Dispel the Illusion

Doctors inject a plastic implant under the skin of the young girls, which releases the hormone progesterone, guarding against pregnancy for up to three years. The procedure is regularly given to under-16s who are not deemed responsible enough to remember to take oral contraceptives on a daily basis. Girls aged 13 and 14 are also considered, while in Scotland, a 12-year-old who became pregnant at 11 has been given the implant.

A family desperate to save a child from a lethal brain disease sought highly experimental injections of fetal stem cells—injections that triggered tumors in the boy's brain and spinal cord, Israeli scientists reported Tuesday ... Researchers have long warned that they must learn to control newly injected stem cells so they don't grow where they shouldn't, and small studies in people are only just beginning.

On the morning of July 20, 2006, Sycloria Williams, age 18, went for an abortion – a late-term abortion that she says went terribly wrong. Now 21, the Hollywood resident has filed a civil lawsuit accusing the clinic staff of delivering her child alive and killing the newborn girl by stuffing her into a biohazard bag.

A jury determined Tuesday that four San Diego firefighters were sexually harassed for being ordered to participate in a gay pride parade and awarded them combined damages of $34,300. The firefighters — Alex Kane, Chad Allison, Capt. John Ghiotto and Capt. Jason Hewitt — claimed they were subjected to sexually charged conduct and lewd comments while riding a fire engine in the July 2007 parade, which drew about 150,000 spectators.

North Dakota's House of Representatives has passed a bill effectively outlawing abortion. The House voted 51-41 this afternoon to declare that a fertilized egg has all the rights of any person. That means a fetus could not be legally aborted without the procedure being considered murder.

Student Jonathan Lopez says his professor called him a "fascist bastard" and refused to let him finish his speech against same-sex marriage during a public speaking class last November, weeks after California voters approved the ban on such unions. When Lopez tried to find out his mark for the speech, the professor, John Matteson, allegedly told him to "ask God what your grade is," the suit says. Lopez also said the teacher threatened to have him expelled when he complained to higher-ups.

Officials with China Aid Association say a recent review of China's human-rights record by the United Nations didn't contain all of the facts ... Katherine Cason with CAA says the summary from the OHCHR did not include reports on the Chinese government's human-rights violations against multiple victims groups. "We found that [with] this committee, the reports that have been received and the summary that they made have [sic] been whitewashed," claims Cason. "A lot of the persecution that has taken place -- the human rights abuses in China -- [has] actually been taken out of these documents."

In 1976, my mother was 21 and trying to keep a struggling marriage from falling apart. During that time, she became pregnant. The decision was made, she recalled, to terminate the pregnancy. My father -- with whom I have a somewhat distant relationship -- drove my mother to a clinic. My mother said she could not stop crying during the entire trip. She knew that having a baby would not save the marriage, but her desire to have a child was too strong ...