Life Links 12/28/11

Rick Perry dropped his rape/incest exception to abortion after attending the abortion forum in Iowa, watching Gift of Life and discussing abortion exceptions with a woman who was conceived in rape. The Hill has the video of him discussing his change of heart.


The Detroit Free Press has an AP story on China's one-child policy and those who defy it.

It's impossible to know how many children have been born in violation of the one-child policy, but Zhai Zhenwu, director of Renmin University's School of Sociology and Population in Beijing, estimates that less than 1% of the 16 million babies born each year are "out of plan."

Robocalls are bad enough but now we've got robotexts.

During Tuesday's edition of "Andrea Mitchell Reports," correspondent Peter Alexander said that some Iowans received text messages Tuesday morning urging them to call an in-state phone number.

When they did so, they heard "a recording of Mitt Romney's comments from 1994, where his convictions on the pro-life, the abortion, debate have really been in question."

In California, Willie Hines Jr. has pleaded not guilty to murdering Tatjana Cruz and her unborn child.


A Texas man has been arrested for a stem cell scheme in which he made $1.5 million for injecting stem cells into patients with diseases like cancer and multiple sclerosis. His scam was featured on 60 Minutes in 2010.

According to a 19-page indictment filed in Houston's federal courthouse in November, Morales oversaw the purchase umbilical cords and placentas from a maternity clinic in Del Rio, Texas.

Morales allegedly had the genetic materials shipped to a lab in Arizona where they were forwarded into the hands of a South Carolina pathologist who harvested the stem cells.

According to the 15-count indictment, Morales would use the stem cells in Mexico as medical treatments for cancer, multiple sclerosis and procedures that are not approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

New research is showing that performing an autopsy on the remains of stillborn children can provide information about a possible or probable cause.

In fact, the study of 512 stillborns -- a fetal death in the second half of pregnancy -- found the most common causes were obstetric complications, including preterm labor and premature rupturing of the amniotic sac, accounting for 29 percent of the deaths.