" This time, Republicans on the subcommittee are upset with what they call U-M's "thumbing of their nose" at requests for information about embryonic stem cells. Several lawmakers said that if they don't get the information -- required under language passed in last year's budget -- they'll look at docking U-M's state aid. "

" Two of the three departing regents, Chuck Hassebrook of Lyons and Jim McClurg of Lincoln, opposed a proposal considered by the Board of Regents in November 2009 that would have limited embryonic stem cell research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center to only cell lines approved under former President George W. Bush. Expansion had become a possibility since President Barack Obama relaxed the Bush guidelines. "

" The initiative, “Unalienable Right to Life of Prenatal Persons is Protected” was withdrawn by the Nevada Prolife Coalition.

" Organizers said they will work with members of Personhood Nevada to collect signatures for its proposal called “The Right to Life for Young and Old Alike.”

" “Working in tandem on only one prolife personhood initiative, rather than two, will make the best use of the limited time remaining before the June 19 deadline,” said Chet Gallagher, director of Nevada Prolife Coalition. “It’s still a big job, but pooling our resources may provide the edge we need to succeed in this important task.” "

" Fred Sauer, who heads Missouri Roundtable for Life, filed Monday with the secretary of state's office to run in the August Republican primary.

" Sauer, of St. Louis, is the fourth Republican in the field of potential challengers to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. Other GOP candidates include St. Louis businessman Dave Spence and Kansas City attorney Bill Randles.

Missouri Roundtable for Life was among the groups that successfully challenged a newly created state fund designed to offer incentives to science and technology companies. "

" The Oklahoma House's Public Health Committee voted 7-4 for the Senate-passed measure Tuesday and sent it to the full House. "

" This time, Republicans on the subcommittee are upset with what they call U-M's "thumbing of their nose" at requests for information about embryonic stem cells. Several lawmakers said that if they don't get the information -- required under language passed in last year's budget -- they'll look at docking U-M's state aid.

" U-M President Mary Sue Coleman said the university doesn't have an exact number of stem cells. She said it's important, instead, to place the work in the context of medical advances stem cells are leading. "

" The arguments against this misguided proposal are multiplying as quickly as embryonic cells divide. But lawmakers have painted themselves into a political corner: If they vote against the bill, they risk the ire of a certain segment of voters.

" But there is still a way for lawmakers to do the right thing. In fact, there are several possibilities. They can see to it that the bill languishes in the legislative process or they could send a similar measure to the people for a vote. Experience in other states suggests the people have more common sense on such subjects than many of their leaders. "

" The General Assembly has decided to postpone until next year consideration of a bill that would grant personhood rights to a human embryo from the moment of conception.

" The Senate last week sent the measure, House Bill 1, back to a committee after Democrats and some Republicans said it could have unforeseen consequences. "

" Police with shields held back protesters while unshielded officers performed the arrests. Those arrested were taken to the Richmond City Jail.

" “It’s nice up here,” one protester on the stairs shouted to the rest of the assembly before the arrests. “The Constitution is our permit.”

" More than 1,000 men and women of various ages gathered at Capitol Square for the protest, which was organized largely through Facebook and other social media. "

" The protesters donned aprons and took off their shoes to illustrate their contention that the declaration would be a throwback to when women had few reproductive or career choices.

" "Women brought you in 2 the world," read one sign. "Women will vote you out of this Legislature."

" "Forcing your agenda between my legs is rape," another sign said.

" Yet another sign - which Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre, D-Tulsa, held up - said: "If I wanted the government in my womb I'd f--- a senator." "

" Protesters placed pairs of shoes on the north steps of the state Capitol on Tuesday in protest against a bill that would grant “personhood” to fertilized human eggs.

" The act of walking away barefoot was intended to show that legislators who support the bill want Oklahoma women to be barefoot and pregnant. The empty shoes left on the steps symbolized women injured or killed by politicized women’s health care, said organizer Heather Hall. "

" A handful of physicians joined the head of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma on Wednesday to announce their support of the Personhood Act. The bill by Tulsa Republican Brian Crain states that life begins at conception and that human embryos have "all the rights, privileges, and immunities" available to other citizens of the state. "

" Officials with Personhood Oklahoma now have 90 days to gather signatures from about 155,000 registered Oklahoma voters. If successful, they hope to have a question on the state ballot in November that defines a human being “from the beginning of the biological development of that human being to natural death.” "

" The personhood measure seeks to add a constitutional provision called “the right to live for young and old alike.”

" In a description filed with the secretary of state’s office, backers say the amendment would apply “whenever the life of any human being is jeopardized,” beginning at conception.

" It would prohibit some forms of birth control, fertility treatments when selective reduction is used, and embryonic stem cell research.

" The other measure, backed by a group called the Nevada Prolife Coalition, would extend protections to “prenatal” persons, ban abortion even in the case of rape or incest, and also outlaw any medical procedure or birth control that “kills a prenatal person.” "

" According to Resolve, the National Fertility Association, Marshall's bill could also prohibit IVF. "

" But three years after the Obama administration’s easing of restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research, advocates for this young field are facing a reality check: Rather than seeing an avalanche of breakthroughs for all that ails mankind, patients find themselves waiting in the wings for a science that is in some ways still theoretical and often prohibitively expensive. "

" For the last two weeks, supporters from Resolve: The National Infertility Association, an advocacy organization for people struggling with infertility, waged an ambitious lobbying campaign that tried to explain to Virginia lawmakers why the bill was anti-family to them. "

" The Oklahoma Senate last week passed a bill, 34-8, that states life begins at “conception,” which is broadly defined as the moment a sperm fertilizes an egg. "

" Sen. Barry Loudermilk considered re-introducing legislation this session aimed at banning abortion, declaring that life begins at fertilization. The Cassville Republican says he was working to modify the language, omitting references to fertilization and cloning — words that proved problematic in last year's failed Mississippi ballot issue.

" Instead, Loudermilk says he is focusing his efforts this year on supporting a House anti-abortion bill. "

" Medical professionals and former infertility patients lined up Friday to oppose two measures that would declare personhood at conception, saying they would create a host of problems. "

" Senate Republican Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. seconded a motion by Senate Democratic Leader Richard L. Saslaw to shelve the bill in the full Senate, saying the bill needed more study.

" The vote that held over the bill until next year’s session was 24 to 14.

" “When you get the Republican majority leader doing this, it sends a very strong signal to some other Republicans to follow suit,” Marshall said. "

" For decades, established anti-abortion leaders like National Right to Life and Catholic bishops have pushed for gradually chipping away at the edges of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion, with state laws to impose limits on late-term abortions, to require women to view sonograms or to prohibit insurance coverage for the procedure.

" But now many activists and evangelical Christian groups are pressing for an all-out legal assault on Roe. v. Wade in the hope — others call it a reckless dream — that the Supreme Court is ready to consider a radical change in the ruling. "

" The Nov. 8 defeat of the “personhood” amendment in Mississippi is galvanizing supporters to have a do-over in the state and also push measures in Colorado, Virginia and at least eight other states, say leaders of the anti-abortion movement. "

" However, the legislation, known as MOSIRA, includes a clause that states it cannot take effect until lawmakers pass a separate measure dealing with state tax incentives for businesses. The separate bill did not pass during the recently ended special session, but Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon has said his administration will take steps to implement the law anyway.

" In a lawsuit filed Thursday in the Capitol's home of Cole County, the Missouri Roundtable for Life and Missouri Right to Life said the new fund should be declared void because of the contingency clause. The groups are among critics who contend the law does not contain sufficient protection to bar state funds from going to human embryonic stem cell research. "

" The proposed amendment would change the Ohio Constitution to define a person as including "every human being at every stage of biological development, including fertilization." "

" Managing expectations is a critical task for CIRM, which will run out of funds in 2017 and which is expected to be asking voters for another multibillion dollar bond measure sometime in the next few years. "

" In one poll of Americans, 62% said they believed that medical research involving stem cells obtained from human embryos was morally acceptable; 30% said it was not. In another poll, 55% said the government should fund research that would use newly created embryonic stem cells.

" But, the researchers added, when party affiliation was included in the analysis, Republicans were always less supportive of the research than Democrats. People who are religious were also much more likely to oppose embryonic stem cell studies. Republicans were more likely to attend religious services at least weekly than Democrats. Similarly, Americans who attend religous services at least weekly were more likely to vote for Republicans. "

" Union City-based California Civil Rights Foundation must collect more than 807,000 signatures by April to qualify for the November 2012 ballot, the secretary of state's office said. "

" Industry watchers say the science of stem cell medicine remains sound. It's just the economics that are shaky.

" Geron, based in Menlo Park, Calif., was always fighting an uphill battle, seeking funding for a venture fraught with medical and regulatory obstacles at a time when skittish investors wanted certainty. Faced with dwindling resources, Geron had a safer option and ran with it. "

" "We've gathered signatures in California and Montana. We've put down legislation in Alabama and North Dakota," Mason said, citing four of some dozen states where personhood groups are at work to qualify referendums. "

" The amendment was rejected by 58 percent of voters in staunchly anti-abortion Mississippi, largely on fears like Mrs. Breland’s that hinged on subtleties of medical science. "

" Staver said he blames Americans United for Life (AUL) and the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) — two of the nation’s largest and most established anti-abortion groups — for an “impasse” in the movement that contributed to a loss at the polls. "

So almost half of Mississippi voters (45%) agreed that zygotes and blastocysts should be legal persons.