Vital Signs: This week's abortion news

Deadly games in Texas. Designers Carly Kocurek and Allyson Whipple are developing a new video game in Texas that asks players to overcome various challenges before they “win” the game and abort their character’s baby. Choice: Texas is an interactive, fictional game designed to “raise awareness about the financial, geographic, and demographic factors impacting abortion access in Texas.”

Some of the obstacles that characters in the game face include distance—19-year-old Leah lives in a small town—and unstable relationships—35-year-old Latrice lives with her long-term, ambivalent boyfriend. Question: Will characters in the game have the option to visit a pregnancy care center?

The developers have 20 more days to raise the $9,250 needed to fund the game’s completion—they currently have raised just over $5,000. If they meet their goal by Sept. 18, they plan to release the game in February 2014.

Abortion ads back on Kansas radio. Clear Channel Communications lifted its ban on radio ads for a Wichita, Kan., abortion center last week.

The ads for South Wind Women’s Center, the first abortion facility to open in Wichita since abortionist George Tiller’s murder in 2009, aired on July 1 before the broadcaster pulled them. The center paid between $1,500 and $2,000 for a month’s ad time.

Clear Channel reversed course as supporters of South Wind prepared to deliver a petition last Wednesday with 68,000 signatures, asking it to reconsider last month’s decision to yank the ads.

The broadcaster said it took a closer look at the criteria used to determine whether an advertisement should air. The company said the petition did not play into its decision.

Doctors not necessary. California’s pro-abortion lobby is waiting for Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature on a bill that would allow nurse practitioners, certified midwives, and physician assistants to perform early abortions. The California State Senate voted 25-11 along party lines to approve the bill last Monday.

The measure would let medical professionals perform aspiration abortions during the first trimester. The method involves inserting a tube into the uterus and sucking out the baby.

Several Republicans objected to the expansion, saying it would increase medical risks.

“Abortion is a serious medical procedure with vast complications, and I would argue that only the best-trained should conduct such an operation,” said Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber. “It has direct and profound impact on lives.”

Oregon, Montana, Vermont, and New Hampshire already allow nurse practitioners to perform these types of abortions. Under current California law, nurse practitioners can only administer medicine to induce an abortion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.