Life Links 6/29/09

A Brazilian designer has created an invention which allows him to create plaster models of unborn children from 3-D ultrasound scans.


The Mirror notes that recent research presented at the annual European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam has found that having abortion (especially multiple abortions) is associated with giving birth to premature child later in life:

Women who have had an abortion or miscarriage are more likely to give birth to a premature baby, researchers have found.

A single termination raised the risk by 20%. Two or more increased the chances by 90%.

And women who have had more than one abortion double their risk of having a "very" premature baby - classed as being born before 34 weeks.

Lead researcher Dr Robbert van Oppenraaij said: "It can be concluded that a history of abortion is associated with an increased risk for premature delivery and very premature delivery."

He added more research was needed as the findings showed only an association between abortions and pre-term delivery and not necessarily a direct link.

Another female Episcopalian priest (not Kathryn Ragsdale) wrote a letter to her denomination’s web site claiming God looks favorably on a woman’s choice to have an abortion. Rev. Nina Churchman is mad her denomination’s General Convention will consider prayers in which women seek God’s forgiveness for having an abortion.


The Telegraph has statistics about repeat and teen abortions in the UK.

More than 450 teenagers below the age of 14 terminated pregnancies between 2005 and 2008, including 23 girls aged 12, the statistics from the Department of Health disclosed. Over the same period, 52 teenagers terminated four or more pregnancies before they reached their 18th birthday, as the total number of “repeat terminations” hit record levels across England and Wales....

The Government data disclosed that 64,715 repeat abortions were carried out across all age groups last year — the highest level on record and a rise of 22 per cent in a decade. They included 46 women who terminated at least eight pregnancies.

The Daily Mail has an article on a child born weighing about 1.5 pounds at 23 weeks is doing well.

Today she weighs a healthy 9lb 11oz, has passed all her sight and hearing tests and is beginning to show interest in objects and toys like any normal child.

The only difference is she is the size of a six-week-old, not a six-month-old.

Burglars broke into a Dallas abortion clinic and stole laptops and some anesthetic bottles.