We extend to all of our friends and supporters our best wishes for a joyous Christmas and a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.

INFANT CORD BLOOD STORAGE GAINING POPULARITY 
State legislation and more public awareness has increased interest by new parents in draining and storing stem-cell-rich blood from their newborn’s umbilical cord and placenta. Cord Blood Registry (CBR), based in San Bruno, California, is the nation’s largest private cord-blood bank. The company charges about $2,000 for collecting, shipping and processing the blood and an annual bill of $125 for storage. Arizona and California are among states that have passed or are considering laws related to donation and storage options.

Mesa, Arizona resident Susan Jarvis-Orr is among those who believe more parents should privately store cord blood or donate it to a public bank. She credits cord blood stored at CBR after the birth of her third son, Devyn, with saving the life of her first son, Brandyn.

Brandyn received a cord-blood transplant in 1999 after a particularly rough stretch of chemotherapy to treat his leukemia. The radiation destroyed cancer and stem cells alike, so Brandyn’s transplant of stored stem cells allowed him to replenish his blood supply. Brandyn, now 13, is a healthy boy who captured a Young Hero award from the Fire Department for performing the Heimlich maneuver on a choking woman. (USA Today, 12/5/06)

MARCH FOR LIFE 2007 
The 34th Annual March For Life will be held Saturday, Sunday, and Monday – January 20, 21, and 22 in Washington, D.C.. The indomitable Nellie Gray will once again lead the March, which is dedicated to the protection of each innocent human life from fertilization until natural death. No Exception! No Compromise! For information contact March For Life at P.O. Box 90300, Washington, D.C. 20090 – Phone: 202/543-3377 – Fax: 202/543-8202.

CHILE LEGISLATORS REJECT LEGAL ABORTION 
The governing coalition of the Republic of Chile, in spite of heavy pressure from UN-based lobby groups, has voted to reject discussion of therapeutic abortion in the Chamber of Deputies. A group of legislators, called the “pro-life parliamentary front,” won a healthy majority of votes (61-21) against a bid to legalize abortion. The Santiago Times reports that in the Chamber of Deputies, once an initiative is deemed inadmissible for discussion, there is no appeals process. (LifeSiteNews.com, 11/24/06)

NICARAGUA BANS ABORTION 
The Nicaraguan National Assembly on October 26, 2006 passed a bill making all abortions illegal, eliminating a previous exception for the health of the mother. It was signed into law by President Enrique Bolanos prior to the November 5 election when the former head of the Communist Sandinista regime, Daniel Ortega, was elected President.

Ortega, who once favored legal abortion, was described in an Associated Press report (11/18/06) as having changed his stance, saying he supports the new law after “strongly embracing Roman Catholicism.”

FLORIDA: NEXT EMBRYONIC STEM CELL BATTLEGROUND 
Signature gathering is underway by two diametrically opposed groups to put their ballot measures before the voters in 2008.

Floridians for Stem Cell Research and Cures wants voters to approve state funding for research that involves the killing of human embryos. The committee’s name is very telling because, in truth, 25 years of privately-funded research on human embryos has yielded absolutely no successful treatments or cures.

Citizens for Science and Ethics is organizing to promote a ban on state funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Pro-life Floridians will not only be gathering signatures to ban the research, but will be working to convince their Republican Governor-Elect, Charlie Crist, to join with them in supporting the ethical and productive research that does not require the killing of innocent human beings.

AUSTRALIA APPROVES CLONING FOR RESEARCH 
Lawmakers in Australia voted on December 6, 2006 to lift a four-year ban on cloning human embryos for stem cell research, reports the Associated Press (12/7/06).

Prime Minister John Howard, his two deputies and the leader of the major opposition party all argued against lifting the ban, saying that the sanctity of human life must take precedence over potential cures for conditions that also include Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and arthritis. But lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted, 82-62, to scrap the ban. The bill was passed by the Senate in November, 34-32.

The bill allows human embryos to be engendered through a cloning process, prohibits them from being implanted in a womb, and requires that they be killed within 14 days.

Britain became the first country to legalize the cloning of human embryos for research in 2001.

[Experiments on embryos "left over" from in vitro fertilization clinics were legalized by the Australian Parliament in 2002, creating a slippery slope toward cloning].

CITY COUNCIL PASSES PARENTAL NOTICE RESOLUTION 
The Bedford, Texas City Council, on November 14, approved a resolution supporting broader parental notification policies for abortion referrals and birth control counseling for minors.

The Northeast Right to Life Educational Association presented the council with a petition signed by 41 northeast Tarrant County priests and ministers seeking support for the resolution, which encourages the Bedford office of Planned Parenthood to voluntarily notify parents when an unwed minor seeks birth control or is referred to another clinic for an abortion.

The group’s efforts are tied to a national grass-roots campaign to strengthen parental notification laws.