plus 4, Archbishop Visits Opening Of Pregnancy Center East - WCPO

Archbishop Visits Opening Of Pregnancy Center East - WCPO
Pregnancy risk rises for teens in the closet - Vancouver Sun
Virginia Pro-Abortion Group Attacks Pregnancy Centers Helping Pregnant ... - LifeNews.com
Teen pregnancy target of YouTube ploy - Vancouver Sun
Healthy pregnancy - Record Searchlight

Archbishop Visits Opening Of Pregnancy Center East - WCPO

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 01:53 PM PST

CINCINNATI -- The Oakley community is welcoming a new addition to its neighborhood with a blessing from Cincinnati's Archbishop, Reverend Dennis Schnurr.

The Pregnancy Center East (PCE) on Edwards Road will open its doors to the public Wednesday afternoon.

Cincinnati Archbishop Schnurr will visit the new center, and provide a blessing over the establishment.

It's one of the first public acts by the Archbishop since he officially took office in December.

The new facility is triple the size of Pregnancy Center East's former location.

PCE Director of Development, Janie Klare, says nine years ago they were operating out of a basement office.

PCE is a non-profit, pro-life organization that provides help to women of Greater Cincinnati facing unexpected pregnancies.

The center offers free counseling, parenting classes and ultrasounds to pregnant women.

More than 70 percent of the women benefiting from the center are below poverty level.

Stay with 9News and WCPO.com for more information about the facility and Rev. Schnurr's blessing after the opening.

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Pregnancy risk rises for teens in the closet - Vancouver Sun

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 12:34 PM PST

Lesbian, gay and bisexual teenagers are at significantly higher risk for pregnancy during their teen years than their heterosexual peers, suggests a survey published Tuesday in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality.

The University of British Columbia study looked at adolescent health surveys of 1992, 1998, and 2003, which were random studies of about 70,000 students in Grades 7 through 12 in public schools across the province of B.C.

One of the reasons for higher pregnancy among sexual minority youth, say the report's authors, is the stigma gay teens continue to face and the strategies they may engage in order to cope with that stigma.

For example, in 1998 among the teenage girls surveyed, 7.3 per cent of lesbians and 10.6 per cent of girls who said they were bisexual reported pregnancy compared with 1.8 per cent of heterosexual girls.

Among boys, the numbers were also higher that same year for gay teenagers, with 9.6 of gay males and 11.6 per cent of bisexual teen boys reporting involvement with a pregnancy, compared with 1.5 per cent of heterosexual young men.

Pregnancy rates declined slightly overall in 2003, but remained much higher among gay and lesbian teens than heterosexual teens.

The report suggests that for youth, the stigma of being gay may lead to engaging in heterosexual dating and sex as a form of "camouflage" to avoid being identified as homosexual.

"Those who experience harassment and discrimination may choose pregnancy involvement as a way to deny their orientation, to prevent further enacted stigma," the report suggests.

The numbers vary between girls and boys when it comes to the relationship between pregnancy and discrimination.

Of the girls surveyed, 100 per cent of those who had become pregnant also said they had been discriminated against on the basis of their sexuality, while only 42.7 per cent of lesbian girls who said they had never been pregnant cited discrimination.

Only 18.4 per cent of gay teenage boys who were involved in getting a woman pregnant said they had experienced discrimination, while 60.4 per cent of those who were not involved in pregnancy said they had not been discriminated against.

Other explanations for the higher rates of pregnancy may be the higher number of gay and lesbian youth who live on the streets. The study finds that street youth - those who have run away from home, for example - are at higher risk for teen pregnancy, in part because survival sex or sexual exploitation can increase the frequency of sex and make it difficult to negotiate contraception and safer sexual practices.

The study also suggests a higher number of gay and lesbian teens are experiencing sex at a younger age - under 14 - than their heterosexual peers.

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Virginia Pro-Abortion Group Attacks Pregnancy Centers Helping Pregnant ... - LifeNews.com

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 11:08 AM PST

Richmond, VA (LifeNews.com) -- Last year, the Baltimore city council passed a new law that targets pregnancy centers that help women but don't do abortions. The prediction that this would result in proposing additional laws targeting crisis pregnancy centers has come to pass with a new proposal in the Virginia legislature.

The Virginia affiliate of NARAL held a press conference today to announce new legislation designed to intimidate women who go to pregnancy centers for help and options counseling.

The bills (SB 188 and HB 452) seek to remove the funding stream available to pregnancy centers via the purchase of Choose Life license plates.

This harmful legislation seeks to require a new state regulation of all pregnancy centers such as requiring the placement of a sign outside of the center stating, "that it does not perform or refer women for abortions, that it does not provide or refer women for contraception, and that the facility is not required to maintain medical confidentiality or medical records in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)."

The bill would require state officials to collect a sample of all materials distributed at the center for analysis and potential criticism.

And the legislation would require a member of the centers' board to sign a document certifying that it "provides only factually and medically accurate information about pregnancy, contraception, and abortion to a person seeking counseling, information, or assistance from the center."

The bill is designed to persuade women to visit abortion centers instead of pregnancy centers and the last provision calls into question legitimate research showing abortion causes physical complications such as breast cancer and mental health issues.

Senator Ralph Northam and Delegate Charniele Herring, both Democrats, are sponsoring the bills.

They appeared at the press conference with NARAL where they released a year-long study "revealing the misinformation and deception" supposedly occurring at the centers.

The study claims pregnancy centers rely on deceptive advertising and gave an example of "highly visible" billboards on "well traveled roads" with text such as, "Pregnant? Scared? Need Help? Call us!"

The study also criticized the centers for operating as medical clinics, even though they are properly licensed and overseen by trained medical professionals.

"The center looked like a small doctor's office. There was a waiting room . . . an office with a glass check-in window. In the bathroom, there was a place to put my urine sample in the wall like at my doctor's office. . . The ultrasound room looked like a room at my gynecologist's office," one complaint read.

NARAL also complained that the centers are not required by law to abide by federal standards of confidentiality (HIPAA), even though they voluntarily do so.

This report calls out the fact that some centers provide literature that does plainly states that if you are a minor, "the center may give certain information to parents or guardians."

The study also claims pregnancy centers "use the ploy of a medical ultrasound to show a woman a fetus and execute an emotional appeal, despite it being an unnecessary medical procedure" even though national ultrasound organizations say it is proper for the diagnosis of pregnancy and the age of the unborn child.

Victoria Cobb, the president of the Family Foundation, a state pro-life group, responded to the legislation and the attacks on these pregnancy resource centers.

"Virginia's lucrative abortion industry is watching women make a different choice than they want them to make and it's eating into their profits. This new legislation is nothing more than an attempt to scare women from making a choice different than abortion," she told LifeNews.com.

She said pregnancy centers "have assisted thousands of women in Virginia through crisis pregnancies and not a single woman has ever died. Virginia's abortion clinics cannot say the same."

Cobb urged pro-life advocates in Virginia to call their elected officials and urge strong opposition to the bills.

Related web sites:
Virginia Legislature - http://legis.state.va.us/
Family Foundation - http://www.familyfoundationblog.com

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Teen pregnancy target of YouTube ploy - Vancouver Sun

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 12:34 PM PST

LONDON — They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but these days you can't judge a YouTube clip by its title either.

Type "Teenage Kicks" into the popular website's search engine and you'll find what looks like a home video, but is actually a warning from the British Health Authority.

The grainy footage appears to be a cellphone video of a schoolyard fight.

At least that's what you're supposed to think when you see the kids gathered around in a circle, yelling. But what that circle eventually reveals is a terrified young woman, lying on the grass, giving birth in the playground.

The caption: "Not what you expected? Well being a teenage parent might not be either."

As the teenage pregnancy rate skyrockets in Britain, health officials are attempting to crack down on the troubling trend.

In Leicester alone, the East Midlands community that launched the online campaign, one in 20 girls under 18 will get pregnant.

The numbers across the rest of the country aren't much better — Britain's teen pregnancy rate is double Canada's.

In Britain, 160 teens under the age of 16 get pregnant every week.

Sexually transmitted infections are on the rise too. From 2002-06, more than 11,000 teens under 16 were diagnosed with chlamydia, herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis or genital warts.

Trying to scare kids using a format such as YouTube websites that allows users to share videos is something of a last resort.

The website banned the video for a while due to complaints, but health officials behind the ad defend it.

"We spent a lot of time talking to young people about what would grab their attention. And they said, 'Make it funny or make it shocking,' and in preference make it shocking, so we've done exactly what the target audience asked us to do," said Tim Rideout, the chief executive of Leicester City National Health Service.

Rideout said he knows the film is hard-hitting, but he said he believes there needs to be more education on safe sex.

The Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health agrees. It's asking television regulators to consider relaxing the rules on condom commercials and for the first time, allowing ads for pregnancy advisory services, like abortion clinics. It would like the commercials to be shown during the day and early evening, instead of strictly after 9 p.m.

"This is about providing good medical care, providing accurate information to women, often at a very difficult time in their lives," said Dr. Patricia Lohr of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.

A public consultation is now underway across the country. If changes are made, broadcasters could still tailor any advertising to the area it will be aired.

The YouTube video hasn't made it on TV in its entirety yet. British news channels that picked up the story haven't shown the end of the commercial, where you see the baby being born. About 500,000 people have viewed it online.

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Healthy pregnancy - Record Searchlight

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 10:04 AM PST

Healthy pregnancy

Courtesy of Food Network Kitchens Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Eating healthy isn't the only thing you have to do when you're pregnant. Along with more calories, you need to get more fluids to keep everything running smoothly.

With all the extra blood flowing to your baby, you need to take in extra fluids to help keep everything working properly. Dehydration actually makes you more tired (and you're tired enough already), but thankfully, it's easily avoidable.

It may seem backwards to drink more when you're already puffy and swollen, but doing it keeps your body balanced. You'll need to continue to drink more even after the baby comes if you breastfeed..

Tips for moms-to-be:

• Don't leave home without it: Keep something to drink with you at all times.

• All fluids count: We absorb water the fastest, but all beverages help keep you hydrated — so mix it up.

• Chill out: People tend to drink more when beverages are chilled. Throw a few ice cubes in your glass or refillable plastic bottle.

• Rise and shine: Start your morning with a small glass of 100-percent fruit juice; it'll also give your blood sugar a boost.

• Sweet dreams: Keep a glass of water by the bed — you'll be getting up frequently anyway so take a few sips every time.

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