Young People More Pro-Life

THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 31 — The 61% of America's young adults between 18 and 29 who believe abortion on demand should not be legal are finding their voice.

A major feature in the nation's unofficial “newspaper of record,” The New York Times, spotlighted the growing gap between pro-choice parents and their largely pro-life children. The headline read: “Surprise, Mom: I'm Anti-Abortion.”

Britni Hoffbeck, a high-school student in Red Wing, Minn., put the persuasive pro-life argument succinctly: “It's more about the baby's rights than the woman's rights.”

The feature was written in the wake of a New York Times/CBS News poll, released in January, which found that, among people age 18 to 29, only 39% agree that abortion should be generally available to those who want it — down from 48% in 1993.

Court Halts Forced Abortion

WLBT (Jackson, Miss.), April 1 — A pregnant Jackson-area teen-ager, whose parents want her to have an abortion, has received a temporary restraining order to stop the procedure.

Attorney Michael DePrimo with the American Family Association's Center for Law and Policy in Tupelo says the 16-year-old was scheduled to have an abortion when she contacted the center, asking them to stop her parents because she wanted to keep the child.

Judge William Barbour issued a temporary restraining order to halt the abortion.

Stem-Cell Bank for Russia

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, March 31 — Russia's first stem-cell bank has opened, offering parents the opportunity to preserve their children's genetic material for possible future use in fighting diseases, said the bank's chief executive.

The company “functions like a Swiss bank for stem cells, where parents have an account number and access to the equivalent of a locker, or box” where the material can be preserved for up to 15 years, Paul Backer, a Russia-born U.S. businessman, told AFP.

Backer stressed that the techniques used in his clinic are non-controversial because the cells are obtained from umbilical cord blood, obtained after the mother has safely given birth.

No Cloning in North Dakota

KXMC, March 27 — North Dakota's Senate has voted 46-0 in favor of a bill that would ban cloning for human reproduction and research purposes.

Bismarck Sen. Dick Dever says some medical advancements aren't ethical — and it's lawmakers responsibility to put restrictions on them.