New study proves fetal tissue needed for research

A new study on a small group of patients with a history of stroke and significant motor deficits has produced astonishing results. Adult stem cells were injected directly into the stroke damaged area of the brain for eighteen patients who were 6 months to 3 years out from their stroke. Patients had clinically meaningful recovery. …

If fetal pain is a thing then all deliveries should require general anesthesia

Using the junk science of supposed fetal pain before 24 weeks many lawmakers have enacted laws designed to stop second trimester abortion. There are now 17 states with 20-22 week bans (many of the laws use incorrect terminology and count gestational age from fertilization, which is of course not how we do it in medicine). …

Check your privilege and your facts before discussing sex selective abortion

Dr. Brian Goldman, in his blog for CBC radio, wrote about the new article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) on the sex ratio after induced abortion in Ontario, i.e. sex selective abortion. The article in the CMAJ confirms what is no surprise to me as an OB/GYN, that the ratio of male to …

Should the National Library of Medicine index anti-choice journals?

While researching something on PubMed I stumbled across a journal entitled Issues in Law and Medicine. It appears that the vast majority of articles are either anti-choice (e.g. abortion causes breast cancer or childbirth is way safer than abortion) with a smattering of anti-vaccine articles. I especially like the use of quotations around “Emergency Contraception.” …

Ben Carson says a 22 week fetus can feel pain. Science says Carson is wrong.

Dr. Ben Carson, neurosurgeon and GOP hopeful, recently asked his supporters on Facebook to sign a petition to urge congress to pass H.R. 36 The Pain-Capable Child Protection Act. This bill seeks to ban abortion after 22 weeks gestational age based on the lie that a fetus can feel pain at that gestation. The bill …

Ben Carson has still not answered the right questions about his fetal tissue research

The Washington Post interviewed Dr. Ben Carson about my post from yesterday that disclosed his use of fetal tissue in research. Defending his work he told David Weigel, “If you’re killing babies and taking the tissue, that’s a very different thing than taking a dead specimen and keeping a record of it.”  But the tissue …

Ben Carson did research on 17 week fetal tissue

Dr. Ben Carson, GOP nominee hopeful, told Fox’s Megyn Kelly that “There’s nothing that can’t be done without fetal tissue” and that the benefits of fetal tissue have been “over promised” and the results have “very much under-delivered.” Carson also said, “At 17 weeks, you’ve got a nice little nose and little fingers and hands …

An OB/GYN’s opinion on the Supreme Court, Hobby Lobby, and contraception

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, sided with Hobby Lobby (and much of the religious right in the United States) and ruled that a closely held private corporation does not have to provide insurance coverage for certain birth control methods. Justice Alito, speaking for the majority wrote: “The owners of the businesses have religious objections …

Anatomy of a coat hanger abortion

The coat hanger isn’t sterile. It isn’t even clean. If the woman, or girl, is alone she thrusts it blindly upwards into the vagina. She’s hoping it will get into her uterus and do something. She may or may not know that to get into the uterus the coat hanger has to navigate the small …

When abortion was illegal in Canada

Henry Morgentaler died this week. He was the man who almost single handedly brought down the Canadian abortion law. Sickened by what was happening in filthy, clandestine clinics he began doing safe, albeit illegal, procedures in his office. He was arrested but always maintained that a jury would never find him guilty. And he was …