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'New And Improved Antiabortion Movement' Still Ignores Needs Of Women, Salon Opinion Piece States
A "new set of antiabortion actors" who are "anti-war, anti-capital punishment, pro-environment "pro-lifers"" have "emerged as the face of a new and improved antiabortion movement," Salon columnist Frances Kissling writes. Although these advocates supported President Obama in the 2008 election, they "suffer from the same lack of understanding of women"s nature and identity as do old-line anti-abortionists," Kissling writes. She notes that this group has "already decided that a political effort to make abortion illegal is hopeless, which helps the pro-choice cause." According to Kissling, "Taking legality off the table" increases the prospects for "rational public discourse about all the factors at play in women"s decisions not to continue pregnancy and not to become mothers," but "[w]e are ... far from common ground between the new anti-abortionists and the pro-choice advocates."Members of this new group believe that data suggesting that many women decide to have abortions for financial reasons prove that "better economic support" for pregnant women "will result in more continued pregnancies and more women embracing motherhood," Kissling writes. In addition, they "assert that if adoption policies were friendlier," more women would choose adoption over abortion, according to Kissling. "But facts have little place in their strategy," as the policies they support "are already in place in much of Europe," and "few women who face unintended pregnancies in those countries opt out of abortion," Kissling writes. She adds, "Something much deeper influences a woman"s decision about what to do when she is pregnant and does not want to become a mother -- and the new anti-choicers don"t seem to have a clue about what this might be." For this group, "the outcome [of pregnancy] -- the new person -- is obviously so much more valuable than whatever short-term loss or pain the women might experience," Kissling writes. Therefore, they believe it is "not asking much of a woman who faces an unwanted, difficult or unintended pregnancy to shift the plan she had for this time in her life and continue the pregnancy," according to Kissling.Kissling lists four "positions taken by the new antiabortionists [that] illuminate this flawed thinking." The first is "[d]enying the "need" for abortion," she writes. Secondly, their "same sense of pregnancy as no big deal influences the new antiabortionists" unwillingness to embrace contraception," Kissling says. She adds that "[i]f we really understood what it meant for women to consent to becoming mothers, we would want them to be able to meet their moral obligation to their own identity by avoiding becoming pregnant." The third position is an attempt to make "sex sacred," Kissling writes, adding that if "creating new life is sacred, then we want men and women to have the tools necessary to fulfill the obligation to create life responsibly and not create it when they cannot -- or choose not to -- bring it to fruition." The fourth position is "[r]edefining adoption," Kissling continues. She asks whether adoption is "now a process of finding children for needy parents," adding, "Might it not be more generous of us as a society to work harder to make it possible for women to keep their children if they so wish?"Kissling writes that the "challenge to the new antiabortionists" is whether "women"s perspectives on the meaning of pregnancy and motherhood will be considered in their project" or if "their ethical frame will remain focused on the fetus." She asks, "How many of these women"s decisions will the new antiabortionists be able to say "yes" to?" Kissling concludes, "So far it seems that it is far more than abortion that is a stumbling block to common ground" (Kissling, Salon, 7/20).
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TB Booster Vaccine Trials To Begin Next Month In South Africa
A new two-year trial to test a tuberculosis vaccine aimed at boosting the efficacy of the BCG vaccine is scheduled to begin soon in South Africa, IRIN reports (IRIN, 6/4). The vaccine candidate, called MVA85A, will be tested next month in 2,874 children younger than age one. The new tests will be the "first concept trial of a new preventative TB vaccine for infants in close to 90 years," according to Reuters.
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DFG To Support 6 New Interdisciplinary Research Units

During its summer session, the Joint Committee of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has approved funding for six new Research Units. Within these Research Units, researchers from different disciplines work together on a particular scientific topic. Funding for Research Units provides the personnel and equipment required for medium-term (usually six years) cooperation and contributes to the establishment of new research directions. The six new Research Units will undertake research in the humanities and social sciences as well as the life sciences. The spectrum of topics studied ranges from using psychology to improve our perception of others to research into algae and viruses. Over the next three years, the Research Units will receive around 14.7 million euros. The DFG currently funds a total of 202 Research Units. The new Research Units in detail: Humanities and Social Sciences The Research Unit on "Violent Societies" at the University of GieÃÿen investigates the rules governing the threat of violence and its perpetration by particular groups within a society. This type of socially relevant violence will be examined using numerous historical examples from the time of the late Roman Empire to the modern era. (University of GieÃÿen; Spokesperson: Prof. Win-fried Speitkamp) Facial and voice recognition is the focus of the "Person Perception" Research Unit. In order to research our perceptions of other people more intensively, researchers in Jena aim to link different psychological perspectives by combining neuronal mechanisms with models from cognitive and social psychology. (University of Jena; Spokesperson: Prof. Stefan R. Schweinberger) What role do key epistemological terms such as "causality" and "laws" play in scientific disciplines? The Research Unit on "Explanations, Causality, Laws and Dispositions at the Intersection of Science and Metaphysics" at the University of MÃønster is breaking new ground with this topic. While, in analytical philosophy, the meaning of such terms has hitherto been investigated primarily with regard to physics, the researchers will now examine it for disciplines which have, until now, been comparatively neglected. These disciplines include medicine and biology as well as history and jurisprudence. (University of MÃønster; Spokesperson: Prof. Andreas HÃøttemann) Life Sciences At the universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg, the "Mechanisms of Persistence of Hepatotropic Viruses" Research Unit is working on improving our understanding of the molecular mecha-nisms that lead to the lifelong persistence of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C and their combination in sufferers. The scientists will perform an interdisciplinary investigation of this medically relevant topic in areas where clinical and preclinical research overlap. (University of Heidelberg; Spokesperson: Prof. Ralf Bartenschlager) The aim of the Research Unit on "Specific Light Driven Reactions in Unicellular Model Algae" is to explain the regulation of different membrane proteins in the photosynthetic membranes of single-celled algae. The investigations, which are coordinated in Jena, will take place at multiple universities and focus on the characterisation of the proteins involved in light-driven processes. The Unit will examine both proteins that play a part in light perception and components of the light signal transmission cascade. At the same time, it will also investigate a relatively little-known subject: light regulation in photosynthetic diatoms, which is responsible for up to 20 percent of the Earth"s primary production. (University of Jena; Spokesperson: Prof. Maria Mit-tag) The comprehensive examination of photorespiration (the light-dependent release of carbon dioxide during photosynthesis) is the objective of the Research Unit on "Photorespiration: Origins and Metabolic Integration in Interacting Compartments" coordinated by the University of Rostock. The scientists involved aim to investigate this biosphere-influencing element of plant metabolism using different model organisms ranging from cyanobacteria to higher plants. (Uni-versity of Rostock; Spokesperson: Prof. Hermann Bauwe) Dr. Eva-Maria Streier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft


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