Pro-Life Sweatshirt Stays

CLEVELAND PLAIN-DEALER, Feb. 5 — Chardon High School administrators have rescinded the punishment given to a student who refused to take off a sweatshirt declaring “Abortion Is Homicide.” Bill Noyes, 17, will also be allowed to wear the sweatshirt to class in the future.

Those decisions came the day after Bill received a Saturday detention for insubordination, his offense being that he challenged school administrators who ordered him to take off the sweatshirt or turn it inside out.

The demands followed complaints by two students in the school of 1,200 who said they were offended by the sweatshirt's message.

French Kick Cloning

CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE (CNSNEWS), Jan. 31 — The French Senate has adopted a ban on all human cloning and made reproductive cloning a crime “against the human species.” The ban, which is punishable by a 30-year prison sentence and a fine of 7.5 million euros, was approved unanimously.

Cyberbast reported that Prof. Claude Huriet, an honorary senator and a professor at the Nancy Medical Faculty, said he regretted that the ban did not go further in prohibiting all research on embryos. The proposed ban will now go to the Assembly for debate and then return to the Senate for further discussion on any changes.

‘War on Abortion’ in Nigeria

THIS DAY (Lagos), Feb. 4 — Sen. Rowland Owie, gubernatorial candidate of the All Nigerian People's Party in Nigeria's Edo state, has vowed to wage war against abortion if he wins the state governorship elections.

A special center to be known as “Home of Innocence,” Owie was quoted as saying in This Day newspaper, would be established in each of the state's three senatorial districts, where pregnant girls would be assisted to have their babies and to go back to their studies or training. “Our government will be opposed to abortion; Nobody has the right to take life,” Owie said.

Morning-After Pill Blamed

CMO UPDATE, Jan. 3 — English doctors have been advised to warn women about the increased risk of ectopic pregnancy when taking the “morning-after” pill. The advisory was issued in CMO Update, a monthly newsletter sent by Dr. Liam Donaldson, chief medical officer of the Department of Health in England.

Donaldson reported that 12 cases of ectopic pregnancy (out of a total of 201 unintended pregnancies) have been reported to the Committee on Safety of Medicines following failure of Levonelle, a progestogen-only “emergency contraceptive.” Donaldson said the committee advises that if women do not experience a normal period after using Levonelle, the possibility of an ectopic pregnancy should be considered.