health.

And Dr Crutchlow says approving a termination would be against his religious beliefs as a Church of England Christian.[...]

My reasons concern ethics and good medical practice. I have never seen a study which shows abortion is good for a woman.

"Yet there are numerous studies which show it is harmful to mental health and long term physical health.

"Other GPs in the practice I work for do refer women for abortions. But I feel to do so would be to collaborate in the killing of a child.

The members of the post-abortion group Operation Outcry stood on the sidewalk holding signs that read "My Abortion Hurt Me".

They were able to share their message of abortion's destructive effects with over 6,000 people attending the rally.

"I wanted the people to realize what their support of Obama means when you think about the damage abortion does to the thousands of women and men daily in our nation and the loss of our children," Rebecca Porter told LifeNews.com.[..]

"What surprised me the most was that many people that spoke to us were pro-life and didn't have a clue about Barack Obama's liberal voting record," she said.

Pro-life U.S. congressmen, lead by Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Bart Stupak (D-MI), rescued a congressional resolution supporting reduction of women’s mortality at home and abroad from surreptitiously advancing the UN's pro-abortion agenda. House Resolution 1022, as now drafted, promotes both "maternal health and child survival" without a stealth promotion of abortion.

The language that was removed by Smith and Stupak called for funding of "global initiatives" and the recognition of maternal health as a "human right." Using such language would have lent U.S. support for a new pro-abortion initiative launched at a London conference last October called “Women Deliver.” At the Women Deliver conference pro-abortion advocates launched the International Initiative on Maternal Mortality and Human Rights that seeks to link the maternal mortality issue with access to abortion while furthering development of "soft law" norms that include abortion as a human right.[...]

In a statement preceding passage of the bill, Rep. Smith pointed out that "when women receive proper prenatal care, they are less likely to die in childbirth," adding that the final form of the resolution "does not endorse – in any way whatsoever – the cruel ideology that pits women against babies by suggesting abortion as a means of combating maternal mortality."

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted on an amendment to the War Supplemental Appropriations Bill. Democrats, led by Sen. Barack Obama, had inserted language to help Planned Parenthood into the domestic-spending portion of this troop-funding bill. The Senate passed the amendment 75-22.

The provision allows for groups like Planned Parenthood and university health centers to receive discounted prices from drug manufacturers for drugs like the morning-after pill, which may cause an early abortion.

In Richmond, the same three-judge panel that overturned the law in 2005 repeated its 2-1 decision Tuesday, saying the only way a doctor could be certain he or she would not be prosecuted under the law was to stop performing abortions.

"The Virginia act imposes an undue burden upon a woman's right to choose a previability second-trimester abortion," Judge Blane Michael wrote. He was joined by Judge Dianna Gribbon Motz.

Dissenting Judge Paul Niemeyer accused his colleagues of exploiting minor differences between Virginia's act and the federal ban to find reasons to reject it.

The 21-year-old coach brought the girl to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Cincinnati to have an abortion after discovering she was pregnant with his child. Neither Planned Parenthood nor the soccer coach notified the parents of the abortion or the sexual relationship.

The high court is being asked to reverse an appellate court decision keeping the teenager and her parents from accessing Planned Parenthood records that may show a systematic coverup of statutory rape and other sexual abuse.

Two-year-old Elio Burgos, who was born blind, is now able to see, thanks to a series of adult stem-cell treatments.

Elio was diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia, an underdeveloped optic nerve. His mother found a hospital in China that offered umbilical cord stem-cell treatments that could improve her son's sight. The Florida family flew to China so Elio could undergo the treatments.

Now, fewer than three months after his treatments - a series of cell injections consisting of 10 to 15 million healthy umbilical cord stem cells - Elio's eyesight has gone from 20/1200 to 20/200 and will hopefully continue to improve during the next seven months.

"As an association dedicated to helping women, we call on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the New Jersey Court's precedent and to require abortionists to provide medically accurate details about the gestational development of a human baby," said Heartbeat International President Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D. "The facts are a baby's heart begins beating at 21 days and brain waves can be measured at six weeks. Women deserve the truth."

With Acuna v. Turkish, the New Jersey High Court set the legal precedent that a doctor can legally deceive a woman considering abortion. The ruling held that a doctor who performs an abortion has no responsibility to present precise biological information to a woman about her unborn child or the abortion procedure risks.

The court ruled that Regina McKnight, who was convicted in 2001 of homicide by child abuse after being accused of killing her unborn child with cocaine, must be granted a new trial.

McKnight gave birth to a stillborn, 5-pound girl May 15, 1999. The baby's age was estimated at between 34 and 37 weeks.

McKnight's first trial, in January 2001, ended in a mistrial. Four months later, a jury convicted her.[...]

In January 2003, the S.C. Supreme Court upheld McKnight's conviction. The U.S. Supreme Court then refused to hear her case.

Attorneys for the National Advocates for Pregnant Women and the S.C. Civil Liberties Union became involved in McKnight's case when she asked for post-conviction relief.

"The groups got involved because there is complete consensus that prosecuting pregnant women is bad for mothers and babies," said Lynn Paltrow, with the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. "Regina McKnight was convicted on junk science and was not fairly represented at trial."

The decision by the Supreme Court agreed there was no clear connection between the baby's death and the mother's use of cocaine.

People often ask me why I'm a Conservative. It's not the usual political default position for a girl from a Liverpool council estate. Well, for me being a Conservative is about protecting the most vulnerable in our society. Who can be more vulnerable than a baby struggling to breathe in a bedpan?

The activists can smear away - I will continue to fight the horrible injustice that befalls 2,500 babies a year. It feels like it's me and the memory of a lost baby against the rest of the world and a bunch of graffiti artists.

In a statement Oregon Right to Life sent LifeNews.com on Thursday the group said Erickson has "betrayed the trust of his former girlfriend, prominent political organizations and every Republican voter in the 5th Congressional District."

Gayle Atteberry told LifeNews.com that she was aware of the allegations two years ago when Erickson approached her group seeking an endorsement in a previous election.

"However, as the Election Day drew near, we heard from Tawnya, a young woman who claimed to be the mother of Mike's child, one she ultimately aborted with Mike's aid and money. We talked personally with Tawnya. She is very credible and remains, to this day, devastated over the events," Atteberry said.

"When we approached Mike about these allegations, he admitted giving her money and dropping her at a 'doctor's office'", Atteberry added. "He said he did not know she was getting an abortion."

"Now, less than two years later, Mike Erickson issues a flat denial about everything, even the parts he openly admitted in our presence," the pro-life advocate said.

In March, Andre Lampkin, 20, was facing the amputation of his legs and arms. But an experimental treatment using his own stem cells to stimulate tissue growth is giving the former wide receiver hope after meningitis damaged his limbs.

The Star-Telegram of Fort Worth, Texas, reported that two weeks after treatment, the soles of his feet and palms of his hands are softening, his circulation has improved and his right foot is moving.

Dr. Zannos Grekos conducted the experimental treatment in the Dominican Republic because it is not approved in the U.S.

"It looks like we have already saved his legs and arms," Grekos told the Star-Telegram. "Now we're hoping to save most of each foot and his hands."

"Christians shouldn't be punished for abiding by their beliefs against abortion. The Coast Guard has done the right thing in recognizing that those who lay their life on the line to defend our shores are entitled to same freedom as anyone else not to have their particular beliefs disregarded," said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman.

"Members of the U.S. military should never be forced to make an unconstitutional choice between honoring their country and adhering to the belief that health and medicine can prosper without exploiting the killing of preborn children," Bowman said.

About 50 people, mainly women, gathered at the Zócalo, Mexico City's central plaza, at daybreak on May 10 - the day Mother's Day is celebrated in Mexico -- and placed 8,000 white balloons, labeled "I'm a mother victim of abortion", as well as 46 huge red balloons with the name of each one of the legislators who approved the law legalizing abortion.

Led by Jorge Serrano Limón, founder of Pro-Vida Mexico, the participants prayed a rosary for the victimized mothers and also for the pro-abortion legislators.

"The right to choose is a lie, which hurts women and intimately offends our mother, the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe," said Rocío Gálvez, the current president of Pro-Life Mexico. "On this Mothers' Day we should reflect about this homicidal act."

The baby was found Monday night just before 9 p.m., when Wesley Falker was about to dump his lawn clippings when he heard a weird noise inside the trash bin that he’d propped open with a stick.

"It was making a strange, screeching sound and I was thinking to myself that’s the strangest sound I’ve ever heard a stick make," said Falker, 52.

An instant later, he heard a muffled baby cry.

Inside the full bin, and under about a foot of brush, Falker and some of his neighbors in the 5700 block of Waterman Boulevard, just west of DeBaliviere Avenue, dug out a newborn baby boy with his umbilical cord still attached. Falker said the baby, who was wrapped in a towel, weighed about six pounds and was making sucking sounds. [..]

Falker says whoever left the child in the trash bin had a plan in mind.

"The baby was covered up so nobody could find it," he said.

"When I gave birth at 23 weeks, my daughter looked like a baby: not a foetus, a fully-developed baby."

"We cannot but recognize that, in practical terms, defending human life has become more difficult today, because a mentality has been created that progressively devalues human life and entrusts it to the judgment of individuals."

The consequence of this thinking is a decrease in respect for the human person, "a value that lies at the foundation of any form of civil coexistence, over and above the faith a person may profess," the Pontiff said.

Contrary to the assertions of those who have promoted abortion, it "has not resolved the problems afflicting many women and no small number of families, but it has opened another wound in our societies," said the Holy Father.

It took Muskan five years to get justice, four months into marriage, her husband and in-laws made her go through an ultrasound test to determine the sex of her baby.

The test found it was a girl and Muskan was forced to abort the baby after which it was discovered that she was actually carrying a boy.

But now her husband and in-laws have landed in jail.

''I am happy that they have been punished but I want more harsh punishment, they should be hanged they have killed my baby,'' Muskan said.

"We think that Mother's Day is the perfect time to think about what it means to support mothers in this country," they added. "There is no organization that we know of that supports motherhood and all that it means more than Planned Parenthood."

Researchers at the University of Ottawa simply were trying to boost the immune systems of MS patients with bone marrow stem-cell transplants. What they ended up with was a remarkable remission of the disease. Not one patient has had a relapse in nearly seven years.

Morgan Hite secretly delivered a baby boy in a neighbor's bathtub, then wrapped him in a garbage bag, put him in a plastic tote and shelved the container in a bedroom closet at her family's Grand Junction, Colo., home, according to a police affidavit made public Wednesday.

The child's body remained hidden for two months before Hite's father and stepmother discovered the decomposing body wrapped in a bloody green towel, the affidavit says.

On Sunday, the Cumberland County Fairgrounds was the site of a celebration.
On Monday, with Cinco de Mayo revelers long since gone, cleaning crews made a gruesome discovery when they found what was originally thought to be an aborted fetus in the upper tank of a public toilet.

A preliminary investigation revealed it was a newborn baby boy brought to full-term.

County Prosecutor Ron Casella said an autopsy is scheduled for today to determine whether or not the baby was alive when it was born.

The ethnicity of the child is not yet known and investigators are not sure just how long the baby was hidden in the tank before being discovered. It is also unknown if the baby sustained any post-birth trauma.

Alfonso Price, 16, and Jebrell Wright, 17, will be eligible for parole in 23 years for their convictions on murder, felonious assault and kidnapping charges in the July 2007 attack.

Authorities said the pair attacked 18-year-old Kerria Anderson, who told Price she was pregnant at the time with his unborn child.

The teens stomped Anderson in the hallway of an Over-The-Rhine apartment building after she refused to get an abortion, investigators said, and the fetus suffered fatal injuries.

I fly all over the place and frequently use American Airlines. My husband loves collecting those "miles" for upgrades. However, we were quite shocked to read a note from a fellow airline traveler mentioning the airline was going to support the activities of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. In the official press release the airline announced:

American Airlines has launched 'Miles for the Cure', a special fundraising campaign that rewards donors by giving them five AAdvantage miles for every dollar they contribute to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Katherin Shuffield, 30, said the masked gunman jumped over her teller station and shot her once in the abdomen April 22 just after the Huntington Bank branch had opened for the day.

As she lay bleeding on the floor, she said the gunman, who remains at large, refused to let her co-workers call 911 to get her medical assistance.

"I said, 'Please help me! He shot me, he shot me! My babies!' He didn't let anybody do anything because he was more worried about taking the money," Shuffield said during a news conference at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

Two days after the shooting, Shuffield, who was five months pregnant, lost her twin girls. She remains hospitalized with an infection created by the bullet that passed through her abdomen.

Honor thy mother. That's the motto Angela Polgar has tried to live by all her life -- a life that began in a death camp. The place was Auschwitz-Birkenau, in southern Poland. Her parents, Hungarian Jews, arrived there on a Nazi transport on May 25, 1944.

Polgar's mother, Vera Bein, nee Otvos, was 25 years old at the time and almost two months pregnant.

On the infamous railway platform where "selections" were made, Bein, as Polgar respectfully calls her, was not sent to the gas chambers. Instead, she was assigned to a variety of gruelling work details before becoming a guinea pig for sterilization experiments by a camp doctor.

By the horrific standards of the Holocaust, it's an ordinary story, perhaps -- except for one thing. The patient survived, and so did her child.

One year after an abortion clinic in Mobile, Ala., closed, a memorial for life is set to open at the site. The memorial aims to educate and bring awareness to the sanctity of human life.

Hope's Corner will honor the life of Claire Hope Cox, who died when she was just 8 weeks old of a rare genetic disease. Her parents, who chose not to abort Claire despite doctors' recommendations, helped to convert the abortion clinic.

"Claire showed us that even in what was to be a negative thing - an illness and death - that all things truly will work together for our good," Tammy Cox wrote on her blog shortly after her daughter's death. "We truly lived moment by moment."

The former Center for Choice clinic performed abortions for nearly 30 years, during which time an estimated 30,000 preborn babies were killed. Hope's Corner organizers say they want to change the spirit of the building from a culture of death to a culture of life.

Saturday, May 3, 2008, those babies whose lives were treated as worthless by the abortionist, the state, and even their own mothers, will have some measure of human dignity restored to them.

Citizens for a Pro-Life Society will conduct a funeral for the babies to be held at St. Gerald’s Church, 21300 Farmington Road, in Farmington, Michigan, at 10:30 AM on Saturday. The funeral will be followed by a private interment at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan.

The bill bars employers and health insurers from discriminating against individuals on the basis of their own or their family members’ genetic information.

Health insurance companies would be prohibited from basing enrollment or premium decisions on the results of genetic tests and employers couldn't rely on them to making hiring, assignment or promotion decisions.

Pro-life groups say the bill helps protect the disabled, who can easily become victims of discrimination.