
If you're at a loss as to what to give one of your female friends or family members this holiday, a
Planned Parenthood gift certificate could be the perfect present! They are available in $25 increments at 35 clinics statewide and are valid for health services, contraception, and yes, even
abortions. According to
The Chicago Tribune, about a dozen gift certificates have sold in Indiana since they became available on November 25th, and Illinois plans to follow today.

Everyone has their opinion on
abortion, so I don't want to get into the reasons for choosing "pro-life" or "pro-choice," but I do want to chat about some facts and statistics. These numbers may surprise you, so take this little quiz and test your knowledge about abortion.
Source

In America, we have the freedom to reproduce at will, but in other countries that isn't the case. An Uyghur woman who is more than
six months pregnant with her third child is facing a forced abortion. Chinese authorities are holding her in a hospital because she is only permitted two offspring.

Without many of their own in national office, the
prolife movement plans to relocate to grassroots activism and street- and abortion clinic-side protests. Beginning Jan. 21, the day after Barack Obama is sworn in, groups will hold a three-day protest in Washington, DC.

I've heard of underage drinking and avoiding taxes over international waters, but circumventing abortion laws is a new one.
Women on Waves sails to countries where abortion is illegal and provides early-term abortions — legally, thanks to Dutch law, which the ship sails under.
Always a gracious guest, Women on Waves never shows up sans an invite from local women's organizations.

Starting November 1, doctors in Oklahoma will have to perform ultrasounds and describe what they see to women about to get abortions, within an hour before the procedures. Oklahoma's ultrasound law, which also exists in some form in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, does not make an exception for victims of rape or incest. One abortion clinic has now
filed a lawsuit asking Oklahoma state court to throw the law out.

The school board in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the city of pregnancy-pact fame, is set to
vote on a plan to distribute contraceptives to students. If passed, the schools and the students could enter a secret-contraception pact without parents knowing — in other words the schools would distribute condoms and such to students without parental consent.
Despite
well-publicized rumors that 17 high school girls in the city decided to have children and raise them together, the mayor favors distributing contraceptives only with parental consent.

I was flipping through my
Official Voter Information Guide the other night and started reading about California's Proposition 4, which involves parental notification for minors' abortions. I took a quick poll of my friends in the room, and they were divided, so I want to know what you all think. The amendment would prohibit abortion for a minor until 48 hours after the doctor notifies a parent or legal guardian.

I just read an article that talked about
teen abortion rates decreasing, though the rates haven't changed much for older women. I'm sure you all have opinions about abortion in general, but does your view point change in cases where the woman is older and married? Do you think a responsible, married couple should go through with having a baby even if it was unplanned, maybe even unwanted, just because they're in a committed relationship?
Obama Ad: McCain Camp Sleazy, Extreme On Abortion Obama is airing a new ad in New Mexico and Ohio that defends his abortion rights record and says Republican rival John McCain backs a party platform that would deny abortions to victims of rape and incest. Obama's ad answers an
independent ad campaign, financed by an anti-abortion philanthropist, that singles out Obama's efforts in the Illinois Senate to defeat the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. "Now votes taken out of context, accusing Obama of letting infants die?