The ad touts half-priced abortions for girls who are students in high school and college as long as they show their student ID when the obtain the abortions.

"Students are our future, but when something happens to them, who will help and protect them?" the ad reads.

"Chongqing Huaxi Women's Hospital has started Students Care Month, where those students who come to get an abortion can get 50% off if they show their student IDs," it continues, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Abortion surgeries are the most advanced in the world, won't stretch (your womb), won't hurt, it's quick, and you can do what you want afterward, it won't affect your studies or your work," the ad says.

One of the world's largest abortion advocates joined the onslaught against Nicaragua's decision to ban abortion in two recently published Spanish language reports. Ipas, known for distributing the manual vacuum aspirator – a device used to perform early term abortions, particularly in countries where it is illegal – is claiming that Nicaragua is violating women's human rights.

The Ipas reports claim that the abortion ban is unconstitutional and a "setback" for human rights. Nicaraguan lawmakers, on the other hand, say the ban is a step forward since the law which permitted "therapeutic" abortion violated the country's understanding of its international obligations. Nicaragua is party to the American Convention on Human Rights which states in Article 4 that life shall be protected by law "from the moment of conception."

The Nicaraguan representatives who initiated the abortion ban say that the new law also makes the penal code more consistent with the constitutional framework which was amended to explicitly recognize the right to life of every citizen after the death penalty was abolished.

The August 20 statement from California Nurses for Ethical Standards (CNES) voiced concern about some provisions that will "heavily" affect their profession.

"Foremost we believe that increased government involvement will do nothing to correct the difficulties currently present in our health care system, and would prove disastrous," the statement said.

CNES insisted that all health care providers, individual and institutional, as well as insurers must be free to refuse to "participate in, refer for or pay for" medical procedures and practices that violate their consciences.

"Provisions to explicitly protect conscience rights, without exception, must be included in any plan for health care reform," CNES said.

The film, entitled "Blood Money," includes numerous interviews with leaders of the pro-life movement, in which they lay out the facts about the abortion industry and the effects that abortions have on women.

The film covers a variety of issues, including "Roe V. Wade, Planned Parenthood, the scientific fact that life begins at conception, and how abortion affects women who have had one" the director of the film, David K. Kyle, told LSN in an interview today.

The original title of the film had been "The American Holocaust." However, as filming progressed, the filmmakers found that the business aspect of abortion kept coming to the forefront.

"As I traveled around the country last September doing all these interviews with various pro-life leaders and women who had had abortions, the money part just kept coming up."

Kyle said that the idea for the movie first came four years ago when he and his partner, John Zipp, the producer of the film, were working for Steve and Michael Peroutka, pro-life activists in Maryland, and realized that the issue of abortion is not significantly addressed by the media.

"During election time it is brought up, but it's really not talked about. You hear the word abortion, people know what it is, but they don't go in depth on the subject like they do other issues."

The movie, which is currently in post-production and will hopefully be complete by the end of September, hopes to get people talking about the issue of abortion. Kyle says, "It's one of those issues that even the pro-choice side really doesn't want to talk about."

Kyle says they hope the movie will inform people about the business aspect of abortion and the effect that abortion has on women.

"People are making millions upon millions of dollars off the murdering of innocent babies," he said.

"Abortion has consequences to it. It's sold as a quick fix when you're in trouble. You can go and have an abortion and the problem goes away. Well, we know from countless women that the problem does not go away. Women have long term consequences that they are going to have to deal with for years and years."

The movie also aims to encourage pro-life people to work towards an end to abortion.

The truth is that bills now before Congress don't require federal money to be used for supporting abortion coverage. So the president is right to that limited extent. But it's equally true that House and Senate legislation would allow a new "public" insurance plan to cover abortions, despite language added to the House bill that technically forbids using public funds to pay for them. Obama has said in the past that "reproductive services" would be covered by his public plan, so it's likely that any new federal insurance plan would cover abortion unless Congress expressly prohibits that. Low- and moderate-income persons who would choose the "public plan" would qualify for federal subsidies to purchase it. Private plans that cover abortion also could be purchased with the help of federal subsidies. Therefore, we judge that the president goes too far when he calls the statements that government would be funding abortions "fabrications."

The three Republican bills total almost 400 pages and have been on the table since May and June.

In May, Republicans in the House and the Senate formed a bicameral coalition to produce the130-page "Patients Choice Act of 2009."

In June, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) introduced the "Health Care Freedom Plan," a 41-page proposal.

And in July, the Republican Study Committee, under the leadership of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), unveiled the "Empowering Patients First Act," a 130-page plan.

Some of the provisions included in one or more of the bills include: investing in preventive medicine, an overhaul of Medicaid, reduction of abuse and fraud in the Medicare program, supplemental health insurance for low-income families, tax credits for health insurance, and a ban on federal funds being used for abortions.

However, supporters of the Democratic plans have accused Republicans of trying to derail attempts at reforming health care without having a plan of their own.

A Nebraska man who stole a painting of the Virgin Mary to finance an abortion for a teen he raped has been convicted of first-degree sexual assault and felony theft.

Douglas County prosecutor Brenda Beadle said Saturday that Aurelio Vallerillo-Sanchez of Omaha pleaded no contest to the charges Friday and faces up to 70 years in prison when sentenced in October.

Beadle says Vallerillo-Sanchez fled to Mexico with the 300-year-old painting and pregnant teen in March 2007. He sold the painting taken from an Omaha church and valued at $100,000 for $3,000.

A federal judge has struck down portions of a South Dakota abortion law but upheld the key provision that doctors must tell a pregnant woman the procedure will "terminate the life of a whole separate unique living human being."

Chief District Court Judge Karen Schreier overturned a requirement that doctors tell a woman she enjoys a legally protected "relationship" with her fetus. She likewise struck down the section requiring doctors to tell women that abortion increases the risk of suicide, calling it "untruthful and misleading."

Schreier, who was nominated to the bench by President Clinton in 1999, backed the exception that allows for abortion in a medical emergency.

The 27-year-old woman, who lives in Malaga, used the excuse to get a termination when she became pregnant after having an extramarital affair, police said.

The woman, who is from Latin America and has not been named, told police that she had been followed by a masked man who forced her into the back of his car, drove her to scrubland, and raped her at knife point.

But police became suspicious after inconsistencies in her story and because she failed to report the crime until two months after the supposed attack. She then took her police report to a medical centre and asked for an abortion.

Police spend three weeks investigating her claim before they accused the woman of inventing the story to prevent her husband discovering that she had become pregnant from her lover.

She is facing between six months and a year for requesting an abortion on false grounds and six to 12 months for falsifying a crime.

"I can't even tell you how many people just say 'Oh, get an abortion.' Like it's not a big deal," she said.

Kourtney said after consulting her doctors on the risks of abortion, and reading horror stories on the Internet, she did some soul-searching.

"For me, all the reasons why I wouldn't keep the baby were so selfish," she told People. "It wasn't like I was raped, it's not like I'm 16. I'm 30 years old, I make my own money, I support myself, I can afford to have a baby. And I'm with someone who I love."

Chief Daniel Charette told The Telegram & Gazette on Tuesday that police now think 28-year-old Leah Diver was not pregnant, but that her 18-year-old boyfriend believed she was. Diver remains in the hospital in critical condition following the stabbing early Friday morning.

The boyfriend, Alex Santana, is being held on $500,000 bail. He is charged with armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson said the law violated constitutional requirements that legislative measures deal only with one subject. He did not rule on the validity of the ultrasound provisions.

Special Assistant Attorney General Teresa Collett said she will meet with state officials to discuss whether to appeal. The law was passed in 2008, but legal action has prevented it from going into effect.

Nova Health Systems, the parent group of Reproductive Services in Tulsa, filed a lawsuit in October, arguing that the law was unconstitutionally vague and it was not clear what the doctor should tell women undergoing the ultrasound.[..]

In his ruling, Robertson referenced several difference provisions in the bill. It also allows doctors and other health care providers to refuse to take part in an abortion for moral and religious reasons; requires certain signs to be placed in clinics where abortions are performed; mandates that federal guidelines be followed in the use of the abortion pill RU-486; and prohibits wrongful life lawsuits arguing a disabled child would have been better off aborted.

A Southbridge teenager is being held on $500,000 bail for allegedly stabbing his pregnant girlfriend several times because she refused to get an abortion.

Police said Alex Santana, 18, attacked Leah Diver at about 2:30 a.m. Friday during an argument over the pregnancy.

The Telegram & Gazette reports that Santana was ordered held on bail after a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf in Dudley District Court on Friday. He's charged with armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The 28-year-old Diver is in critical condition at a Worcester hospital. Police say the fetus survived.

In the wake of Tiller's assassination, Carhart began offering late-term abortions in his own practice—before, he'd done so only at Tiller's Wichita clinic—and started planning a new late-term clinic to replace Tiller's, where he could see women in the late second and early third trimesters. He's fielded calls from three physicians who want to learn how to do abortions. Two have already begun training. "I think the only thing I can do…is just train as many doctors as I can to go out on their own and provide abortions and get enough people providing them," says Carhart. "That makes [the anti-abortion activist's] job 10 times harder because there are now 10 times more of us."
[...]

Carhart can't pinpoint how exactly he went from reluctant visitor to controversial abortion provider, why he chose a job that attracts death threats and protesters. Part of it is stubbornness; he won't be bullied out of what he sees as a legitimate medical specialty. "Abortion is not a four-letter word," he says. "I'm proud of what I do."

But if Carhart is proud of his practice, he seems equally burdened by it. He talks about being an abortion doctor not necessarily as a career choice, but as a job he had to take since few others would. "It's like that quotation: 'If not you, who? If not now, when?' That whole thing," he says, giving a modified version of a Hillel quotation ("If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am always for myself, what am I?"). He won't take long vacations because "you can't leave the women waiting, or at least don't want to." He maintains medical licenses in seven states so that if another provider is "hurt, retired, or killed," he can step in. If women need this service, Carhart reasons, who is he to say no? If he won't provide these complex and challenging abortions, who will?

Jim Sedlak of the American Life League explains an audit was conducted at the abortion clinic in the state of Washington. "The Planned Parenthood affiliate in Spokane, Washington, has been found to have overcharged Medicaid in the state of Washington to the tune of $629,000 from the period of 2004 to 2007," he notes.

State officials are asking for Planned Parenthood to return the money.

"Unlike in California -- where $5 million was just written off -- right now the state of things in the state of Washington is that the state is asking Planned Parenthood for the money back, plus interest," Sedlak adds.

The Department of Health has formally threatened to suspend the license of South Dakota's only abortion facility for failing to make certain disclosures to clients.

In a letter dated Aug. 7, health officials say that during an inspection in May, Planned Parenthood failed to provide a pregnant woman with several pieces of information required by law. The letter gives Planned Parenthood until Aug. 22 to submit a plan of correction.

The same issues are tied up in a federal lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed against the state in 2005. The abortion provider maintains it doesn't have to follow a script written by the state and that sections of the informed consent law are inaccurate or unconstitutional.

Both sides made oral arguments on motions for summary judgment July 17 in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls. Judge Karen Schreier has yet to rule; she could decide in favor of either party or send it to trial.[..]

Planned Parenthood on Tuesday asked Schreier for a temporary restraining order, which would preclude the state from carrying out sanctions against the facility until the judge has ruled on the motions for summary judgment.

During a Monday town hall event, pro-abortion Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, acknowledged that the Congressional bills include abortion funding.

"Abortion will be covered as a benefit by one or more of the healthcare plans available to Americans, and I think it should be," she said.

Judge Douglas Herman ruled in a challenge to a new state law. It requires North Dakota's only abortion clinic, the Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo, to offer patients ultrasound images of their fetuses at least 24 hours before they have an abortion.

The clinic already provides ultrasounds to patients if they want one.

The law also said women must given the chance to listen to the fetal heartbeat. Opponents of the provision said it was confusing.

Herman's ruling says the clinic has to tell patients the listening service may be available, but does not have to provide the audio.

Cord Blood America Inc. plans to open a multimillion-dollar facility in Las Vegas to store umbilical cord blood—which is rich in non-controversial adult stem cells.

Jennifer Lahl, founder and national director at The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network said umbilical cord blood can be stored for years and used to treat diseases and conditions.

"This is a brand-new field, and certainly it's a wonderful, precious resource," she said. "It's a win-win. People on all sides of the political and religious divide can come together and say this is good for everybody."

The Rasmussen Reports daily presidential tracking poll finds 49 percent of voters approve of Obama's performance while 50 percent disapprove.

The Rasmussen poll surveys 1,500 likely voters and has a three percent margin of error.

However, the trend for the poll clearly shows that, over time, Obama's approval rating has steadily dropped from his high water mark in January to a 50-50 rating over the last couple of weeks.

Fourteen doctors at nine Marie Stopes International Centres in Victoria, NSW, the ACT, Queensland and Western Australia will offer the drug, also known as mifepristone, as an alternative to surgical abortions.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration will allow the drug's use of up to nine week's gestation under relaxed importing and prescribing rules, Fairfax reports.

Many prescribers of RU486 work in hospitals under limited circumstances.

Staff at Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital can prescribe the drug only if a patient proves a specific need for a non-surgical abortion, but staff at MSI can prescribe it if a woman chooses it.

In October, Nova Health Systems, the parent group of Reproductive Services in Tulsa, filed suit against the law. It is represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York City.

Enforcement of the law was blocked in October. It was set to take effect Nov. 1.

The law requires a physician to describe the images from an ultrasound to a woman seeking an abortion.

A telephone service set up by the pro-abortion organization "Women on Waves" to explain how to get illegal abortions in Argentina was crashed by pro-lifers this week who saturated the line with calls and maxed out the system's voice mail.

The toll-free service, known as the "death line," featured a pre-recorded message informing callers of its hours of operation and allowing them to leave a message to get more information about abortion.

Members of pro-life organizations flooded the line with calls and maxed out the system's voice mail.

The campaign is scheduled to begin on September 12, with a large rally and 28 hours of prayer beginning September 13 on the West Lawn of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. According to a press release from the campaign, it is being organized by the Christian Defense Coalition and other national pro-life organizations.

Campaign goals include ensuring that taxpayer money is not used to pay for abortion and that conscience protections are maintained for healthcare providers who decline to perform abortions. Organizers also hope to prevent federal mandates which require health plans to cover abortions and to prevent the invalidation of state laws restricting abortions.

Further, they insist that Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S., should never become an "essential community health provider."

Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said that stopping the "Obama/Pelosi health care plan" was "the most critical program on the pro-life agenda" because in his view it includes taxpayer funded abortions.

"If abortion becomes part of a health care entitlement, it will add at least 25 years to our struggle toward ending the violence of abortion in America" he added.

If the bill is passed, he said, "pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals would be forced to pay for abortions. People of good will who believe that human rights begin in the womb would have to pay for the brutal crushing of that innocent life."

He added that health care is supposed to heal and not destroy innocent life.