According to David Brown of the Washington Post, "about 12.9 million babies are born too early each year, representing 9.6 percent of births. Of 4 million deaths that occur soon after birth, 28 percent are attributable to prematurity. Some of the data provided by WHO is only for women bearing one baby. Women carrying multiple fetuses have a much greater risk of delivering early."

Africa has the greatest percentage of premature births (11.9%), but as the Los Angeles Times notes, the United States isn't far behind, with 10.6%. Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press notes that "different factors fuel prematurity in rich countries and poor ones," and that these factors need to be focused on in order to reduce premature births and infant deaths.

Neergaard describes a "kangaroo care" program in Malawi wherein mothers are urged to tie their premature babies to their stomachs, as opposed to carrying them on their backs, as the "skin-to-skin contact keeps the infants' body temperature more stable, a key to survival, and they can nurse at will, promoting weight gain."

In the United States, however, Brown writes, the "increase in the number of older women having babies and reproductive techniques that make multiple gestations more likely are probably contributing to the trend. Black women also have a 50 percent higher rate of preterm delivery than white women," though Neergaard notes that "scientists don't even know all the triggers for preterm birth or how to stop early labor once it starts." In any case, the shocking numbers gathered by the WHO call for a better understanding of premature births, the factors that lead to them, and what can be done to ensure a safer, healthier pregnancy and delivery for both mothers and babies in the future.

13 Million Premature Births Worldwide, 1 Million Deaths [LATimes]
Report: 13 Million Babies Worldwide Born Premature [AP]
Study Finds 1 In 10 Babies Born Prematurely [WashingtonPost]

It's not just because the anti-abortion movement will seek to use this information and medical advances in service to its political agenda, either. It's because Roe v. Wade specifically makes reference to fetal viability as the point at which states are allowed to more stringently restrict a woman's right to obtain an abortion, including prohibiting her from doing so if there's an except for her life and health.

(a) For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman's attending physician.

(b) For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health.

(c) For the stage subsequent to viability, the State in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life [410 U.S. 113, 165] may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.

In other words, states cannot interfere with the manner in which women choose to have abortions during the first trimester; they are allowed regulatory powers (but can't ban the procedures outright) during the second trimester until fetal viability; and they can prohibit them after viability if they want, as long as there's an exception for the life and health of the mother. When viability can be expected between 22 and 26 weeks, the first-second-third trimester distinctions that currently hold sway in most people's minds when they think of abortion are rather limited.

And if you think the anti-abortion groups won't get around to challenging Roe and trying to push for new legislative restrictions or eliminations on second trimester abortions, you haven't been paying attention very well.

More Premature Babies Surviving [BBC]
Roe V. Wade [FindLaw]

• Scientists at Rice University have created "BioBeer" a healthy beer that has a red wine chemical that is believed to protect against age-related health conditions. • A new study in England reports that young girls are starting to drink earlier in life, with most admitting to drinking by age 13 or 14. • Police in Williams Point, Florida have recovered a 5 foot tall Betty Boop statue that was stolen last April. • A pastry shop owner repainted the sign over his shop in Baghdad with "Obama" and is planning on making an Obama cake with two ingredients of "hope and change." • A recent study has found that a chemical commonly found in tomatoes, lycopene, can positively effect cells taken from internal scarring associated with endometriosis. • A new study of condom use in heterosexual British couples has found that condom use goes down when couples enter their 30s and 40s and that overall, a little more than half of first time sexual partners use condoms. • What would happen if you ate dog food? Probably nothing, but it's still unsafe. • A recent study suggests that women are more likely to be harassed when working in equally male and female groups rather than when women are the minority or majority gender in a group. • A European animal welfare coalition said today that tens of thousands of animals are kept in poor conditions because EU rules on standards and care for animals are unclear to zookeepers. • A Toronto-area woman claims her rights were violated when she was asked to stop breastfeeding her child while she was sitting in a public swimming pool in October. • Although Chinese Americans are considered a "model minority" and are one of the most highly educated groups in the U.S., they still make less than their white counterparts. • British scientists have discovered what gene triggers some women to develop a resistance to Tamoxifen, common breast cancer drug.• Evening fun: a video of of Russian man who lives with his "performing llama" in his apartment. •