Free Republic

Any young woman or teen who gets pregnant out-of-wedlock faces three choices: abort her baby; keep her baby, or release her baby for adoption. How she decides will impact her and her baby and in many cases it will affect the man who fathered the child as well. Too often, he is left out of the decision process, and just as often the young woman will make her decision without fully exploring the option of adoption. Studies that compare birth mothers who keep their babies and become single parents with those who release their babies for adoption show that the...

Last week, Yale announced that its student health plan will cover sex-reassignment surgery for students, deeming it an important part of “equal-access” health care. This might shock anyone who doesn’t follow academia, but I wasn’t the least bit surprised. This is just the latest of seemingly endless efforts by colleges to accommodate the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) student community. “We hope that this represents a commitment to catch up to our peers in terms of offering transgender students an equitable student life and health care experience,” Gabriel Murchison, a member of Yale’s Resource Alliance for Gender Equity, told...

Four Palestinian women who had the sperm of their husbands smuggled out of Israeli jails reportedly are pregnant. Dr. Salim Abu Khaizaran, a fertlity doctor at the Razan Medical Center in the West Bank city of Nablus, said Thursday that other insemination attempts had failed, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported. "We don't intervene and ask how they smuggled sperm from prison and get it to Nablus," Khaizaran said at a news conference, according to Ma'an. "There are many failed attempts because the sperm die and so prisoners have to keep trying until it works."

With little discussion or fanfare, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women in combat that has been in effect for as long as there has been a U.S. military. Feminists and some women serving in the military are applauding the move as a victory for equal rights. They claim that justice requires nothing short of opening all positions to females, regardless of the consequences to combat effectiveness, unit cohesion, or military readiness, factors whose importance they minimize in any event. What is perhaps most striking about Secretary Panetta's action is that it reverses the combat exclusion policy that...

The NBC series "Parenthood"' has drawn raves from TV critics this season for a storyline about a 40-something mother fighting cancer. Then on Jan. 1, NBC asked viewers to tune in the following Tuesday for an "unforgettable" new episode. A teenager would get an abortion at Planned Parenthood. Such is NBC's definition of "parenthood." Drew, one of show's leading teenager characters, has an ex-girlfriend named Amy who comes back to tell him "I'm pregnant." The high school seniors go to the Planned Parenthood clinic, and the scene plays like a political commercial. The counselor says, "If you decide to continue...

The connection between mother and child is ever deeper than thought Scientists Discover Children’s Cells Living in Mothers’ Brains The connection between mother and child is ever deeper than thought By Robert Martone | Tuesday, December 4, 2012 | 37 A living connection Image: ock / �на�та�и� Попова ADVERTISEMENT The link between a mother and child is profound, and new research suggests a physical connection even deeper than anyone thought. The profound psychological and physical bonds shared by the mother and her child begin during gestation when the mother is everything for the developing fetus, supplying warmth and sustenance, while...

The link between a mother and child is profound, and new research suggests a physical connection even deeper than anyone thought. The profound psychological and physical bonds shared by the mother and her child begin during gestation when the mother is everything for the developing fetus, supplying warmth and sustenance, while her heartbeat provides a soothing constant rhythm. The physical connection between mother and fetus is provided by the placenta, an organ, built of cells from both the mother and fetus, which serves as a conduit for the exchange of nutrients, gasses, and wastes. Cells may migrate through the placenta...

The Obama Administration is planning to build multiple health-services facilities across the African nation of Mozambique, where up to sixteen facilities will be constructed in rural locations. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) this morning unveiled the Health Infrastructure Development Program (HIDP) via the FedBizOpps database, where it issued an announcement seeking to pre-qualify construction firms. The general goal of HIDP is to support the Mozambican Ministry of Health (MISAU) in the provision of improved health care services, according to the presolicitation notice. Each of the rural health centers will contain "a maternity unit, an attending or exam unit,...

Mumbai - It’s the last chance of the decade to have a unique, memorable birth date — 12/12/12. And expectant parents are lining up for that moment. Ahead of December 12, 2012, couples are preparing to fix this unique birth date for their newborns. This trend of having muhurat babies – or planned caesarean section on special dates – is getting fashionable among parents, say city gynaecologists who get requests from patients wanting babies on their ‘auspicious’ day. Over the last few years, dates with repetitive numbers all through the the ‘DD-MM-YY’ format are becoming a craze, says doctors. Last...

A 14-year-old girl is facing homicide charges after deputies said she gave birth to a baby in her Lakeland home, then strangled the baby and hid his body in her bedroom. Deputies arrested the Kathleen High student on Thursday, five days after the Polk County Sheriff's Office received a call that a baby had been found inside a shoebox in the girl's Lakeland home, authorities said. Investigators later determined that she had delivered the baby in the bathroom, then choked the baby to death. "Everybody's a loser here," Sheriff Grady Judd said in a press conference on Friday. "This 14-year-old...

"What about a woman who is pregnant due to rape or incest?" This is one of three hard cases often cited as "exceptions" that make abortion an appropriate alternative. (The other two are when the life of the mother is threatened or the child has a serious handicap or deformity.) 1. Pregnancy due to rape is extremely rare, and with proper treatment can be prevented. Studies conducted by Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute indicate that two consenting and fertile adults have only a 3 percent chance of pregnancy from an act of intercourse. They also indicate there are factors involved in...

First, let's define the term "rape." When pro-lifers speak of rape pregnancies, we should commonly use the phrase "forcible rape" or "assault rape," for that specifies what we're talking about. Rape can also be statutory. Depending upon your state law, statutory rape can be consensual, but we're not addressing that here. Assault rape pregnancies are extremely rare. Most pro-lifers have heard this comment, but too often cannot back it up with facts. A candidate for office in the State of Arkansas made this comment before the last elections. He was roundly criticized and ridiculed by the opposing candidate and the...

Pregnancy loss is a common and painful condition for gestational women, accounting for 25-40% of total pregnancy, having become a serious social-medical issue worldwide. Animal studies and clinical investigations have indicated that the cause of many mid-term miscarriage/abnormal pregnancy has been seeded very early during the onset of embryo implantation. Epidemiological study also showed that maternal stress at early pregnancy is strongly associated with various complications during ongoing gestation. However, whether and how the process of embryo implantation is affected by environmental factors such as stress induced sympathetic activation remained elusive. Considering the mammalian uterus is an organ with extensive...

Third-trimester microbiota resembles that of people at risk of diabetes. Women's gut microbe populations change as pregnancy advances, becoming more like those of people who might develop diabetes. These changes, which do not seem to damage maternal health, correspond with increases in blood glucose and fat deposition thought to help a mother nourish her child. Although scientists have profiled microbial communities around the world and throughout the human body, this is the first time they have tracked the gut microbiome during pregnancy, says Ruth Ley, a microbiologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who led the work1. Ley had...

It's been two months since Jessica Simpson gave birth to daughter Maxwell Drew Johnson, and yet, according to fitness experts, she still looks to be at least 182 lbs. For a woman whose body has been a major part of her success, Jessica is traumatized by her surplus size. And friends say she has reached a breaking point in her struggle to lose the baby weight. While no new mom should be expected to be superslim so soon after giving birth, Jessica, 32, is actually getting paid — to the tune of a reported $4 million — to shed 70...

Mindy Bizzell decided to have her second son at home partly because of money and partly because of faith. She and her husband, who had recently moved to a remote town on the Washington State coast, lacked health insurance but earned too much to qualify for state aid. Delivering her baby in a hospital would cost upwards of $10,000, compared to the roughly $3,000 it would cost to hire a home-birth midwife to take care of the entire pregnancy.

The blind Chinese human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who escaped from house arrest on April 22 and may be under the protection of the U.S. Embassy, was initially detained for exposing the massive abuse of Chinese women under China’s one-child policy. His documentation of forced sterilizations and abortions landed him in jail for four years, followed by a year and a half of house arrest. His daring escape has now triggered renewed attacks on organizations engaged in helping Chinese women keep and feed their infants. Since April 28, the Family Planning Commission of Susong County in China’s Anhui province has been...

In an incredibly bizarre situation that appears headed for a legal challenge, a Dallas-area volleyball coach and science teacher was fired by the Christian school at which she worked for becoming pregnant before being married. As first reported by Dallas Fort Worth network WFAA, Rockwall(Texas) Heritage Christian Academy volleyball coach and science teacher Cathy Samford was fired during the fall semester after she became pregnant out of wedlock. Samford had led the volleyball program for three years and had been named the school's coach of the year once during that span. Still, that couldn't help save her job when she...

Public release date: 9-Apr-2012 Contact: Phyllis Brown phyllis.brown@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu 916-734-9023 University of California - Davis Health System This release is also available in Chinese on EurekAlert! Chinese. A major study of the relationships between maternal metabolic conditions and the risk that a child will be born with a neurodevelopmental disorder has found strong links between maternal diabetes and obesity and the likelihood of having a child with autism or another developmental disability. Conducted by researchers affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute, the study found that mothers who were obese were 1-2/3 times more likely to have a child with autism...

Disdain for pregnant women in the workplace is at a record high in our nation. Pregnancy Discrimination cases are on the rise. In the past ten years the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC has resolved pregnancy discrimination cases totaling $150.5 million in damages for over 52,000 women. Some say this is because of a competitive labor market that shows little mercy to moms. I believe this is yet another tragic byproduct of our acceptance of abortion. While abortion does not cause this discrimination, it has lead to a widespread devaluing of motherhood in society. How can we expect a...

A recent study revealed more evidence that a Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) abstinence program is effective in delaying sexual onset. Four major conclusions are drawn from the article, entitled, Impact of the Choosing the Best Program in Communities Committed to Abstinence Education. 1. Students in an SRA class were more likely to delay the onset of sexual activity from pre to posttest than their peers. 2. The findings of this study are more realistic and relevant than the Jemmott study on abstinence, as well as most “comprehensive” sex ed. research since the study occurred in schools. 3. The study was...

The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training. This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers. Army enlisted leaders all over the world are being ordered to take the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course, or PPPT, according to U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion educator Jana York. Developed...

Army Orders Soldiers to Wear Fake Breasts and 'Empathy' Bellies Soldiers don fake belly, breasts to better understand pregnant troops' exercise concerns By Seth Robson Stars and Stripes Published: February 16, 2012 CAMP ZAMA, Japan – The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training. This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new...

Time was when healthcare prevention was associated with smoke-cessation, dieting and exercise to avoid preventable diseases such as heart attacks, cancer and strokes. With the HHS mandate requiring contraception coverage under all insurance programs, including religious organizations, pregnancy has now moved into the realm of preventable disease.

Maria Keller was pregnant with her fourth child when she visited her doctor for a routine ultrasound at 20 weeks and was confronted with a moment all mothers dread. Maria and her husband, Joe, suspected something was not quite right when the ultrasound technician suddenly became quiet as she caught the first glimpses of the couple’s unborn child on the ultrasound screen. Then the technician abruptly exited the room, leaving Joe and Maria waiting for a few tense minutes before they were called in to see the doctor, who met them with a distressed look on his face. The ultrasound...

Not every family plans to have a baby but they usually have some idea once the baby is on the way. However, a Portland, Ore., woman who went to the hospital thinking her appendix had burst was told by doctors that she was actually going into labor. "I was 39 weeks [pregnant] and didn't have the slightest clue," Kim Nelson told local TV station KGW. "I thought the weight gain was due to cysts I had in my ovaries and working at Dairy Queen and eating all that food," she said. "I didn't have the slightest idea that this little...

MILTON WVA---The Centers for Disease Control has released some startling statistics about teen pregnancy in West Virginia. The number of 15 to 17 year old girls giving birth in the state is up 17 percent. West Virginia is the only state with that kind of spike. Teen mother Julie Akers is raising two children. She was a sophomore in high school when she first got pregnant. She says it wasn't easy to grow up fast and she wants other teens to know about the realities of being a young mom. "It was every day just getting up, making bottles, changing...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Eating low-fat yoghurt whilst pregnant can increase the risk of your child developing asthma and allergic rhinitis (hay fever), according to recent findings. The study will be presented at the European Respiratory Society's (ERS) Annual Congress in Amsterdam on 25 September 2011. All the abstracts for the ERS Congress will be publicly available online from today (17 September 2011). The study aimed to assess whether fatty acids found in dairy products could protect against the development of allergic diseases in children. The researchers assessed milk and dairy intake during pregnancy and monitored the prevalence of asthma and...

As if the new York Times couldn’t sink any further down the hole of warped and twisted pro-abortion activism, the Gray Lady is out with yet another “news� piece that moves the newspaper further beyond the pale.Ruth Pawder is out today with a new story titled “The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy,� that focuses on “selective reduction� – the euphemistic phrase given to name the destruction of one or more unborn children in a multiple pregnancy situation where a mother has more than one baby resulting from an IVF pregnancy involving the implantation of multiple human embryos.The Times never makes it past the...

So Mrs. Grunthor and I were on the HCG diet betweeen mid February and late March. Apparantly HCG increases fertility. Also apparantly vasectomies after so many years can "reconnect." Also, certain physical changes in my bride combined with a positive OTC preg test....adds up to we are most likely preggers. Gotta find out from a doc next week to be sure. We are 42 (me) and 39 (her) respectively. Combined we already have three daughters, 22, 21 and 16. We were kind of looking forward to some alone time but when the Lord sees fit to bless, He does it...

Mother's diet during pregnancy alters baby's DNA By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News A mother's diet during pregnancy can alter the DNA of her child and increase the risk of obesity, according to researchers. The study, to be published in the journal Diabetes, showed that eating low levels of carbohydrate changed bits of DNA. It then showed children with these changes were fatter. The British Heart Foundation called for better nutritional and lifestyle support for women.

Maternity Store Offers Discount Only To Lesbian Customers April 23, 2011 3:08 PM Print Share 0 Lesbian couple Boing Boing offered a 10 percent discount to customers on Saturday, but only if they were lesbians. (Credit: JOSE LUIS ROCA/AFP/Getty Images) NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A maternity shop in Park Slope is offering a 10 percent discount to its customers—its lesbian customers. Karen Paperno, of the maternity and breastfeeding boutique Boing Boing, said the sale is not a social commentary, but just a way to help her clientele, who she said is struggling. LISTEN: 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg spoke with...

Gaby Rodriguez would worry whenever anyone asked to touch her baby bump. It wasn't because she felt shy or embarrassed. It was because the bulge -- fashioned from wire mesh and cotton quilt batting -- didn't actually contain a baby. For the past 61/2 months -- the bulk of her senior year at Toppenish High School -- the 17-year-old A-student faked her own pregnancy. Only a handful of people -- her mother, boyfriend and principal among them -- knew Gaby was pretending to be pregnant for her senior project, a culminating assignment required for graduation. "At times, I just wanted...

She done did it. As soon as I figure out how to transfer pics from my phone.....(I tried emailing them to myself, didn't work)

Crazy or Brilliant? Pregnant women can 'see' their baby 24/7 The device is called PreVue and it could allow pregnant women see their baby 24/7. Women could wear it around their abdomens to see real images of their babies. Its kind of like ultrasound. "The screen is made from a stretchable e-textile, so it will grow along with the mother." Some think.. PreVue could help expecting parents bond with children before birth.

When a new FDA drug-and-money scandal has doctors, US senators, and even the March of Dimes in an uproar, you know it’s bad. A drug which the FDA approved more than half a century ago—which doctors have been prescribing for their patients with high-risk pregnancies through compounding pharmacies with great success—was designated by the FDA an “orphan drug.” Now KV Pharmaceutical has been given the exclusive right of production and sale (not to mention drug trial tax breaks!). They immediately raised the price from $10 per dose to $1,500—simply because they could. The drug is a synthetic form of progesterone...

The scandal and heartache of teen pregnancy has been exploited by producers of popular prime-time TV, who have made stories of 16-year-olds stumbling through accelerated adolescence into marketable drama. Likewise, news media have scrutinized the teen birth phenomenon for some time. The truly shocking and underreported story, however, is that of unmarried 20-something parents. While 21 percent of children born outside of marriage are to teen mothers, more than 60 percent of unwed births occur to women in their 20s. It is not the young girls studying for the SAT or fretting over their prom prospects that make up the...

My daughter is expecting twins. She has 28 day until she is 37 weeks. 42 weeks is full term. The DR wants her to go at least 37 weeks to allow for maximum development. My questions is, what can we expect? Obviously, I/we've done the child raising thing, but not twins. Any insight would be welcome.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time! I could formally introduce each of my kids onto my blog...and at the same time, I could testify to what God has taught me through each one. Perfect! The problem with this idea is that it's possible to spend an entire day looking at a blank screen, at a total loss as to how to even produce a survey of a summary of someone you have known for over 25 years! I think I'm going to have to put some coffee on to help me focus! But without further ado,...

U.S. District Court Judge Marvin J. Garbis ruled Jan. 28 in Baltimore that it is unconstitutional to require pro-life pregnancy centers to post signs with language mandated by the government. The ruling was a major victory for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which had challenged a Baltimore City law passed in 2009 requiring the posting of signs at pro-life pregnancy centers stating that they do not provide abortion and birth control. The archdiocese argued that such signs were a violation of First Amendment rights and that the law unfairly targeted pro-life pregnancy centers while no such signs were required of pro-choice...

A quarrel that started after a Joliet man told his pregnant ex-girlfriend she looked fat in a photograph escalated into a melee in which fighters wielded a machete and even a microwave oven before the Joliet man was fatally shot, witnesses said. A Will County jury heard those details Wednesday as a trial began for Tyrone Henderson, 31, who is charged with the murder of Michael Amos, 21. Though she is not on trial, prosecutors said the person who instigated the brawl was Shantell Johnson, who was Henderson's girlfriend and had previously dated Amos for about three years. On Aug....

I Have a Dream that the Abortion Holocaust Will End By Kyle-Anne Shiver In 1960, when I was in the fourth grade, I learned the word, "Holocaust." It was a big word. And as soon as the librarian had explained its meaning to me, I wished that I could go back to not knowing about it. I first saw the word in the Encyclopedia Britannica. I was reading The Diary of Anne Frank for my book report and my teacher had supplied a list of places to look for more information on Anne and why she was forced to spend...

Study shows that the fetal brain is vulnerable to moderate decreases in maternal nutritionSAN ANTONIO, Texas, U.S.A. (Jan. 17, 2011) — Eating less during early pregnancy impaired fetal brain development in a nonhuman primate model, researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio reported today. The researchers found decreased formation of cell-to-cell connections, cell division and amounts of growth factors in the fetuses of mothers fed a reduced diet during the first half of pregnancy. "This is a critical time window when many of the neurons as well as the supporting cells in the brain are born,"...

Shock: 41% of New York City Pregnancies End in Abortion New York, NY -- A new statistic released by the New York City health department is shocking pro-life advocates across the country today as it shows 41 percent of pregnancies end in abortion. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/07/shock-41-of-new-york-city-pregnancies-end-in-abortion/

MTV Show "No Easy Decision" a Reminder Abortion Industry Misleads Women by Laura Echevarria One of my concerns before watching the show was that it would document the effects of facing an abortion decision but not the after-effects of the abortion itself. And while it turned out to be true, I think Markai’s decision and some of the comments made reveal more about the abortion industry than pro-abortion groups would care to admit. http://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/29/mtv-show-no-easy-decision-a-reminder-abortion-industry-misleads-women/

Unwed mother Bristol Palin and noted smoosh-master Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino want you to PBYP, which is apparently reality TV acronym talk for "Pause Before You Play." As in, one should PBYP before you decide you're DTF*. In case you have neither the time nor the patience to watch, this initial exchange pretty much sums up the level of discourse:The Situation: Excuse me miss, but have you ever had a situation with the official Situation? Bristol Palin: Excuse me, Sitch? The Situation: Oh snap! B. Palin!

Sluthood wasn't always considered a virtue. Most normal, rational people look at sleeping around as something sad and wrong. It's not healthy, physically or mentally, it can be damaging to a young girl's reputation, and it can also be incredibly dangerous. Women that sleep around oftentimes end up feeling used and regret their choices when they get older and decide to settle down. Other women end up contracting STDs, which may or may not be treatable. For these reasons and more, being a slut is understandably looked down upon -- it can be genuinely harmful. Today's pseudo-feminists, however, have...

- Catholic Exchange - http://catholicexchange.com - Standupgirl.comPosted By Most Rev. John Vlazny On September 4, 2010 @ 12:00 am In The Bishops Speak | No Comments Over the years I have met many amazing women who are adamantly pro-life and truly make a difference for life. On the national scene I think of Gail Quinn, the Executive Director Emeritus of the USCCB Pro-Life Activities Committee and Helen Alvare, Law Professor at the George Mason School of Law. Both of them have labored tirelessly and spoken out courageously as advocates for the protection of human life from conception to natural death....

Even FedEx couldn't have delivered this bundle any faster. A day after a 22-year-old Haitian woman gave birth aboard an American Airlines flight from Port-au-Prince to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, she was resting comfortably Saturday with her newborn son at Broward General Medical Center. "Mom is here with the baby, and they're both doing very well,'' said hospital spokeswoman Cathy Schwartz, who said the new mother had requested anonymity. A doctor aboard the flight, assisted by the flight crew, helped deliver the baby at 6:53 p.m. Friday — 37 minutes before the plane landed, Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike...

This is a shocking video of the current statistics of abortion in the U.S. - Pledge to wear black on Fridays