Free Republic

Anabely Lopes wanted a child more than anything, so the 44-year-old was ecstatic when she became pregnant last year — and then devastated when doctors said her unborn child had a fatal abnormality... A new law restricting abortion access had gone into effect days earlier, and Lopes soon found herself on a plane, leaving South Florida to get an abortion at a clinic in Washington. On Tuesday, Lopes will return to Washington, this time accompanying U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address...

Last month, when a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion indicated that judges were preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade and the Biden administration started weighing its options, New York writer April Salazar was one person watching the news very closely. That's because the right to abortion had been vital to her not so long ago. Salazar and her husband, back in 2013, had made the decision to have an abortion when she was far along in her pregnancy — 21 weeks gestation — after doctors discovered their in-utero son had a lethal birth defect. “It was very surprising to find...

Erin Menefee’s doctors have a nickname for her: Supergirl. Similar to the comic book hero, the 26-year-old physical therapist has faced obstacles head-on with tenacity. But in her case, her superhuman strength comes in the form of running marathons less than two years after open-heart surgery. Menefee first noticed something wrong in December of 2015, when she took off on a long run during a break in her day at San Diego State University, where she was studying to become a physical therapist. At the time, the former collegiate runner for the University of Arizona was training for a transition...

Growing up, Dylan Rosnick just wanted to play baseball, a simple enough request for a child growing up in the Loudoun County exurbs. He wanted to tie his shoes, too, and hold a pencil the right way and button his shirt and brush his teeth. There’s not a lot of guidance, though, for a child with Proteus syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects fewer than one in 1 million births worldwide, according to the National Institutes of Health. It causes overgrowth in bones, skin and other tissues. Those organs grow out of proportion with other tissues in the body. For...

Royce and Keri Young are greeting and saying farewell to their daughter, Eva, who was born Tuesday with the sole purpose of giving life to others. Keri Young knew during her pregnancy that her daughter would be born with anencephaly, a birth defect that prevents the proper formation of the brain. They were told that because of this, the baby would likely not survive for long. In a selfless act of courage, she asked if the newborn's organs could be harvested. When she learned this was possible, she decided she would carry the baby to full term. *** "Will people...

A small but growing number of families and disability rights advocates are pushing back against abortion activists calls to legalize abortion for disabled babies in South America. Several South American countries have reported unusually high rates of babies born with microcephaly, a neurological disorder where a baby’s head is significantly smaller and the brain is abnormally developed, according to the Mayo Clinic. The condition is not typically fatal, but it can cause health problems throughout the child’s life. Because of a possible link between the Zika virus and microcephaly, some South American countries are advising women to avoid getting pregnant...

A mysterious cluster of severe birth defects in rural Washington state is confounding health experts, who say they can find no cause, even as reports of new cases continue to climb. Federal and state officials won’t say how many women in a three-county area near Yakima, Wash., have had babies with anencephaly, a heart-breaking condition in which they’re born missing parts of the brain or skull. And they admit they haven't interviewed any of the women in question, or told the mothers there's a potentially widespread problem. But as of January 2013, officials with the Washington state health department and...

In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day. It’s the latest advance from the booming field of regenerative medicine: making body parts in the lab. In the case of Kaiba Gionfriddo, doctors didn’t have a moment to spare. Because of a birth defect, the little Ohio boy’s airway kept collapsing, causing his breathing to stop and often his heart, too. Doctors in Michigan had been researching artificial airway splints, but had not implanted one...

Via John Nolte, five memorable minutes from CNN. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

Chaz Bono received dig after dig during his performance on Dancing With The Stars. Now Cher's superstar son has been criticised from some unlikely quarters after Warren Beatty and Annette Bening's transgender son blasted Chaz as a misogynist. Stephen, 19, born Kathlyn, has hit out at the 42-year-old, who underwent female-to-male gender transition between 2008 and 2010. Writing on his blog Super Mattachine, Stephen took issue with Chaz's view that transgender people have effectively been born with a 'birth defect' - something Bono said in an interview with the New York Times. Chaz described being transgender as effectively having a...

(THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Sin Chew Daily reported that a Taiwanese woman was shocked when a gynaecologist told her that she had testicles. The woman, 34, decided to consult a specialist after experiencing pain in her genital area. It was her first time seeking treatment from a gynaecologist although she had never experienced menstruation in her life. The check-up also showed that the woman did not have a uterus. When asked why she had not sought treatment or medical advice about her menstrual problem, the woman was lost for an answer.

ROSSANO, ITALY -- A baby who survived nearly two days before dying in an Italian hospital was aborted only because he had a cleft lip and palate. Scans of the boy, who was at 22 weeks gestation, had shown the conditions that can be corrected by surgery, but his mother chose to abort him in a hospital in her hometown of Rossano in southern Italy, the Telegraph in London reported. The 11-ounce baby survived the April 24 abortion, but doctors left him to die. The hospital's Roman Catholic chaplain, Antonio Martello, discovered the boy still alive the next day, about...

Sperm donor passed on sudden death heart defect By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical – 1 hr 36 mins ago CHICAGO – A sperm donor passed on a potentially deadly genetic heart condition to nine of his 24 children, including one who died at age 2 from heart failure, according to a medical journal report. Two children, both now teenagers, have developed symptoms and are at risk for sudden cardiac death, the report says. It's the second documented instance of a genetic condition being inherited through sperm donation. The latest case highlights the importance of thoroughly screening sperm donors, according to...

Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice’s comments to the Washington Times on Senator Obama’s race speech included several not commonly heard observations which bear reflection. While acknowledging that many blacks call themselves African-American, Dr. Rice said that they should not be viewed as immigrants. According to a transcript of the interview released by the State Department, Dr. Rice explained, “We don’t mimic the immigrant story. Where this conversation has got to go is that black Americans and white Americans founded this country together and I think we’ve always wanted the same thing.” The Secretary’s statements reminded me of a conversation which...

Planned Parenthood Celebration Jolted by Abortion Survivor    TED HARVEY She sings the anthem to applause, then her secret is revealed to stunned silence. Gianna Jessen I want to share with you an awesome experience I had in the Colorado House of Representatives on May 8. It is a humbling experience to look back and realize that God used me to play a role in His divine orchestration. I was leaving the House chambers for the weekend when our Democrat speaker of the House announced that the coming Monday would be the final day of this year's General Assembly. He...

Wanted: 1,000 gay brothers Large new study that seeks to find evidence of linkages to sexual orientation requires many participants Researchers are attempting to discover a genetic linkage to sexual orientation by studying one thousand pairs of gay brothers. This five-year study being conducted by researchers from Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago will be the largest study of this kind and is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. This study follows a similar genetic study, conducted in the 1990s that found some genetic correlation for sexual orientation. That original study was conducted...

KITTANNING, Pa. -- Although a 4-year-old girl had a birth defect that kept her from eating normally, it had been surgically corrected and it was her father's deliberate withholding of food as discipline that led to her death, a prosecutor said Monday. Jurors heard opening statements Monday in the death penalty trial of James Tartar. Kristen Tatar's partially decomposed and emaciated body -- she weighed less than 12 pounds -- was found stuffed into a picnic cooler that had been set out behind Tatar's hou se for trash men to pick up in August 2003, about a month after she...