Life Links 12/5/11

After his odd and competing statements on when life begins and embryonic stem cell research, Newt Gingrich's campaign has gone into damage control and published a statement on their web site which says Gingrich believes that "life begins at conception." It never notes what Gingrich means by conception. Unfortunately, the definition of conception (which should by synonymous with fertilization) has been manipulated to where some people think it means the same thing as implantation. Clarification needed.


The New York Times features on article on the prolife factions in Ohio and the heartbeat bill.


A former abortionist at Marie Stopes abortion clinics in the UK has been disqualified from practicing medicine. One of the patients whose care Phanuel Dartey botched was a woman seeking an abortion.

One of the five cases involved an unidentified Irishwoman whose uterus was perforated. The patient was also left with parts of her fetus inside her during the 2006 procedure.

The woman had to be rushed to hospital on her return to Ireland and was in a critical condition for two months before eventually recovering.

Defending prolife legislation can be expensive. In Kansas, for example:

After about six months, the state has tallied $392,520 in legal bills stemming from attempts to restrict abortion that were pushed during the legislative session earlier this year.

The state spent $237,834 on private lawyers defending efforts to strip Planned Parenthood of federal family planning funds. It has laid out $94,380 defending new rules for abortion clinics.

New York NOW is upset a New York woman has been arrested and charged for self-abortion.