Life Links 11/26/13

A legislator in China has called for public hospitals to provide free abortions to students.

Wei Aimin, a deputy of the Beijing People’s Congress and a lawyer with Beijing Dangdai law firm, told Beijing-based Morning Post that many students seeking abortions went to underground clinics to prevent their parents and teachers from finding out and because they could not afford to go to large hospitals.

“All public hospitals in the city should offer abortions to pregnant students for free or for a minimal charge of 100 yuan,” Wei was reported as saying, “So they are not forced to go to cheaper unlicensed clinics.”

When U.S. abortion advocates whine about restrictions on webcam abortions, remember that in Canada, RU-486 abortions aren’t available because no company is distributing the drugs.

A manufacturer would have to apply to bring the drug to market in Canada. And Dr. Sheila Dunn, one of the authors of the commentary published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, said it's not clear why no one has applied to market mifepristone in Canada before now.

"We don't ever know the reasons that people have for not bringing drugs into different countries," says Dunn, a family physician who specializes in reproductive medicine at Toronto's Women's College Hospital.

There were clinical trials of the drug in Canada early in the last decade. But one was stopped after a woman who received the drug died of a bacterial infection.

A New York man has been convicting of assaults on his wife, including one where he killed his unborn child.

Vikas Jagota of 28 Butternut Drive in New City was found guilty of abusing his wife and convicted by a jury on felony counts of abortion and assault and five misdemeanor charges. The 37-year-old Jagota faces a maximum of seven years in state prison when he is sentenced on March 18, 2014.