Baby survives mother's death

Although a preborn baby did not survive his mother's death in Toronto recently, a baby girl in Oklahoma City, Okla. has survived her mother's murder at the hands of intruders. The five-pound girl was delivered by caesarian section, incubated, placed on a ventilator, then taken to a children's hospital where she was listed in critical condition. Unfortunately, her 19-year-old mother, who also had a two-year-old child, bled to death after being slashed in the throat, and her fiance was also wounded.

"This was the first time this doctor had ever performed something like this," said hospital spokesman Damon Gardenhire. "This is a very rare thing." Police, who were looking for two assailants in the wake of the attack, said they had no known motives.

Life League cites low birthrate

American Life League president Judie Brown says news reports that there was a shortage of retail workers during this recent hioliday season were predictable in light of a steady erosion in the U.S. birthrate over the last 25 years. She pointed to a study conducted by noted economist and business guru Peter Drucker, who observed that the collapse in the birthrate has had tremendous political and social implications that cannot even be guessed at.

"American fertility continues to dwindle at an alarming rate," said Brown. "Fertility rates are down, more couples are infertile and of course, millions of children are murdered annually by chemical, device and surgical abortion ... Clearly, this tragedy alone can be blamed for the ‘help wanted' fiasco."

Prolifers vow to fight new law

Prolifers in New York state aren't taking the recent passing of an abortuary access law lying down. Thomas Conway, a lawyer for the New York State Right to Life Committee, said the law signed by Governor George Pataki has nothing to do with health care, but rather with "harassing good-faith people demonstrating their rights, exercising their rights to free speech." He added that the committee plans a constiutional challenge of the law in a lawsuit or by defending the first person charged under it.

The law makes it possible to lay charges simply if a person feels a vaguely defined form of"distress." So an abortionist can claim he is distressed, or a person upset about the presence of a protester can say she is distressed, even if the protester is just praying. One bright spot is that the legislation does not allow for civil suits to be brought in state courts, a measure Governor Pataki supported.

Washington abortions drop sharply

The state of Washington in 1998 recorded its fewest number of abortions in two decades, according to the state's health department. Changing attitudes toward the phenomenon of abortion, as well as decreased access to abortions, are being cited as reasons. The figure for 1998 - 25,613 - was 16 per cent less than that in 1990, when 30,613 abortions were recorded. The 1998 statistics meant that there were 322 abortions for every 1,000 births - a rate still slightly above the national average.

A teen pregnancy co-ordinator for the state suggested that more "responsible attitudes" toward casual sex among teens was behind a drop in teen pregnancies, in part due to"their tremendous fear of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV."

Funding to Missouri's PP halted

A Missouri circuit court judge has ordered a halt to the giving of state family planning monies to Planned Parenthood outlets in Kansas City and St. Louis because the organization is not complying with a new abortion law. The outlets have also been ordered to return $105,750 in tax monies, plus interest, they have already received. The judge cited Planned Parenthood because it: directly refers patients to abortionists; distributes marketing materials about abortion to patients; and is closely associated with an abortuary - Comprehensive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and mid-Missouri.