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This week, the Virginia House passed a particularly ugly bit of legislation that would require women seeking a first-trimester abortion in the state to undergo a vaginal ultrasound for no medical reason. Many women are upset because by most definitions, forcing a woman to have something put inside her vagina against her will and for no reason is, uh, rape. But Republicans state legislators don't see what the fuss is about. After all, those sluts already consented to be penetrated— when they got pregnant. Are you fucking kidding me? More »
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In a curious decision, a judge in Texas has ruled that a woman who was fired after she asked for a place in the office to pump her breast milk was not discriminated against. Donnicia Venters was working at a debt collection agency called Houston Funding in 2008 when she gave birth to a daughter. As she was about to come back from maternity leave, she asked the company's vice president for a private place in the office to pump her breast milk, and she was suddenly told her position had been filled. She then got a back-dated termination notice a week later, which cited "job abandonment" as the cause. More »
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There's no better way for lawmakers to impress constituents nowadays than to pass draconian abortion restrictions, and no states are trying harder to enforce pregnancy than Kansas and Oklahoma. But which terrible, totalitarian abortion law is worse? Let's find out. More »
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Being pregnant is hard enough without having to worry about being fired for asking for extra bathroom breaks. But, right now, there's no law on the books to stop that from happening. Good God. We're still talking about this? This is a thing we're debating? In 2012? More »
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You can breathe a sigh of relief: Your cesarean won't make your child obese, as suggested by a controversial Brazilian study last year, the theory of which is part of the "hygiene hypothesis" which claims a link between a lack of exposure to certain bacteria in the birth canal during vaginal delivery to subsequent problems with the immune system and obesity. No, you will make your child obese. Because you're fat and poor. This new information comes to us via another study that states that the previous study didn't take other factors into account, like "family income, birth weight, schooling and the mother's weight, height, age and smoking habits." More »
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The posters for What to Expect When You're Expecting have been released, and since it's not set to hit theaters until May, we have four months to be hypnotized by the Styrofoam lumps they shoved under the stars' shirts. More »
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Results of a new survey show a dearth of knowledge of basic human biology among America's teens, especially when pants are off and hormones are running high. How bad is it? About half of the teens who got pregnant while not using any form of birth control say they didn't contraceptively arm themselves because they didn't believe that it was possible for them to get pregnant. Another quarter didn't wrap it up because their partner pressured them to go au naturel. Oh, brother. More »
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Not content to mellow out with prenatal yoga and other gentler forms of exercise, Amy Roseboro, a 36 year-old physical therapist and total badass, spends her leisure time scaling extreme rock face at Joshua Tree National Park. Now, in her eighth month of internal baby-carrying, Amy has shown no sign of slowing down. If anything, rock climbing offers her an escape from being pregnant. She says, "I do kind of get to forget that I'm so huge and, at times, uncomfortable." Understandable — watch her climb with such efficiency and you'll forget she's carrying a baby, too. More »
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Stephanie Alberti was 13 weeks pregnant when she went to the racetrack with her husband. She was standing outside cheering him on in motocross when lightning struck and hit her through the ground. Hello, new worst nightmare. She was temporarily paralyzed, but even after she recovered she had to spend the next six months worrying if her baby would come out healthy. That is so, so long to have to wait, and during that time she went to the doctor every single week. More »
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When a mentally ill woman showed up at a Massachusetts emergency room and doctors discovered she was pregnant, a judge recommended that she be forced to abort and then sterilized. Luckily, another judge disagreed. More »
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A woman in New Zealand brought an absurd soap opera cliche to life when she faked her pregnancy for nine months, then tried to steal a baby from a maternity ward. Police say Neha Narayan told her partner she was overdue and needed to be taken to the hospital to be induced. For some reason he left her to deliver on her own, and she spent the next two days prowling around the hospital looking for snatchable babies. One mom caught Narayan holding her two-day-old baby, and she claimed he'd been crying and she was just comforting him. Then a hospital staffer handed her another infant, assuming she was the mother. She tried take the baby to the parking lot, where a car was waiting for her, but luckily the parents saw everything and were able to stop her before she ran off with their child. More »
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After we discussed helping a friend deal with a miscarriage, a reader asked us for tips on how to support a friend in the similarly sensitive situation of going through an abortion. From the decision process to the aftermath, abortion can bring up complicated emotions — but we have some advice on helping your friend deal with them. More »
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Let's get down to brass tacks: Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Personhood Pledge-signing, Griswold vs. Connecticut-opposing, Mr. Ban Abortion in All Circumstances With No Exception for the Life of the Mother, believes that the actions of his own wife should be treated as criminal. Why? Because, back in 1996, his wife had a procedure that resulted in the deliberate death of her fetus, even though it was a matter of saving her own life. More »
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Currently multiple births are still a novelty, but the number of twin births is on the rise and at this rate, in a few years red carpets could be overrun with Mary-Kate and Ashley wannabes delivering synchronized SexyFace. It's well-known that the development of fertility treatments has led to an increase in multiples, but new data shows just how drastic the shift has been. In the past three decades, the number of twins born in the U.S. has roughly doubled. More »
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E! is reporting that not one, but two Victoria's Secret models were pregnant when they walked in the show. Lily Aldridge is, according to a "source," expecting her first child with husband/that dude from Kings of Leon, Caleb Followill. Aldridge is said to be about three months along; yesterday, Alessandra Ambrosio announced that she is four months pregnant with her second child. The rumor hasn't been confirmed by Aldridge and Followill. But think about it: if you have a lucrative lingerie contract to keep, timing your period of parturiency to the brand's big, televised show just makes sense. If you're one or two months along in November when the show tapes, then you won't be "showing," but you will have all that pregnant-lady cleavage. And when you pop out the kid in June or July, you could have as long as five months to snap back into the kind of physical shape required to continue promoting tacky, overpriced lingerie made by children in sweatshops for the benefit of the Limited Brands corporation. It's the American way. [E!] More »
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It's Pregnancé no more because reports are coming thick and fast that Beyoncé is having her baby – with talk that she's probably crowning this very moment! With nurses and security at New York's St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital being advised to prepare themselves for a high-profile client checking in to give birth late yesterday, word on the maternity ward is that it's none other than Mama B. Though this hasn't been confirmed, two gossipy nurses have said that the VIP has booked out half of the Labor and Delivery Suite at the hospital – the same one where friend Alicia Keys gave birth last year. It's just as well that Beyoncé and Jay-Z are insanely wealthy because otherwise their baby girl would have been forever cursed to receive the lame twofer "Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!" gifts that disappoint many late December children. Congrats, y'all! [Media Takeout] More »
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Here's another thing for pregnant ladies to worry about: the heat. According to a new study, getting too hot could increase the risk of premature delivery or stillbirth. And they define "too hot" pretty loosely. More »
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Hey, girls, wanna know what's going to be hot in 2012? With funding being slashed for Planned Parenthood left and right and a group of nutjobs who think zygotes and corporations are people running for President, next year it's going to be super hard to afford a fancy storebought abortion. What to do? Do it yourself, like these trendsetting New York City ladies! More »
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Here's an interesting example of how to interpret scientific results - and draw policy implications from them - from the world of birth practices and safety. More »
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A San Francisco man has been told by the FDA to cease and desist selling his sperm over the internet after helping 14 women become pregnant. The 36-year-old man claims he's simply providing a free service to women who want to become mothers without going through typical sperm donation process; authorities say he's a public health hazard. And no matter how you slice it, there are few things less appetizing than imagining receiving a big pack o' sperm in the mail. More »
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Drug store chain CVS has issued an apology to a man who says he was denied access to Plan B and a pregnancy test because he lacks a uterus. By this logic, women shouldn't be allowed to buy men's razors, condoms, or Gold Bond powder, unless they can produce evidence that the Gold Bond powder is not to be used on balls. More »
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When someone you know has a miscarriage, it can be hard to know what to say. We have some tips for responding sensitively in this difficult situation. More »
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The Surprise Pregnancy Announcement Youtube Video is practically its own genre, but this one has a twist: The expectant and delighted grandparents are two men. And they're jump-up-and-down excited. More »
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If you only caught a quick glimpse of the commercials for CNN's Hero of the Year starring silver fox Anderson Cooper, you might have assumed it was the type of end of year wrap up that that could go to Kim Kardashian for her courageous decisions regarding marriage, Lindsay Lohan for her efforts to keep Marilyn Monroe's memory alive, or even you, via a cheap mirror held up to your TV screen. More »
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Usually, when a movie is based on a best-selling book, that book is not an instruction manual. But Hollywood is full of wacky ideas, and the new flick What To Expect When You're Expecting is one of them. Like Love, Actually, Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve, the story follows a large, ensemble cast, but this time, they're portraying different types of couples about to be parents. "I just wanted the glow," Wendy (played by Elizabeth Banks) says as the trailer begins. "The one that they promise you on the cover of those magazines." Wait, what? Which mags are these? All we ever get promised are "super simple slim downs" and "sexy sex tips." Anyway, Wendy sobs: "Pregnancy sucks." And so it begins. More »
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Women around the world struggle with the moral and practical implications of the Catholic Church's opposition to birth control, and now researchers are arguing that the church should actually encourage some women to go on the Pill. Not because all women should be able to have control over their reproductive health, but because not having babies may be horribly detrimental to the health of nuns. More »
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New research from the Department of Creating Concern has found that people who eat more rice have elevated levels of arsenic in their bodies. This bodes especially poorly for pregnant women and people who enjoy nothing more than a big bowl of rice washed down by a glass of arsenic-laden apple juice. If you do this, please stop. While this flavor combination make make you feel unbelievably nutritionally fortified, ensuing slow and painful death will follow you like a thief in the night. More »
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Welcome back to Guysourcing, where a panel of helpful gentlemen answer your questions! This week's question was the following: "how do you feel about condoms? Do you like them, hate them, feel neutral? Do you strongly prefer sex without them, or not so much? Do you have a favorite type or brand, and if so why? And have your feelings about condoms changed over time?" Read on for our guysourced answers. More »
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According to a CDC study, the teen birthrate dropped substantially last year, for the third year in a row. The reason: birth control. More »
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We've heard of women delivering their babies in all sorts of strange places, but a Maryland woman may have found one of the most awful ways to usher a new life into the world: In an airport, on the bathroom floor, during one of the busiest travel days of the year. The woman had just stepped off a flight at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, so she was actually lucky that she didn't have to give birth in the aisle of an airplane. The mom isn't releasing any personal details, but she and her son are healthy. More »
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Less than a month off of their monumental failure in Mississippi, people who want the legal definition of "person" to be changed to include zygotes have decided that their next great battleground is The Badger State. This is a stupid idea that will never work. More »
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During the last days of my pregnancy, I had some time to reflect on the life I've lived. For the most part, I was happy with what I've done, and even if I was wasted during much of my youth, I don't feel like I wasted that youth. I'm well-traveled, feel fairly accomplished, tried most of the drugs, had a very active "social" life, and in genera had a lot of irresponsible fun. Still, I've realized that there are a few things I wish I'd tried, and am slowly coming to terms with the fact that certain experiences are either must be put on hold indefinitely — or are completely out of the question — now that I'm a mother and need to put an end to any and all selfish impulses. More »
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On one hand, we're practically beaten over the heads with the idea that eventually our ladygrapes are going to run out of juice. On the other, a poll suggests that women seem to be in mass denial of — or improperly educated about — the fact that fertility, like all things, must come to an end. How can the medical community make facts about infertility stick? Incessant nagging sure isn't working. More »
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The good folks who brought you the "this is your brain on drugs" ad with the egg frying in a pan and the ad with the crying Indian who was actually an Italian have unleashed a new round of ads on the American public. But instead of inducing racial speculation or cravings for McMuffins, this time around, the Ad Council is encouraging folks to avoid pregnancy by using birth control. If that weren't enough, they've put together an amazing website that will send you texts to remind you to take your pill and even help you compare methods. More »
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Sex. Obviously, I've had it. We don't have to talk about how much I've had it — I happen to have grown up in a town where your two leisure choices were having sex or entering your low-rider in a competition. But rest assured you can trust me, person you just met on the Internet, when I tell you that I am a perfectly qualified judge, and that the greatest sex I ever had was when I was pregnant. More »
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If someone tries to tell you operating heavy machinery and birthin' babies don't mix, you tell them they're dead wrong. Emma French of Scotland passed her driving test on the morning of August 30, about four hours after her water broke. "Everyone was telling me to go to the hospital but I had waited so long for my driving test, I was determined to do it," said French. After completing the test, French drove herself to the hospital and delivered a healthy baby girl. She says, "I didn't dare tell the examiner I was in labor in case he made me cancel the test. The nurses in the hospital were very confused because I was getting congratulations cards for both my baby and my driving test." More »
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Have you noticed that there are tons of pregnant characters on TV right now? And have you noticed that whenever a pregnant character on TV gives birth, complications and carrying on abound? It's enough to make a lady want to knot her tubes up tighter than a Navy knot. More »
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The transgender man who became famous after posing for photographs while pregnant recently gave birth to his third child and has decided that he's about had his fill of having a uterus. More »
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Apparently moms go to great lengths to avoid giving birth on Halloween. And even their bodies conspire to keep babies from popping out on the scary holiday. More »
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Great news, ball busting career women with no time to trifle with babies until you're at least in the C-suite: having your first child later in life is no more likely to lead to depression than having a child early in life. But boarding the motherhood train just a few minutes before it leaves the station may still may lead to complications that might themselves lead to depression. More »
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