Liverpool schools to offer pregnancy testing to kids

Plans to provide pregnancy testing to thousands of secondary school girls in Liverpool have been condemned by family values campaigners.
Liverpool NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT) has confirmed that plans are afoot to establish sexual health drop-in clinics in five of the city’s secondary schools.
The controversial scheme, which is already operating in secondary schools in neighbouring Wirral, gives pupils on-site access to pregnancy testing, contraceptives, the morning-after pill and advice on sexually transmitted infections.
However, critics have warned that the scheme will normalise underage sex and increase promiscuity.
Norman Wells of the Family Education Trust said: “Sexual health clinics on school premises send out the message that it is normal for schoolchildren to engage in sexual activity.
“In the past, natural inhibitions combined with fear of pregnancy, legal proceedings and being found out by parents offered a powerful disincentive to under age sex.
“Confidential health clinics in schools are part of a mix that is removing the restraints which previously limited under age sexual activity.”
However, a spokesman for Liverpool PCT said: “National and international research evidences that if we are to improve young people’s sexual health and reduce the number of unplanned conceptions in young people under the age of 18, we must provide high quality sexual health education, and easy access to sexual health services for information and support.”
But Dr Adrian Rogers, founder of the Family Focus campaign, said: “There is already free, confidential testing and advice available at every GP’s surgery and family planning clinic.
“Offering this kind of service in the school setting is going to promote promiscuity. It is a complete waste of time and money and will prove counter-productive.”
The drop-in clinics are currently operating in 13 of Wirral’s 29 secondary schools and the five clinics in Liverpool are due to be opened later this year.
Last September the Scottish Government called for every Scottish secondary school to have a sex clinic.
And in 2008 it was revealed that one third of secondary schools provide on-site access to contraception, abortion advice and pregnancy tests.
A survey of over 2,000 secondary schools in England found that one in six schools are giving out the morning-after pill.

Click to read original article from Christian.Org

Child Hood Pregnancy Is it becoming A World Wide Epidemic?

A few days ago we found a startling article about a 9 year old little girl in China giving birth! And found out through this article that this is not the youngest child to ever give birth. In 1939 Peru Reported that a 5 year old little girl gave birth.

As we were getting ready to report on this topic of child hood pregnancy today when we found that a 11 yr old girl in the U.S has given birth! Below we have shared the Article about the 9 year old in China and also the Newest article of the 11 year old girl from the U.S as well as a picture of the 5 year old with her baby from 1939.

This is an outrage that anyone would allow their 11 year old daughter to be placed in a situation where they could get pregnant but in the article there is no mention that the police are getting involved to arrest the boy or man who got the little girl pregnant or that the parents are in trouble for allowing this to happen to their daughter.

In the China incident the police are involved because it is a crime to have sex with anyone under the age of 14. Here in the U.S we are to represent the moral standard that most look up to.  How have we fallen so far? Why aren’t parents, schools and even communities protecting the children? What kind of a life will not only the little baby have but the 11 year old as well?

From Fox News

An 11-year-old girl in the Northeast recently gave birth to a baby boy, according to the girl’s family.

"My daughter and baby are fine, and the baby is absolutely beautiful," stated the girl’s mother.

The girl and her family are not being named in order to protect the girl’s privacy.

According to Dr. Manny Alvarez, managing health editor of FoxNews.com, the girl’s age places her in significant dangers

"A very comprehensive approach to her care needs to be instituted early in her pregnancy," Alvarez said.

A recent report by the Guttmacher Institute said U.S. teen pregnancies were up 3 percent in 2006.

But of course, this case is not about a teenager, Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, a leading high-risk obstetrician noted; it’s about a pre-teen, or child, who’s body is not built to carry a child yet.

"Her body is clearly not defined for pregnancy with its short stature," Al-Khan said. "Her chest is not extensively developed for breast tissue, her bones aren’t quite fused, and once you expose a child this young to high amounts of progesterone and especially estrogen, there is controversy that it could halt her growth."

Click to read full article from Fox News

From “Daily Mail” in the UK

A nine-year-old Chinese schoolgirl has become one of the world's youngest mothers after giving birth to a healthy boy.

The unnamed girl was brought to a hospital in Changchun, which lies in the north-east of the country, when she was eight and a half months pregnant.

Two days later, she gave birth to the 6lb boy by Caesarean section, a Chinese newspaper has reported. 

The child comes from the nearby town of Songyuan. Her family refused to discuss the pregnancy, but confirmed they had reported it to the police.

Last night police were reportedly trying to establish who the father is.

In the province, sex with a child under the age of 14 brings an automatic rape conviction and a lengthy jail sentence.

A legal expert told the paper that women under the age of 14 do not have sexual rights  - 'so any argument of being consensual as a defence is completely untenable,' he said.

He added: 'Anyone who had sexual relations with a girl under 14 means they have committed rape and is to be punished severely.'

A  hospital in China's largest city, Shanghai, recently said that about 30 per cent of abortions were on school-aged girls.

The youngest reported mother in the world - and the most bizarre of all young pregnancy cases - is five-year-old Lina Medina of Peru, who gave birth to a 6lb son named Gerardo in a Caesarean operation in 1939.

Her father was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse but was later released because of lack of evidence.

In 1957 another Peruvian girl, aged nine, gave birth to a girl weighing just over 6lb and, curiously, it was in 2006 that yet another Peruvian girl, aged eight, gave birth to a 4lb 4oz girl.

Several other girls aged nine, from Thailand, Singapore, Rwanda and Brazil, have also given birth.

Mothers aged as young as 10 and 11 have also become an increasing occurrence.

The youngest mother in Britain is believed to have been 11 when she got pregnant and 12 years old when she gave birth.

Lina Medina, accompanied by her 11-month-old-son Gerardo, and Dr Lozada who helped with the birth. The picture was taken in 1939 in a hospital in Lima, Peru's capital

Click to read original article from Daily Mail

Churches in Texas Set on Fire

TYLER, Texas —  Eight Texas churches barely 150 miles apart have caught fire since New Year's Day, putting pastors and congregations on edge and on guard wondering whether theirs is next.

Authorities determined seven of those fires were intentionally set and they are investigating one that broke out Thursday as a possible arson. There have been no reported injuries or arrests, and federal officials aren't saying whether there's a connection.

Most people in these parts can't help but think they are.

"I think everybody is expecting more of these, to tell you the truth," said pastor David Mahfood, whose Baptist church in Tyler was destroyed in a Jan. 16 fire. "I think the worst is probably behind Tyler, but I'd worry about other cities."

Six of the seven arsons were just nine days apart, sending many congregations in east Texas scurrying to install security systems and prompting volunteers to keep close eyes on church properties from dusk to dawn. Federal and local authorities have released scant details and say they need more information.

"These things are painstakingly slow because a lot of evidence is lost in fire scenes," said Tom Crowley, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman. "They're still working it, but we could use more leads."

The fires have struck a region where Christian stations fill the radio dial and an area newspaper runs a Bible verse on the front page every day. All seven churches varied in size and denomination.

Some were Baptist. One was a red-bricked Christian Scientist's church nestled among stately homes. Another was a nondenominational church on the outskirts of town.

"The shock of it, it's so outside the norm," said Lloyd McCaskill, pastor of a church in Tyler that has given Mahfood's congregation a temporary home. "To try to get into the mindset, why would someone want to do this?"

Athens was the site of the first arson Jan. 1, and two more churches burned 10 days later in that town of about 12,000. After that, blazes blackened two churches about 35 miles away in Tyler. Days later, a church in Temple went up in flames, followed by one in Lindale, just north of Tyler. Thursday's fire was less than 50 miles away in Wills Point.

Two earlier fires at churches in the area came under suspicion, but authorities haven't determined whether arson was the cause.

click to read full article at Fox News