Bits and Pieces

Canada
Ralph Klein's Progressive Conservative Party was re-elected in Alberta. Ted Morton, a pro-life professor from the University of Calgary and the author of Borowski and Morgentaler, won his seat in the provincial legislature in the riding of Foothills-Rocky View. Morton is rumoured to be interested in running for the Conservative leadership when Klein steps down. In the Alberta Senate elections three of the four senators-in-waiting elected were pro-life or pro-life with exceptions: Cliff Breitkreuz, Link Byfield and Betty Unger ... Senator Anne Cools finishes first in a Toronto Sun poll of greatest Canadian women, winning more 43 per cent of the votes cast ... Allison Brewer, a founder and former manager of Henry Morgentaler's Fredericton abortuary, is awarded a Governor-General's Award in Commemoration of the Person's Case. She is also recognized for more recent work promoting the gay agenda in Nunavut.

International
A documented jointly issued by the United Nations, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the UNFPA and the Alan Guttmacher Institute says that international anti-AIDS programs would benefit from the involvement of businesses that commit abortions ... The Miami Herald reports that Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal has ruled 7-4 against permitting abortion in cases of anencephaly. Justices Marco Aurelio o Mello and Joacquim Barosa almost came to blows during the heated debate prior to the ruling ... According to Japan Today, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said it will ban the import by individuals of the abortion-inducing RU-486 drug. RU-486 is unauthorized in Japan without a doctor's prescription, but has been purchased over the internet ... University of Asia and the Pacific economists find there is no evidence that "supports the claim that a large, fast-growing population causes more poverty" in the Philippines. They find the cause of poverty to be "bad governance and bad economic policies" and argue against proposals to implement a two-child policy ... The King of Nepal pardons 12 women prisoners who were convicted of having abortions prior to the legalization of abortion in 2002 ... After numerous MPs voice concerns about the number of Australian abortions, with some even calling for a ban on late-term abortions, Prime Minister John Howard says his government does not plan to change the law, but that MPs will be allowed a conscience vote if a private member's bill were to be tabled ... The New Zealand parliament rejects making any change to the country's abortion law as it defeats an amendment to the Care of Children Bill 75-45. The amendment would have required doctors to tell parents or a judge whenever a girl under 16 sought an abortion. It was opposed by the nation's Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners, both of which claimed an increase in back-alley abortions if the amendment passed ... Maria Victoria Torres 48, files the papers for Chile's first-ever divorce on Nov. 19 ... In its Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, the Vatican declares abortion to be a "horrendous crime" that represents "a dangerous threat to a just and democratic social existence" ... Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger says during a public debate that cloning poses a greater threat to humanity than weapons of mass destruction.

Reprotech
Thomas DeMarse of the University of Florida claims to have taken brain cells from a live rat turned them into a living "brain in a dish" that is able to control an aircraft flight simulator. University of Western Ontario literature professor Laurie Harnick says: "In a way, it is Frankensteinian" ... From the "Why in the world would they do this" file: researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax become the first scientists to clone fruit flies. It is the first successful cloning of an insect ... Surgeons at Leiden University in the Netherlands have transplanted a woman's ovary into her arm while she undergoes cancer treatment, with the hope that they can extract eggs for IVF treatment after she is cured of her cancer ... The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority says that British women who donate their eggs for IVF treatment might be paid £1000 amidst their concerns that ending donor anonymity could create an egg shortage.