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ALL Associate Newsletter - Vol. 6, No. 1 - Monday January 5, 2009
by Leslie Tignor
Released January 5, 2009
American Life League
Associate Newsletter
Volume 6, Number 1
Monday January 5, 2009
Personhood Conference Invitation – for You!
http://www.all.org/personhood-conference.pdf
Breaking News – ACTION ALERT
Merck Focusing on Combination Vaccine – Manufacturer Stops Sales of Monovalents for Measles, Mumps, Rubella
Merck & Co. Inc. has stopped production and sales of its monovalent vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella. The manufacturer instead plans to focus on its combination vaccine, MMRII.
Merck spokeswoman Amy Rose said MMRII accounts for 98 percent of the company's volume for measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, compared to just 2 percent from monovalent vaccines Attenuvax (measles), Mumpsvax (mumps) and Meruvax (rubella). Rose said Merck had not decided when, or if, it might make the monovalent vaccines available for sale in the future.
http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/news/news-now/clinical-care-research/20081224merckcombo.html
NOTE: Merck's separate dose for rubella, Meruvax, uses aborted fetal cell lines and taints the entire MMRII vaccine. The separate doses of Attenuvax (measles) and Mumpsvax (mumps) use chick embryo. Without these separate doses for measles and mumps, there will be no moral alternative for parents!
The Holy Father recently affirmed in his encyclical Dignitas Personae, that “everyone has the duty to make known their disagreement and to ask that their healthcare system make other types of vaccines available.” The Vatican further stated that “there is a duty to refuse to use such ‘biological material’ even when there is no close connection between the researcher and the actions of those who performed the abortion.”
Please prayerfully consider sending a letter to Merck to let them know that the ethical alternatives are preferred.
Richard Clark, CEO
Merck & Company
One Merck Drive P.O. Box 100
Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889-0100
Read the letter sent by Children of God for Life at http://www.cogforlife.org/merckletter2008.htm.
Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute
American Life League, along with Human Life International and our Associate group Children of God for Life, is encouraging pro-lifers to support a new pro-life vaccine research company, which is challenging the use of tainted and unethical vaccines.
The Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute, a non-profit subsidiary of AVM Biotechnology founded by Dr. Theresa Dreisher, is providing real alternatives to current products on the market. Additionally, SCPI is conducting credible research about the unethical products that will help pro-lifers in their dealings with major pharmaceutical companies.
To learn more:
Judie’s recent blog, “Sound Choice is All About Good News,” at http://www.all.org/newsroom_judieblog.php?id=2432
Children of God for Life’s press release at http://www.cogforlife.org/
Fr. Euteneuer’s “Spirit and Life Newsletter” at http://www.hli.org/sl_2008-12-19.html
The Facts about Title X
From ALL’s Life Guide Series by Judie Brown with John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe, Hon. Robert G. Marshall and Jim Sedlak.
As we mentioned in previous newsletters, one of the aims of the Prevention First Act is to make Title X, or family planning, a permanent government program and fund it at $700 million or more. Many people wonder precisely what Title X is and what it does. Here we continue our series to answer those questions:
What do promoters of birth control have to say about government-funded birth control programs?
Faye Wattleton (former President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America): “Too many of us are focused upon stopping teenage sexual activity rather than stopping teenage pregnancy … Sexuality education must be a fundamental part of the school curricula from kindergarten through twelfth grade in every school district in the country … Easier access to contraception must be another priority – access without any barriers. We must establish school-based health clinics that provide contraceptives as part of general health care.”
The Alan Guttmacher Institute: “… Neither pregnancy education nor contraceptive education exerts any significant effect on the risk of premarital pregnancy among sexually active teenagers – a finding that calls into question the argument that formal sex education is an effective tool for reducing adolescent pregnancy.”
What do pro-life experts say?
James H. Ford, M.D. and Michael Schwartz: “It is clear that the family planning programs have contributed directly to an increase in the rate of abortion among teenagers.”
Stan Weed and Sam Olson: “Instead of the expected reductions in overall teenage pregnancy rates, greater teenage involvement in family-planning programs appears to be associated with higher, rather than lower, teenage pregnancy rates.”
K. D. Whitehead: “[T]here is no evidence that contraceptive use reduces the number of abortions; all the evidence points the other way. Once the really fundamental decision has been made that it is the unwanted pregnancies that have to be eliminated, rather than the sexual promiscuity, then nobody any longer distinguishes very carefully between the various ‘methods’ to accomplish this, whether they come before or after the fact.”
Do birth control devices provided by government funds cause the death of a human being during his first week of life? YES. Over 90% of women who receive contraceptive devices under the Title X program are provided low-dose and mini birth control pills, Norplant or Depo-Provera. These devices all have as one of three modes of action the prevention of implantation of an already-conceived human being. This method of action results in the death of a human being.
Does the use of contraceptives lower the number of abortions? NO. Although proponents of family planning frequently make this claim, there are no data to support it. In fact, several studies have been conducted that show otherwise.
Do family planning programs such as Title X save taxpayer money? NO. Proponents of family planning programs have claimed for years that providing family planning dollars will save government money in the long run. Published studies have shown this to be false. In fact, studies show that those states with the highest spending on family planning also have the highest spending on other related costs. Those states that cut back family planning funds have a corresponding decrease in other future costs.
Planned Parenthood claims that for every $1.00 the government spends in family planning, it saves $4.40 in future costs. However, Planned Parenthood and others rely on a 1990 study published by AGI that simply looked at the number of women currently receiving birth control devices on government-supported programs and then estimated how many of them would become pregnant if government money were taken away. The report did not take into account several major factors:
• It never addressed the question of whether government provision of birth control would lead more women to have sex or would lead sexually active women to have sex more frequently.
• It addressed the cost of government services to unplanned children but never looked at future government revenue arising from future income produced by these unplanned citizens.
• By preventing the births of enough unplanned children, the total fertility rate in the US has fallen below 2.1 children. This means we have an aging population. There will be fewer new taxpayers and more costs for taking care of the elderly.
The study assumes that, after you give people, even teenagers, education on birth control devices and make these devices available to them, that they will not have sex more frequently than they did before. This is not the case. Planned Parenthood’s own data indicate that, despite increased use of birth control devices, “both the number of abortions and the number of unintended pregnancies are reported to be very high.” This is obviously due to the failure rate of the devices and the fact that people, especially teenagers, will engage in sex more frequently if they think they are protected.
With this increase in sexual activity comes a corresponding increase in abortions, sexually transmitted diseases and other health problems. The cost of treating these problems was not included in the study either.
Now that you know more about what Title X is and what it does, why not make it one of your new year’s resolutions to contact your elected officials, as well as the new administration, later this month to let them know how you feel about the Prevention First Act?
News
The pill: What you might not know
Despite nearly 50 years of access to the pill, some women are clueless about side effects that doctors might not bother sharing and some that are just being discovered.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/story?id=6484342&page=1
“They have special needs”
Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, who called for the elimination of “human weeds” and wrote that the purpose of birth control was “more children from the fit, less from the unfit,” would be proud. On December 12, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties began offering “confidential reproductive health services” at a Santa Barbara shelter for homeless women.
http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=3ef07af9-7d79-4d9e-9879-f637db6f2031
Vatican: Use of morning after pills "fall within the sin of abortion" - Will catholic hospitals now stop using them for rape victims?
In the December 12 document Dignitas Personae, the Vatican has condemned the use of morning after pills as falling "within the sin of abortion," and thus being "gravely immoral." Bishop Elio Sgreccia who assisted in the preparation of Dignitas Personae, noted in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com last February that there is no exception for rape.
The Bishops of Connecticut, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, California and Washington permit their hospitals to administer the morning after pill to rape victims. While some of the hospitals require an ovulation test prior to the drug's administration, most only require a simple pregnancy test. Since a simple pregnancy test cannot detect pregnancy until usually a week after fertilization, the test is practically useless in determining a pregnancy resulting from a sexual encounter within 72 hours previous to its administration.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08121804.html
Evangelical decries "Rivers of Blood" flowing from chemical contraceptives
Evangelical pro-life activist Julio Severo has written an analysis of chemical contraceptives and the prophesies in the book of Revelation that "rivers, seas, and fountains of water will 'become blood as of a dead man.' As Severo points out, through the use of hormonal contraceptives, hundreds of millions of women worldwide are causing invisible "micro-abortions," the destruction of unborn human life at the earliest stage of its development.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08121811.html
The Pope had the guts to say we need to save ourselves from self-destructive sexual lifestyles
In thousands of news articles and talk shows around the world today, Pope Benedict XVI is being bashed for daring to say we should care as much for mankind as the tropical rainforests; that the harm caused by going against the Creator's plan for human sexuality is destructive and hurtful. In truth, he is being pilloried for having enough love to tell his brothers and sisters struggling with same-sex attraction, promiscuity, pornography, adultery and more, that their behavior is hurting them and society at large. It is hurting them physically, psychologically, but most importantly - hurting them spiritually.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08122301.html
The complete text of the Pope's 2008 Christmas address.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/081223a.html
New study: High rates of psychological problems and death among post-abortive women
A preliminary report by a working group of psychiatrists studying the psychological effects of abortion states that women who obtain abortions have significantly elevated rates of depression, suicidal thoughts, sexual disturbances, and other psychological disorders. They also die at higher rates than non-abortive women.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08121715.html
Closing Thought
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."
Luke 2:8-14
NOTE: Referral to web sites not produced by American Life League is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement of the sites’ content.
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