World Briefs

Baby's head left in London woman after abortion
Australia bans gay 'marriage'
Trinidad pressured to legalize abortion
Olympic athletes given 130,000 condoms
UK scientists given green light on cloning
Brazil pressured to legalize abortion
Italy limiting tax dollars for abortion
UK allows at-home RU-486 abortions
One-third of Hong Kong pregnancies end in abortion

Baby's head left in woman after abortion

LONDON - Hours after undergoing an abortion at King's College Hospital in London, 29-year old Davina Chambers came face to face with her aborted baby. Chambers was discharged from the hospital after the abortion, and hospital personnel told her that they had done three scans on her and that everything was fine.

Then the unthinkable happened. She said: "At midnight. I went to the bathroom and as I was sitting there, I just felt something slip out of me as if I had just given birth. I looked in the toilet and saw this lump that seemed to have a bone in it." Examining the object with her ex-partner, Chambers could distinguish two eyes, a nose, a mouth and even ears. The head measured little more than four centimeters across. Both adults broke down and cried. Upon discovering the head, Chambers called for an ambulance and was immediately hospitalized. Doctors told her that she could have died had the head remained lodged in her uterus. The man who had performed the abortion apologized and tried to take away the baby's remains, but the anguished mother refused to give them up, explaining, "we wanted to have a proper burial."

Australia bans gay 'marriage'

CANBERRA - The Australian Senate voted 39-7 in favour of a ban on homosexual "marriage" by adding the words "Marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life" to the Marriage Act. The decision to amend the law was rushed through before the courts imposed same-sex "marriage" on the country. One such current court case involves an Australian couple vying to have their "marriage," performed in Ontario, recognized in Australia. The bill would address such circumstances as the Senate also inserted the terms: "Certain unions are not marriages - a union solemnized in a foreign country between: (a) a man and another man; or (b) a woman and another woman; must not be recognized as a marriage in Australia."

Trinidad pressured to legalize abortion

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Planned Parenthood of America is supporting ASPIRE's (Advocates for Safe Parenthood Improving Reproductive Equity) bid to legalize abortion in Trinidad and Tobago. While abortion is technically illegal, the tiny island nation has one of the world's highest abortion rates as 45 out of 1,000 women ages 15-44 (the U.S. rate is 27 per 1,000). Human Life International notes that the abortion law is seldom enforced, while ASPIRE absurdly claims that legalizing abortion will decrease the abortion rate.

Olympic athletes given 130,000 condoms

ATHENS - The Toronto Star reports that Condom manufacturer Durex gave away 130,000 free condoms to the 17,000 athletes participating in the Olympic Games in Greece, which the World Congress for Families called "a pathetic publicity ploy that contradicts the spirit of the Games." Alan Carlson, founder of the WCF said "Once, the Olympics stood for self-discipline and morality. The planned condom distribution is a repudiation of that proud tradition."

UK scientists given green light on cloning

LONDON - Researchers at the University of Newcastle in the U.K. are the first to receive approval from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to conduct experiment using cloned embryonic human beings. Pro-lifers criticized the announcement; Anthony Ozimic, SPUC political secretary, said: "Human cloning is unethical because it exploits and destroys the lives of countless human beings at their most vulnerable stage of development." Despite assurances from the British government that therapeutic cloning would not lead to reproductive cloning, Italian doctor Severino Antinori, a scientist attempting to bring a cloned human being to birth, praised the announcement because he said it has made the birth of a cloned baby one step closer.

Brazil pressured to legalize abortion

BRASILIA - The Supreme Court of Brazil is set to consider legalizing abortion in the mostly Catholic country as it considers broadening its consideration of abortion in a case that examines the legality of abortion in cases of anencephalic babies (a condition where the fetus does not develop parts of the brain). However, the government announced that, "The justices of the supreme court will consider also the situation in cases of other diseases, and the right to abortion itself, even when the child is healthy." Local pro-life groups, such as ProvidaFamilia, said they considered the move to allow abortion the cases of anencephalic babies to be a mere ploy to open the door to a wider legalization of abortion. Currently, abortion is permitted only in cases of rape and to save the life of the mother. According to Provida-Familia, at least four of the 11 Supreme Court justices have indicated they support abortion.

Italy considers limiting tax dollars for abortion

ROME - Antonio Gentile, a senator belonging to Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, proposed a law that would limit taxpayer funding of abortions to one per woman. According to Gentile's proposal, women would have to pay for subsequent abortions which cost roughly $3,000. At least 20 senators support the proposed bill although critics are slamming Gentile as a Catholic reactionary and anti-woman.

UK allows at-home RU-486 abortions

LONDON - The UK government plans to allow RU-486 abortions to be carried out at home, rather than under the supervision of medical staff at hospitals or abortion clinics. The new guidelines are set to begin this month. Pro-lifers warn that the abortion pill is dangerous to women, noting that since the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug's distribution in the U.S. in 2000, more than 400 reported cases of complications have been reported to the federal government, including at least one death. In 2001, a Canadian woman died while taking part in clinical trials for RU-486 and at least two British women have died in recent years. British abortionists argue the move will provide for less expensive abortions and more humane as women will be able to complete the abortion in the remains of their own homes. Nuala Scarisbrick, trustee of the pro-life charity Life, said that on the contrary, "This method of abortion would be one of the most unpleasant . . .Women will be bleeding heavily and passing the remains of what they know is a baby. It will be frightening and horrible if they are on their own."

One-third of Hong Kong pregnancies end in abortion