British MP Wants to Prohibit Abortions on Babies With Cleft Palate, Club Foot
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- After failing to lower the limit on abortions form 24 to 20 weeks, pro-life members of the British parliament hope to approve a measure prohibiting abortions on babies with minor disabilities. They hope to be able to protect unborn children diagnosed with a cleft palate or club foot from abortion. Statistics show about 20 babies were killed in abortions in the UK between 1996 and 2006 because they had a cleft foot, according to a recent report and a similar number with a club foot were thought to have become victims as well. Most of the abortions were done after 24 weeks into the pregnancy. Such abortions received significant publicity when Joanna Jepson, a Church of England official born with a cleft palate that has since been surgically repaired, launched a lawsuit after one hospital did an abortion on a baby with a cleft palate at 28 weeks into pregnancy. The current law guiding abortions in the UK, the 1967 Abortion Act, allows abortions if the baby "would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be serious handicapped,” but a serious handicap is never defined. Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who led the effort to limit late-term abortions, has put forward a new amendment to the abortion law that will come up when lawmakers debate the Embryology Bill that allows the creation of hybrid embryos via human cloning. The amendment would specifically exclude the two conditions from the serious handicap wording. Dorries told Scotland on Sunday: "I don't classify either cleft palate or club foot as serious disabilities when they are easily correctable. We know many of these babies are aborted just before birth. In a sensible world, I don't think anyone would disagree with the idea that these are not serious disabilities. I think most members of the public would say aborting babies for these reasons late in pregnancy is wrong."

New Jersey Lawmaker Puts Forward Compromise on Stem Cell Research Funds
Trenton, NJ (LifeNews.com) -- Backers of embryonic stem cell research are continuing their efforts to fund research with stem cells. After voters rejected a plan to spent $450 million in public funds on the destructive research in the middle of a statewide financial crisis, legislators are putting forth a new proposal to get private investors to pay for loans to jumpstart it. Democratic Assemblyman Neil Cohen has authored legislation that would allow investors to donate money to the Economic Development Authority, which would dole out as much as $100 million in loans each year for stem cell research to nonprofit or academic researchers. Investors would get tax credits should the research firm fail to pay back the loan. He told the Associated Press he hopes the bill will become a model for other states to promote embryonic stem cell researchers when voters don’t be want be forced to do so. ''Investing in stem cell research is one of the single most important activities New Jersey can be engaged in,'' Cohen claims. The plan may win over pro-life advocates who opposed he earlier efforts to make taxpayers fund research that destroys the lives of days-old unborn children. Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right to Life, told AP her reaction to the idea: ''I'd like to think Assemblyman Cohen has introduced this bill because he is heeding the will of the voters who clearly rejected any attempt to use taxpayer money to fund embryonic stem cell research..” California has spent the most on embryonic stem cell research when voters approved a $3 billion plan that could cost twice as much when interest on loans is included. Connecticut has forked over another $100 million and Illinois and Maryland have awarded $15 million in grants.

Florida Resident Upset that Children’s Services Council Funds Planned Parenthood
Martin, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A resident of Palm City, Florida is upset that the local Children’s Services Council of Martin County has decided to fund the local Planned Parenthood abortion business even though it receives hundreds of millions of dollars annually in profits and government funding. “The Children’s Services Council of Martin County, under Karen Ripper and now Debbie Crowder, continues to pour tax funds into Planned Parenthood, while the same services are provided by other county government agencies at taxpayer expense,” says Edward Daccarett. “By its own admission, Planned Parenthood received more than $336.7 million in taxpayer funding, yet have no shame in reaching into local taxpayers’ pockets by way of the Children’s Services Council.” Daccarett lamented that the abortion business reported $114.8 million profit for fiscal 2007 and, the year fore, reported a net profit of $55.8 million. “Since 1973, PP amassed more than $900 million in profits from abortion and birth-control devices,” he added. He concluded: “Karen Ripper, Debbie Crowder and the leadership at the Children’s Services Council ignore the repeated appeals of taxpayers exposing the real mission of Planned Parenthood. The council has tried every trick in the book to justify the funding, while taxpayers are losing homes and businesses.” Express your views on the pro-abortion funding by writing to: Children’s Services Council of Martin County, 2030 S.E. Ocean Boulevard, Stuart, FL 34996-3304, (p) 772-288-5758, (f) 772-288-5799, or email cscmc@cscmc.org.

Canadian College Determines Professor Can No Longer Research Euthanasia, Suicide
Vancouver, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- A Canadian college has ruled that a professor can no longer conduct in-person research on euthanasia, suicide and other forms of death. Russel Ogden, of Kwantlen University College, studies those and other “deathing” methods, including a new method called New Technology for Self Deliverance, or NuTech. Ogden also obtains the consent of people who plan to commit suicide and is allowed to view the death in person for research purposes. However, officials at the Surrey, British Columbia school have rejected a previous proposal to allow the research and wants Ogden to stop the studies he’s already conducted. "Our due diligence included obtaining two opinions from one of Canada's foremost criminal lawyers about the legal implications," Peter Chevrier, the director of marketing and communications, said in a statement. "Based on our due diligence, including the lawyer's opinions, we concluded that there were real and unacceptable legal risks associated with the proposed research." James Turk, executive director of the Ottawa-based Canadian Association of University Teachers, told the National Post tat the college “obtained a legal opinion that because euthanasia is illegal in Canada, what Mr. Ogden is doing [witnessing suicides] could be illegal.” Ogden apparently paid for an attorney to conduct his own legal review and determined that his research abides by current Canadian law. He would not comment to the newspaper and cited his concerns about keeping his job.

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