California AG seizes undercover videos from David Daleiden’s apartment

(WNS)–Center for Medical Progress (CMP) director David Daleiden revealed on April 5 that agents from the California attorney general’s office searched his Orange County apartment, seizing “all video footage” related to CMP’s investigation into Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the fetal tissue trade.Reporting the raid on CMP’s Facebook page, Daleiden characterized the search and seizure of the videos as an “attack on citizen journalism.” He blamed the decision for the raid on the close alliance between California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Planned Parenthood. “Kamala Harris, who was elected with tens of thousands of dollars from taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood … has steadfastly refused to enforce the law against the baby body parts traffickers in our state,” Daleiden wrote. On several occasions, Harris has publicly defended Planned Parenthood, and the abortion industry giant donated thousands of dollars to the Democrat’s successful 2014 re-election bid.

Study: When tests detect birth defects, babies can still be born healthy

(WNS)–New research suggests women who terminate their pregnancies because of an abnormal prenatal test may be aborting perfectly healthy babies. Doctors frequently offer birth defect tests to pregnant women whose babies are at increased risk of abnormalities. Physicians often believe the presence of abnormal cells indicates the baby will most likely be born with birth defects like Down syndrome. Some moms choose to abort their babies when the test results are abnormal.  Researchers at the University of Cambridge, who published their results in the journal Nature Communications, found even when half the cells of an early-stage mouse embryo were abnormal, the embryo was still able to fully repair itself because the abnormal cells self-destructed and healthy cells replaced them. In many cases, the process completely repaired a defective embryo, leaving it with all healthy cells even though some of the placental cells were still abnormal. Even in cases where 75 percent of an early-stage embryo’s cells were abnormal, the ratio of normal cells increased as the embryo developed. More research is needed to determine if the results of the study hold true for human embryos.

Is Flint a drop in the water crisis bucket?

(WNS)–Pervasive administrative failures ultimately allowed water laced with lead and other pollutants to gush into thousands of homes in Flint, Mich. The tragedy still prompts more questions than answers as lawmakers blueprint rebuilding America’s crumbling drinking water infrastructure and figure out how federal, state, and local governments will work together to pick up the tab. Flint’s water crisis highlighted a plethora of problems at all levels of government. No one wanted to take credit for poisoning thousands of children as the outcry made national headlines and officials struggled to provide a concerted response. After more than two years of turmoil and an emergency declaration issued in January, Flint’s water is still not safe to drink. Officials can’t even estimate when it will be. But as catastrophic as Flint’s situation is, the crisis may only be the shallow end of America’s deep water worries.