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Benoit's new "state-of-the-art imaging" uses software that maps the preborn baby in incredible detail, adding color, skin texture, lighting, shadows… I remember being excited about the ultrasound I had while pregnant with my son. Compared with the amazing images the machines can produce today, however, that photo—though still treasured—was black and white, grainy and unclear at best. One doctor in particular; Dr. Bernard Benoit, of the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco, has been working on developing better imaging. He is reportedly known around the world for his technological advances with ultrasounds. In one photo, the baby-in-utero appears to be smiling,...

It’s hard not to blame the influence of technology for the seemingly inexorable spread of the culture of death. Accurate and safe prenatal testing has led to the destruction of an estimated 90 percent of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome. Sonograms reveal that the sex of yet-to-be-born children has led to a “small-h” holocaust against girls in places such as China and India, where boys are often preferred. But technology can also be a huge advantage in the fight to recognize and protect the sanctity of human life — every human life. For example, pro-lifers have worked diligently to...

An untold story today following yesterday’s Pennsylvania primaries is what a bad, bad night it was for Planned Parenthood.In Pennsylvania’s 134th House district, they spent an eye-popping $100,000 on a TV ad campaign trying to sink the candidacy of Republican Ryan Mackenzie by linking him to ultrasound legislation that was before the legislature.As Politico noted, this was seen as a trial-balloon of sorts: Most state legislative races and ad campaigns don’t necessarily have any larger resonance, but Democrats have been working to make the ultrasound bill the kind of liability for Republicans in Pennsylvania that a related proposal became for...

I had a surgical abortion when I was 20 years old. I don’t remember many details. But what I do remember was not pleasant.I don’t remember how far along I was in my pregnancy. I do know that I paid $500.00 for my abortion.I went through a group counseling session with several other women. My “counselor” told me that she had 9 previous abortions. I think she said it to make us feel better somehow…and it worked.I don’t remember walking into the exam room. There was a nurse there giving me IV drugs to help me relax. I can’t say...

Courtesy of the National Journal: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell would rather spend his time talking about a struggling economy than about abortion rights. So, naturally, a good chunk of NBC’s Meet the Press focused on the latter. Last week McDonnell signed into law a bill that would require women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion. The bill was less invasive than an original version in that it only requires external ultrasounds (rather than the transvaginal type), but still has raised the ire of many constituents. When asked by host David Gregory how he could support such a mandated...

Amid continued protests from Democrats, Republican Governor Bob McDonnell on Wednesday signed into law a controversial bill requiring Virginia women to undergo an ultrasound procedure prior to having an abortion. The bill sparked national debate this month over a provision that would have required many women to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds, which opponents decried as medically unnecessary and physically invasive. McDonnell, a conservative who opposes abortion rights, ultimately requested that mandate be stripped. The Virginia House of Delegates passed a revised version last week that allows women to "reject" a transvaginal ultrasound and instead opt for an abdominal ultrasound, which generally...

Gov. McDonnell just signed into law HB 462, mandating that women seeking abortion care in Virginia undergo and pay for an ultrasound and make two-trips to the health center. This law is nothing but an attempt to shame and place barriers for women seeking legal abortion care in Virginia. Tell Gov. McDonnell that this overreach of government is unacceptable and disrespectful. Tell him his vote didn't represent you and include why this issue is important to you. Call and leave a message at 804-786-2211 and email him by clicking here. The outpouring of support in fighting these anti-women attacks has...

This is absolutely out of control. But it was a brilliant strategy that Planned Parenthood and friends used to defeat a bill in Virginia that would have required pre-abortion ultrasounds: Get as many people as possible to repeat the word “transvaginal” in news and commentary, in order to accomplish two things: defeat the legislation at hand and make your opposition look like a freak show. At one protest against the legislation, “Molly Vick of Richmond said it was her first time to take part in a protest, but the issue was too infuriating and compelling,” the Washington Post reported. Ms....

1 down, 1 to go Friend-- You did it -- the first of two divisive pieces of legislation that target Virginia women has been stopped in the General Assembly. But we can't stop now. We need to keep up public pressure and send a message, loud and clear, that we want our elected officials to focus on growing the economy, not on wedge social issues. Yesterday, Republicans in Virginia abandoned "personhood" legislation that could ultimately outlaw certain forms of contraception. Now we need to stop the unnecessary ultrasound bill. The bill is in the Senate and will likely be brought...

Governor Bob McDonnell released this statement today regarding SB484. In this release Governor Mcdonnell states, (emphasis added); “I am pro-life. I believe deeply in the sanctity of innocent human life and believe governments have a duty to protect human life. The more our society embraces a culture of life for all people, the better country we will have. Over the course of my 20-year career in elected office, I have been glad to play a leading role in putting in place common-sense policies that protect and defend innocent human life in the Commonwealth. One of those bills was Virginia’s informed...

Abortion advocates in Virginia have come under heavy criticism for equating the ultrasound legislation there would allow women to see before an abortion to rape. Yet, while abortion backers say having an ultrasound is like getting raped, a 2003 study shows 99% of Planned Parenthood abortion facilities do them beforehand. Published in the medical journal Contraception in 2003, researchers with the pro-abortion group IPAS, the University of North Carolina, a consortium of Planned Parenthood clinics and the National Abortion Federation surveyed staff at 113 Planned Parenthood affiliates and independent abortion businesses between February and April 2000. The study specifically concerned...

If this doesn't prove the moral bankruptcy of the left, nothing will.

The Slate piece that prompted this controversy is a few days old, but the conservative backlash to it is just picking up steam. Thursday, Supreme Court reporter Dahlia Lithwick (whose name I’ve always envied!) penned a preposterous attack on a proposed law in Virginia that would require women to have an ultrasound before they would be allowed to have an abortion. Ms. Lithwick is convinced – convinced – that an ultrasound amounts to rape. She writes: Because the great majority of abortions occur during the first 12 weeks, that means most women will be forced to have a transvaginal procedure, in which a...

RICHMOND — The Virginia Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would require women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, the first of several legislative measures this year that are expected to dramatically alter abortion law in the state. Democrats and moderates in the Senate had rejected a similar bill each year for the past decade, arguing that the measure is designed to discourage women from the procedure. But now that the body is more conservative, abortion and other social legislation are back to the forefront. Republicans, in control of both chambers for only the second time

A mother is suing the obstetrician who she claims misdiagnosed her pregnancy as ectopic and injected her foetus with an abortant, resulting in birth defects. Thirty-five-year-old Rachel Schoger of Caldwell, Idaho, says she was four weeks five days pregnant with her daughter, Seraphine, when her doctor injected her foetus with chemotherapy drug methotrexate in 2006. Two weeks later, the baby was found inside the uterus. And against all odds, Seraphine made it through term. But the little girl will never lead a normal life, her mother says, after she was born without reproductive organs or a rectum as a result...

The taxpayer funded abortion factory Planned Parenthood making millions in profits by preying on women, specifically minorities and teenagers, seems to think a woman seeing her baby before making the ultimate decision to end her pregnancy is an "abhorrent" standard. The classification comes after a federal appeals court upheld a law that requires doctors to give women considering an abortion an ultrasound and full information before performing the procedure. Writing for the court, Chief Judge Edith Jones was frank about the other side’s failure “to demonstrate constitutional flaws with the law,� which requires women to have a sonogram 24 hours...

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...

People see the strangest things in clouds and burnt toast, but this latest sighting can't be topped -- a face on a testicular tumor. Canadian doctors at Queen's University were shocked when they found the image in an ultrasound from December 2009, the Toronto Star reported. “It was very ghoulish, like a man screaming in pain. His mouth was open and it looked like one eye was gouged out,” said Dr. Naji Touma, a professor at Queen’s University Medical School and urologist at Kingston General Hospital. The image was sent to the journal Urology and recently published under the tongue-in-cheek...

Raleigh, NC, July 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Today, the North Carolina Senate voted to override Democratic Governor Beverly Perdue’s veto of the Women’s Right to Know Act.  The Senate voted 29-19 to cancel Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of the bill, which mandates a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion is performed and requires abortion clinics to provide mothers seeking an abortion with additional information, including an ultrasound. The North Carolina House already voted to override the veto earlier this week, so the measure will now become law. On Monday night, word had reached Republican House leaders that one Democrat...

A twin leans over and kisses the cheek of her sister in a heart-warming picture that would not be out of place in any family home. Yet these siblings are a not even born and the astonishing images have been captured on a new 'four-dimensional' ultrasound scan of the womb. The scans are a highly developed form of traditional ultrasound where very high frequency sound waves are used to produce images of what is inside the body. As with older forms of ultra-sound, sound waves a emitted from a transducer, or probe, which is placed on the mother's abdomen and...

    Knights Ronald Coco and Richard Bosse worked to obtain a new ultrasound machine for the Women’s New Life Center in Metairie, La., where Angela Thomas (right) is the executive director. (Photo by Mary Lou Uttermohlen)Faith was alone in a foreign land. She felt frightened, confused, angry and violated. Not knowing where to turn, she went to a local pregnancy center conveniently located near the university she attended. There, a positive pregnancy test confirmed her fears. An international college student studying for her master's degree, Faith didn't know how she could possibly continue her pregnancy and thought she had...

Hollow silica nanoparticles filled with gas behave as efficient contrast agents for use in ultrasound imaging. This could improve detection of tumours in breast cancer patients, claim US scientists.Ultrasound imaging is a safe, fast and non-invasive technique used for medical diagnosis. However, one shortcoming is the inferior image contrast compared to more sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). To improve this, radiologists use microbubble contrast agents to enhance the reflection of ultrasonic waves and therefore improve the quality of the ultrasound image, or radioactive seeds that are injected into the patient before surgery to visualise the entire tumour. However, the contrast...

Friday October 1, 2010 Save a Life: Just 'Ask to See the Ultrasound' Commentary by Shawn Carney, Campaign Director, 40 Days for LifeOctober 1, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On this tenth day of the 40 Days for Life campaign, I have a few stories, a few more pictures -- and good news from London that should help get your day off to a really exciting start.LondonRobert, who's coordinating the first-ever 40 Days for Life campaign in England, says the prayers of vigil participants have helped save more two babies.Praise God for his courage to bring this campaign to London! Plus...

This pro-life advert was previously banned by the Irish government who said it was too 'political' for the airwaves. Now Project Truth, first produced by Youth Defence in 1996, has been set to some amazing footage of the unborn child in the womb. It's challenging, thought-provoking, beautiful and sad. Show it to your friends. Spread the message.

A new, non-invasive method to deliver drugs to the brain has been developed by Taiwanese researchers. Using a combination of magnetic nanoparticles and focused ultrasound to pinpoint specific areas, the technique could be very helpful in treating brain tumours. 'The difficulty with treating brain tumours is that the brain is protected by the blood-brain barrier,' explains Pin-Yuan Chen, who led the research at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan. 'This prevents chemotherapy drugs from entering the brain. However, we can open up this barrier in desired locations using focused ultrasound. This allows us to target our treatment effectively and safely.' Chen's team injected magnetic nanoparticles coated with...

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Charlie Crist today vetoed a highly controversial bill that would have required women seeking abortions to pay for ultrasounds before undergoing the procedure, saying it would "violate a woman's right to privacy." The veto sparked a firestorm of criticism from the Republican legislators, members of the governor's former party, who accused him of abandoning principle for political gain. Crist, though, said that while people hold strong opinions on abortion, "personal views should not result in laws that unwisely expand the role of government and coerce people to obtain medical tests or procedures that are not medically necessary."...

(NaturalNews) The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is gaining a reputation for funding technologies designed to roll out mass sterilization and vaccination programs around the world. One of the programs recently funded by the foundation is a sterilization program that would use sharp blasts of ultrasound directed against a man's scrotum to render him infertile for six months. It might accurately be called a "temporary castration" technology. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is gaining a reputation for funding technologies designed to roll out mass sterilization and vaccination programs around the world. One of the programs recently funded by the...

Thursday May 20, 2010 Louisiana Senate Overwhelmingly Advances Ultrasound Mandate for Abortion By Peter J. SmithBATON ROUGE, Louisiana, May 20, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Senators in Louisiana overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday that seeks to expand the requirements of informed consent by mandating abortionists perform an ultrasound on a mother seeking an abortion. The bill is similar to one that was recently passed in Oklahoma.The Senate voted 33-4 for the bill (SB 528), which was sponsored by Sen. Sharon Broome (D-Baton Rouge), and developed with the aid of the Louisiana Right to Life Federation and the Bioethics Defense Fund. The...

Although the technology of a 4-Dimensional Ultrasound isn’t brand new, it’s relatively cutting-edge. I’ve seen a 4D ultrasound of my own children, it’s incredible. You can see facial features and expressions, you can make out every movement and can see the chest expanding as the lungs take in oxygen from the mother. In the discussion of embryo, zygote, fetus, blob, tissue mass, etc. this technology should end the discussion as to what’s in a woman’s womb. It’s a human being. It’s plain to see that even a secular company like General Electric knows that a baby inside its mother’s womb...

A Palestinian man has been arrested in the West Bank after police say he murdered his pregnant wife because an ultrasound showed she was carrying a girl. Palestinian police said abrasions indicate the man choked his wife to death as she struggled to fight back Wednesday night, YnetNews.com reported.

Pro-aborts have decided on their main talking points against recent states' requirements for ultrasounds to be shown to women before abortions. And it's a doozy.Pro-aborts are arguing that ultrasounds are invasive. One Democrat running for a state seat even went so far as to call the state required ultrasound “rape by instrumentation.� The media has picked up on this attack as they've clearly been ordered to. I've seen the term "invasive" used to describe the ultrasounds dozens of times in the past few days. Ocala.com:Rep. Betty Reed, a Democrat from Hillsborough County, said the ultrasound exam is an invasive procedure...

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...

Poll: Do you agree with new abortion-ultrasound law? Florida legislators passed a law requiring women seeking abortions to pay for an ultrasound first. Do you agree? Yes. Women should see a picture of the potential life inside of them before they choose abortion. No. This is an intrusion by a male-led Legislature into a choice that should be between a woman and her doctor. Partly. Women should be offered an ultrasound but be free to decline it. Only if they get one would they pay.

Gov. Charlie Crist, already embroiled in his own political drama, will have the final say on a health bill that included some anti-abortion measures that popped out of the Legislature shortly before Friday's adjournment. The House passed the broader measure on a 76-44 vote after four hours of emotionally charged debate. Democrats said it was little more than an attempt to persuade women they shouldn't have an abortion. The Senate passed the bill Thursday, also largely along party lines. "We got shut out of the process," Democrat Rep. Alan Williams said. "Don't waste the ink in our statutes, in our...

Pro-lifers like me love science and technology. Yup. We're like science geeks without the comic books. And we've got girlfriend and wives. For years, religious people have been called backward and anti-science while pro-lifers actually couldn't wait for scientific and technological breakthroughs so we could all get a better look inside the womb and understand better what it is to be human. I think everyone must remember the first time they saw a 4-d ultrasound. It changes you. It's changed lots of people. The moment America saw the delicate, beautiful, and strong hand, the human features, the smiles, the thumbsucking...

Today, the Oklahoma state legislature overrode Governor Brad Henry’s veto of two bills that will protect mothers and their unborn children. By separate 36-12 votes, both the Ultrasound bill (HB2780) and the Wrongful Birth/Wrongful Life bill (HB2656) cleared the Oklahoma Senate. Both bills cleared the override hurdle in the Oklahoma House of Representatives yesterday. “This is a victory for the women of Oklahoma and their unborn children,” said National Right to Life Director of State Legislation Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D. “Abortion is a business: the less time spent with a woman, the less information given to her, the more sales...

Lately, Duke University has been doing more withdrawing than Marion Barry without a crack pipe. Readers will remember that they had to echo Gilda Radner with a giant “Never mind” after they jumped the gun and punished several lacrosse players falsely accused of rape. Now, they’ve decided to withdraw a promise to provide space for Duke Students for Life to hold an event at the Duke Women's Center. The planned "Discussion with a Duke Mother" event has now been aborted. This late-term abortion of free speech is entirely unjustifiable according to the stated mission of the Duke Women's Center. It...

March 5, 2010 (40DaysforLife) - Last week, we reported on a young mother in Louisville, Kentucky who chose life for her baby after redeeming a coupon for a free ultrasound. That story struck a chord with the 40 Days for Life team in Southfield, Michigan.The Southfield team tried the same idea ... and it worked!Howard, one of the prayer volunteers, showed his "free ultrasound" coupon to women who were approaching the abortion facility. One woman took the coupon - she seemed quite excited to get it - but then walked into the building.She came out ten minutes later - and told...

Abortion rights activists have long preferred to hold themselves at some remove from the practice they promote; rather than naming it, they speak of “choice” and “reproductive freedom.” But those who perform abortions have no such luxury. Instead, advances in ultrasound imaging and abortion procedures have forced providers ever closer to the nub of their work. Especially in abortions performed far enough along in gestation that the fetus is recognizably a tiny baby, this intimacy exacts an emotional toll, stirring sentiments for which doctors, nurses, and aides are sometimes unprepared. Most apparently have managed to reconcile their belief in the...

NEW YORK—On weekdays Chris Kan, 28, wears nice slacks and a pressed button-up shirt to work in the sky-scraping world of New York finance. On the weekends, he puts on sneakers, gym pants, and a sweatshirt, goes to the Midtown Pregnancy Support Center—located in an office building close to Grand Central Station—and sits down with people in crisis. The office building's lobby, torn up for renovation, is hung with plastic tarps and cluttered with ladders, but the center itself, seven floors above, is peaceful. Its whole floor is painted like a baby's nursery in light blue and yellow, with softly...

Members of Blessed John Paul II Chapter Knights of Columbus joined by their Chaplain, Monsignor Michael T. Mannion, National Life Center president and founder, Denise Cocciolone, and other friends of the NLC celebrated the groundbreaking of the Knights of Columbu NLC ultrasound project. The 882-square-foot, two-story addition to the NLC building at 686 N. Broad St. in Woodbury will provide space for an ultrasound exam room, a handicapped accessible bathroom, an exterior concrete ramp, additional office space, and much needed storage space for items to assist babies and young mothers. Monsignor Mannion blessed the addition and the staff from NLC...

At A Glance A large-scale clinical trial has found that annual screening with ultrasound in addition to mammography may find more cancers in women with dense breasts who are at elevated risk for breast cancer.For some groups of women, screening with MRI in addition to mammography helps detect breast cancer at an earlier stage.Supplemental screening with ultrasound or MRI increases the risk of false-positive findings. Media Contacts: RSNA Media Relations: (630) 590-7762 Maureen Morley (630) 590-7754mmorley@rsna.org Linda Brooks1-630-590-7738lbrooks@rsna.org CHICAGO — Results of a large-scale clinical trial presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America...

At A Glance Two studies explored ultrasound as an alternative to invasive biopsies for young women with lumps or other specific, localized signs or symptoms.Targeted breast ultrasound successfully distinguished between benign and cancerous tumors in all cases across both studies.The researchers recommend ultrasound as the tool of choice for evaluating palpable lumps in the under-40 population. Media Contacts: RSNA Newsroom 1-312-949-3233 Before 11/28/09 or after 12/03/09: RSNA Media Relations: 1-630- 590-7762 Linda Brooks1-630-590-7738lbrooks@rsna.org Maureen Morley1-630-590-7754mmorley@rsna.org CHICAGO — Targeted breast ultrasound of suspicious areas of the breast, including lumps, is a safe, reliable and cost-effective alternative to invasive biopsies for...

In late September, the abortionist at Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, needed assistance, so he asked the center’s director Abby Johnson to hold the ultrasound probe during a dilation and evacuation abortion. Johnson watched as the 13-week-old unborn child attempted to avoid the probe. “I saw a full profile of the baby from head to foot,” she told me. Once the abortion procedure began, Johnson saw the child “crumple” under the pressure of the vacuum and then in an instant the child was gone. The reality of seeing the baby moving struck her as she stood in shock and dropped...

Baby Boy Gives Two-Finger Salute To The World... From Inside The WOMB DAILY MAIL REPORTER 09th November 2009 If Owen Skeffington grows up to show a lack of respect for authority, his parents can hardly complain that he didn't warn them. A scan taken at 27 weeks clearly shows the infant raising two fingers to the camera. Such was the hilarity at Royal Preston Hospital that the sonographer asked permission of his parents, Owen senior and Kelly, to put the picture on the wall. The 4D scan image of baby Owen Patrick Skeffington sticking his two fingers up to the...

The director of a southeast Texas Planned Parenthood office has resigned after eight years. Abby Johnson had a change of heart after watching an ultrasound of an abortion. She now works for the Coalition for Life, a pro-life group that often prays outside her old Planned Parenthood office. Johnson said her bosses pressured her for months to increase profits by performing more abortions. CBN News spoke with Johnson about what prompted her change of heart. Click play for her comments.

Planned Parenthood Director Resigns, Watched Ultrasound of Abortion Bryan, TX -- The director of a Texas-based Planned Parenthood has resigned her position saying that she has had a change of heart on abortion. The development highlights the powerful results ultrasounds have in convincing people of the humanity of the unborn child and the need to oppose abortions. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4534.html

Not even kidding - talk about a revolution in sidewalk pro-life counseling technology: The Star Trek Tricorder, a device that allows medics to check their patients in the field in the sci-fi TV show, took a step closer to becoming reality today thanks to a new device being shown off by General Electric in the US. The device, which is a cross between a mobile phone and an iPod was shown at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Tuesday. Called Vscan, the clamshell designed gadget is aimed at doctors, and possibly would-be parents who could use it in...

A new ultrasound device, used in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), allows neurosurgeons to precisely burn out small pieces of malfunctioning brain tissue without cutting the skin or opening the skull. A preliminary study from Switzerland involving nine patients with chronic pain shows that the technology can be used safely in humans. The researchers now aim to test it in patients with other disorders, such as Parkinson's disease. "The groundbreaking finding here is that you can make lesions deep in the brain--through the intact skull and skin--with extreme precision and accuracy and safety," says Neal Kassell, a neurosurgeon at...

Welcome to American Life League's BabySteps DVD page! We're so glad you've found us. Please view the English-language narrated version of the video below and link to it often from your organization's web site. Help others see the miracle of life develop throughout a baby's 16 stages of growth. If you would like to view this video with audio narrations in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese) or Spanish— just click on the appropriate flag to load the video in the corresponding language.