by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• The British Pregnancy Advisory Service abortion provider is encouraging women to stock up on emergency contraception during the Christmas season and promoting a new service which allows women to get the pill for free with a phone call.
• The trial of the Australian abortion clinic anesthetist who infected more than 50 women with Hepatitis C is under way.

• The Daily Caller has a piece on ESCR by Neil Munro which discusses the intentional hyping of embryonic stem cell research by scientists and Democrats. It has these interesting quotes by bioethicist Art Caplan (pictured left), who recently did a 180 on embryonic stem cell research:

“By hyping stem cells, the Democratic guys could accuse [conservatives] of being anti-science,” said Caplan. “Those deals were wink-wink deals, but they were going on,” he said….

The mass media aligned with the Democrats “because the science community and the patients’ community was on the pro-[embryo stem-cell] side,” said Caplan. “They tended to listen to those voices more than the political [conservatives] and religious [advocates] and few scientists” pushing the rival technologies, he said.

Caplan was one of those guys accusing conservatives, especially President Bush, of being anti-science. He was one of the key voices on the pro-ESCR side the mass media turned to for an opinion which invariably promoted ESCR while downplaying alternatives.

I welcome converts to the “embryonic stem cell research was completely hyped” tent but converts like Caplan should admit they were among the hypers and apologize for their attacks on pro-lifers who were right about the science.

[Caplan photo via bakersfieldexpress.org]