Free Republic

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.

Hartford, CT (LifeNews.com) -- Under a new bill pro-abortion Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell signed into law last week, an ultrasound of an unborn child can't be done without a medical reason or authorization from a physician. The bill could have a negative impact on pregnancy centers that use ultrasounds to help women considering abortion.Studies have shown that ultrasounds, which show the humanity of the unborn children throughout pregnancy, convince at least 80 percent of women considering an abortion to keep their baby.Rell claimed she signed the bill because she is concerned about the health and safety of mothers and...

HARTFORD - Crystal Streit is a first-time mother two months into her pregnancy when her husband left for Iraq. The 25-year-old Milford woman wasn't even showing yet at the beginning of Brian Streit's Marine deployment. But a budding, yet controversial, business sector that produces photos and videos of commercial fetal ultrasounds allowed the young father to see his daughter for the first time via the Internet, despite the thousands of miles that keep the couple separate. "I was wanting him to see it more than anything. He said it made him very homesick," she said. "It's not easy, because it's...

Technological advancements have afforded many benefits to the pro-life cause. Ultrasound imaging has revealed the child in the womb as a living, feeling human being, and at earlier stages than previously thought possible. The widespread use of such technology helps explain significant shifts towards the pro-life position -- both in sentiment and in deed, especially among young Americans -- over the last fifteen years. But medical technology has had some negative effects, too, especially for unborn babies with disabilities. Ultrasound imaging is routinely employed to discern genetic abnormalities in unborn children and to end the lives of those who fail...

Forty senators gave their blessing Friday to a bill that Nebraska Right to Life hailed as one of the strongest abortion ultrasound bills in the country, and one that could reduce abortions in the state. The bill (LB675), introduced by Lincoln Sen. Tony Fulton, requires providers of abortions to tell women of the medical risks of the procedure they are seeking, and that they cannot be forced to have an abortion. They also can request and be provided a list, compiled by the state Department of Health and Human Services, of healthcare providers and clinics that offer free ultrasounds performed...

Washington, D.C., May 20, 2009 (CNA) -- Some doctors and pro-life leaders now say modern ultrasound technology is partly responsible for Americans’ gradual shift to identifying themselves as pro-life. Nebraskan legislators are now considering joining other states that require that a woman considering an abortion be provided an ultrasound of her baby. A recent Gallup poll showed 51 percent of Americans now self-identify as pro-life, composing a majority for the first time. The change has led to speculation that improved ultrasound technology has helped change minds.