Archive for the 'Health Issues' Category

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HT: Mary Meets Dolly

You’ve probably already heard about Planned Parenthood’s free “emergency contraception” giveaway last week.

Generation Life* reports on how the event provides further evidence of the emptiness of Planned Parenthood’s “We care about women’s health” rhetoric.

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 15 /Christian Newswire/ — On Wednesday, Dec 6, 2006 Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania (PPSP) distributed free “emergency contraceptives” to women of all ages. Young women associated with Generation Life entered four different PPSP clinics. There they discovered that PPSP was engaging in many illegal and irresponsible activities and distributing inaccurate and incomplete medical information.

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I opened up the paper this morning and saw this headline:

NYC to enforce healthier living

TRANS FAT: Ban hailed for blocking use of `basically a slow form of poison’

The article beneath the headline reported that restaurants in New York City will no longer be allowed to cook with oils containing trans fats. And:

In what could be the start of a shift in how Americans choose their meals, the New York City Board of Health said it will require restaurants that offer nutritional information to post calorie counts where everyone can see–on menus or menu boards.

“It will be a completely different ballgame if it is right there before their eyes,” said David Grotto, spokesman for the American Dietetic Association and a registered dietitian. “It very well may cause them to think twice.”

In light of these regulations, I’m sure no one would object to a new law that would require notices to be posted — “where everyone can see” — in any place condoms are sold that there is “insufficient evidence” to determine whether condoms do anything to prevent the spread of the vast majority of STDs. (more…)

While many will unfortunately use today as an opportunity to sing the praises of the Almighty Condom as the way to fight AIDS, we would all do well to give serious consideration to the sensible message issued by the Vatican in conjunction with this day two years ago.

Example #9327582832 illustrating the fallacy of “Legal Abortion = Safe Abortion”:

Alabama Abortion Clinic Remains Open After Violating Ten Laws

Huntsville, AL – A Huntsville, Alabama, abortion mill remains open today in spite of Health Department citations for violations of ten state laws.

Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives was cited during a surprise inspection last month for violations that included forwarding after-hours emergency calls to non-medical personnel, routinely failing to document the gestational age of the pre-born baby, and releasing abortion patients after less than the required 20 minutes in recovery.

The violations indicated a “sloppiness” in the general care of patients, according to Rick Harris, who heads the Bureau of Health Provider Standards. “It makes you wonder, what else are they failing to document?” [source]

And, for the worst part: (more…)

An article in today’s Chicago Sun-Times highlights a new study’s finding that children born before their mothers’ 25th birthday have a significantly higher potential for longevity.

I mention this not only because I find the study interesting, but mostly, I must concede, because my beloved wife Jocelyn is quoted in the article. (She’s also pictured, along with our three daughters, in the print edition — the article appears on page 3.)

And, as you’ll see from the article, the cat is out of the bag: We’re expecting our fourth child in May 2007!

Here it is:

Thanks, mom!

Want to live to 100? Having a young mother helps

November 22, 2006

BY JIM RITTER Health Reporter

If your mother was young when you were born, you’re more likely to live to a ripe old age, a University of Chicago study has found.

Children born before their mothers’ 25th birthday were nearly twice as likely to live to 100, the study found.

Husband-and-wife researchers Leonid Gavrilov and Natalia Gavrilova suggested two possible reasons:

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It’s a stiff competition, but the Patch continues to make a convincing case for why it deserves the title of Most Dangerous Form of Hormonal Birth Control, as this article from No Room for Contraception explains:

Ortho Evra Birth Control Patch: 1,000 Claimants and Counting

Youngest victim was 14

By Ruben Obregon

According to Johnson & Johnson’s third quarter SEC filing for 2006 , there are over “1,000 claimants who have filed lawsuits or have made claims regarding injuries allegedly due to Ortho Evra.” [1] Ortho Evra, also known as the birth control patch, is a transdermal hormonal contraceptive which is applied weekly to the skin. In addition to being a contraceptive, the patch can act as an abortifacient by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg.

Serious health problems have been associated with Ortho Evra including fatal and non-fatal blood clots, strokes, heart attacks, and death. From April 2002 to December 2004, over 27,974 ‘adverse effects’ were reported by users of Ortho Evra.[2] Many of the complaints are serious, and the patch is alleged to be responsible for over 23 deaths, including the death of 14 year old Alycia Brown.[3]

The claims keep mounting – last week a lawsuit was filed on behalf of 40 women against Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson and the manufacturer of Ortha Evra.. The lawsuit alleges that the Ortho Evra patch was responsible for the serious health problems, including the death of one user.[4]

“We were saddened for these women and their families but not surprised by the news of these cases,” says John David Hart, of the Law Offices of John David Hart in Fort Worth, who represents women who have used the Ortho Evra patch. “All of the women we’ve met with and all of the research we’ve done suggest that this is a real problem and that women are being harmed by using this drug.”[4]

Rather than pull the drug off of the market, it appears Johnson & Johnson finds it cheaper to settle with victims.

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A study [PDF] published this month in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings provides further evidence of a connection between the Pill and breast cancer.

In a related post a few days ago — regarding an article titled “Breast Cancer and Oral Contraception” posted on the No Room for Contraception website — Mark Shea summed it up: Contraception: The Gift that Keeps on Taking.

Dr. Janet Smith gave a presentation at last month’s “Contraception Is Not the Answer” conference titled “Hormones ‘R’ Us,” in which she discussed in detail these and other harmful side effects of hormonal birth control on a woman’s body (as well as some downright bizarre side effects on the environment).

You can buy a copy of Dr. Smith’s talk, as well as any or all of the other seven conference talks, here.

Komen Foundation Meets with Colorado Right to Life on Abortion Breast Cancer Link

DENVER, Oct. 6 /Christian Newswire/ — One week before the Denver Race for the Cure, Susan G. Komen Foundation race officials met with several directors of Colorado Right to Life on September 29, 2006.

Colorado Right to Life officials agreed to the unexpected invitation scheduled the day before their annual Light on Life Banquet, featuring Medical Research Analyst Eve Sanchez Silver.

Ms Silver is Executive Director of Clear Research and a former charter member of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s National Hispanic Latina Advisory Council. Ms Silver resigned from Susan G. Komen after learning that the Komen Foundation has a record of funding Planned Parenthood.

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Pro-lifers have been warning for years about the physical side effects associated with various forms of birth control.

Note in particular this tragic story about a 25-year old mother who died after several days of terrible headaches caused by hormones released into her body from the Ortho Evra birth control patch.

These paragraphs from the article cited above caught my attention:

Though the Food and Drug Administration and patch-maker Ortho McNeil saw warning signs of possible problems with the patch well before it reached the market, both maintain that the patch is as safe as the pill.

However, the reports obtained by the AP appear to indicate that in 2004 — when 800,000 women were on the patch — the risk of dying or suffering a survivable blood clot while using the device was about three times higher than while using birth control pills.

The women who died were young and apparently at low risk for clots — women like Zakiya Kennedy, an 18-year-old Manhattan fashion student who collapsed and died in a New York subway station last April. Or Sasha Webber, a 25-year-old mother of two from Baychester, N.Y., who died of a heart attack after six weeks on the patch last March.

Some doctors, reviewing the Food and Drug Administration reports at the request of The AP, were alarmed. “I was shocked,” said Dr. Alan DeCherney, editor-in-chief of Fertility and Sterility and a UCLA professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

But other doctors said they would have expected some deaths and no investigation is warranted.

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A big part of our job at Generations for Life is to serve as an educational resource for students.

We frequently get requests for information on abortion from students who are working on school-related projects on the subject, and from others who are seeking answers simply out of a desire to learn more about it.

This e-mail we received last week from Jenifer, a high school senior from Ontario, Canada, is one such example. I’m posting it here since the questions Jenifer raises are very common ones:

Dear Sir or Madame,

I am a high school senior who completed a Summit Ministries Conference this summer.

The reason I am emailing is because I need some help and Summit recommended you. You see my friends and I were talking about Abortion and we eventually turned to the topic of the day after pill. All of the other girls believed it should be use be cause they said “It takes three days for the sperm and egg to connect.” My sister told me that was nonsense and I believe her…but
I don’t have the proof! What do I say to something like that?!?!

If you could help me up I would appreciate it! I’ve been feeling overwhelmed!

Here’s our reply: (more…)

That’s how an article on a widely reported news story begins in today’s Chicago Tribune. It’s titled, simply enough, “Woman in a vegetative state exhibits brain activity.”

Of course, an article like this contains a few obligatory “Duh” paragraphs, like this one:

But new research suggests that “islands” of brain function may exist in people believed to be in a vegetative state, according to the Science report. And scientists wanted to know if important signs that a patient was assimilating input from the outside world were being missed.

Also, of course, an article like this is not without bias:

It’s the only case of its kind, reported in the Friday issue of the journal Science.

“The only case of its kind”?

How could the writer of the article (Judith Graham) possibly know that this instance of a 23-year old woman who is now exhibiting brain activity after having been diagnosed as being in a “vegetative state” is the “only case of its kind”?

Qualifiers like “documented” serve an important purpose. When they’re omitted from a news article, it’s rather telling.

Bias rears its ugly ahead again later in the article: (more…)

***scroll for updates***

LifeSite posted yesterday the second installment of its two-part interview with Dr. Peter Hollands, the Chief Science Officer of the UK Cord Blood Bank. (Part one is here.)

As pro-lifers have been saying for years, the future of stem cell technology isn’t in embryonic stem cells, but adult stem cells — a major sub-category of which are umbilical cord stem cells. (These are obtained from a baby’s umbilical cord following delivery.)

Hollands states:

As a scientist, and even as a lay person, it is simple to see that cord blood as a source of stem cells for therapy and research is the easiest route to take. We have a never ending supply of cord blood and if we can start to collect and store this valuable resource instead of discarding it then we will start to make real progress in stem cell therapy and research…

To claim that there are enough “spare” embryos in IVF clinics is nonsense. These embryos could not support the demand for stem cell transplants.

Hollands goes on to plainly state a fact that cannot be said often enough:

It is important to note that embryonic stem cells have never been used to treat anyone and that there are no plans to do so. In the UK for example we have invested millions in a national stem cell bank which contains approximately 6 different embryonic stem cell lines none of which are suitable for transplant [emphasis added].

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Not unexpectedly, but no less unfortunately, this morning the FDA approved over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill to women 18 and older.

Backers of the FDA’s decision can send their “Thank you for your support” letters to the current occupant of:

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

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The Elliot Institute reports on the latest evidence of the negative effects of abortion on women:

National Study Finds Teens Who Abort Are More Likely to Experience Subsequent Mental Health Problems Compared to Those Who Give Birth to Unplanned Children

Springfield, IL (Aug. 10, 2006) — Adolescent girls who abort unintended pregnancies are five times more likely to seek subsequent help for psychological and emotional problems compared to their peers who carry “unwanted pregnancies” to term, according to a new nationally representative study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a research psychologist at Bowling Green State University, also found that adolescents who had abortions were also over three times more likely to report subsequent trouble sleeping, and nine times more likely to report subsequent marijuana use. The results were compiled after examining 17 other control variables, like prior mental health history and family factors, that might also influence subsequent mental health.

The data was drawn from a federally-funded longitudinal study of adolescents from throughout the U.S. who participated in two series of interviews in 1995 and 1996. About 76 percent of girls who had abortions and 80 percent of girls who gave birth were between the ages of 15 and 19 during the survey, with the remainder being younger.

Researcher Dr. David Reardon, who has contributed to more than a dozen studies examining psychological outcomes after abortion, said that Coleman’s study was particularly important because it examines pregnancy “wantedness,” in addition to a large number of other control variables.

“Over the last six years, numerous studies have conclusively linked higher rates of mental illness and behavioral problems associated with abortion compared to childbirth.” said Reardon. “But abortion advocates have generally dismissed these findings, insisting that while women who abort may fare worse than women who give birth to planned children, they may fare better than the important subgroup of women who carry unintended pregnancies to term. Coleman’s study addresses this argument and shows that the facts don’t support abortion advocates’ speculations.”

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