Here's a living nightmare: an 82-year-old Colombian woman went to the hospital for stomach pain only to learn that she's had a calcified fetus hanging out in there for 40 freaking years. » 12/12/13 11:10am 12/12/13 11:10am

Two months after initially proposing an amendment to allow abortions under certain rare circumstances, the Irish government has officially passed the loophole in their draconian restrictions with an overwhelming vote in favor (127-31) — but not without major grumbling from the church and religious officials. » 7/14/13 2:00pm 7/14/13 2:00pm

We thought fetal heartbeat bills were sooo Ohio 2012. Wyoming legislators, however, did not get that memo. A new pair of bills seek to prioritize a woman's fetus's heartbeat over her own: Wyoming House Bill 97, which would bar abortions if an embryo or fetus heartbeat is detected, and Senate File 88, which would… » 1/14/13 12:50pm 1/14/13 12:50pm

Here it is: the first ever MRI taken of a fetus as it travels through the birth canal and into the world. Seen from this angle, the process looks both amazing and deeply painful. » 6/27/12 3:00pm 6/27/12 3:00pm

There has been a major uproar in China after horrifying photos surfaced online of a woman lying on a hospital bed next to what was apparently the dead seven-month-old fetus she'd been forced by the local government to abort because she was in violation of the country's one-child limit. Now, as a result of the tragedy… » 6/15/12 10:00am 6/15/12 10:00am

A school bus full of North Dakota school children was treated to a lesson in grown up asshattery this week, when their route home from a field trip took them past a gaggle (a herd? a swarm? an escargatoire?) of racist anti-abortion protesters harassing people outside of North Dakota's only abortion clinic and at major… » 5/03/12 2:25pm 5/03/12 2:25pm

Alabama has launched a crusade to prosecute mothers on behalf of their drug-addicted newborns. At first glance, it seems like an honorable endeavor, protecting children from unfit parents, but it's much more insidious than that. The law that enables these arrests and charges assumes that a fetus is a person, entitled… » 4/26/12 4:45pm 4/26/12 4:45pm

Searching the Getty Images archives for pictures of babies, we stumbled upon this gem. It's a scan from a 1650 medical text — The Birth of Mankynde, Other Wyse Named The Womans Booke — in which someone has illustrated all the various ways the mischievous little fetus positions itself before being born. Epic in scope,… » 3/14/12 1:30pm 3/14/12 1:30pm

In the past two years, six states have banned abortion after 20 weeks on the grounds that that's when fetuses can feel pain. There is no reliable scientific evidence that this is true, and now a new study says that a fetus can't distinguish between touch and pain until around 35-37 weeks, or just before a baby would… » 9/09/11 9:55am 9/09/11 9:55am

Research suggests that a fetus is sensitive to the flavors and smells of the mother's food. The brain physically changes in utero and aligns its preferences; this may explain one's penchant for eating peanut butter by the spoonful. » 12/01/10 11:46am 12/01/10 11:46am

In this clip, a French couple watches their unborn child dance around in the womb, pushing so hard that the outline of its head and arms are visible on the mother's stomach. That kid's going to be an energetic handful. » 11/22/10 3:32pm 11/22/10 3:32pm

• A toddler from China recently underwent surgery to have a fetus removed from her stomach. When Kang Mengru was in the womb, she grew larger than her twin sister and enveloped her, but once her mother gave birth... » 10/30/09 5:30pm 10/30/09 5:30pm

A Brazilian designer generates 3-D plaster models of fetuses from ultrasounds. It's a cool option for blind women — but will it become, as London Times commenters fear, another weapon in the fight against abortion? [TimesOnline] » 6/26/09 12:30pm 6/26/09 12:30pm

Wow: William Saletan at Slate thinks that pregnant, abortion-loving women had better think twice about calling a fetus anything other than "a baby," or else they "might" end up offing their kids. » 6/18/09 2:20pm 6/18/09 2:20pm

William Saletan thinks that if, in the course of IVF, you are mistakenly implanted with another woman's embryo, the other woman should get a chance to talk you out of aborting her fetus. [Slate] » 3/18/09 6:15pm 3/18/09 6:15pm

Huang Yijun, a 92-year-old woman from Huangjiaotan, China, went into a hospital looking for a cure for her stomach aches. Doctors found that the cause of her pain wasn't her stomach, but her womb. » 1/16/09 11:20am 1/16/09 11:20am

The first child known to be screened as an embryo for the BRCA-1 gene, which often causes breast and ovarian cancer, was born in Britain this week, raising new ethical questions about genetic screening. » 1/09/09 9:30am 1/09/09 9:30am

"Protect our troops — from the womb to the war. What if the fetus you were going to abort would grow up to be a soldier bringing democracy to a godless dictatorship? Show that you support the 'culture of life' by buying and proudly displaying one of these patriotic unborn Americans." - Christmas ornament, $14.95 [… » 12/07/07 12:45pm 12/07/07 12:45pm