Brazil's lower house of Congress voted Wednesday to keep abortion a crime, disappointing groups that wanted to legalize the procedure in the country with the world's largest Catholic population. The representatives in the congressional commission on the constitution and justice voted 30-4 against lifting the penal prohibition on abortion.

The center-left government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had backed moves to legalize the practice that is estimated to be carried out 3 million times a year. The pro-abortion group wants to make the issue a question of public health

Children born to mothers who are depressed during pregnancy are likely to develop more slowly than their peers, new research shows.

The study, carried out by researchers at the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol, found an increase of up to 34 per cent in the risk of poor physical and mental development in children whose mothers were depressed during pregnancy

The clock is very well ticking.

Reproductive health experts are urging countries with declining populations to allocate resources and research ways to combat infertility before time runs out

The annual hospital bill Americans pay may reach $1 trillion by 2008, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The amount is based on the average 4.5 percent yearly rate of increase over the last several years in the national hospital bill.

U.S. hospitals charged $873 billion in 2005 - a nearly 90 percent increase from the $462 billion charged in 1997. The 2005 bill, adjusted for inflation, represents the total amount charged for 39 million hospital stays

Breathing problems are most likely to develop among infants born by elective Cesarean section, a study showed.

This is because the babies are unable to undergo hormonal and psychological changes, such as the draining of their lung fluid, they experience during labor. These changes aid in maturing the lungs, BBC News reported