Monday, January 24, 2005

Unwanted Pregnancies

Senator Hillary Clinton Blasts Bush Administration over Abortion

NEW YORK, January 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Abortion crusader and New York Senator Hillary Clinton condemned US President George W. Bush Tuesday, claiming his withdrawal of funding from organizations that commit or promote abortions is harming women.

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jan/05011202.html

Barbara Boxer: FDA should follow sound science and research

By: Barbara Boxer

Many of us have worked long and hard to ensure that women have an array of safe choices for family planning. One option is the emergency contraception pill (EC), also known as the "morning-after pill" or "Plan B."
The emergency contraception pill contains a large dose of the type of female hormones found in birth control pills. It has been proven safe and effective in stopping pregnancy if taken within five days of sexual intercourse. By providing the option of contraception after unprotected sex, EC has the potential to drastically reduce both unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_17232.shtml

Lawmakers debate ‘morning-after pill’
By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief

CONCORD — Advocates from rape crisis centers and women’s shelters urged passage of a bill yesterday that would allow pharmacists to distribute emergency contraceptives without a prescription.
Senate Bill 30 would not only reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, but eliminate the incidence of abortions, they argued.

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=49772

Two marches set to support abortion rights
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
Concerned that the re-election of George Bush will be a setback for abortion rights, activists have organized two marches in Seattle today, the 32nd anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision legalizing a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/209028_marches22.html

Keep abortion legal, safe and rare

To keep abortion rare, condoms, sex education and the morning-after pill (sometimes called the emergency contraception pill or Plan B) must be available to everyone. Surely both sides of the argument can see the benefit of this.

Jane Blanchard

Sarasota

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050122/OPINION/501220722/1029

US Republican chair draws party fire on abortion
22 Jan 2005 00:20:06 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Some Republican Party backers of abortion rights are upset with their party's new chairman, Ken Mehlman, for planning to host a salute next week to those who favor banning abortion.
"This crosses the line," Ann Stone, national chair of Republicans for Choice, a political action group with about 100,000 members nationwide, said on Friday.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N21177427.htm

FDA Reconsidering the Sale of Plan B Without a Prescription
By shannon russell
Published: Friday, January 21, 2005
Page 1 of 3
The government is considering reversing an earlier decision made by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which would make the morning after pill available to women without a prescription. The impending decision has already caused a flurry of activity from groups in support of and against making the pill available over-the-counter.

http://www.thehilltoponline.com/news/2005/01/21/NationWorld/Fda-Reconsidering.The.Sale.Of.Plan.B.Without.A.Prescription-838423.shtml

Guest Column: Work together to prevent - not outlaw - abortion
By Juliana Lightle
Opinion
TALK AMARILLO

"I can just see all the ultra-leftist liberals and war protest nuts just wanting to get in to shake the murderous genocidal dictator's hand to comfort him to say "Mr. Hussein, we are so sorry for your inconvenience. We did everything we could to stop this....'." - From west-texas

HAPPY - Today marks 32 years since the Roe vs. Wade decision determined the legality of abortion.

In the years since 1973, much has changed regarding public opinion and how society views abortion. Because of innovations in technology, it now is possible to have a visual image of the zygote, embryo and fetus at every stage of development.

… In truth, Roe vs. Wade was much less about abortion than women's rights to privacy and choice.
In its ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized for the first time that the constitutional right to privacy was broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate a pregnancy.

… Do we really want to force pregnant women to resort to unsafe, back-alley abortions that jeopardize their health?

Do women really want to have their opportunities in life restricted to domestic roles and chores?

As we observe the 32nd anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, it is my hope that all women will reflect upon the full meaning of women's rights and the unintended as well as the intended consequences of restricting these rights.

Despite differences in opinions, both pro-life and pro-choice advocates do agree on one thing: There are no easy answers to pregnancies that are not intended.

However, rather than argue about the morality of abortion, both sides of the controversy could profit from concentrating time and energy on preventing the source of many abortions: unwanted pregnancies.

Juliana Lightle is a board member of Friends of Planned Parenthood.

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/012205/opi_1070160.shtml

Abortion rights backers endorse two bills
By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press
HELENA -- Abortion rights advocates Friday threw their support behind a pair of bills intended to protect women seeking abortions and reduce unwanted pregnancies that lead to abortion.
The measures, scheduled for legislative hearings Monday, were touted at a rally marking the anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1973 that established a woman's right to abortion.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/01/21/build/state/33-abortionrally.inc

Delay over morning-after pill brings suit
January 23, 2005
Advertisement

WASHINGTON -- The government has delayed a decision about whether to allow women to buy the morning-after birth control pill over the counter but hopes to act soon, the manufacturer said Friday.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/health/cst-nws-pill23.html

Contraceptives on state sex-ed agenda
Sunday, January 23, 2005
By AMY McFALL PRINCE, Columbian staff writer
According to recently released state guidelines on sexual education, schools should be teaching students about the effectiveness and safety of FDA-approved contraceptives.

http://www.columbian.com/01232005/clark_co/235574.html

After 32 Years, Roe Remains a Lightning Rod
By Karlyn Barker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 23, 2005; Page C01
Demonstrators on both sides of the issue shared icy sidewalks in Washington yesterday to protest or commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29474-2005Jan22.html

Church blocks sex education

By Paul Hutcheon, Scottish Political Editor

THE Catholic Church last night claimed victory in the ongoing row over sexual health education in schools after insisting that headteachers would be able to block family planning workers from entering classrooms.

http://www.sundayherald.com/47293

Abortion foes see window for change
By Ann W. O'Neill
Staff Writer
Posted January 23 2005
Alexandra Kitarogers was in grade school in 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision, Roe vs. Wade, gave women the constitutional right to end their pregnancies.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cabortion23jan23,0,2086048.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Activists mark abortion decision
About 100 people gather to celebrate the landmark court ruling; later, others mourn at a candlelight vigil
Nick Wilson
The Tribune
The chants of abortion-rights activists rang out in front of the county courthouse Saturday afternoon on the 32nd anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/local/10714726.htm

Chilly remembrance of Roe
Abortion-rights advocates mark 32nd anniversary of ruling
BY TAMMIE SMITH
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Jan 23, 2005
ELSEWHERE
Rallies observe decision
About two dozen abortion-rights advocates braved freezing temperatures yesterday to rally on a West End street corner in support of keeping abortion legal.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031780401558&path=!news&s=1045855934842

Use of Birth Control Down

A new study finds a substantial drop in the number of women using birth control.
The government survey finds the number of sexually active women who do not use birth control jumped from 5 % in 1995 to 7% in 2002.
The study included women between the ages of 15 and 44, but researchers say the increase in unprotected sex was seen only in women over the age of 20.
Experts say the increase translates to a potential 4 million women who could be risking an unintended pregnancy.

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=2770304&nav=0hBEUrr2

Don't let birth control myths fool you
Get the facts on the pill
By Lauren Gong
Thursday, January 6, 2005
last updated January 6, 2005 2:00 AM
With so many birth control myths floating around campus and such a wide variety of brands to choose from — not to mention all the side effects to sift through — it’s no wonder that the average Stanford woman makes a blind decision based on the advice of the advice of one doctor.
I was recently at Vaden Health Center when I mentioned to my doctor that a significant number of my sexually active friends from back home are not taking birth control and instead relying on the withdrawal method. It surprised her that they were using such an ineffective method of birth control when oral contraceptives are so readily accessible at student health centers and local organizations like Planned Parenthood just a short drive away.

http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=15547&repository=0001_article


Birth control pill more likely to fail the overweight
By Amanda Gardner
Healthday
Women who are overweight or obese are more likely to get pregnant while taking birth control pills than women of normal weight, new research finds.

http://springfield.news-leader.com/health/thisweek/0104-Birthcontr-265860.html

Birth Control Statistics

Talk of the Nation, January 4, 2005 · A new survey shows a significant increase in the numbers of women who decide not to use birth control.
Guest:
Dr. Paul Blumenthal, director of contraceptive research and programs at Johns Hopkins University

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4258399

Feminist Daily News Wire
January 7, 2005
Abortion Opponent to Serve as Bush's Domestic Policy Advisor
President Bush announced that he has appointed Claude Allen, who served as an aide to former Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, to be his new domestic policy advisor. Allen, whose appointment to the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals was twice blocked, is the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services where he has served since 2001.

http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=8825

Death penalty bills bring abortion into spotlight
01/07/2005
By NIKI SULLIVAN / Associated Press
Sponsors of competing bills that would make people who kill pregnant women subject to the death penalty are clashing over how to classify an unborn child.
And those who favor abortion rights say one of the bills is actually aimed at chipping away at those rights.

http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D87EUSI00.html

Majority against divorce, and overwhelmingly against abortion
38% favour introduction of divorce now
Although a majority of the Maltese (55.7%) think that it was not necessary to introduce divorce in Malta, more than a third (38%) say it has become necessary; 6.3% did not offer any opinion.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=174417

`Morning-after pill' access does not increase unprotected sex, study shows
BY JULIE SEVRENS LYONS
Knight Ridder Newspapers
SAN JOSE, Calif. - (KRT) - Improving access to "morning-after pills" does not increase unprotected sex or sexually transmitted diseases, a new study of 2,000 California women shows.
The findings could fuel the debate over the safety and effectiveness of emergency contraceptives, as the Food and Drug Administration this month considers again whether to make the pills available over the counter.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/10579729.htm

From the Journal of the American Medical Association

Tina R. Raine; Cynthia C. Harper; Corinne H. Rocca; Richard Fischer; Nancy Padian; Jeffrey D. Klausner; Philip D. Darney
Direct Access to Emergency Contraception Through Pharmacies and Effect on Unintended Pregnancy and STIs: A Randomized Controlled Trial
JAMA, January 5, 2005; 293: 54 - 62.
...Context It is estimated that half of unintended pregnancies could be averted if emergency contraception (EC) were easily accessible and used....
...Design, Setting, and Participants A randomized, single-blind, controlled trial (July 2001-June 2003) of 2117 women, ages 15 to 24 years, attending 4 California clinics providing family planning services, who were…

CLINICAL CROSSROADS:
David A. Grimes
A 26-Year-Old Woman Seeking an Abortion
JAMA, Sep 1999; 282: 1169 - 1175.
...Her health insurance is through public assistance in Massachusetts....
...The patient is a primigravida who has been sexually active in a monogamous relationship for the past 6 years....

EDITORIALS:
Iris F. Litt
Placing Emergency Contraception in the Hands of Women
JAMA, January 5, 2005; 293: 98 - 99.
...Nonetheless, in the United States an estimated 3.5 million unwanted pregnancies occur annually, one third of which...
...Religious beliefs, concerns about contraceptive safety, and psychological barriers also contribute....

Groups Assail Approach For Treating Victims
Scores of advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, assailed new Justice Department guidelines for treating rape victims because the detailed procedures make no mention of emergency contraception as an option that could spare some women unwanted pregnancies.
The result is "a glaring omission in an otherwise thorough document," the groups wrote Diane M. Stuart, director of the Justice Department's Office on Violence Against Women.
Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called the omission "a blatant example of politics taking precedence over the emotional and physical health needs of women."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54843-2005Jan6.html

Women need new birth control options
January 10, 2005
BY LAURA BERMAN

Believe it or not, there are fewer women today using birth control than there were just a few years ago. A recent study found that 7.4 percent of women have had unprotected sex in the last three months, compared with just 5.2 percent of women back in 1995.
And it's not the teens who are playing Russian roulette with their sex lives. Women over age 21 make up the roughly 4.6 million women who are currently at risk for unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. Not to mention sexually transmitted diseases.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/berman/cst-ftr-berman10.html

Fire Damages Washington Abortion Business, Cause Still Unknown
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 10, 2005

Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- Fire damaged an abortion facility over the weekend in the Washington state capital and federal investigators have been brought in to investigate the cause, which is currently unknown.

http://www.lifenews.com/state831.html

Vera Drake Star Imelda Staunton: Pro-Abortion Film is My "Best Work"

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 10, 2005

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- Imelda Staunton, who plays the lead character in the internationally heralded pro-abortion film Vera Drake says the role of the part-time illegal abortion practitioner is her best work yet.

http://www.lifenews.com/nat1094.html

Emergency contraception can help victims of sexual assault

The devastation of suffering through a sexual assault can be compounded by an unwanted pregnancy. While that might seem obvious, it's a fact that apparently is lost on the U.S. Department of Justice.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/viewpoints/editorials/050110rapevictims.shtml

Denying rape victims
OUR OPINION: RESTORE CONTRACEPTION OPTION TO GUIDELINES
The same Justice Department that draped cloth over a nude statue at its Washington, D.C., headquarters has issued new rape-treatment guidelines that omit offering information about emergency contraception to victims of sexual attacks. The policy is wrongheaded and foolish. It could cause women to carry to full term unwanted pregnancies perpetrated by criminals.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/10606789.htm

Fuente: Amnistía Internacional (AI)
http://www.es.amnesty.org/
ALGERIA BRIEFING TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN
/noticias.info/
AI Index: MDE 28/011/2004
32nd Session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, 10-28 January 2005: Comments by Amnesty International on the compliance by Algeria with its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=44449&src=0

After botched surgery, woman sought companions for suicide
By YOKO INOUE
Yomiuri Shimbun
TOKYO - In October, a 21-year-old woman committed suicide in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, suffocating herself by burning charcoal briquettes in a sealed car. Found dead with her was another woman she had - met through an Internet site for people who wish to die.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/10609448.htm

Canadian Conservative Party to go Officially Pro-Abortion?
Social Conservatives Warned to Wake Up
TORONTO, January 10, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "The grassroots of the party should be very careful because it sounds like the Red Tories are attempting to gain the upper hand." That was the reaction of Jim Hughes the leader of the political arm of Canada's pro-life movement to the decision by a conference of 32 Greater Toronto Conservative Party ridings to adopt a policy to support abortion. Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), also told LifeSiteNews.com he was concerned about the other resolutions put forward which undercut social conservative and democratic priorities.

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jan/05011001.html

Florida Parental Notification for Abortion Measure Targeted by Lawsuit

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 10, 2005

Tallahassee, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates in Florida asked the state Supreme Court to overturn a measure passed overwhelmingly by Florida residents on the November ballot that would make sure abortion businesses tell parents when their teenage daughter is considering an abortion.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood say the constitutional amendment voters approved should be thrown out because the state's high court overstepped its authority when it dismissed a lawsuit both groups previously filed saying the language of the amendment was improper.

http://www.lifenews.com/state832.html

THIS IS A NEW DIRECTION FOR Pro-Lifers. Get Pregnant, Get Bailed regardless of the crime. I think there is some gender bias here. Where is the father?

Anti-abortion group to demand early release of pregnant inmate

ANNAPOLIS, Md. Members of a Baltimore-based anti-abortion group, Defend Life, will be in Annapolis to lobby Maryland's governor for the early release of a pregnant inmate.

Thirty-one-year-old Rebecca Price of Greencastle, Pennsylvania, was given a five-year sentence in September for the theft of more than 23-thousand dollars from clients at a Hagerstown travel agency where she was a manager.

The protesters say the sentence is unjust and that Price needs to spend time with her baby when it is born -- which could be any day now.
The Maryland State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy recommended that Price be sentenced either to probation or to two years and six months in prison. The judge said he departed from the guidelines because of the substantial loss to the victims and Price's lack of remorse.

http://www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=2799119

AH, THE ECONOMIC advantage

Ending Abortion Would Save Social Security, Group Argues
By Susan Jones

CNSNews.com Morning Editor
January 13, 2005

(CNSNews.com) - President Bush can protect Social Security by "curing" abortion, a pro-life group says.
The American Life League is running a full-page newspaper ad in Thursday's Washington Times, explaining that since 1973, more than 50 million babies have been killed through abortion.

"Those are the very babies that, today, would be living, working -- and paying into Social Security," said Judie Brown, president of American Life League. "However, the national plague of abortion has eliminated those contributors from society."

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=%5CCulture%5Carchive%5C200501%5CCUL20050113a.html