Pro-Life News in Brief

By Liz Townsend

Tiniest Baby Turns One Year Old

Rumaisa Rahman, the smallest known surviving baby, celebrated her first birthday September 19 along with her bigger twin sister in the suburban Chicago hospital where she was born. Rumaisa weighed only 8.6 ounces when she and her sister Hiba were delivered in an emergency Caesarean section at only 26 weeks, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Rumaisa now weighs 13 pounds and is 24 inches tall, according to the AP. Hiba, who weighed 1 pound, 4 ounces at birth, is now 17 pounds and 26 inches tall.

"I feel very optimistic that I don't think that either of them will have any significant handicaps," Dr. Jonathan Muraskas of Loyola University Medical Center told the AP.

Rumaisa has received a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the lightest birth in the world, the Chicago Daily Herald reported. Loyola University Medical Center also delivered the previous record holder, Madeline Mann, who weighed 9.9 ounces when she was born in 1989.

The twins' parents said they are both doing well, and are growing and acting normally. "They both are doing great," their father Mohammad Abdul Rahman told the CBS Early Show. "They are ruling the world. The love to play each other's feet, you know, they start imitating, you know. When you do something to them, they do it back to you."

"If you have faith in God, everything is going to be OK," he told the AP.

 Woman Released from Jail to Have Abortion

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton ruled September 19 that a Tennessee woman could be temporarily released from jail to have an abortion. Heather Natasha Whitt, charged with dealing crack cocaine, learned after her August 17 indictment that she was pregnant, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.

Court experts told the News Sentinel that this was the first time a judge in the Tennessee Eastern District federal court authorized a furlough so a prisoner could get an abortion.

Whitt left jail September 22 and had to return by September 27. The abortion was scheduled for September 23, and would be paid for privately, according to the News Sentinel.

Guyton based his ruling on several factors, according to his court order. He asserted that Whitt has a "constitutional right" to abortion, and the "court's personal views on the matter are irrelevant," the News Sentinel reported.

In addition, Whitt asserted that her "pregnancy is high risk in nature and could expose her to serious health risks," according to a motion filed by her attorney, Kevin Angel. If the abortion was denied, and future complications led jail doctors to deem it medically necessary, the abortion would be paid for by taxpayers.

"Let there be no misunderstanding," Guyton wrote, according to the News Sentinel. "The court is granting the requested furlough, as the court is legally bound to do. The court is not ordering that the medical procedure in question be performed."

British Government Issues Report on Foreign Abortions

Almost a year after a newspaper reported that a British abortion clinic was referring women to Spain for late abortions, the Department of Health released a report saying the clinic used "insufficient procedures" but asserting that no British laws were broken.

The Telegraph reported that in October 2004  the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the country's largest abortion provider, referred women seeking abortions over the legal limit of 24 weeks to a clinic in Spain. Although abortions are restricted after 22 weeks in Spain, the Spanish clinic told the Telegraph that if doctors claim there is a medical emergency, the abortion can be performed.

"The CMO [Chief Medical Officer] has criticised BPAS for giving out the number of the Spanish clinic too readily and not giving appropriate advice to women seeking a late abortion," according to a health department press release. "The CMO has concluded that BPAS should urgently review the way they handle requests for late abortions."

Critics alleged that the report was "watered down" and that the government deliberately delayed the report until after the May national election, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

"I am extremely suspicious about the timing of the release last week since I have been told in parliamentary questions that the report was ready since last May," Member of Parliament David Davies told the Telegraph.

"The Government has sat on it, presumably for political reasons, and then waited until the public's attention was distracted by events elsewhere," he said. "It is another case of waiting for a good day to bury bad news."

Although the health department initially indicated a report would be released before Christmas, Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson invited police officials to view the report this spring. However, they were later told that while the report was ready, they would not be able to see it until after the election, according to the Telegraph.

Months later, in July, the police officers still hadn't seen the report, leading to fears that the findings were being modified for political reasons. "At the meeting with Sir Liam, all those weeks back, we were assured that the report was with the minister already," Det. Chief Inspector Adrian Pearson wrote on July 26, the Telegraph reported. "However today, I was told that the report was still being 'tweaked' and had never reached the minister."

The Telegraph continued to call on the health department to answer the larger issue of whether BPAS, which receives government funding, should encourage late abortions that are illegal in both countries. "We are disappointed that the Chief Medical Officer has not addressed the central issue of this case, which is that carrying out late term abortions without a valid medical reason is illegal both in Spain and in Britain," a newspaper spokesman told the Press Association.

"While we did not accuse BPAS of acting illegally by sending women to Spain, it is a fact that BPAS is knowingly helping to facilitate abortions that are against Spanish law."

Judge Rejects Arizona "Choose Life" License Plates

U.S. District Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt denied an appeal filed by the Arizona Life Coalition after the state License Plate Commission rejected its request for a "Choose Life" license plate, according to the Associated Press (AP).

"Due to the necessity of vehicle identification by state authorities, speech on state-approved, state-issued license plates is governmental in nature and constitutes a nonpublic forum from which access is selective rather than general," Rosenblatt ruled September 27.

The Arizona Life Coalition, made up of several pro-life groups, including NRLC affiliate Arizona Right to Life, presented its request to the commission in January 2002. It sued the state commission in September 2003 after the proposal was rejected without comment.

"Disagreement with the 'Choose Life' message is not a valid reason to deny a license plate request," coalition attorney Peter Gentala told the AP. "The license plate program was designed to help service organizations, not censor their speech."

The coalition will appeal the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.