Medical abortions are administered through a pill called RU 486, or Mifepristone. RU 486 induces a miscarriage and is generally used within the first trimester of a pregnancy. #

Life Site News, National Right to Life News, Catholic Culture and Life News all posted information on an “audit” of abortions performed in South Australia in 2009 and 2010. #

The Australian reported that the “audit” of nearly 7,000 abortions “found that 3.3 percent of women who used mifepristone in the first trimester of pregnancy – when most elective terminations occur – later turned up at hospital emergency departments, against 2.2 percent who had undergone surgery.” #

Only four years ago, a US/Denmark study showed that medical abortions are “no riskier to future pregnancies than surgical abortions.” #

That study, which was featured in the August 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the drug, “at least in the long term, is safe.” #

Time Magazine reported that the study “contradicts an earlier study, of women in the Auvergne region of France, published in 2003 in the American Journal of Epidemiology, which found an association between medical abortion and a nearly threefold greater risk of ectopic pregnancy — a condition that accounts for about 9% of all pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S.” #

When asked about the disparity in the two reports, one researcher pointed to the “small sample size and self-reported data in the earlier study,”  while the current study had a “large cohort and national-registry information.” According to Time, “the focus of the previous study was not abortion per se, but general risk factors for ectopic pregnancy, including women’s history of smoking and pelvic infectious disease.” #

Medical abortions are a contentious topic in the U.S. Since RU 486 first arrived in the United States, anti-abortion activists have campaigned against the drug’s approval and began petitioning the government to disallow the use of the drug once it became more widespread. #

Recently, Texas and Oklahoma took up legislation that would limit the drug’s use and place restrictions on when the pill could be administered. #

President Obama at the G-20 Summit in Toronto on June 27 (Xinhua/ZUMApress.com)

BERLIN — President Obama’s push for additional economic stimulus is not just hitting a wall in Congress. The president has also been rebuffed by the largest European countries — with potentially profound consequences for the U.S. economy and Obama’s national agenda.

[Economy1] In the run-up to the G-20 summit in late June, the Obama administration went on a PR offensive, urging other wealthy nations to keep pumping stimulus into their economies. But with the Greek budget crisis heightening anxieties over public debt, conservative governments in Berlin, Paris, London and Rome are all on an austerity track. Instead of a pledge to inject more capital into their economies, all Obama got at the Toronto conference was a communique that emphasizes savings over stimulus.

Some economists fret that Europe’s fiscal retreat threatens to tip the U.S. deeper into recession. Meanwhile, leading analysts in Germany, the continent’s largest economy, say the trans-Atlantic spending spat underscores Obama’s limited maneuvering room in his effort to steer the fragile recovery back home.

“America is having enormous difficulties,” said economist Gustav Horn of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute, part of a labor-affiliated foundation in Düsseldorf, Germany. “At the moment, [the U.S.] is dependent on the rest of the world offering it a friendly economic environment.”

For Obama, the environment is less friendly than he would like. In an open letter to other G-20 heads of state before the summit, the president wrote that leaders should “learn from the consequential mistakes of the past when stimulus was too quickly withdrawn.” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, meanwhile, told the BBC, “Growth in the future around the world can’t depend on the United States as much as it did in the past.”

Some economists warn that austerity in the largest European economies, combined with severe budget cuts in countries such as Greece and Spain, could push the continent into a double-dip recession. If so, the consequences for the U.S. could be severe. A European downturn, Horn said, would hurt American exports, both by lowering demand and by strengthening the dollar. Perhaps more importantly, he added, a stumbling Europe could weaken crucial U.S. trading partners in Asia. Likewise, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman recently warned that the resistance to more stimulus in Europe and the U.S. raises the specter of a depression.

But the dominant view in Germany is that such fears are misguided. Supporters of budget consolidation note the country is on an upswing, with GDP growth expected to reach as high as 2 percent this year as exports accelerate. Moreover, they argue that fiscal retrenchment will spur private-sector spending. A recent report by the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, a Munich-based think tank with government funding, says cuts would lead to an “expansive confidence effect on German consumers and investors.”

The fear that a European slowdown could hurt American trade underscores a more fundamental challenge that German economists say the U.S. must tackle: expanding exports as a source of economic growth.

“Before the crisis, we had a consumption boom in the U.S. that was not sustainable,” said Ifo economist Klaus Abberger. “And so we think there is a need for some redirection.”

That redirection, economists say, will be outward.

“The growth driver you’ve got left is ultimately net exports,” said economist Christian Dreger of the Berlin-based German Institute for Economic Research, another government-funded think tank.

The Obama administration has come to a similar conclusion. In his State of the Union speech in January, the president announced a new initiative to double American exports within five years, though many analysts called the goal unrealistic.

“For too long, America served as the consumer engine for the entire world,” the president said in follow-up remarks in March. “But we’re rebalancing. … Countries with external deficits need to save and export more.”

But the future of U.S. exports is not entirely under American control. The country can only reduce its trade deficit if the rest of the world has sufficient buying power, Horn said. The G-20 has been touting a new initiative to ease trade imbalances, which would require net exporters like Germany to buy more from net importers like the U.S. But it remains to be seen whether there will be any action to follow the talk.

Obama’s inability to induce Europe to boost its stimulus spending is rendered even more discouraging by the limited traction his spending proposals are getting in Congress. And it does not help that Obama is looking increasingly isolated among world leaders in pushing a more expansive fiscal policy.

“You don’t win something in Congress by saying, oh, Europe’s doing this,” said economist Dean Baker, co-director of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “[But] you don’t want the U.S. to look like an outlier.”

The president should not get his hopes up for a hand from Berlin, though. As the Berliner Zeitung newspaper declared of Germany’s chancellor in a recent headline: “Merkel won’t listen to Obama.” The country has a culture of thriftiness to rival even the fiscal-conservative wing of the Republican Party. The traumatic hyperinflation that racked the Weimar Republic during the 1920s has made Germany hyper-sensitive to price stability. The country last year amended its constitution to include limits on government debt. Deep concern that the aging of the population will soon make Germany’s welfare state unaffordable have made people here anxious to get back to budget cutting. Meanwhile, unemployment is lower than in the U.S., so the economic pain is less acute.

Deficit hawks here also argue the turmoil in Greece is a warning to profligate governments across the continent.

“We saw with the Greek crisis how vulnerable highly indebted countries are to [speculative] attack,” said Norbert Barthle, a member of the German parliament from the ruling center-right Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) who specializes in budgeting.

The American economy has managed impressive growth so far this year, but it has largely been driven by the effects of government stimulus, Horn said. And the looming dry-up of stimulus funds around the world amounts to a serious problem for the American president.

“He has to do more if other countries do less,” Horn said. “And in that sense, his worries are absolutely understandable.”

David Dagan is a freelance journalist living in Berlin.

So despite calls by experts like Simon Johnson for more regulation of trades and even for the blacklisting of Goldman Sachs in Europe or in sovereign debt markets generally, European countries have a disincentive to do more than point fingers and talk about how it’s all Goldman’s fault. They’ve all been dancing with the debt-masking devil, be it at Goldman or elsewhere. If they kick Goldman off the floor, it’ll be easy enough to find a new partner, and if they make the dance illegal, it’s their public balance sheets that will suffer — and their politicians’ butts on the line. It’s not just Goldman whose hands will end up tied: EU member countries will end up tying their own hands as well, and everyone knows politicians hate to be left with nothing but transparency and honesty.

The detainee headed for Hungary is identified only as being “from the West Bank.” The Justice Department said that the government of Hungary wanted his identity withheld for security and privacy purposes.

The detainee transferred to France is Sabir Lahmar, a native of Algeria. In November 2008 Lahmar won his petition for habeas corpus in a federal court, which ruled that he could no longer be lawfully detained and ordered the government to arrange for his release.

The two detainees transferred to Italy are Abel Ben Mabrouk bin Hamida Boughanmi and Mohammed Tahir Riyadh Nasseri, both of Tunisia. Both were cleared for release by the government’s Guantanamo Review Task Force.  Both are the subject of outstanding arrest warrants in Italy, where they will be prosecuted.

Approximately 210 detainees still remain at the U.S.-run detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

“Fortunately, the conditions for international nuclear cooperation have been met,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said. “We are currently moving in the right direction and we have no fear of legal cooperation, under which all of Iran’s national rights will be preserved, and we will continue our work.”

An Iranian hardline newspaper has indicated that the regime wants two changes to the offer, which, as it stands, would send about 75 percent of Iran’s low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing into a state basically unsuitable for nuclear weapons. Experts believe that would add a year to the time it would take Iran to build a bomb. But Iran, according to the paper, will ask to stagger the shipments of uranium and for immediate weapons-unsuitable uranium shipments into Iran to power a medical-research reactor. The Times says that those changes may “undermine the deal.” We’ll have an idea tomorrow about whether that’s a gambit; what the Iranians will say; and how the United States and its allies will respond.

Iran may agree to send only a bit of its LEU stockpile out at a time, maintaining the bulk of it on Iranian soil (where in theory it could be further enriched to weapons grade). French officials have made clear in the past few days that they will only sign on to the deal if it involves all 1200 kg LEU suggested at Geneva.

Talks may go on until Wednesday.

Even assuming this is true, the story has no real implication for Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s efforts at reconciliation with lower- to mid-level Taliban fighters. Well, no implication beyond this observation:

“One cannot be too doctrinaire about these things,” a senior Nato officer in Kabul said. “It might well make sense to buy off local groups and use non-violence to keep violence down. But it is madness to do so and not inform your allies.”

I think it’s pretty safe to predict that this is going to be an extraordinarily difficult process. I doubt that it’s going to be measured in terms of one meeting, although we’ll see how the Iranians approach the meeting tomorrow.

That’s a way of saying that the talks will establish either that there’s a basis for further diplomatic engagement — predicated on Iranian disclosure — or that the Iranians are not interested in disclosure and the P5+1 will consider more punitive measures like sanctions. So, what specifically does Iran have to begin to provide the P5+1?

One, as I mentioned, is to fulfill their obligations to the IAEA on Qom, on the clandestine facility.

They also have an obligation to be transparent about their entire nuclear program. In the past there was a period of time where they applied the Additional Protocol, which allowed for wider inspections by the IAEA in Iran. That’s certainly an example of the kind of thing that would help restore confidence.

But the bottom line is we need to see — not just we, but the international community needs to see — actions, not just words. Particularly in light of the most recent revelation.

At the same time, in addition to increased transparency, as I said, concrete steps to build confidence in the program too, whether it’s based on the proposal that we’ve had on the table for some time that begins with freeze-for-freeze or other kinds of ideas, but there have to be measureable results.

Obama: the three countries presented “detailed evidence demonstrating” the covert enrichment facility “near Qom,” which has been under construction “for years.” It “underscores Iran’s continuing unwillingness to meet its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions.” Wants the IAEA to inspect “yet another nuclear facility” as it’s a “direct challenge” to the global nonproliferation regime, which guarantees “peaceful nuclear weapons” and no proliferation, alongside disarmament. “That compact depends on all nations living up to their responsibilities.”

“The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with” peaceful nuclear energy. Iran must “act immediately” to restore international confidence. Says the U.S. “remains committed” to dialogue and simultaneously showing the international nonproliferation regime is not “a meaningless promise.” Iran must “be prepared to cooperate fully” at next week’s P5+1 meeting with Iran in Geneva. “Iran must comply with U.N. security council resolutions… We have offered Iran a clear path to greater international [cooperation]… or be held accountable to international standards and international law.” Germany associates itself with the remarks.

Sarkozy: Iran is taking the world “on a dangerous path.” Today’s disclosures are “exceptional.” The Qom facility built in “direct violation” of Security Council resolution. Expects an “exhaustive, strict and rigorous investigation” from the IAEA.  At Geneva, “everything, everything must be put on the table.” By December, there must either be full disclosures or “sanctions will have to be taken, this is for the peace and stability.”

Brown: “Serial deception of many years,” prompting the international community to “draw a line in the sand.” Either disclosure or “further isolated” Iran. U.K. is prepared to implement “stringent sanctions.” Iran must “ambition any ambitions for its nuclear program.” And we’re out.

The men being considered are reportedly two Chinese Muslim Uighurs, an Uzbek and a Palestinian. The men the United States has been trying to relocate have all been deemed not to pose any security threat but cannot be returned to their native countries for fear of persecution and torture there.

Ireland, Portugal, France, Albania, the Pacific island nation of Palau and Bermuda have all already agreed to take about a dozen detainees since President Obama took office in January and promised to close the Guantanamo prison by January 2010.

The United States, however, has refused to accept any of the detainees cleared for release on its own soil, including those that U.S. federal judges have ruled were wrongly imprisoned by the United States for more than seven years.