Life Links 8/26/11

A woman is in intensive care after an abortion clinic in Australia botched a late-term abortion.

The woman remains in hospital in intensive care following complications during a late term abortion at the Marie Stopes Maroondah clinic, formerly known as the Croydon Day Centre.

The Herald Sun understands the Medical Board of Australia held a special hearing yesterday to quiz medical staff involved in the procedure.

It is believed that one of the doctors involved has previously been criticised by the MBA.

The article also discusses a recent late-term abortion report which shared some of the reasons women in Australia are getting post 20-week abortions. More than half of Australia's late-term abortions in 2008 were for "psycho-social" reasons, including 2 abortions on women who were more than 7 months pregnant.


NPR covers a recent Guttmacher Institute study which found the rate of unintended pregnancy virtually stayed the same from 2001 to 2006.

The report found that overall, "the United States did not make progress toward its goal of reducing unintended pregnancy between 2001 and 2006." In fact, the rate was 49 percent in 2006, virtually unchanged from 48 percent in 2001.

But the highest rate of unintended pregnancy of all the subgroups studied occurred among "cohabitors," or, to use the vernacular, women who were shacking up.

The largest increase of unintended pregnancies occurred in cohabitators under age 25.

Unsurprisingly, they also quote Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards who uses the study to call for more "affordable birth control" aka "more funding for Planned Parenthood."

There's certainly no mention of how Planned Parenthood got probably more than a billion dollars in government funds during the 2001-2006 time period to help reduce rates of unintended pregnancy. I can't imagine another report showing how completely ineffective Planned Parenthood is at reducing unintended pregnancies. From 1994-2006 the rate of unintended pregnancies among poor women (the group Planned Parenthood supposedly serves so well) rose nearly 50%.


On Friday, Virginia's health department is expected to release draft regulations for abortion clinics.

Opponents of the measure previously had estimated that the new regulations could cause 17 of Virginia’s 21 abortion clinics to close because of potential new standards on measurements such as hallway width.

A local news station reports on the closing of a Planned Parenthood in Sherman, Texas. The reports says it closed because of a lack of customers and also notes a Planned Parenthood in Gainesville (a city which neighbors Sherman) will close August 29.