Trump’s executive order supposedly expanding IVF access offered nothing concrete beyond a weird nickname for himself
Donald Trump has clearly been spending far too much time with Elon-I-offer-my-sperm-to-everyone-who-crosses-my-path-Musk. It seems like the creepy billionaire’s insemination obsession has rubbed off on Trump: the legally defined sexual predator is now calling himself “the fertilization president”.
Continue reading...Ariyan A Johnson stars as the back-talking, fourth wall-breaking high schooler who falls pregnant in Harris’s rough and ready drama
There’s an undimmed freshness, warmth and freewheeling energy in this 1992 indie gem, and its director Leslie Harris – whose career since has chiefly involved writing and teaching – deserves a far bigger presence in US film history. Ariyan A Johnson plays Chantel, a young Black American high schooler who lives with her stressed parents and two kid brothers in Brooklyn (in an era before its gentrification) and rides the subway’s IRT Eastern Parkway line.
Chantel is getting great grades in school, and plans to be a doctor, but is addicted to talking back to the teachers and won’t restrain herself, even when she’s sent to the principal’s office. Her relationship with her mother and father is just as fraught – and as far as dating goes, Chantel is not going to sell herself short. And when she finally has sex with her boyfriend Tyrone (Kevin Thigpen), dizzied by his ownership of a Jeep – so she doesn’t have to travel on the IRT – it ends in pregnancy and further disasters. Tyrone gets 500 bucks from his uncle to get her an abortion, but Chantel blows it all in one afternoon on a shopping spree with a friend, in deep denial about what is happening to her, a set piece of black-comic calamity that only intensifies the compassion you feel for her. And when the baby comes, a further existential crisis is in store.
Continue reading...Nicola Slawson on her decision to have a baby with her best friend, Tom, rather than a romantic partner
Nicola Slawson, a journalist and author of Single: Living a Complete Life on Your Own Terms, has been single for 10 years. She didn’t think it was going to be possible for her to have a baby. She had looked into solo parenthood, but didn’t think she wouldd be able to afford it.
Then, she became friends with Tom Hayes. He worked at the Hive, an arts centre in Shrewsbury where Nicola was a trustee.
Continue reading...The gay couple, who travelled to the US for the birth of their son, could be among the first Italians prosecuted under a new ban on domestic surrogacy
The Italian parents of a child who was recently born in the US via surrogacy say they are too afraid to return home since Giorgia Meloni’s government enacted the west’s most restrictive law against what she described as “procreative tourism”.
The gay couple could be among the first Italians to be prosecuted under the law, enacted in early December, which extended an outright ban on domestic surrogacy by making it a universal crime that transcends borders, putting them on a par with terrorists, paedophiles and war criminals.
Continue reading...New evidence of particles damaging crops strengthens the case for an international plastics treaty
New and concerning findings from environmental scientists about the impact of microplastics on crops and marine algae add to a growing body of evidence about the disruption caused to living systems by plastic pollution. The results, from a team led by Prof Huan Zhong at Nanjing University, China, are not definitive and require corroboration. But analysis showing that plastics could limit photosynthesis (the conversion of sunlight into chemical energy) must be taken seriously. If the researchers are correct, and staple crops are being reduced by about 12%, there are huge implications for global agriculture and food supplies. This could inject new urgency into efforts to tackle plastic pollution.
There is no single route by which microplastic particles inhibit plants from growing. The overall effect is attributed to a combination of blocked sunlight and nutrients, and damage to soil and cells. This can lead to reduced levels of chlorophyll – the pigment enabling photosynthesis. When the researchers modelled the crop losses caused by an effect of this size, they found Asia was hardest hit, potentially contributing to food insecurity and worsening hunger.
Continue reading...An energetic attempt to reimagine maternity leave swerves hard thinking about social reform
Something is rotten in the state of British motherhood. It starts during pregnancy: in September, a safety watchdog found conditions at nearly half of NHS maternity units to be inadequate. It continues after childbirth: last year, the UK’s maternal death rate reached a 20-year high; when babies are between six weeks and a year old, the leading cause of maternal death is suicide. It carries on at work: in one survey, 52% of women said they experienced some form of discrimination while pregnant or on maternity leave.
But reading Maternity Service, a slim new volume from BBC Today programme presenter Emma Barnett, you wouldn’t gather that anything was seriously amiss. At least, nothing a new mother armed with the right polo neck, stretchy trousers, hip playlist and a stiff beverage couldn’t gamely tackle.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Marie Tidball tells of her experiences with NHS as report finds 44% higher risk of stillbirth for disabled women
When doctors tried to work out whether Marie Tidball would need a specially designed birth plan, one asked her to lie fully clothed on the bed and spread her legs in the air so they could see how far they could open.
The incident was one of several occasions when Tidball, now a Labour MP, felt neglected during her pregnancy and early motherhood because of the NHS’s failure to adapt on account of her physical disabilities. Tidball has physical impairments affecting all four of her limbs and had major surgeries on both her hips and legs as a child.
Continue reading...Changes to sentencing guidance will also apply to mothers of children under one year old
Pregnant women should not be sent to jail unless it is “unavoidable”, according to new sentencing guidelines.
The guidance, published on Wednesday by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, has been hailed by campaigners as a huge milestone. It outlines a raft of new measures to stop criminals who are pregnant or mothers of children under one year old being imprisoned.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Women and partners who suffer pregnancy loss before 24 weeks to be entitled in England, Wales and Scotland
Parents in Britain will be granted a right to bereavement leave after suffering a miscarriage as part of Labour’s workers’ rights reforms, the Guardian can disclose.
In a change to the law made via the employment rights bill, mothers and their partners will be given the right to two weeks of bereavement leave if they have suffered a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks’ gestation.
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