Baby Born Despite Odds

REUTERS, July 25 — A baby girl who was conceived despite her father's supposed sterilization and then survived a bungled abortion attempt has been born to a Norwegian couple.

The father, Anders Ovretveit, said he was sterilized after a cancer operation — yet in January 2001 his wife Tove learned she was pregnant

Tove had an abortion, but discovered she was still pregnant a couple months later. She gave birth on July 14, two months early, to a healthy baby girl in a car on the way to the hospital.

The couple named the baby Trude, which sounds like the Norwegian phrase “believe it.”

Abortion Facility Closed

ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 21 — The costs of new state regulations have driven the Palmetto State Medical Center abortion facility in South Carolina out of business, said attorney Randall Hiller, who repres e n t s the abortion business’ owner, William Lynn.

“The unnecessary costs added by these regulations were financially impossible,” Hiller said.

Lisa Van Riper, president of South Carolina Citizens for Life, said abortions in South Carolina have declined by 47% in the past 10 years.

Cadaver Transplants

ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 26 — Kidneys transplanted from a cadaver keep working just as long as those taken from a brain-dead patient with a still-beating heart, according to a Swiss study that offers a promising way to ease the severe shortage of donor organs.

In the first long-term study comparing the two approaches, doctors at University Hospital of Zurich followed nearly 250 transplant patients for up to 15 years and found nearly identical survival rates.

At 10 years, 79% of patients whose kidney came from a donor with no heartbeat were alive, as were 77 patients whose organ came from a brain-dead donor whose heart was beating.

Malta Backs Pro-Life Stand

THE TIMES OF MALTA, July 20 — The Maltese government has written to the secretary general of the European Parliament on the resolution taken recently about sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The European Parliament had recommended that abortion be made “legal, safe and accessible to all.” It also recommended that governments should strive to implement a health and social policy to lower the incidence of abortion.

Malta's Permanent Delegate to the EU, Ambassador Victor Camilleri, wrote in response that the government's position was clear and unequivocally pro-life.