Unborn Child

I am deeply disturbed by the Bush administration's ongoing efforts to undermine women and their reproductive rights ("Bush Seeks to Label Fetus an Unborn Child," July 7). Its latest assault on women takes the form of a proposal that would define a fetus as an "unborn child" so that state insurance programs could pay for prenatal care for some low-income women. But where, in fact, are women in this equation? At best, the Bush administration has relegated them to the status of fetus carriers and second-class citizens.

The powerful things we expect from "War Witch" are as advertised, but what we don't expect is even better. Given that the subject matter is two violent years in the life of an African child soldier, it's not surprising that the film's events are disturbing and even horrific. But it's the unforeseen way they're told that makes "War Witch" potent enough to have been one of the five nominees for the foreign language Oscar and the big winner, including best picture, at Canada's recent film awards.

Pamela Rae Stewart, the El Cajon woman who was jailed for six days on charges that she contributed to her infant son's death by ignoring a doctor's orders during pregnancy, did not commit a crime, a San Diego Municipal Court judge ruled Thursday. Capping a case that drew national attention from feminists, legal scholars and doctors, Municipal Judge E. Mac Amos Jr.

It's puzzling that people are shocked that, on abortion, the Republican platform contains no exceptions for rape or incest or to protect the health of a woman. "The question of abortion is one of the most difficult and controversial of our time. " That sweet reason is from the 1976 Republican platform , three years after Roe vs. Wade, which ruled that a woman's right to abortion is protected by the Constitution. The platform went on in the same moral-relativist vein. "There are those in our Party who favor complete support for the Supreme Court decision," and those who want that decision "changed by a constitutional amendment.

Dear Cynthia: I dreamed that I was standing up looking down at my feet. There I saw a little girl; she was a little taller than my knees. She had long brown hair and an angelic face. She was smiling at me with her arms stretched upward toward me, just as a child does when he or she wants to be picked up. As I reached for her, I woke up. What does this mean? I found out about a week after having this dream that I am pregnant. I've had a lot of people tell me that I will be having a daughter.

A 28-year-old man was being held without bail Sunday as authorities investigated allegations that he beat his wife and contributed to the death of their unborn child. Jose Cervantes was arrested Friday on an outstanding felony spouse abuse warrant at an apartment building in the 14600 block of Rayen Street in Panorama City. Cervantes' wife, Lilia Prado, 25, was nine months pregnant when she underwent an emergency caesarean section at Northridge Hospital on Thursday. The child was stillborn.

A 35-year-old San Pedro woman convicted of deliberately running over a pregnant acquaintance and killing her unborn child has been sentenced in Long Beach Superior Court to 25 years to life in prison. Superior Court Judge Charles Sheldon ordered the prison term for Brenda Sue Franklin, 35, on a Sept. 22 conviction of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

A 25-year-old woman and her unborn child died from injuries caused when she was struck by a car on Main Street on Sunday and dragged 200 feet as the driver fled the accident, police said. A relative said Jovita Sanchez Cardinas, 25, of Santa Ana was returning home from her job as a cook Sunday at about 9 p.m. when she crossed the street at the 1300 block. According to police, a car containing three or four men struck Cardinas, dragged her, then made a U-turn and raced away.

A Los Angeles woman is in custody for attempting to kill her ex-boyfriend's pregnant girlfriend by running her over, killing the unborn child, police said. Monica Mercado, 27, turned herself in at the Los Angeles Police Department's Newton station Sunday, hours after she allegedly used her sport utility vehicle to strike a 24-year-old woman who was dating her ex-boyfriend, police said. Witnesses told authorities that Mercado and the woman, who was seven months' pregnant, got into an argument Sunday morning.

A pregnant Irvine woman, citing an earlier court ruling that an unborn child constitutes a passenger in a car-pool lane, lost her case Monday but escaped the usual $52 fine. Diane Correll, 27, cited for driving alone in the car-pool lane of the Costa Mesa Freeway, contended that, based on an earlier ruling by Orange County Municipal Judge Randell L. Wilkinson, her unborn child was a passenger. Last January, Wilkinson found a pregnant Fullerton woman not guilty of violating the same law.

Before last May, neighbors in the upscale Ventura County community of Faria Beach didn't have much reason to think they were unsafe. On one side, they were guarded by electronic gates. On the other side, the ocean lapped at their sea walls. At low tide, strollers greeted one another on the magnificent shoreline six miles up the coast from Ventura. But on the night of May 20, an intruder walked through an open terrace door and stabbed a man and his pregnant wife to death. Their two children, ages 9 and 11, were in the house when the attacker entered.

When artwork that once belonged to the late bestselling author Michael Crichton hits the auction block in May, the works by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso and others will combine for one of the most high-profile art sales of the season. The sale, being organized by Christie's, will feature approximately 100 works of art, or about 80% of the writer's personal collection. The sale also comes with a back story that, given Crichton's main line of work, would make a good novel.

"The Road" is a road you'll wish hadn't been taken. Not because anything's been badly done, but because there's a serious imbalance in the complicated equation between what the film forces us to endure and what we end up receiving in return. Given that it's based on Cormac McCarthy's somber novel, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for a devastating report from the end of the world witnessed by a man who's been there, it's no surprise that the film is for the most part profoundly depressing.

She leaned on her husband, using his strength to hide her unsteadiness. Her steps were tentative, measured, cautious, with her gait more typical of a woman decades older than her late 20s. She could still walk, shake hands and almost smile, at least with one side of her mouth; she couldn't let the tumor take those gifts away -- not yet. She had to stay healthy another few weeks, until her baby was born.

A Los Angeles woman is in custody for attempting to kill her ex-boyfriend's pregnant girlfriend by running her over, killing the unborn child, police said. Monica Mercado, 27, turned herself in at the Los Angeles Police Department's Newton station Sunday, hours after she allegedly used her sport utility vehicle to strike a 24-year-old woman who was dating her ex-boyfriend, police said. Witnesses told authorities that Mercado and the woman, who was seven months' pregnant, got into an argument Sunday morning.

An 11-year-old boy shot his father's eight-months pregnant girlfriend in the back of the head as she lay in bed in their western Pennsylvania farmhouse, then got on the bus and went to school, authorities said. Jordan Brown of Wampum was charged as an adult in the shooting deaths of Kenzie Marie Houk and the unborn child. The fifth-grader was picked up from school Friday by Pennsylvania State Police, who found Houk's body after her 4-year-old daughter told tree cutters on the property that she thought her mother was dead.

A pregnant woman and her 8-month-old unborn child died early Sunday when suspected gang members opened fire at a public housing project east of downtown, Los Angeles police said. Investigators said they believe that the attack at Aliso Village, in which two men also were wounded, may have stemmed from a turf war between rival gangs vying to control drug dealing at the sprawling complex.

When Mary Rauch and Ellie Rice started their new business, they sent out birth announcements. No wonder. Theirs may be the ultimate amniotic enter tainment, a chance for parents-to-be to share fuzzy prenatal pictures of their beloved fetus with family and friends.

Re "All in a week's work," Opinion, Jan. 29 Rosa Brooks accuses former Bush administration officials of "irresponsible rhetoric," and yet she uses her own when she writes that the "Mexico City policy" constitutes a "war on women." The motive behind the policy is hardly one of harming women but of protecting the lives of the unborn. Brooks suggests the policy led to the deaths of women who suffered botched abortions. What about its role in protecting one of our most fundamental rights?

It's NOT something I'm entirely proud of, but I can't seem to stop myself from doing it. Each week, when my teenage daughter's copy of Us Weekly magazine arrives, I'm compelled to read it. Last week's cover story really grabbed my attention: "It Was in Vitro! The Untold Story Behind Angelina and Brad's Twins."