A woman births her fourth child at home, against the wishes of her doctor, after having had three prior c-sections and being told she’d need to have another; The ACLU urges the superintendent of the California school district where a young teen committed suicide from anti-gay bullying, to do something about it; and reproductive justice advocates in Minnesota fear they are in for a rough haul this upcoming legislative session.

• Women in Minnesota are in for some serious battling over their reproductive rights as the state legislature gears up for a new session in January. The President of the Minnesota Senate, Sen. Michele Fischbach is wife to Scott Fischbach – none other than the head of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. Both houses are controlled by Republicans and, writes Andy Birkey at Minnesota Independent, while they have said their concerns lie more with jobs and the economy, reproductive justice advocates are gearing up for a rough session. What seems likely? Increased funding for abstinence only programs, “an outright ban on certain types of abortion procedures,” barring funding for any organizations which provide or refer for abortion just to name a few. 

• CNN asks: Is she a hero or a danger? Some say neither – that she’s “just a mom” as the Feminist Breeder writes. She’s a mom who, after being misled too many times and coming up against barriers put in place by a maternity care system embedded less in evidence and more in profit making and fear, decided to do what she believed was right and best for her – and her unborn baby. Aneka gave birth to her fourth child at home this month. She had been told by her Ob-Gyn, with her first, that her “hips were too small” and needed a c-section. With her next two it was the lack of providers who would peform VBACs. She finally decided she had a right not to have a c-section and found a midwife, at the last moment, who was willing to help. 

• The ACLU California affiliate, along with the mother of Seth Walsh, a 13 year old boy who committed suicide recently after being bullied repeatedly in school for being perceived as gay, has sent a letter to the school district superintendent “urging him to do more to prevent another tragedy.” The letter notes that school officials knew about the anti-gay harrassment against Walsh but largely ignored it. More here.

• This is scary news: One in sixteen women hospitalized for childbirth has diabetes; either pre-existing or developed during pregnancy (called “gestational diabetes”). Diabetes carries risk of preterm birth as well as hypoglecemia and jaundice for the newborn. Read more here. 

• More on the Catholic Bishop, Thomas Olmstead, who is threatening to revoke a Catholic hospital’s status as formally a Catholic institution. Other religious voices have weighed in. From USA Today, 

Lisa Fullam, professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, blogged at commonwealmagazine.org that the hospital ought to stand up to the bishop.

“Why don’t they simply point out to Bishop Olmsted that, while under church law he can restrict who uses the appellation ‘Catholic,’ he does not have a copyright to the term under U.S. law? If the administrators at St. Joseph’s believe it to be a Catholic hospital, they should continue to use the name and let the canonical chips fall where they may. The bishop does not own Catholicism, in his diocese or elsewhere.”