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An ultrasound image of an unborn child. Oklahoma City, Okla., May 5, 2010 / 08:05 am (CNA).- Oklahoma’s attorney general has temporarily blocked enforcement of a new state law that requires abortionists to give an ultrasound to pregnant women and describe their unborn children before they get an abortion.Tony Lauinger, state chairman of Oklahomans for Life and vice president of the National Right to Life Committee, said his group was sorry to see the law’s implementation delayed."This has been a long process and apparently it will be a little longer," he continued, according to the Associated Press.He said that...

<p>Jessie Canfield was attending a surprise birthday party with family and friends when she began feeling discomfort and cramping then ducked into a bedroom for several hours. Partygoers told police she said nothing about giving birth to a 6-pound baby girl.</p>

A proposed Utah law that would open women who suffer a miscarriage to possible criminal prosecution and life imprisonment has enraged feminists and civil rights activists across the United States. Adopted overwhelmingly by both sides of the state legislature in Salt Lake City earlier this month, the draft bill is now awaiting the signature of the state's Republican Governor, Gary Herbert. It is not clear if the growing national controversy surrounding the proposed law will slow or even stay his pen. While the main thrust of the law is to enable prosecutors in the majority-Mormon state to pursue women...

Bristol Palin is about to make her debut on the small screen on ABC Family Television’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager. ABC announced Tuesday Bristol will play herself on the ABC Family show. According to the network, Bristol will play a friend of the show’s main character, Amy. The show has recently focused on how Amy reacts to an unexpected pregnancy. “I am thrilled to be on this show and to be part of a program that educates teens and young adults about the consequences of teen pregnancy,” Bristol said in a statement provided by ABC.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Gentle manipulation from an osteopathic doctor may relieve late-pregnancy back pain that frequently hinders bending, lifting, or walking, findings from a small study hint. Doctors in osteopathic medicine (DOs) are medical doctors additionally trained in gentle manipulative techniques to help restore function, range of motion, and lessen pain in bones and adjoining muscles supporting the neck, back, chest, shoulders, and hips. Osteopathic manipulation may particularly benefit pregnant women seeking medication-free back pain relief, note Dr. John C. Licciardone and colleagues at University of Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. The study, in the American...

Valerie Huber of the NAEA. Washington D.C., Jan 26, 2010 / 09:25 pm (CNA).- The Guttmacher Institute released a study on Jan. 26 claiming that abstinence-only education programs are to blame for a rise in teen pregnancies and abortions in 2006. However, abstinence education proponent Valerie Huber is denouncing the researchers' conclusions as “terribly simplistic” and “disingenuous.”In a press release on Tuesday, the Guttmacher Institute gave a history behind its findings and claimed that the “significant drop in teen pregnancy rates in the 1990s was overwhelmingly the result of more and better use of contraceptives among sexually active teens.”...

After more than a decade of declining teenage pregnancy, the pregnancy rate among girls ages 15 to 19 increased 3 percent from 2005 to 2006 — a turnaround likely to intensify the debate over federal financing for abstinence-only sex education. The teenage abortion rate also crept up for the first time in more than a decade, rising 1 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit research group. “It’s very disturbing,” said Sarah Brown, of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. “We had over a decade of progress on...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. teen pregnancy rate rose in 2006 for the first time in more than a decade, reversing a long slide, a U.S. think tank reported on Tuesday. The overall teen pregnancy rate was up 3 percent in 2006, with a 4 percent rise in the rate of births and a 1 percent rise in the rate of abortions, according to the report by the Guttmacher Institute. The United States has higher rates of teen pregnancy, birth and abortion than in other Western industrialized countries. There were 71 pregnancies per 1,000 U.S. girls aged 15-19. In 2006,...

Teen Abortion, Pregnancy and Birth Rates Increased in 2006 Washington, DC -- Despite billions of dollars spent by national and state governments and groups like Planned Parenthood on promoting birth control and contraception, a new report issued by the Guttmacher Institute indicates teen abortion, pregnancy and birth rates all rose in 2006. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5925.html

Dr. Anne Mielnik, left, founding director of Gianna - The Catholic Healthcare Center for Women, prays with patient Judith Guzman in the center’s newly opened office in New York Dec. 30. Located in midtown Manhattan, the center is dedicated to providing primary care, obstetrics, natural family planning and infertility treatment with a Catholic pro-life approach. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz) NEW YORK – “Catholic women in many communities feel they have no access to health care that is consistent with their values,” said the founding director of a new women’s medical center in midtown Manhattan that will provide “authentically Catholic” primary...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2009 – An Army general in Iraq is going beyond the typical protocol to ensure every able-bodied soldier in his unit stays fit to fight, even if it means punishing troops for engaging in sexual activities while deployed. Through the Multinational Division North command’s General Order No. 1, Maj. Gen. Anthony A. Cucolo III formally prohibits deployed soldiers under his command from becoming pregnant or impregnating a soldier. Defense Department regulations call for any servicemember who becomes pregnant in a combat theater or learns she’s pregnant after deploying to a combat theater to immediately redeploy to their...

Early last month, Army Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo (left) issued General Order #1 as a means of informing those assigned to his Multi-National Division North (a.k.a., "Task Force Marne") that becoming pregnant -- or assisting in the effort -- is one of several types of conduct deemed "prejudicial to the maintenance of good order and discipline" among members of the 22,000-strong task force headquartered in Tikrit, Iraq. In fact, it ranks alongside alcohol, drugs, guns and similar vices on the general's list of prohibited activities.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 27 - A pregnant woman carries stem cells that could be used in critical medical treatments for her baby, either in the womb or later in life, a team of Italian scientists has announced. These cells, found in the womb during pregnancy, can be removed during a simple antenatal test and stored for future use, concluded the study, which appears in next week's edition of the Cloning and Stem Cells journal. They could then be used to generate tailor-made organs and tissues or even to treat the woman's baby while still in the womb, said Giuseppe...

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Mackenzie McCollum was about four months pregnant as she darted around the volleyball court, angling to get under the ball in her team's first game of the district playoffs. Although her team lost that Nov. 3 contest, simply getting to play was a victory for the 17-year-old senior, who battled several obstacles to get back on the team at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas. Among the many issues raised was concern about whether being that active was good for her and her baby. "I've had times where I've been short of breath on...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The group most threatened by swine flu and most in need of the new vaccine, world health authorities say, is that of pregnant women. For example, Aubrey Opdyke. On June 27, Opdyke, a 27-year-old waitress and former high school swimmer who weighed 135 pounds before her pregnancy and had no health risks other than a smoking habit, came down with mild flu symptoms. She just came home from the hospital three weeks ago.

Over 90% of flu cases this year will be caused by the H1N1 strain of virus. As with the most strains of the flu virus, young children, the elderly, those with comprised immune systems and pregnant women are especially at risk. The H1N1 strain of flu carries a greater risk of complications and death compared to the traditional flu. This is due to the fact that the H1N1 virus causes more severe respiratory complications much faster. As a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, I am very concerned that pregnant women understand the dangers of not being vaccinated for both the seasonal flu...

New CDC Report: Abortion, Pregnancy Rates Drop to Historic Lows Washington, DC -- A new report released yesterday from the Centers for Disease Control shows the number of abortions, the abortion rate and the pregnancy rate all declining from the period 1990-2005. The abortion rate dropped to a historic low. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5569.html

A proposal to make preexisting health conditions irrelevant in the sale of insurance policies could help not just the seriously ill but also people who might consider themselves healthy, documents released Friday by a California-based advocacy group illustrate. Health insurers have issued guidelines saying they could deny coverage to people suffering from such conditions as acne, hemorrhoids and bunions. One big insurer refused to issue individual policies to police officers and firefighters, along with people in other hazardous occupations. Some treated pregnancy or the intention to adopt as a reason for rejection. *snip* Kristin E. Binns, a spokeswoman for parent...

A new study is suggesting a “strong” link between the religiosity of a state’s residents and the teen birth rate there. Though only half of the states listed among the ten most conservatively religious also appear in the list of ten states with the highest teen birth rates, researchers behind the latest study say increased religiosity in residents of states in the U.S. strongly predicted a higher teen birth rate. “With data aggregated at the state level, conservative religious beliefs strongly predict U.S. teen birth rates, in a relationship that does not appear to be the result of confounding by...

LONDON: A shortage of midwives and hospital beds is forcing thousands of British women to give birth outside maternity wards, putting the lives of babies and mothers at risk, a newspaper reported Wednesday. The Daily Mail said births outside maternity wards - in locations ranging from lifts to hospital toilets - went up 15 percent last year to almost 4,000. It said hundreds of women in labour are being turned away from hospitals because they are full. The paper quoted official information obtained by an opposition MP as showing women gave birth in ambulances, A&E departments, unspecified areas including corridors,...