Life Links 6/25/10

In the National Post, Andrea Mzorek and Rebecca Walberg take apart the World Health Organization's estimates on maternal deaths because of abortion.

It's a tragedy whether 700 or 70,000 women die from abortions. However, the issue is much bigger than the number. The assumptions used to calculate the 70,000 are debatable and the methodology isn't up to scientific standards. In the end, 70,000 is nothing more than a stab in the dark by the World Health Organization's own admission.

The source for the 70,000 lies in a series of reports published by WHO called Unsafe Abortion. There, researchers repeatedly clarify how hard it is to study the issue due to the lack of data. One citation (of many) reads: "As there are no feasible data collection methods that can reliably reflect the overall burden of unsafe abortion, one is left to work with incomplete information on incidence and mortality from community studies or hospitals ... This is then adjusted to correct for misreporting and under-reporting." It's no big surprise that some of the world's poorest or war-torn nations don't keep impeccable abortion statistics. So researchers rely on assumption after assumption.

In the UK, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have issued a report saying the unborn can't feel pain before 24 weeks because their nerve endings aren't sufficiently formed. The report also claims that past 24 weeks, the unborn are sedated and possibly might not feel pain and anaesthetics shouldn't be required for fetal surgery. In another report they refused to list fetal conditions which would justify an abortion after 24 weeks. In this Telegraph article, it appears the committee didn't pay any attention to the evidence that premature infants feel pain.

Professor Allan Templeton, president of the Royal College, who chaired the review, told The Times that research put forward by anti-abortion campaigners that the human foetus did feel pain at or before 24 weeks was based on evidence from premature babies. This did not apply to the foetus in the womb, he said.

Huh? Well, what if the premature babies were younger than 24 weeks? Wouldn't that kind of destroy the presumption that before 24 weeks the nerve endings aren't sufficiently formed?


Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is planning on opening an abortion clinic in Omaha late this year.


In Iowa, a man who protests at Planned Parenthood had his house vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti.


One wonders if Planned Parenthood would treat a prolife protester like National Right to Life treats Bill Baird?

Mr. Baird, 78, who once ran the nation's first abortion clinic, was among those attending the National Right to Life Convention at the Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport on Thursday. A regular attendee, his routine for decades has been to picket from 11:30 to noon on behalf of abortion rights, then join his rivals for lunch inside.