The girl appeared to be in "fairly good health" at a New Hampshire hospital Wednesday, Worcester Police Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst said.

Julie Corey, 35, of Worcester, Mass., and a male companion were arrested in Plymouth, N.H., where police found them with the child. Corey was charged as a fugitive from justice and is to be arraigned in district court in Concord, N.H., on Thursday. She was in custody and could not be reached for comment late Wednesday, and Worcester police did not know whether she had a lawyer. Police in New Hampshire said the man was released.

Corey told acquaintances that she delivered the baby sometime late Thursday or early Friday at an undisclosed hospital, and by later Friday was showing the newborn off to acquaintances, police said.

"Some friends became a little concerned about how she got home so early after just giving birth," Hazelhurst said.

Police said Corey had reportedly gone to New Hampshire to relocate. A newspaper report said she arrived at a Plymouth homeless shelter Tuesday night. She told workers there that the girl was 6 days old and identified herself as the mother but had no information on the child, according to the Union Leader in New Hampshire.

Corey was arrested Wednesday as she tried to leave the shelter with the infant after workers alerted police and a nurse began photographing the baby with her cell phone, the report said.

We must maintain momentum for health care reform efforts with calls and emails supporting health care reform immediately. ... Your members of Congress need to hear from you that you support health care reform, and that the system needs to be reformed now.

Police are searching for someone who killed a woman in her Massachusetts apartment and cut an 8-month-old fetus from her body.

Officers found Darlene Haynes dead after neighbors complained about a stench coming from her Worcester apartment.

The 23-year-old was found in the closet of a bedroom, wrapped in bedding, according to authorities. She was last seen on Thursday, police said.

Haynes had been dead for several days, police said. During an autopsy, police learned that a fetus had been removed from the woman's body.

Police say the missing infant could survive, but would need immediate medical attention.

Facing high pregnancy rates, the Port Chester, N.Y. school board has voted to offer confidential STD and pregnancy tests at its middle and high schools.

Parents will have an opportunity to sign a note at the beginning of the year allowing their children to use the on-campus clinic, but the school will not inform parents of tests or results.

The school board passed the proposal on a 3-to-1 vote.

"You're talking 13 to 14-year-old children, and they, by law, do not have to notify their parents if they...tested positive," said Board President Anne Capeci, who cast the lone dissenting vote. "From my position, that is not the role of the school district."

Family advocates agree.

"If a girl does present herself to the school-based clinic, and it turns out she's pregnant," noted Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, "one of the best things that the clinic could do is involve the parents in the decision-making process."

A retrospective study conducted by Dr. Vahit Ozmen and his colleagues at the Istanbul Medical Faculty and Magee-Women's hospital reported a statistically significant 66% increase in breast cancer risk among women who'd had any abortions.

According to Joel Brind, professor of endocrinology at Baruch College, City University of New York and a director at the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, Ozmen's team most likely underestimated the breast cancer risk associated with abortion because of a flaw known as "selection bias."

Selection bias would also explains their team's unusual findings - significantly decreased risks for women who use oral contraceptives (OCs) and hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The World Health Organization and the NCI acknowledge that use of combined (estrogen + progestin) OCs and combined HRT increase risk.

Selection bias is a flaw in the study because only hospital or clinic patients were selected as study subjects, and they were therefore not representative of the general population. According to Brind's hypothesis, a disproportionate number of "modern" women were likely represented among the controls, a group more likely to use HRT and OCs, have abortions and visit the hospital often for minor complaints. By contrast, a disproportionate number of "traditional" women were represented among the patients; women less likely to use HRT and OCs, have abortions and visit the hospital (except in cases of serious illness, like breast cancer).

To their credit, Dr. Ozmen et al. did acknowledge the likelihood of selection bias in their study, although they were not specific in attributing any effects on their results to it.

"It felt like a horror film unfolding," said Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, the Brooklyn nurse who says she was forced to aid an abortion against her will. Now Cenzon-DeCarlo is speaking out, describing the terror she felt as she was asked to sacrifice her religious convictions for the sake of her job.

Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a devout Catholic, says she has been having nightmares and difficulty sleeping ever since the incident took place on May 24, reports the New York Post.

"I couldn't believe that this could happen," Cenzon-DeCarlo told the Post, describing how she was threatened with charges of insubordination and patient abandonment, which could result in possible loss of a job and nursing license, if she did not participate in the abortion.

Although she was told that it was an emergency and the woman would die if she did not assist, Cenzon-DeCarlo observed that the woman had not received the treatments typically given to a patient whose life is in danger as the hospital claimed it was.

She later found out that the hospital itself had declared the case a "Category II," meaning that it was not immediately life-threatening, and that there was a six-hour window for the operation to take place, allowing ample time for the hospital to find a replacement nurse who did not have moral objections to the procedure.

"I felt violated and betrayed," Cenzon-DeCarlo said.

The Red River Women's Clinic has filed a lawsuit to stop a North Dakota law requiring the abortion clinic to give women an opportunity to view an ultrasound 24 hours before getting an abortion.

Supporters of the law, scheduled to take effect Aug. 1, say it's meant to give women considering abortion more information and awareness about what they're doing.

But reproductive rights advocates and the Fargo clinic take issue with the law, saying it's confusing in how it’s written.

The law includes a provision about making a fetal heartbeat audible but is not clear whether the facility must offer the woman the opportunity to listen to the heartbeat, according to the suit, filed in Cass County District Court.

Because violating the law could lead to criminal charges, the clinic filed the suit to better understand it, Director Tammi Kromenacker said.

"We just don't know what to do to comply with that particular sentence in the legislation," Kromenacker said. "It's unclear; it's vague and confusing."

House Bill 252 would force the woman to provide a list of possible fathers and make it illegal for doctors to perform abortions without the father's consent.

Ohio would be the first state in the nation to pass a law like this.

"What does the father have to say in the abortion of his child? He has nothing to say," said State Rep. John Adams, in defense of the bill.

Pro-choice Ohio issued a statement saying Adams' bill is "completely out of touch with Ohio's mainstream values. The measure is a clear attack on a woman's freedom and privacy."

Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, was instructed to assist in a late second-trimester abortion for a woman 22 weeks into her pregnancy. The hospital had known of the nurse's religious objections to abortion since she was hired in 2004.

Cenzon-DeCarlo reminded her supervisors of her religious objections, but was told that if she did not participate, she would be charged with "insubordination and patient abandonment," which could result in disciplinary action and the possible loss of her job and nursing license.

Hospital officials told Cenzon-DeCarlo that the situation was an "emergency," although evidence suggests that this was not the case. The hospital itself labeled the case as a "Category II," meaning that the operation needed to take place within six hours. This would have allowed enough time to find another nurse without moral objections to assisting in the abortion, her lawyers said.

In a report, the Center for Reproductive Rights said that women seeking to terminate pregnancies in those states face a dwindling supply of providers as threats and intimidation take their toll.

Nancy Northup, the center's president, said the number of physicians and clinics providing abortions has fallen by 25 percent since the 1990s.

Two of the states, Mississippi and North Dakota, have only one abortion provider. The other studied states were Missouri, with three, Alabama, with seven, Pennsylvania, with about a dozen, and Texas, with about 40.

Even in states with multiple clinics, however, most are clustered in urban areas, leaving women in less populous regions to travel long distances for the service.[..]

The report recommended that the Justice Department devote more resources to the problems that abortion clinics face. It also suggested better cooperation between state, local and federal law enforcement.

In addition, the center called on the medical community to take steps to increase the number of abortion providers and to take a public stand against clinic violence and harassment.

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) has filed an amendment which would deny federal funding to Planned Parenthood through Title X Family Planning.

A backgrounder from Rep. Pence's office says the amendment would withhold annual appropriations of Health and Human Services’ Family Planning funds from Planned Parenthood.

In Wednesday remarks on the floor of the House of Representatives, Rep. Pence said "The time has come to deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood of America. The largest abortion provider in America should not also be the largest recipient of federal funds under Title X."

Expressing confidence his proposed amendment will be "widely supported," he asked the House Rules Committee to place it in the voting order.

"When over half of the American public says that abortion does a woman more harm than good, that is the result of women opening up to loved ones about their abortion traumas," said Georgette Forney, co-founder of SNMAC. "The public isn't getting that message from the mainstream media; they're getting it from 'Silent No More' post-abortive women."

In the Marist Poll, 53 percent of respondents said that abortion does a woman more harm than good, while 26 percent said it improves a woman's life.

"Our message is resonating," added Janet Morana, also a co-founder of SNMAC. "The abortion industry and its apologists can make all the false claims they want about abortion having no impact on women's physical and emotional health. Real life is telling a far different story."

The Fairfield-Suisun board of education has voted to keep in place a policy requiring school officials to obtain parental permission before a student is allowed to leave campus for any reason, including "confidential medical services" such as abortions.

The board's 5-2 vote on July 16 represents the second time in four years the school district’s governing body has rejected attempts to liberalize the policy. Fairfield-Suisun Superintendent Jacki Cottingim first asked the school board in 2005 to change the policy so students could leave campus without parental knowledge or consent for "confidential medical services." Cottingim sought a policy change again this year – and both times the board of education said no.

"Thankfully, the majority of Fairfield board members understand that the law is clear about confidential release," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute, in a statement issued following the school board’s decision. "They understand that local school boards are given the choice to include parents or exclude parents." England testified before the school board in favor of keeping the existing policy.

The video shows a Planned Parenthood clinic in Birmingham offering to "bend the rules" of Alabama's parental consent and mandatory reporting laws in order to cover up statutory rape with a secret abortion, and has opened an investigation by the state Attorney General's Office into the nation's largest abortion provider.

YouTube offered no prior warning or specific explanation for removing the video, which contains no apparent violations of YouTube's "community guidelines." After remaining up for ten days, the video had several thousand views and had been linked to by many news organizations. YouTube has previously censored Live Action videos, and the latest removal casts further doubt on the video-sharing site's professed regard for free speech and political neutrality.

Lila Rose, 20-year-old president of Live Action, says YouTube should not side with Planned Parenthood, especially in light of its incriminating behavior. "It is an outrage for YouTube to arbitrarily censor a video that has sparked a state investigation and national concern," said Rose. "The people of Alabama and the public at large have a right to know how Planned Parenthood really treats vulnerable young girls."

A federal judge heard arguments Friday on a lawsuit challenging a state law requiring doctors to tell women that abortion ends a human life, and indicated she will decide soon whether to rule on some or all of the case or move it to trial.

The law requires doctors to disclose to women "that the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." Besides that biological disclosure, women must be told they have an existing relationship with the fetus and a right to continue a pregnancy, and that suicidal thoughts are a known medical risk.

The South Dakota Legislature passed the measure in 2005 and Planned Parenthood, which operates the state's only abortion clinic in Sioux Falls, appealed.

U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier temporarily prevented the law from taking effect, but the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled that order in June 2008, so the state began enforcing it.

Schreier must decide whether to grant motions for summary judgment on the various disclosures, which could end the case, or move the case to trial.

The Italian parliament approved a motion Thursday obliging that country's government to sponsor a resolution before the United Nations that would condemn the use of abortion as a method of population control.

The resolution also reiterates the right of every woman not to be forced to undergo an abortion. The measure is being backed by lawmakers from various parties, including some members of Italy's left-wing Democratic Party.

Amnesty International has just issued a report on maternal mortality in Peru that promotes abortion in the pro-life nation while advancing controversial interpretations of international law.

The report, "Fatal Flaws: Barriers to Maternal Health in Peru," also acknowledges that lack of emergency obstetric care – and not access to abortion – is the largest contributing factor to high maternal death rates in the Andean nation, while listing obstacles faced by poor, often indigenous, women in gaining access to basic maternal and newborn care.

The overall thrust of "Fatal Flaws," however, is to claim a positive obligation by Peru and by extension other states to guarantee certain maternal health rights, which Amnesty then expands to include "therapeutic" abortion. In this Amnesty echoes the strategy of the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights, which in recent years has pushed a "right to maternal health" that softens the abortion emphasis. Critics see this "motherhood and apple pie" approach as a Trojan Horse tactic designed to undermine resistance to terminating unborn life.

Attorneys on both sides of the issue said the law -- which was passed in 1984 and updated in 1995 -- would take effect within weeks unless its critics ask for a stay and the three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agrees to put its order on hold pending a rehearing.

Anti-abortion activists applauded the appeals court's decision as a long-overdue victory, while opponents of the law said the measure was guaranteed to usher in dangerous problems.[..]

The appeals court described the measure as "a permissible attempt to help a young woman make an informed choice about whether to have an abortion."

The law does not require parental consent, only that parents be notified 48 hours before an abortion for a girl 17 or younger.

A day after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill putting restrictions on abortions, Planned Parenthood is taking action.

The new bill requires women to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion, puts tougher parental controls on teens wanting to end pregnancy and gives the ability for health care providers to deny emergency contraception on religious or moral grounds.

Carol Bafaloukos, with Planned Parenthood, says they're fighting back.

"We're still strategizing with our Planned Parenthood Federation of America," Bafaloukos told KTAR. "But, we are very dedicated to assisting women."

She went on to say this bill is frustrating and puts up barriers for women.

"It really takes us backwards," Bafaloukos said. "Women are confronted with very difficult decisions very often and to further put up barriers for them to make their own decisions is very frustrating."

The bill's provisions include a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before getting an abortion after a visit to the abortion provider. That visit would have to include disclosures by doctors in person about the procedure, risks, alternatives and the fetus' probable characteristics.

An existing law on parental approval for minors seeking to end pregnancies would be toughened. And pharmacists and other health care providers will be able to refuse to hand out emergency contraception on moral or religious grounds.

In an interview with the New York Times, the judge said that Medicaid should cover abortions, and that she had originally expected that Roe v. Wade would facilitate such coverage in order to control the population of groups "that we don't want to have too many of."

The statement was made in the context of a discussion about the fact that abortions are not covered by Medicaid, and therefore are less available to poor women. "Reproductive choice has to be straightened out," said Ginsburg, lamenting the fact that only women "of means" can easily access abortion.

"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of," Ginsburg told Emily Bazelon of the New York Times.

"So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn't really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong."

Democrats on a key Senate panel have voted to permanently reverse a policy that banned giving U.S. funds to international groups that give abortion information or provide abortions.

The vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee was 17-11.

The ban was first put into place by President Ronald Reagan and reversed by President Barack Obama days after he took office. Giving the new policy the force of law would mean a future president wouldn't be able to put the ban back in place with the stroke of a pen.

In the fourth case in a month, the state Health Division has ordered a Las Vegas clinic to stop performing surgeries without a license.

The division alleges that an abortion was performed in an unsafe manner at Clinica de Mujeres, 3700 E. Charleston Blvd.

Inspectors said they found medical equipment, medications and literature consistent with the complaint that an abortion had been performed there. There were breaches in sterile packaging and no manual or policy for a sterilization machine.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King has called a new undercover video released last week showing Planned Parenthood of Alabama apparently breaking state mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse "extremely troubling" and requested the full recordings. The student-led nonprofit responsible for the recordings, Live Action, immediately sent the full footage, which the Attorney General's office received yesterday.

The video shows a Planned Parenthood staffer, identified as "Tanisha," telling a purportedly 14-year-old girl with a 31-year-old "boyfriend" that Planned Parenthood "does sometimes bend the rules a little bit" when it comes to reporting statutory rape to state authorities. Despite strong parental consent laws in Alabama, "Tanisha" also explains that a person with the "same last name" as the 14-year-old would suffice as a guardian or parent to sign off for the minor's abortion. In an interview last week, King said, "If that tape is an accurate depiction of what's happening, that's very troubling," and "if that video is true and accurate and correct, it's extremely troubling from a legal and moral point of view."

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has also expressed concern about the contents of the video and warned of potential repercussions for Planned Parenthood. Lt. Randy Christian said: "Anyone who sees that should be disturbed by it, and I hope they're disturbed by it. For a 31 year old to have sex with a 14 year old, that is rape in the second degree. I think they are not only morally obligated to report it - the law requires them to report it, and there could be some serious consequences otherwise."[..]

King said of the current allegations, "We have knowledge that the law may have been broken and I think we're compelled at that point to see if it has or not."

Anna Amador has gone to court on behalf of her daughter, who she says was ordered by her principal to change her shirt on "National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day." The shirt the girl was wearing displays two graphic pictures of a fetus growing in the womb.

The incident occurred in April 2008 at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, Calif. Amador alleges in her legal complaint that school Principal Terrie Rohrer, Assistant Principal C.W. Smith and office clerk Martha Hernandez mistreated her daughter and denied the girl her First Amendment rights when they ordered her to leave the cafeteria and change her shirt.

According to a survey conducted for the Christian Medical Association, "90 percent of those surveyed said they will quit their practices before violating their conscience," said David Stevens, the group's executive director. Repealing the rules, which officially took effect on former President Bush's final day in office, said Stevens, "sends a clear message: It's open season on health care professionals of conscience - discriminate at will."

An unplanned and unwanted pregnancy can dramatically affect an otherwise loving long-term relationship. Some men rejoice, but others simply aren't ready to be fathers. If they discussed the possibility and specifics at the start of the relationship, he may hope she's going to stick to the original plan and terminate the pregnancy. And she might -- but for some women, getting pregnant can start clocks ticking and make them suddenly want to be mothers, despite previous agreements.

In either case, the final decision is hers, which means she has ultimate say in whether or not you become a father. This can put tremendous stress on a relationship, particularly if don't want to have a child, but don't want to lose the girl, either. While you can't force her to do your bidding, you can get her to consider your wants and desires if you approach her correctly.

[...]

If you've followed all of these steps and your woman decides to have the baby anyway, this does not mean you're required to get married or move in together. You'll probably want to provide for your child regardless, but if you've been clear about your intentions from the start, you are not obligated to contribute beyond what your conscience and the law expects of you. This was her decision, not yours, and the bulk of the responsibility is now hers.

Prenatal pros: Take a moment to spell this out for her when she gives you the final decision; it may just sway her over to your side.

Abortion practitioner Alberto Hodari, based in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, has been fined $10,000 by a state board in connection with a woman's botched abortion death. One of Hodari's staff did an abortion on Regina Johnson and, afterwards, suffered respiratory and cardiac arrest.

Staff at Hodari's abortion center allegedly failed to help her or call for an ambulance and she was deprived of oxygen for an extended time. She died a short time later at Hodari's Womencare clinic in Lathrup Village. [..]

The September 17, 2003 abortion saw Milton Nathanson, then employed by Hodari, do an abortion on Johnson. She died the next day from "anoxic encephalopahy due to cardiac arrest" resulting from the abortion, according to official reports.

In addition to Hodari and Nathanson, anesthesiologist Barry Thompson and the abortion clinic's nurse, Cathy Litchig were also implicated in Johnson's death.

The Michigan Attorney General imposed the fine on Hodari on march 4, 2009, but information about it only recently became public.

According to the annual report by the Minnesota Department of Health, 12,948 abortions were performed last year, 895 fewer than in 2007.

That total is off from a spike in 2006, a one-time aberration in what had been a steady decline.

Abortions in the state peaked in 1980, when 19,028 were performed.

The report shows that the abortion rate declined for women of all ages except those 40 and older, which increased slightly.

Among teenagers, the rate continued a decline that first surfaced in the 1990s, but had stalled earlier this decade.

The largest number of abortions -- about a third -- were performed on women between the ages of 20 and 24.

The state Department of Health Services study found that 8,229 abortions were performed in Wisconsin last year, down from 8,267 in 2007.

The number of Wisconsin abortions has now fallen for five straight years, since 10,557 abortions were reported in 2003. The 2008 number also was the lowest since Wisconsin started tracking abortions in 1974.

The abortion was set Tuesday for 11AM. but the only doctor who previously agreed to operate on the girl backed out in the last minute citing moral objections, newspaper El Tiempo reported Wednesday.

The case of the girl, who was raped by her 24-year old cousin, was made public by Doctors without Borders and generated mixed reactions in the Bolivar department.

While many people agree to end the two-months pregnancy, the Catholic Church asked the family to rethink their decision. "It is a life that is going to be ended and only God knows what the future holds", a spokesman of the Archdiocese of Cartagena said