"We really wanted to look beyond our four walls and work collaboratively with more community-based organizations," Pat Fajardo, vice president of clinical services for Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties told the Santa Barbara Independent. "I'm all about increasing access, and this population is nontraditional. They have special needs."

"We decided to keep our baby" are the sweet words I heard today while prayerfully awaiting the next opportunity to reach out to a woman or couple outside an abortion center in San Francisco. While standing next to the entrance of the abortion center, I noticed a young man in the passenger side of a car attempting to get my attention. A woman was at the wheel and there were several cars ahead of and behind them waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

Assuming the young man was seeking directions, I walked toward the curb to assist him. Then I heard him say those six glorious words and what God, the author of all life, wanted me to know. Only He knows how often parents who were planning to abort their child had a change of heart and mind. We are blessed whenever He enables us to be instrumental.

According to Pathan, she had slipped and started bleeding after which she went to a local doctor who induced pains and carried out the abortion.

"Saira said that it was a female foetus. After the abortion, she went home. However, her condition became serious and she developed acute pain in the stomach, vomiting and fever," said Dr Paresh Ruparel, operating surgeon at VS Hospital. The patient was admitted in surgeon Dr Yogendra Modi's unit.

Pathan is reported to have been extremely critical when she was brought to VS Hospital after being operated by the unregistered practitioner whom she refers to as Dr Chandu in Saraspur.

"She was severely anaemic. To make matters worse, the quack had also punctured her uterus, which resulted in bleeding inside the abdomen. Her condition was life-threatening as patients easily develop septicaemia which can even result in death," says Ruparel.

The accused, 67, was traced by police from closed-circuit television video inside a supermarket where the baby was found. He was due to be charged with performing an illegal abortion and abandoning an infant.

Police in Hong Kong were also searching for the mother of the baby girl.

The infant was delivered after induced labour. Police said the abortionist, thinking the baby was born dead, sent the mother home from his clinic before realizing the newborn was still moving.

Panicking, he then wrapped the child in newspapers, three paper bags and two layers of plastic bags before dumping her Nov 1 on top of a rubbish bag in a Hong Kong supermarket, said police, who did not release how far along her mother's pregnancy was.

Later, a supermarket worker saw something move inside the plastic bags and thought it was an animal before discovering the newborn girl with her umbilical cord still attached.

Police were called to the supermarket in Hong Kong's North Point district, and the baby girl was rushed to hospital. She has a congenital heart defect but was Friday in stable condition.

Its five-week trial run on the two network cable stations has already yielded nearly 22,000 requests for help from abortion-vulnerable women, resulting in saving the lives of 11,000 babies.

Founder of VirtueMedia, Tom Peterson explained to CNA that the ads "are designed to reach women facing unplanned pregnancies, and invite them to call for help, or come to our PregnancyLine.com website to find a women’s center in their neighborhood to help them."

The organization's ads "provide a path to healing and hope for post abortive women and men, while other VirtueMedia ads teach about the sanctity of life," he added.

A press release from VirtueMedia explains that the organization intends to air the pregnancy ads on MTV and BET (Black Entertainment Television) beginning December 28, 2008 and running through March 2009.

"Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "This rule protects the right of medical providers to care for their patients in accord with their conscience."[..]

In a press release issued by HHS, the department explained about compliance with the new regulation: "Officials are charged with working with any state or local government or entity that may be in violation of existing statutes and the regulation to encourage voluntary steps to bring that government or entity into compliance with the law. If, despite the Department’s efforts, compliance is not achieved, HHS officials will consider all legal options, including termination of funding and the return of funds paid out in violation of the nondiscrimination provisions."

The regulation takes effect 30 days after its publication on Friday, Dec. 19, in the Federal Register.

The publicity stunt was arranged by Durex, the condom manufacturer.

A press release from the company explained that costumed representatives, dressed as Santa Claus, would be handing out the condoms beginning on Tuesday, December 16.

"This holiday season, Durex(R) wants lovers to really feel the Love," says the release. "Helping Canadians get in the mood to wrap their packages, Durex and Santa will start celebrating the holidays by handing out Love condoms this Tuesday, December 16, 2008 in downtown Toronto. Giving never felt so good!"

"It's deeply saddening to me that at one of the most sacred times of the year, Durex would do such a thing," said Suresh Dominic of Campaign Life Catholic in response to the publicity stunt.

"Santa Claus is simply another name for St. Nicholas, a Catholic bishop and saint from the early Church known for generosity to the poor. He is also a symbol of the beauty and mystery of Christmas, particularly for children. To use the figure of Santa to promote an ideology of casual sex on busy public streets is offensive in the extreme."

The movie is based on the true story of woman who delivered a live baby at 22 weeks gestation after a failed abortion, and explores her emotions from her hesitancy about the abortion to her horror and regret. Because of the strong subject matter, parental discretion is advised.

The movie has a Wichita connection. The woman who had the abortion that is the subject of the movie, actually considered having her abortion in Wichita, but after viewing Operation Rescue’s web site, she decided that Tiller’s abortion mill was too dangerous. OR staffers later met the mother and became friends, helping her cope with the trauma of her abortion and supplying legal counsel for her.

A similar video, which was made in an Indianapolis clinic and released Tuesday, prompted the investigation request from Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Lakeville.

"When I saw the second one, I thought it was not an isolated incident; it was a pattern," Walorski said. "This starts becoming an issue that's worthy of a statewide investigation."

Chico State Students for Life launched a Web site Nov. 21 containing a survey that asks users about their thoughts on abortion and related issues, said senior Jandi Pereida, group president.

"I want to see what the students think," she said. "We're trying to see what the campus needs are and this survey is also trying to get people to think about (abortion)."

The survey is in disagree-agree format, and so far 71 people have given feedback, Pereida said. As of December 8 the results have shown the campus is split on the issue.

"I think every opinion and viewpoint is valid," she said. "There are some things that need to be said."

The issue of abortion is kept under the rug, Pereida said. And this was one way to bring it out and spread awareness.

"This is something that's happening now. This is something people are struggling with," she said.

Planned Parenthood said in a statement Tuesday that its first priority was to patients, but it was committed to following all state laws. It said it was investigating the matter and had not yet established whether the second video by Live Action had accurate content.

Planned Parenthood said the aide seen in the first Live Action video behaved unacceptably and was fired. It also said that staff members had been retrained on reporting abuse.

Hollywood actor and political activist Danny Glover, in an exclusive interview with CNSNews.com, said that enacting the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is consistent with civil rights and that legalizing homosexual marriage is a good step and springs, in part, from the sense of "justice" that the civil rights movement in America fostered.

The Freedom of Choice Act, which would allow unrestricted abortion-on-demand nationwide and which President-elect Obama has said he would sign into law, is "absolutely" consistent with civil rights, Glover told CNSNews.com.

"Absolutely, there should be no limitations on a woman's right to choose whether she wants to abort that child or whether she wants to have that child," said Glover. "There should absolutely – I think around most of the places in the world there is a freedom of choice act. We don’t even talk about it around other places in the world – in the modern world, in the Western world. Certainly – but absolutely I support that Act and a women's right to choose."

A Stockholm-area hospital has been told to review its procedures after a doctor accidentally removed a fetus from a woman during a hysteroscopy.

The 28-year-old woman had sought treatment at the Stockholm South General Hospital in May 2007 because she was having trouble getting pregnant.

An ultrasound performed in September showed that the woman's fallopian tubes were free from obstruction, but also revealed suspected polyps along the uterine wall.

Doctors scheduled an operative hysteroscopy for December, during which the suspect tissue was scraped away.

A subsequent examination of the discarded material revealed that it contained a fetal tissue.

In the video, shot undercover this summer at a Planned Parenthood in Indianapolis, two employees state they "don't care" about the age difference between a 31-year-old man and the 13-year-old girl he was reported to have impregnated. A previously released video shot at a Bloomington Planned Parenthood showed similar results. Neither the Bloomington nor Indianapolis clinics reported the rape and both clinics counseled the 13-year-old to obtain a secret abortion across state lines where no parental consent laws applied.

At both clinics, Lila Rose, student journalist and president of Live Action, enters posing as a 13-year-old girl and discloses she is pregnant by a 31-year-old man. The Indianapolis staffer states, "We don't really care about who, what, the age of the boyfriend." She then sends Rose to a counselor, who after hearing about the 31-year-old also states, "I don't care how old he is." When Rose tells the counselor that her mother would be upset about the 31-year-old boyfriend, the counselor informs Rose that "the surrounding states don't have parental consent. I can't tell you anymore."

In Bloomington, the nurse declares, "I don't want to know how old he is" and instructs Rose to travel to an Illinois Planned Parenthood and say her 31-year-old boyfriend is only fourteen. Although the Bloomington clinic fired its nurse, Rose says this is not an isolated incident. "We have more videos documenting this pattern of law-breaking within Planned Parenthood. There are actual cases all across the country where their failure to follow state statutes has allowed predators to continue their sexual abuse of young girls."

On Monday, Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter launched an investigation of Planned Parenthood in response to the Bloomington footage. Indiana State Representative Jackie Walorski and right-to-life advocacy groups including American Life League publicly called for the investigation. In 2005, the Attorney General also sought the records of 84 Planned Parenthood patients under the age of fourteen who may have been victims of sexual abuse, but Planned Parenthood sued to prevent their release.'

The Mater-University of Queensland study of pregnancy and its outcomes, involving 1223 women, found young women who had had a miscarriage before the age of 21 years were more than twice as likely to abuse illicit drugs (excluding cannabis) compared to those who had never been pregnant.

The study, which appears in the British Journal of Psychiatry, also showed that having an abortion before 21 years of age doubled the risk of alcohol abuse or of developing depression; and more than tripled the risk of illicit drug use.

"Abortion means to take the life of an innocent person, as from the most moment of an embryo's existence is is a human with its own rights," Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the Vatican's health spokesman, told ANSA news agency.

Italy's pharmaceutical watchdog approved the use of the RU486 pill in February 2008 and is set to meet next week to finalise its entry onto the Italian market.

The pill's manufacturers, Exelgyn Laboratories of France, say it can terminate pregnancies of up to seven weeks.

First-grader Amy Bull doesn't know it, but she's the reason many unwanted babies have been placed in loving, adopted homes.

Amy has Down syndrome as well as heart problems that often accompany the genetic condition. At age 7, she's already had three open-heart surgeries.

After she was born, her father, Savannah attorney Birney O'Brian Bull, knew he needed a job with more flexible hours so he and his wife, Deborah First, a Savannah College of Art & Design professor, could care for their special needs child.

They also have a healthy teenage daughter, Betsy.

So Bull quit his job as staff attorney for a local judge and opened his own practice specializing in adoption law.


Special needs prompt special ministry

Five years later, Bull has made promoting the choice of adoption - over the choice of abortion - more than just a law career.

Adoption has become his ministry. As a result, he's helped hundreds of babies and children get legally adopted into loving homes - children whom may have been aborted otherwise.

Like all ministries, Bull's isn't without some spiritual help. His assistant for the past year is a nun, Sr. Mary Ann Lang.

She handles public relations and calls from birth mothers who contact the practice seeking information on finding an adoptive family for their baby. Bull advertises his practice in the Yellow Pages under abortion alternatives.

Theirs is a practical form of anti-abortion activism that signifies more than holding up placards at rallies or protesting abortion clinics. It's about decreasing the demand for abortion, rather than focusing on the legislation.

Their goal is for birth mothers facing an unwanted pregnancy to make an informed decision, to know they have more choices than abortion. They can, instead, give their child and another family the gift of adoption.

After news broke of the brochure's abortion coverage, Assistant Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs Gary MacDonald stated: "It was not the University's intention to offer this coverage. USF supports the Catholic Church's views on the sanctity of life, at all stages, and we will remove this provision from our student health plan.

"We regret this mistake, and we take full responsibility for not adequately reviewing the contract. We are grateful to those who brought this issue to our attention," said MacDonald.[..]

Yet another report has recalled specters of USF's poor track record in defending women and children on campus from abortion.

Valerie Schmalz, a contributing editor at Our Sunday Visitor, reported that students who seek an abortion at the University's health clinic at St. Mary's Medical Center are referred to abortion providers. (See bottom of blog post)

An official at the hospital reportedly told Schmalz that St. Mary's refers students who request abortion or contraception either to Planned Parenthood or to Aetna providers.

"We just provide them with resources of where they want to go," said St. Mary's senior director Les McGee. "We're not involved in terminating pregnancies.".

In a supplement to its November 2008 issue, top reproductive health journal Fertility and Sterility published the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) statement, "Hormonal contraception: recent advances and controversies."

In a summary of the development of contraception in the United States the statement called oral contraceptives the "most widely used" reversible method. In the "wide variety" of oral contraceptives that are available, the "mechanisms of action" are the same, said the statement: "inhibition of ovulation, alteration in the cervical mucus, and/or modification of the endometrium, thus preventing implantation."

Pro-life advocates who oppose abortion, but not contraception, have long considered the Pill as an ethical contraceptive option, as opposed to the IUD, which causes abortions by preventing implantation. However, the statement by the ASRM clearly indicates that the pill is medically classified as a drug that acts by "preventing implantation," thereby causing the death of a fertilized embryo – a unique and living human being.

A large body of literature supports this statement, including articles from Fertility and Sterility. The most significant of these is a 1996 study by a group of OB/GYNs from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, that concluded that "impaired uterine receptivity" is "one mechanism by which OCs exert their contraceptive actions."

A San Diego mother of seven who tracks the performance of Catholic politicians has found that many of the 162 Catholics in Congress have received a total of $9 million in contributions from pro-abortion groups since the 1990 election cycle.

Lisa Correnti runs the web site "One Nation Under God". While compiling information on political donations, she researched the total amount of campaign donations given to Catholic congressmen by groups such as Planned Parenthood, Emily's List, NOW, and Naral Pro-Choice America.

The Ecke Ranch in northern San Diego County estimates it once supplied between 70% and 80% of poinsettias distributed nationwide. The Ecke family, which owns the ranch, has been honored repeatedly by Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties for the family’s support of abortion. In 2005, Ecke family matriarch Elizabeth Ecke attended the dedication of a new Planned Parenthood facility in Carlsbad, which was constructed with the help of $250,000 in Ecke family money. Other family members, including Paul Ecke III, Lizbeth Ecke and Sara Ecke May, have also donated thousands of dollars to Planned Parenthood.

Paul Ecke III, in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune made specific mention of his family’s support of the abortion provider, telling the newspaper: “Our mother’s support and perseverance for causes deemed lost or unpopular were a regular part of our growing up… Those causes were for political campaigns, 4-H club, school bonds, Planned Parenthood and others.”

In 2005, San Diego pro-life activist James Hartline, noting the connection between Ecke’s poinsettia sales and the abortion industry, organized a nationwide boycott of Ecke Ranch poinsettias. The boycott has apparently met with some success: in 2007, Ecke Ranch announced that it had substantially reduced its production of the plants and instead had licensed the use of the Ecke name to other companies that produce and sell the traditional holiday decoration.

The study, carried out by psychiatrist Carmen Gomez-Lavin of the University of Navarre, also uncovered other symptoms that affect women who suffer from Post-Abortion Syndrome. These include sexual dysfunction (40%), drug abuse, especially among adolescents (30%), behavioral changes (60%) or irritability (70%).

During the process and in the year that follows an abortion, the study indicates, the mortality rate of women who have undergone an abortion is between 3.5 and 6 times higher than that of women who give birth, mainly due to suicides, accidents and murders. "The suicide rate is between 6 and 7 time higher than in women who give birth," the study finds.

"More than 50 studies have demonstrated a statistically significant increase in premature birth or low birth weight risk in women with prior induced abortions," said Joseph De Cook, M.D., vice president of the American Association of Pro Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG).

He cited numerous studies supporting this link, including one conducted on an Australian database of 250,000 births which showed a 60 percent increase in extreme premature birth (born at 22-28 weeks) in women who had one abortion and a 150 percent increase after two abortions. The number leaps to 460 percent after three abortions and 800 percent after four.

A 2004 Europop study also concluded that the risk of pre-term birth increased by 50 percent after one abortion and a large Bavarian study based on 106,345 births found that women who had one prior abortion were 2.5 times more likely to give birth prematurely and more than five times more likely after two abortions.

Study after study has borne out these staggering statistics, including one published as recently as this month by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. The study's author, Dr. Brent Rooney, research director of the Reduce Pre-term Risk Coalition, links the high rate of pre-term births of black babies to the disproportionately high rate of abortion among black women. With 37 percent of all U.S. abortions being performed on black women, Dr. Rooney concludes that abortion is the most likely cause of pre-term birth in black women.

So why doesn't the March of Dimes recognize these findings in their published reports?

"We follow ACOG's (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) guidance on the matter," said Dolores Smith, Pennsylvania State Director for Program Services and Public Affairs at the March of Dimes.

"ACOG does not consider a prior abortion to be a risk factor for premature birth and we follow ACOG's guidance on the matter. We're not clinicians. We don't set practice recommendations. When ACOG changes it, then we'll review it and support their new recommendations."

When we asked ACOG why they refused to recognize the well-substantiated link between abortion and pre-term birth, their Office of Communications provided us with two statements regarding pre-term birth and abortion, then said "As you will see, these materials do not mention induced abortion as a risk factor for premature birth because, apparently, no relationship has been found."

How can this be?

"It's all political," said Dr. DeCook. "You just can't say anything that puts a dirty face on abortion. You just can't."

Missouri Roundtable For Life is seeking signatures to put the following question before voters in two years:

"Section 38(e). It shall be unlawful to expend, pay, or grant any public funds for abortion services, human cloning, or prohibited human research, as such terms were defined by the 92nd Missouri general assembly in 2003, in Revised Statutes of Missouri Section 196.1127, L.2003, H.B. 688."

In response to a Planned Parenthood program offering gift certificates that may be used for abortions, the Pro-life Action League is asking supporters to donate to a national help line for those who are in a crisis pregnancy or who are dealing with the aftermath of an abortion.

The Pro-Life Action League (PLAL) in a Thursday press release advocated donations to Option Line, the 24/7 hotline at 1-800-395-HELP. The hotline, a joint venture between Heartbeat International and Care Net, connects callers to local pregnancy resource centers.

PLAL will also give free copies of the book "What Mary and Joseph Knew About Parenting" to the first 100 donors who contribute $42 or more between now and Christmas. According to the press release, $42 funds a half-hour of work on Option Line, helping an average of at least 14 people in that time.

"After the national outrage of Planned Parenthood's 'death' certificates that could be used for abortions, we wanted to let people know there are much better places to send their money to assist women who need help dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. Therefore we are alerting our national network to send Christmas gift donations to organizations that we've partnered with for years," said Eric Scheidler, communications director for the Pro-Life Action League.

No high-quality study done to date can document that having an abortion causes psychological distress, or a "post-abortion syndrome," and efforts to show it does occur appear to be politically motivated, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reviewed 21 studies involving more than 150,000 women and found the high-quality studies showed no significant differences in long-term mental health between women who choose to abort a pregnancy and others.

"The best research does not support the existence of a 'post-abortion syndrome' similar to post-traumatic stress disorder," Dr. Robert Blum, who led the study published in the journal Contraception, said in a statement.

"Based on the best available evidence, emotional harm should not be a factor in abortion policy. If the goal is to help women, program and policy decisions should not distort science to advance political agendas," added Vignetta Charles, a researcher and doctoral student at Johns Hopkins who worked on the study.

A statement by Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, was released Wednesday in response to the video shot by a UCLA student who said she visited the Bloomington Planned Parenthood office in June, posing as a young teen. She said she spoke to a nurse there and told her she was 13 and pregnant from sex with an adult.

"We are deeply concerned about the content of the video," the prepared statement read. "While we cannot be certain whether this video has been altered, the apparent actions of the employee would be in violation of our strict policies and procedures. Therefore, a thorough internal investigation of this matter has begun, and the employee has been put on an immediate, unpaid suspension. Further disciplinary action will be taken if warranted by the investigation."

In a telephone interview, Cockrum said Planned Parenthood places "incredible importance" on following the law. "Our policy is to comply with Indiana and federal law" A sexual act between an adult and a person who has not reached his or her 14th birthday must be reported to the Department of Child Protective Services or a law enforcement agency, Cockrum said.

The footage shows Lila Rose, a UCLA student journalist and president of right-to-life advocacy group Live Action, posing as a 13-year-old girl. In an appointment with a Planned Parenthood nurse, Rose says she has been impregnated by a 31-year-old man, a clear case of child molestation under Indiana state law.

On tape, the nurse acknowledges her responsibility to report the abuse, but assures Rose she will not. The nurse says, "I am supposed to report to Child Protective Services," but tells Rose, "Okay, I didn't hear the age [of the 31-year-old]. I don't want to know the age."

She then instructs Rose how to obtain a secret abortion by crossing state lines in order to avoid Indiana's parental consent law. The nurse also coaches Rose to cover for the 31-year-old man by saying he is only 14. She says, "You've seen him around, you know he's 14, he's in your grade and whatever. You know what I mean."

Judge Mary Hannon ruled Monday that the evidence was clear: Oakdale teenager Nicole Beecroft planned the death of her newborn daughter, stabbed her more than 100 times and threw the baby's body into a trash can outside her house.

The judge found Beecroft guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced her to life in prison without parole.[..]

Beecroft stabbed the baby 135 times in the neck, chest and abdomen. Several of the wounds penetrated the baby's vital organs, Hannon said before she sentenced Beecroft.

A new article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons says African American women are being disproportionately exposed to an unsafe surgical procedure that is a "probable cause" of the high preterm birth rate among blacks. [1]

The authors, Brent Rooney and his colleagues, cited numerous studies, the Institute of Medicine, and other authorities acknowledging the abortion-preterm birth (APB) link.

Black Americans are three times more likely to have an early preterm birth (EPB) before 32 weeks gestation and four times more likely to have an extremely preterm birth (XPB) before 28 weeks gestation in comparison with non-black Americans. The risk of cerebral palsy for XPB babies is 129 times greater than that of full-term infants. Blacks represent 12.5% of American females; but 38.2% of all abortions are committed on blacks.

Rooney's group cited Harvard research dating from 1973 showing that only full-term births provide mothers with a significant reduction in breast cancer risk.

Fr. Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto, first made the observation at a Mass after the election, then followed up with a Nov. 21 letter to his parishioners explaining his thinking.

But the priest is getting no support for his views from Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire, who told the Modesto Bee Catholics are under no obligation to discuss how they voted with their priest and are free to consider many issues before deciding how to cast their vote. The only circumstance in which confession might be warranted, Bishop Blaire told the newspaper, is "if someone voted for a pro-abortion or pro-choice candidate -- if that's the reason you voted for them."