Parental Notification Laws, Courtesy of Eldorado Bed-in-Temple Sect

On Monday, CPS announced that almost 60 percent of the underage girls living on the Eldorado ranch either have children or are pregnant.

Of the 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 who are in state custody, 31 either have given birth or are expecting, Azar said.

Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. A girl can get married with parental permission at 16, but none of these girls is believed to have a legal marriage under state law.


I eagerly await the cry of outrage from politicians over this situation, as well as the inevitable onslaught of proposed parental notification laws mandating underage girls obtain parental permission before becoming pregnant.

Efraim Diveroli Rules!


Photo by Wetsun


When you're a 20 yo male and you say you're a munitions expert who is responsible enough to become the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces, the Government awards you ~ $300 million in contracts.

When you're a 20 yo (or, for that matter, a 30 yo or 40 yo) female and you say you're an expert on your life who is responsible enough to make her own medical decisions, the Government passes legislation to prohibit you form making those decisions.

Brilliant!

Austrian Woman Held Captive by Her Father for 24 Years

VIENNA, Austria - Police have found a woman missing since 1984, who told authorities that her father had kept her in a cellar for almost 24 years and that she had given birth to at least six children after being repeatedly raped by him.

...

The 42-year-old woman told police that her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11 and locked her in a room in the cellar on Aug. 28, 1984.

During the 24 years that followed, she said she was continually abused and gave birth to six children, the statement said. She said she gave birth to twins in 1996 but one died several days later; police said they were investigating.

Police said in the statement the woman appeared "greatly disturbed" psychologically during questioning. She agreed to talk only after authorities assured her that she would no longer have to have contact with her father and that her children would be taken care of.

DNA tests are expected to determine whether the man is the father of the six surviving children, according to police.

Police said three of the children were registered with authorities and lived with the grandparents. The other three children were apparently held captive in the cellar with their mother, Polzer told reporters in broadcast remarks.

The Austria Press Agency said the three boys and three girls range in age from 5 and 20. One of the children, a 19-year-old woman, was being hospitalized in very serious condition, according to Austrian broadcaster ORF.

You and Your Donor Egg Fetal Cells

Pregnant uterus


Just because you use donor eggs to conceive doesn't mean you don't have a very close biological relation with your child.

Researchers found that foreign fetal cells from donor eggs persist for years in the circulation of recipient mothers:

Dr. Zev Williams from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston and colleagues were able to detect DSY14 Y chromosome-specific sequences in the circulation of 5 of 11 (45%) women who had donor egg pregnancies resulting in male offspring, the authors report. An earlier study reported a detection rate of 35% of women who had spontaneous male pregnancies.

The longest interval between delivery of a male offspring and detection of the circulating DSY14 sequence in Dr. Williams' patients was 9 years.

Their findings, the researchers say, "suggest the existence of an immunomodulatory mechanism that results in persistence of microchimerism with evasion of host immune surveillance."


The bad news is that now Congress can expose you for the microchimera that you are and try to ban you out of existence. The good news is that you're in good company, since women who conceive the old fashioned way are also prohibited when a chimera is defined as a human embryo that consists of cells derived from more than 1 human embryo, fetus, or born individual.

Your Brain On Pregnancy

Pregnancy complications

A fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery MRI of a formerly eclamptic patient reveals white matter lesions (arrows). Neuro-Imaging Center of the School of Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences in Groningen


If you develop eclampsia [high blood pressure and seizures] during pregnancy, does your brain return to normal postpartum?

Maybe, maybe not, according to recent findings that challenge the current opinion that eclampsia is a one-time event from which women can expect a full clinical recovery.

A study looked at 103 women and found white matter brain lesions in:

- 41% formerly eclamptic women

- 29% formerly preeclamptic women [high blood pressure; no seizures]

- 17% women who had a normotensive pregnancy [normal blood pressure]

Moreover:

The researchers also observed that the number of eclamptic seizures appeared to be related to the presence and severity of the brain matter lesions. In all, 19 eclamptic women had one grand mal seizure, 10 had two, and 10 had three or more. Women who reported three or more eclamptic seizures were three times more likely to have white matter lesions than were women with no seizures, she said.

The total volume of the lesions was significantly greater among formerly eclamptic women than controls (0.04 mL vs. 0.004 mL).

Why Abortion Should Be Banned in the United States


Photo by Chiara Marra


It's not that abortion will be banned in the United States; it's that it *should* be banned. All you have to do is to look at the data, dude.

From the CDC "Estimated Pregnancy Rates by Outcome for the United States, 1990-2004" report:

"This latest pregnancy outcome report finds that there was little change in births and fetal loss numbers between 1990 and 2004. However, abortions fell 24 percent over this time period," said Stephanie Ventura, head of the Reproductive Statistics Branch at CDC/NCHS.


In 1990, there were ~6.79 million total pregnancies: 4.16 million live births, 1.61 million induced abortions, and 1.02 million fetal losses.

In 2004, there were 6.39 million total pregnancies: 4.11 million live births, 1.22 million induced abortions, and 1.06 million fetal losses.

QED:

I) A 24% fall in abortions indicates that the status quo -- having access to safe and legal abortions -- just isn't working. If the goal is to reduce the number of abortions, clearly the State must intervene and ban the safe and effective medical procedure of abortion.

II) The 2004 patterns by pregnancy outcome of just over 6 in 10 pregnancies ending in live birth, 1 in 5 in an induced abortion, and about 1 in 6 in a fetal loss indicates that any and all abortions must be banned, not just elective ones. Otherwise a good number of the 1.06 million women with fetal losses in need of a therapeutic abortion could just get away with having an abortion.

III) The 1.22 million induced abortions/1.06 million fetal losses indicates that there are about 2.28 million women the State could deprive of receiving proper medical care. And that's always a desirable outcome, no matter what.

Pope Benedict XVI in the City

Today the Pope celebrates Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Meanwhile, all the support vehicles and personnel are tucked away from view, parked on my street. Which, if you ask me, is odd seeing how I live quite a few blocks away from St. Patrick's.









UPDATE: Mystery solved. All these people and equipment aren't the primary crew; they're the support team. From what I've seen on TV (the Popemobile is just making its way down 5th Ave.), the B team is about x3 the size of the A team.

State Protects Women From Postpartum Depression

As a result of the recent CDC report that [a]s many as one in five women in the United States suffers from postpartum depressive symptoms, the State does its duty and exercises its right to step in and protect pregnant women from themselves:

An Act to Protect the Families, and the Interests and Health of Pregnant Mothers, by Prohibiting Discouraging Carrying a Pregnancy to Term Except in Cases Where the Mother’s Life or Health Isn't at Risk of Anything

(a) Findings- Congress makes the following findings:

(1) Women who become pregnant should be protected from endangering their health by being coerced into carrying the pregnancy to term. Informed consent is a critical component of all decisions to continue the pregnancy.

(2) A recent report from the CDC found that [a]s many as one in five women in the United States suffers from postpartum depressive symptoms.

Part Z of title III of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 280g et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

(b) I. Requires the viewing of an abortion techniques video prior to a woman receiving prenatal care, with an explicit provision that allows a woman to avert her eyes.

II. Requires any "private office, freestanding outpatient clinic, or other facility or clinic or hospital" in which prenatal care is provided to "conspicuously" post a sign that is "at least three-quarters of an inch boldfaced type" in each patient waiting room and patient consultation room used by prenatal patients. The sign must state that it is "against the law for anyone, regardless of his or her relationship to you, to force you to carry the pregnancy to term."

III. A physician must inform a pregnant female minor that "no one can force her to carry the pregnancy to term" and that prenatal care cannot be provided "unless she provides her freely given, voluntary and informed consent"

IV. Requires minors seeking to carry the pregnancy to term to obtain parental consent before undergoing the pregnancy.

V. It is a felony for a physician to deliver prenatal care to a minor who does not have parental consent or a judicial waiver.

VI. Allows siblings, parents, grandparents or the husband of a pregnant woman to go to court to stop her from continuing the pregnancy post-21 weeks if they can argue the procedure might violate state law.

VII. Requires a physician to meet privately with a woman 30 minutes before the start of the prenatal visit and that the woman provide a written reason for the pregnancy.

Eldorado Bed-in-the-Temple Sect Secrets


Photo by Felix Francis


SAN ANGELO, Texas - It was no secret that a polygamist sect that built a compound in the West Texas desert believed in marrying off underage girls to older men. And the sheriff had an informant for four years who was feeding him information about life inside the sect.

...

"We are aware that this group is capable of" sexually abusing girls, Sheriff David Doran said. "But there again, this is the United States. We are going to respect them. We're not going to violate their civil rights until we get an outcry."


If only the girls had been trying to get abortions and the sheriff and some politicians and "family values" types had been aware of it! There would've been no need to respect the girls, no reticence to violate their civil rights and no reason for the decision to leave the bed-in-the-temple sect alone for four years before moving in.

The "God Particle"


Photo by pardeshi


When you see an article titled Key scientist sure "God particle" will be found soon what do you expect to read in the article? Most likely something about a scientist talking about the possibility of a discovery, one he believes is either evidence for the existence of God, or a good indication of it, right?

Wrong (emphasis mine):

GENEVA (Reuters) - British physicist Peter Higgs said on Monday it should soon be possible to prove the existence of a force which gives mass to the universe and makes life possible -- as he first argued 40 years ago.

Higgs said he believes a particle named the "Higgs boson," which originates from the force, will be found when a vast particle collider at the CERN research centre on the Franco-Swiss border begins operating fully early next year.

...

Today, the existence of the invisible field is widely accepted by scientists, who believe it came into being milliseconds after the Big Bang created the universe some 15 billion years ago.

...

Scientists at the centre hope the process will produce clear signs of the boson, dubbed the "God particle" by some, to the displeasure of Higgs, an atheist.


Still, when you're an atheist, I guess a wildly inaccurate and misleading headline about your life's work is a step up from being told you're a danger to children and a destroyer.

Phill Kline and Leslee Unruh: All Your Medical Records Are Belong to Us




In March, a Johnson County, Kan. grand jury, convened as a result of a petition from forced pregnancy terrorists, has refused to issue an indictment against Planned Parenthood after investigating the agency’s clinic in suburban Kansas City.

Last week, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment filed a motion to dismiss Johnson County, Kan., District Attorney Phill Kline's (R) subpoena that requires the department to authenticate records from Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri's clinic....

According to the Kansas City Start the issue with the Department of Health and Environment is whether Kline will be allowed to use as evidence the state health records that are the basis for his prosecution of the family planning agency.

Hopefully the new South Dakota proposed initiative, the one that mandates the submission of the abortion patient's medical history to the Department of Health and makes her medical record available on demand, will be enacted into law so as to spare Comrade Leslee Unruh and other assorted South Dakota forced pregnancy terrorists all the effort Phill Kline has to expand just to get access to some bedtime reading.

Leslee Unruh Is a Closeted Communist


Photo by MontageMan


Leslee Unruh and her merry band of totalitarian terrorist masters are back with a new, and improved, plan intended to make pregnant women wards of the State. [Tormenting the people of South Dakota is just an added bonus.]

The comrades have collected nearly 50,000 signatures to place the Orwellian An Act to Protect the Lives of Unborn Children, and the Interests and Health of Pregnant Mothers, by Prohibiting Abortions Except in Cases Where the Mother’s Life or Health is at Risk, and in Cases of Rape and Incest (.pdf) initiative on the Nov. 4 South Dakota ballot.

As a rule, when a piece of legislation claims to "protect" your interests and health you need to promptly head for the hills and find a suitable cave to hang out in, secure in the knowledge that the intent of such a law is to inflict as much damage on you as a mob of your fellow citizens can get away with.

Exhibit A, the proposed South Dakota initiative and the 9 ways it "protects" the interests and health of pregnant women:

1) Creates a make–believe biology.

The initiative decrees fertilization as the start of a pregnancy and a fetus as being separate from his or her mother, as a matter of scientific and biological fact [uterine wall, placenta, umbilical cord, and amniotic membranes be damned].

Of note, the initiative defines "pregnant" as having a living unborn child within the pregnant woman’s body, throughout the entire embryonic and fetal ages of the unborn child from fertilization to full gestation and child birth, and "unborn child" (and "unborn human being") as an individual living member of the species homo sapiens throughout the entire embryonic and fetal ages from fertilization to full gestation and childbirth (emphasis mine).

This means that patients with a Fetal Demise In Utero or those with a blighted ovum or a molar pregnancy are not, in fact, pregnant. Heh, let's see these patients try to get an abortion, seeing how they're not even pregnant to begin with.

I mock but I shouldn't. Other than cases of rape or incest, this initiative only allows abortions for patients in danger of death or organ failure. Which means women who, say, miscarry but are not yet acutely hemorrhaging or those who are not fortunate enough to present with a ruptured ectopic will simply have to wait a bit until their condition destabilizes enough to put them in the "at death's door/danger of imminent organ failure" category. There's just nothing funny about debasing people in need of medical care!

Fortunately, the initiative actually prohibits abortions even for those patients on the brink of death or organ failure, so it's not like the stable patients have that much to complain about. More on that in a bit.

2) Bans all birth control.

Nothing in section 2 of this Act prohibits the prescription, sale, use, or administration of a contraceptive medicine, drug, substance or device, if prescribed, sold, used, or administered prior to the time when it could be determined that the woman is pregnant through conventional medical testing, and if the contraceptive measure is prescribed or sold in accordance with manufacturer instructions.


So, the use of birth control is allowed only if prescribed, sold, used, or administered prior to the time when it could be determined that the woman is pregnant through conventional medical testing. Since a determination of pregnancy can be made at any time in a woman's cycle, this effectively bans the use of birth control.

As an added bonus, the prescribed or sold in accordance with manufacturer instructions requirement bans the off-label use of birth control.

Let's hear it for birth control, the first class of drugs ever to be legislated out of use and off-label use simultaneously!

3) Enacts into law the basic Communist principle that [female] individuals must exist for the sake of the State.

This initiative is a veritable ode to the glory of collectivism and the power of the State. A few morsels.

It's a legitimate exercise of the state’s power to protect the life of all human beings within the state. Hear this future inhabitants of a totalitarian U.S. of A., having the State prohibit you from driving a car, or enlisting in the military, or having unprotected intercourse, or crossing the street without looking both ways is a legitimate exercise of the State's power.

The funny thing [in a demented way] is that, since having an abortion protects your life when compared to carrying a pregnancy to term, under this provision State-mandated forced abortions represent a legitimate exercise of State power. You know, just like in China. [I told you Leslee Unruh is a stinking closeted Communist.]

Then there's this:

That a pregnant woman possesses certain intrinsic rights which enjoy affirmative protection under the Constitution of the United States, and under the Constitution and laws of the State of South Dakota, and that among these rights are the fundamental right of the pregnant woman to her relationship with her child, and her fundamental right to make decisions that advance the well-being and welfare of her child;


Really, there's an intrinsic, constitutionally protected right to have a relationship with your child? What happens if the kid doesn't want to have anything to do with you? Does the child get jail time or just a fine for violating your fundamental right?

Back to reality, some pregnant women's relationship with their pregnancy is negative and a termination, either therapeutic or elective, is an intrinsic part of that relationship. Other pregnant women are indifferent, while still others are happy to be pregnant and look forward to carrying the pregnancy to term. Also, a frequent reason why women who have children elect to abort is in order to better care for their existing children or because they've determined that their childbearing is completed. In other words, a pregnant woman's right to decide to terminate her pregnancy advances the well-being and welfare of her child/children. Not that any of this matters one bit, of course.

In Leslee Unruh and her masters' vision of Communist America, like in any good totalitarian society, it is the State's function to specify the exact type of relationship one citizen is permitted to have with another or, for that matter, with products of conception, and to dictate the exact nature of an individual's decisions in order to "protect" the individual from herself.

Finally, we have:

The state has a right and duty to protect the life of the unborn child, and to protect the life, health, and well-being of any pregnant woman within its jurisdiction, and it is therefore necessary to reasonably balance these interests to allow abortions only in certain circumstances which are set forth within this Act;


So, the STATE has rights (and its duty is to protect the wants and needs of all the citizens within its jurisdiction), but individual women, and for that matter products of conception, have interests. Well, no wonder then that, according to this initiative, the State has a right and duty not to allow women to come into contact with any males for the duration of pregnancy (.pdf), the right and duty to enforce the daily consumption of crackers and ginger ale, and the right and duty to mandate the wearing of comfy shoes.

4) Declares pregnant women incapable of consent and abortions significantly unsafe.

The text dealing with the ability of pregnant women to consent and with the safety of abortion is such an exquisite piece of propaganda it's worthy of worship. It simply removes reality/science as the basis for the practice of medicine (emphasis mine):

[S]ubmitting to an abortion subjects the pregnant woman to significant psychological and physical health risks, and that in the majority of cases there is neither the typical physician-patient relationship nor sufficient counseling between a pregnant woman contemplating submitting to an abortion and the physician who performs the abortion;


The reality that pregnant women are capable of consent isn't even considered; it's simply poofed out of existence. This removes one of the obstacles to making women wards of the State.

If pregnant women lack the ability to consent (because that's what you've decided you need in order to accomplish your goal), then you can justify having the State step in and making medical decisions for them. [Funny how this inability to consent only afflicts women who want to have an abortion, but never women who want to carry to term. Where's the State when you need it to step in and force a pregnant woman to abort since she's not capable of consenting to being submitted to the responsibility of parenthood?]

The other obstacle to making women wards of the State, the fact that having an abortion is very safe, safer than continuing the pregnancy, is simply lied out of the way.

If abortion is found [to] actually be dangerous to health of women, there is just cause for governments to regulate or prohibit abortion in order to protect their citizens. Since the exact opposite is true and abortion has been found not to be dangerous to the health of women, in order to justify having the State prohibit a safe and effective medical procedure you have to lie and legislate science out of the way.

5) Creates a privileged class of people under the law.

[A]ny person who knowingly performs any procedure upon a pregnant woman...with the intent of causing the termination of the life of an unborn human being, is guilty of performing an illegal abortion, which is a Class 4 felony.

Nothing in this Act subjects the pregnant woman upon whom any abortion is performed or attempted to any criminal conviction and penalty for an unlawful abortion.


This provision of the initiative seriously undermines our system of justice [you know, how you do when your goal is to bring Communism to the U.S.].

It creates a privileged class of citizens -- pregnant women who attempt to/perform an abortion upon themselves -- who, by virtue of the state of the lining of one of their internal organs, are not subject to any criminal conviction for performing an abortion. All others who perform an abortion are guilty of a Class 4 felony.

Hey, who needs lawyers or due process when a pregnant uterus is all that's needed to be immune from prosecution.

6) Requires government documentation and a DNA sample as preconditions to obtaining medical care.

The initiative forbids victims of rape or incest from obtaining proper medical care until, and unless, they've 1) filed a report with the authorities, a report that shall include the name, address, and date of birth of the woman, and, to the best of the woman’s ability, the date or dates of the reported rape or incest, the location where it occurred, and either the name and address of the perpetrator, if known, or, if not known, a description of the perpetrator and, in the case of incest, a description of the relationship between the pregnant woman and the perpetrator, and 2) consented to a forensic exam by their physician-cum-CSI-employee who's to collect a buccal or other biological sample from the woman, and a tissue sample from the remains of the embryo or fetus, each sufficient to perform forensic DNA analysis.

There's also a 20 wks EGA cut-off, 'cause as we all know, at the 20 wks mark, pregnancies as a result of rape and incest magically morph into pregnancies as a result of parthenogenesis.

The depravity of the nearly 50,000 people who have affixed their signature to this petition is stunning. Not satisfied with asking the State to only allow pregnant women to get proper medical care if, and only if, they've been assaulted or are at death's door, they go that extra step and scrape the bottom of the abyss.

If I could afford it I'd take some time off, go to South Dakota, contact each and every signatory and ask that they sign a petition forbidding victims of car accidents and muggings to get medical care without first obtaining proper documentation from the authorities and agreeing to inclusion in a governmental DNA database.

The good news is that the petition assures assault victims that no report of rape or incest made under this Act may provide the basis for any criminal prosecution against the woman making such a report and that [n]o woman making a report of incest who is eligible to obtain a legal abortion under...this Act may be prosecuted for the sexual conduct resulting in the pregnancy.

That is, of course, as long as the report is a good faith report (emphasis mine).

Who gets to define "good faith" and what criteria are used for the definition are left to the imagination. Because what better way to occupy your mind after you've been assaulted and you have to file a report with the authorities and submit to a forensic exam, just so that you can obtain medical care, than to ponder if your report will be deemed a "good faith" one by some nebulous authority using some unspecified criteria? [Ah, the exquisite joy of living in constant fear and uncertainty that can only be experienced to its fullest by living in a totalitarian state!]

7) Defines incest based on the victim's age.

Incest is defined as an act of sexual penetration...in which the woman was less than eighteen years of age at the time of sexual penetration. Now, it's possible that there's some legal principle that I'm not familiar with, but I don't see why a father having sex with his 18 yo, 20 yo, or even older daughter no longer constitutes incest. Is it something along the line of "if you're an adult it's assumed you've consented to the incest so obtaining permission to have submit yourself to an abortion is out of the question"?

8) Prohibits performing an abortion if the abortion will terminate the pregnancy.

Bwahahahahaha; sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.

The only way an abortion performed to avert the death of the pregnant woman or because there is a serious risk of a substantial and irreversible impairment of the functioning of a major bodily organ or system of the pregnant woman is allowed is if the physician make[s] reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve...the life of her unborn child in a manner consistent with accepted standards of medical practice.

Now those are some standards of medical practice I, for one, can hardly wait to peruse, which I plan to do as soon as they're legislated into existence: Techniques to Terminate a Pregnancy Without Actually, You Know, Terminating a Pregnancy.

Of note, no such requirement exists when an abortion is performed in cases of rape or incest. I guess when the practice of medicine is based on Teh Ick Factor, it turns out that some unborn children are just ickier than others.

9) Mandates submission of the patient's medical history to the Department of Health and makes her medical record available on demand.

'Cause being on the brink of death or being assaulted is just not enough. Once you have an abortion the State and the Leslee Unruh comrade troops just need to keep an eye on you to insure that 1) they can use your medical history at their discretion, and 2) you don't make a habit out of bringing yourself to the brink of death or subjecting yourself to rape.

So there you have it. If legislation allowing only those at death's door to get medical care, banning birth control, requiring a police report and a DNA sample as prerequisites to access medical care, and forbidding an abortion if the abortion terminates the pregnancy isn't meant to PROTECT the interests and health of pregnant women I don't know what is.

Government Censors "Abortion" Search Term


Photo by bb_matt


If you're the federal government and you force the removal of the word "abortion" as an acceptable search term on a publicly funded reproductive health Web database, does abortion magically poof away from existence?

Your government at work (on your tax dime):

Disseminating Science One Magic Act At a Time!

The Thomas Beatie Pregnancy




A bit late on this but I just wanted to say that I don't get the Thomas Beatie furor. After all, Mr. Beatie is not so much the the world's first pregnant man as he is one of the many pregnant XX persons with an in utero pregnancy.

When an XY person with male reproductive organs becomes pregnant after IVF and carries to term, call me.