Criminalising pregnant women who drink is a ploy to restrict their freedom | Rebecca Schiller

If the UK apes the US and punishes pregnant women, we will be heading towards a dystopia akin to that in The Handmaids Tale



Alcohol abuse in pregnancy could become a crime

Margaret Atwoods 1985 novel The Handmaids Tale seems to have moved from fiction to prophecy, with news of a court case in England that could lead to the prosecution of women who drink alcohol while pregnant.

Nothing changes instantaneously, wrote Atwood, in a gradually heating bathtub, youd be boiled to death before you knew it. She was referring to the gradual deterioration of an imagined liberal society where an increasingly draconian state imposes laws on womens sexual, reproductive and basic human freedoms. Her prescience was startling.

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Baby born by emergency caesarean after mother dies in Gaza shelling

Doctors save newborn after woman who was eight months pregnant was buried by rubble at her home in Deir al-Balah

When the doctors gently pulled the tiny newborn from the womb in an emergency caesarean, her mother had already been dead for an hour.

Shayma al-Sheikh Qanan, 23, was eight months pregnant when an Israeli tank shell hit her home in the central Gaza strip town of Deir al-Balah, reducing it to rubble. She was left in a critical condition. Her husband, a local radio journalist, was also badly wounded.

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Mother could be forced to pay damages to child for drinking during pregnancy

Advice groups join forces in bid to combat ruling which they believe could criminalise the behaviour of pregnant women

An unprecedented court hearing to decide on the right of a child whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy to receive compensation could pave the way to the criminalisation of pregnant women's behaviour, according to legal papers lodged with the judge.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service and legal charity Birthrights have applied to address the court on the case. They believe the ruling could undermine women's freedom to make decisions for themselves while pregnant.

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The anti-abortion activists waging war on vulnerable women

US clinics now provide escorts for patients attending women's centres to protect them from militant protesters, whose tactics now threaten to infiltrate the UK

It's not yet 7 o'clock on a Saturday morning in New York and I'm confronted by a group of people standing in front of a nondescript doorway, waving four-foot high placards and shouting: "They murder babies here!" There are already a dozen anti-abortion protesters outside the clinic and the day has barely started.

Here to act as an "escort" ensuring patients, whether they are having abortions or not, enter the clinic safely I already feel intimidated. So, imagine that you're a woman who has miscarried and someone shouts at you: "Carrying babies in your uterus is a gift from God"; or imagine simply going to the doctor and being told you're "going to hell". Imagine being an African-American woman on your way to a women's health clinic and being surrounded by people screaming: "They want to kill black babies."Can you imagine how upsetting and emotionally traumatising that is for patients?

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20 best iPhone and iPad apps this week

Glow Nurture, Lingua.ly, Guardians of the Galaxy, Swords & Poker Adventures, Overcast, Shakespeare300 and more

It's time for our weekly roundup of the best new iPhone and iPad apps and games to have emerged on Apple's App Store.

As ever, prices are correct at the time of writing, but may have changed by the time you read this. (Free + IAP) means in-app purchases are used within the app.

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Questioning women with depression about having children isn't babying them | Hannah Jane Parkinson

Doctors are being encouraged to speak to women with depression about pregnancy risks. This is not intrusive it's necessary guidance

If there's one thing that people with experience of depression fear most in life, it's depression coming back. The thought of being dragged again into a moribund swamp of emptiness, ennui and self-hatred is terrifying. Depression often returns, so its handy to learn how to fend off the black dog before you find yourself staring at the back of its open throat and being knocked to the ground. It can take a hell of a long time to get up.

To this end, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) has issued new guidelines to GPs treating women with depression. It suggests doctors ask female patients whether or not they want children as a prelude to discussing the complications which can arise when women with depression or history of it become pregnant.

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Number of babies born falls by more than 4% in England and Wales

Office for National Statistics says welfare reforms may have influenced childbearing decisions as data coincides with average age for motherhood reaching 30 for first time

The number of babies born in England and Wales fell by 4.3% last year, the largest percentage annual drop for almost 40 years, and the average age of mothers has risen to 30 for the first time, new figures reveal.

Benefits changes, uncertainty about employment and restricted career and promotion opportunities because of temporary, part-time and zero-hour contracts, could be factors in the drop in live births, the Office for National Statistics says.

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