Pro-Life News in Brief.

Abortion on Demand Legalized in Mexico City

Legislators in the federal district of Mexico City voted 4619 April 24 to legalize abortion on demand in the first three months of pregnancy. It will take effect once the city's pro-abortion Mayor Marcelo Ebrard signs it into law, according to the Associated Press (AP).

"A country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people how to love," conservative National Action Party Deputy Jose Antonio Zepeda told the Los Angeles Times. "It is teaching its citizens how to use violence to obtain what they want."

Mexico's federal law on abortion allows it only for rape, severe disability, or for the life of the mother, the AP reported.

According to the new law, all public hospitals in Mexico City, which has a population of 20 million, must now perform first-trimester abortions, the AP reported. In addition, private abortion clinics may be opened. The only restriction is that girls under 18 must have parental consent, according to the AP.

Many in the predominantly Catholic country protested against the Mexico City law, promising to appeal the law to the Mexican Supreme Court if necessary. "We will fight for life," said Edith Suarez of the pro-life group organization Live Your Values told the Times. "We will not allow this atrocity. We will fight until the final consequences. The deputies who approved this barbarity today will learn to regret it."

Disabled Babies Born Alive after Abortion

According to a study published in the May British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 102 babies aborted for "fetal abnormality" in the West Midlands were born alive, only to die within hours of unspecified causes.

Researchers from West Midlands Perinatal Institute studied 3,189 abortions of babies with diagnosed disabilities at 20 hospitals between 1995 and 2004, the Daily Mail reported. Most of the babies were aborted by the RU486 "medical" abortion technique, and suffered from chromosomal abnormalities (such as Down syndrome) as well as heart, kidney, and spinal disabilities.

Referring to these abortions as "TOPFAs" (terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomaly), the researchers discovered that 350 were classified as "registerable births." Of these 248 were classified as "stillborn," while 102 were "live births with subsequent neonatal deaths," according to the BJOG report.

"Of the 102 live births, the gestation ranged from 17 to 33 with a median of 21 weeks," study authors M.P. Wyldes and A.M. Tonks wrote. "The survival duration for liveborn TOPFAs was a median of 80 minutes. Thirty-seven cases survived for 1 hour or less and six cases survived 6 hours or more." They do not record how the babies eventually died.

British law allows abortion until birth if the baby has a "severe disability," the Daily Mail reported.

The study authors found that the percentage of live births has declined sharply over the course of the 10 years studied, from 4.0% in 1995 to 1.7% in 2004. They speculated that this drop resulted from guidelines issued by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in 1998, urging that older unborn babies to be aborted for "fetal abnormality" should be killed in the womb before the abortion procedure begins.

"For all terminations at gestational age of more than 21 weeks and 6 days, the method chosen should ensure that the fetus is born dead," according to a statement on the RCOG web site. "Intracardiac potassium chloride is the recommended method and the dose chosen should ensure that fetal asystole has been achieved. Where the patient chooses not to have feticide in the presence of a lethal abnormality, discussion must take place within the appropriate team, and the patient's wishes and agreement sought on the management of the fetus after birth."

Despite the decrease in live births from these abortions, the incidence of abortions for "fetal anomaly" has increased significantly between 1995 and 2004, from 4.40 to 5.26 per 10,000 registerable births. Diagnoses of disability are also being made earlier in pregnancy, as 12.1% of these cases in 1995 involved an unborn baby younger than 16 weeks, which increased to 27.9% in 2004.

Pro-lifers in Britain found the study results alarming. "This can't just be happening in the West Midlands," Julia Millington of the pro-life group Alive and Kicking told the Daily Mail. "It begs the question of how many healthy babies must be surviving? [I]t is difficult to comprehend the numbers of babies around the country left fighting for their lives."

Portugal Allows Abortion on Demand Through Tenth Week

To the dismay of many in the overwhelmingly Catholic country, Portugal has legalized abortion on demand up to the 10th week of pregnancy, with a mandatory three-day waiting period between initial consultation and the abortion. President Anibal Cavaco Silva signed the law April 10, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Catholic bishops in Portugal condemned the law. "We face women who have abortions with a look of mercy and forgiveness," said Bishop Dom Carlos Azevedo, according to the Lusa news agency, "but our Christian conscience forces us not to collaborate with any attempt to the dignity of the human being. Abortion disrespects the dignity of human life."

Previously 59% of voters had voted in favor of a referendum. But for such a ballot to be valid, 50% of Portugal's registered voters must vote. Only 44% participated, meaning overall only 26% of voters who voted in favor of the referendum.

However, Socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates promoted the legislation that allowed for abortion on demand through the tenth week. The law went to Parliament and was approved March 8, according to the AP.

Previous law allowed abortion for certain reasons, although it was considered one of the most protective of unborn babies in Europe. Abortions were legal up to 12 weeks for "mental and physical risk" to the mother, to 16 weeks for rape, to 24 weeks for a "malformed fetus," and at any time if the mother's life was in danger, according to the New York Times.

Florida Abortion Clinic Investigation Leads to More Arrests

Six people have now been arrested after an investigation found that they were performing abortions and dispensing medicine without licenses at two abortion clinics in south Florida. Siomara Senises and Belkis Gonzalez operated the A GYN abortion mills in Miramar and Hialeah, according to the Miami Herald.

State officials have said that South Florida, with its large immigrant community, is a "hot spot" for unlicensed medical facilities. "It's important for citizens to know when you're going to a physician or center that it is an established medical center and that the healthcare professionals in that facility are properly licensed," Lauren Buzzelli, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health, told the Herald. "It's important to find out if your physician is really a physician."

The Miramar clinic was closed by the state health department in 2005, after patients reported that unlicensed employees were practicing medicine, the Herald reported. Senises and Gonzalez shut down the Hialeah abortion clinic in August 2006, after police discovered the body of 23 pound aborted baby boy in a biohazard container, according to CBS4 News.

Police charged Senises in late March with "aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine," which is a third-degree felony, the Herald reported. Charges have also been filed against Gonzalez and four other employees.

Police continue to investigate the incident in the Hialeah abortion clinic, and may bring more charges against the abortion clinic owners for the baby's death and disposal, according to the Herald.

Israeli Woman Saved by Umbilical Cord Stem Cells

Umbilical cord blood stem cells donated by two different mothers saved the life of a woman with acute leukemia in the first procedure of its kind in Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post.

After doctors at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer gave the 27-year-old woman the stem cells, it took only two weeks for her condition to begin to improve, the Post reported. Bone marrow transplants usually take a month to work.

In addition, the umbilical cord cells do not have to be an exact match to the patient's tissue type, so cord blood donated from any newborn baby can be used. Because the woman's leukemia was so severe, doctors needed more cells than could be obtained from one umbilical cord, so they used cells from two unrelated donors, according to the Post.

"With the development of umbilical cord blood banks, we decided to try it," Prof. Arnon Nagler of Sheba Hospital told the Post. "This is a revolution on technical grounds, because the stem cells in umbilical cords are available, and medically, because it makes it easier to find suitable donorsand the two doses made it effective much faster.

"It also saves the efforts required to find a perfect adult donor. Until now, we transplanted stem cells from umbilical cord blood only into children, and one dose at a time."

The hospital has a cord blood bank accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks, and will encourage new mothers to make donations after they give birth.