abortion
COMPLICATIONS-BANGLADESH: Researchers report that “a significant number of women” acquire tetanus after an abortion and subsequently die because they have not been immunized against tetanus. Abortion practices in the country include “insertion of roots or sticks into the cervix.”
Researchers report that “a significant number of women” acquire tetanus after an abortion and subsequently die because they have not been immunized against tetanus. Abortion practices in the country include “insertion of roots or sticks into the cervix.”
(Reading: “Tetanus and Pregnancy-Related Mortality,” The Lancet, 10/30/99,p. 1562; “Tetanus and Pregnancy-Related Mortality in Bangladesh,” The Lancet, 8/14/99, p.565)
NURSE MIDWIVES-ARCHIVE ITEM: Certified nurse-midwives have prescriptive authority in 45 states and the District of Columbia at present but do have certain restrictions on that authority carved out in the law. As their 1998 “tip sheet” makes clear, being restricted from prescribing abortifacients “limits the ability of CNMs to incorporate new procedures into their midwifery practices and the ability of women to access medical abortion services from non-physician providers.”
COMMENT: The new abortionists?
(Reading: “Strategies for Implementing State Policy,” American College of Nurse-Midwives tip sheets, #16, 7/98)
STATISTICS: In response to the Forbes magazine statement, “Catholics are more likely to abort than Protestants,” (communique, 11/5/99) Alaskan pro-lifer Bob Bird says, “It is impossible for a Catholic to abort. Once a professedly Catholic woman makes the decision in her mind to do so, she is automatically excommunicated and is therefore no longer a Catholic. Too often we use the term ‘Catholic’ as a cultural moniker, and this causes much confusion.”
(Reading: e-mail from “>Bob Bird)
activism
IOWA: Life and Family, a pro-life organization in the Quad Cities area, is buying property directly across from a new Planned Parenthood facility. Life and Family wants to build a center on the property that would “educate and inform our community on the protection and dignity of human life from conception to death.”
(Reading: “Prolife Organization Purchases Property Across the Street from Planned Parenthood,” Life and Family news release, 11/9/99)
bioethics
NATIONAL BIOETHICS ADVISORY COMMISSION EXTENDED: The NBAC, with a two-year extension approved by President Clinton, plans to address questions including public health and population research, xenotransplantation, reproductive technologies and research on children.
NATIONAL BIOETHICS ADVISORY COMMISSION EXTENDED: The NBAC, with a two-year extension approved by President Clinton, plans to address questions including public health and population research, xenotransplantation, reproductive technologies and research on children.
NATIONAL BIOETHICS ADVISORY COMMISSION EXTENDED: The NBAC, with a two-year extension approved by President Clinton, plans to address questions including public health and population research, xenotransplantation, reproductive technologies and research on children.
COMMENT: The NBAC is no friend of the tiniest people whose lives begin at fertilization.
(Reading: “Federal Ethics Panel Returns to Human Research Concerns,” American Medical News, 10/4/99, p. 8-10)
chemical abortion [medical]
EMERGENCY [MORNING AFTER] PILL ARCHIVES: Kaiser Permanente‘s California newsletter tells the insured, “ECPs are intended for emergencies when unprotected sex has already taken place. Pills must be taken in two doses, the first within 72 hours (three days) of unprotected sex, and the second, 12 hours after the first dosage…. ECPs should not be confused with Mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486), a new fertility control agent that can cause the interruption of early pregnancy.”
EMERGENCY [MORNING AFTER] PILL ARCHIVES: Kaiser Permanente‘s California newsletter tells the insured, “ECPs are intended for emergencies when unprotected sex has already taken place. Pills must be taken in two doses, the first within 72 hours (three days) of unprotected sex, and the second, 12 hours after the first dosage…. ECPs should not be confused with Mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486), a new fertility control agent that can cause the interruption of early pregnancy.”
EMERGENCY [MORNING AFTER] PILL ARCHIVES: Kaiser Permanente‘s California newsletter tells the insured, “ECPs are intended for emergencies when unprotected sex has already taken place. Pills must be taken in two doses, the first within 72 hours (three days) of unprotected sex, and the second, 12 hours after the first dosage…. ECPs should not be confused with Mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486), a new fertility control agent that can cause the interruption of early pregnancy.”
(Reading: “The Latest in Birth Control,” California News, Kaiser Permanente Member News, Issue 4, 1998, p. 11)
children’s health insurance
GEORGIA: When Congress passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, $40 billion in federal funding was set aside for a ten-year period to provide health coverage for an estimated twelve million uninsured children and adolescents. The state of Georgia prohibits coverage of all contraceptive devices.
GEORGIA: When Congress passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, $40 billion in federal funding was set aside for a ten-year period to provide health coverage for an estimated twelve million uninsured children and adolescents. The state of Georgia prohibits coverage of all contraceptive devices.
GEORGIA: When Congress passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, $40 billion in federal funding was set aside for a ten-year period to provide health coverage for an estimated twelve million uninsured children and adolescents. The state of Georgia prohibits coverage of all contraceptive devices.
COMMENT: What happened to the other 49 states?
(Reading: “State CHIP Programs Up and Running, but Enrollment Lagging,” Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 10/99, pp. 6-9)
congress
CURRENT NEWS: Up to date reports on what is and is not happening on Capitol Hill are readily available from “>Life Advocacy Alliance, just an e-mail away.
CURRENT NEWS: Up to date reports on what is and is not happening on Capitol Hill are readily available from “>Life Advocacy Alliance, just an e-mail away.
CURRENT NEWS: Up to date reports on what is and is not happening on Capitol Hill are readily available from “>Life Advocacy Alliance, just an e-mail away.
depo-provera
EFFECT OF INJECTION: Researchers studying the human female epithelium point out that “it appears that women do not respond to exogenous progestins with the dramatic vaginal thinning seen in rhesus monkeys.”
EFFECT OF INJECTION: Researchers studying the human female epithelium point out that “it appears that women do not respond to exogenous progestins with the dramatic vaginal thinning seen in rhesus monkeys.”
EFFECT OF INJECTION: Researchers studying the human female epithelium point out that “it appears that women do not respond to exogenous progestins with the dramatic vaginal thinning seen in rhesus monkeys.”
COMMENT: Does this mean women are not animals or what?
(Reading: “The Effect of One Injection of Depo-Provera on the Human Vaginal Epithelium and Cervical Ectopy,” Contraception, 7/99, p.15)
eugenics
CANADA: “More than 200 people once labeled ‘mental defectives’ by the Alberta [Canada provincial] government” have been awarded a settlement of $325,000 per victim. In each case the person in question was forcibly sterilized. More than 2,800 boys and girls between 1928 and 1972 were treated likewise under the Alberta Sterilization Act.
CANADA: “More than 200 people once labeled ‘mental defectives’ by the Alberta [Canada provincial] government” have been awarded a settlement of $325,000 per victim. In each case the person in question was forcibly sterilized. More than 2,800 boys and girls between 1928 and 1972 were treated likewise under the Alberta Sterilization Act.
CANADA: “More than 200 people once labeled ‘mental defectives’ by the Alberta [Canada provincial] government” have been awarded a settlement of $325,000 per victim. In each case the person in question was forcibly sterilized. More than 2,800 boys and girls between 1928 and 1972 were treated likewise under the Alberta Sterilization Act.
COMMENT: Canadian disability rights activist Mark Pickup observes: “Perhaps events of this year illustrate that ‘boomers in power’ are willing to admit (and even pay) for the sins of others, distanced by time, but not their own sins. Certainly they would never act like Nazis toward the handicapped, would they? Would they?”
(Reading: “Sterilization Victims to Get $80M Package,” Edmonton Journal, 11/2/99, p. A7; 11/2/99 letter from “>Mark Pickup)
hollywood
SCHNOOBY: Lisa Kudrow of “Friends” comments on how it’s never the right time to have a baby, “Even if a child is an accident and someone didn’t think it was the right time, they’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, can you imagine life without little Schnooby?'”
SCHNOOBY: Lisa Kudrow of “Friends” comments on how it’s never the right time to have a baby, “Even if a child is an accident and someone didn’t think it was the right time, they’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, can you imagine life without little Schnooby?'”
SCHNOOBY: Lisa Kudrow of “Friends” comments on how it’s never the right time to have a baby, “Even if a child is an accident and someone didn’t think it was the right time, they’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, can you imagine life without little Schnooby?'”
(Reading: People, 11/8/99, p. 188)
imposed death
OREGON NURSES ASSOCIATION: The association’s official position paper on physician assisted suicide endorses the practice and states that “ONA believes that the health care patient has the right to privacy and the right to make decisions about personal health care based on full information and without coercion…. ONA supports the patient’s right to self-determination.”
OREGON NURSES ASSOCIATION: The association’s official position paper on physician assisted suicide endorses the practice and states that “ONA believes that the health care patient has the right to privacy and the right to make decisions about personal health care based on full information and without coercion…. ONA supports the patient’s right to self-determination.”
OREGON NURSES ASSOCIATION: The association’s official position paper on physician assisted suicide endorses the practice and states that “ONA believes that the health care patient has the right to privacy and the right to make decisions about personal health care based on full information and without coercion…. ONA supports the patient’s right to self-determination.”
(Reading: “ONA Provides Guidance on Nurses’ Dilemma“)
media
DRUDGE: Internet columnist Matt Drudge walked out of his weekly Fox News Channel program, charging network bosses with censoring his program. Drudge wanted to show a photo of a child undergoing surgery in the mother’s womb during the 21st week of pregnancy. The baby’s hand is seen clutching the surgeon’s finger. Fox says Drudge wanted to use the photo to talk about partial-birth abortion. Drudge says, “If I was going to show a picture of an ostrich egg with a foot popping out, it would be find. It happens to be a picture of a human. People get upset about that.” Use Fox News Channel’s online comment form to support Drudge’s attempt to show the photo.
(Reading: “Drudge, Fox in Conflict Over Fetus,” Associated Press, 11/15/99)
population control
FUTURES GROUP: The Futures Group International has a web site chock full of tidbits including outlines on how to improve and project family planning program needs. At the Hague, William McGreevey of the staff presented “Value for money in reproductive health: issues and options for governments and donors.” Various “Spectrum” manuals can be downloaded from the site.
FUTURES GROUP: The Futures Group International has a web site chock full of tidbits including outlines on how to improve and project family planning program needs. At the Hague, William McGreevey of the staff presented “Value for money in reproductive health: issues and options for governments and donors.” Various “Spectrum” manuals can be downloaded from the site.
FUTURES GROUP: The Futures Group International has a web site chock full of tidbits including outlines on how to improve and project family planning program needs. At the Hague, William McGreevey of the staff presented “Value for money in reproductive health: issues and options for governments and donors.” Various “Spectrum” manuals can be downloaded from the site.
violence
YOUTH OR NOT? “>Mike Males writes, “Today’s young people are less prone to serious or petty crime and drug abuse than their 1970s counterparts.” And he reports that “the fastest-growing crime and prison population is not among black or Hispanic teenagers, but among white, non-Hispanic, 30-60 year olds.”
YOUTH OR NOT? “>Mike Males writes, “Today’s young people are less prone to serious or petty crime and drug abuse than their 1970s counterparts.” And he reports that “the fastest-growing crime and prison population is not among black or Hispanic teenagers, but among white, non-Hispanic, 30-60 year olds.”
YOUTH OR NOT? “>Mike Males writes, “Today’s young people are less prone to serious or petty crime and drug abuse than their 1970s counterparts.” And he reports that “the fastest-growing crime and prison population is not among black or Hispanic teenagers, but among white, non-Hispanic, 30-60 year olds.”
(Reading: “America’s Youth Violence Hoax,” The Lancet, 10/30/99, pp. 1563-4)
zinger
FLORIDA: House Bill 55 “prohibits killing of dog or cat with sole intent of selling or giving away pelt of animal; provides third degree felony penalty for violation.”
FLORIDA: House Bill 55 “prohibits killing of dog or cat with sole intent of selling or giving away pelt of animal; provides third degree felony penalty for violation.”
FLORIDA: House Bill 55 “prohibits killing of dog or cat with sole intent of selling or giving away pelt of animal; provides third degree felony penalty for violation.”
COMMENT: But traffic in fetal body parts is not against the law!
(Reading: House Bill 55, Florida Legislature)
reflection for prayer
Consider within you how Jesus Christ was crucified, naked, blasphemed, calumniated, forsaken, overwhelmed with every kind of injury, sadness and toil; and reflect that your sufferings can in no way be likened to his, either in kind or degree, and that you can never bear anything for him compared to what he has borne for you.
-St. Francis de Sales
COMPLICATIONS-BANGLADESH: Researchers report that “a significant number of women” acquire tetanus after an abortion and subsequently die because they have not been immunized against tetanus. Abortion practices in the country include “insertion of roots or sticks into the cervix.”
Researchers report that “a significant number of women” acquire tetanus after an abortion and subsequently die because they have not been immunized against tetanus. Abortion practices in the country include “insertion of roots or sticks into the cervix.”
(Reading: “Tetanus and Pregnancy-Related Mortality,” The Lancet, 10/30/99,p. 1562; “Tetanus and Pregnancy-Related Mortality in Bangladesh,” The Lancet, 8/14/99, p.565)
NURSE MIDWIVES-ARCHIVE ITEM: Certified nurse-midwives have prescriptive authority in 45 states and the District of Columbia at present but do have certain restrictions on that authority carved out in the law. As their 1998 “tip sheet” makes clear, being restricted from prescribing abortifacients “limits the ability of CNMs to incorporate new procedures into their midwifery practices and the ability of women to access medical abortion services from non-physician providers.”
COMMENT: The new abortionists?
(Reading: “Strategies for Implementing State Policy,” American College of Nurse-Midwives tip sheets, #16, 7/98)
STATISTICS: In response to the Forbes magazine statement, “Catholics are more likely to abort than Protestants,” (communique, 11/5/99) Alaskan pro-lifer Bob Bird says, “It is impossible for a Catholic to abort. Once a professedly Catholic woman makes the decision in her mind to do so, she is automatically excommunicated and is therefore no longer a Catholic. Too often we use the term ‘Catholic’ as a cultural moniker, and this causes much confusion.”
(Reading: e-mail from “>Bob Bird)
activism
IOWA: Life and Family, a pro-life organization in the Quad Cities area, is buying property directly across from a new Planned Parenthood facility. Life and Family wants to build a center on the property that would “educate and inform our community on the protection and dignity of human life from conception to natural death.”
IOWA: Life and Family, a pro-life organization in the Quad Cities area, is buying property directly across from a new Planned Parenthood facility. Life and Family wants to build a center on the property that would “educate and inform our community on the protection and dignity of human life from conception to natural death.”
IOWA: Life and Family, a pro-life organization in the Quad Cities area, is buying property directly across from a new Planned Parenthood facility. Life and Family wants to build a center on the property that would “educate and inform our community on the protection and dignity of human life from conception to natural death.”
(Reading: “Prolife Organization Purchases Property Across the Street from Planned Parenthood,” Life and Family news release, 11/9/99)
bioethics
NATIONAL BIOETHICS ADVISORY COMMISSION EXTENDED: The NBAC, with a two-year extension approved by President Clinton, plans to address questions including public health and population research, xenotransplantation, reproductive technologies and research on children.
NATIONAL BIOETHICS ADVISORY COMMISSION EXTENDED: The NBAC, with a two-year extension approved by President Clinton, plans to address questions including public health and population research, xenotransplantation, reproductive technologies and research on children.
NATIONAL BIOETHICS ADVISORY COMMISSION EXTENDED: The NBAC, with a two-year extension approved by President Clinton, plans to address questions including public health and population research, xenotransplantation, reproductive technologies and research on children.
COMMENT: The NBAC is no friend of the tiniest people whose lives begin at fertilization.
(Reading: “Federal Ethics Panel Returns to Human Research Concerns,” American Medical News, 10/4/99, p. 8-10)
chemical abortion [medical]
EMERGENCY [MORNING AFTER] PILL ARCHIVES: Kaiser Permanente‘s California newsletter tells the insured, “ECPs are intended for emergencies when unprotected sex has already taken place. Pills must be taken in two doses, the first within 72 hours (three days) of unprotected sex, and the second, 12 hours after the first dosage…. ECPs should not be confused with Mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486), a new fertility control agent that can cause the interruption of early pregnancy.”
EMERGENCY [MORNING AFTER] PILL ARCHIVES: Kaiser Permanente‘s California newsletter tells the insured, “ECPs are intended for emergencies when unprotected sex has already taken place. Pills must be taken in two doses, the first within 72 hours (three days) of unprotected sex, and the second, 12 hours after the first dosage…. ECPs should not be confused with Mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486), a new fertility control agent that can cause the interruption of early pregnancy.”
EMERGENCY [MORNING AFTER] PILL ARCHIVES: Kaiser Permanente‘s California newsletter tells the insured, “ECPs are intended for emergencies when unprotected sex has already taken place. Pills must be taken in two doses, the first within 72 hours (three days) of unprotected sex, and the second, 12 hours after the first dosage…. ECPs should not be confused with Mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486), a new fertility control agent that can cause the interruption of early pregnancy.”
(Reading: “The Latest in Birth Control,” California News, Kaiser Permanente Member News, Issue 4, 1998, p. 11)
children’s health insurance
GEORGIA: When Congress passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, $40 billion in federal funding was set aside for a ten-year period to provide health coverage for an estimated twelve million uninsured children and adolescents. The state of Georgia prohibits coverage of all contraceptive devices.
GEORGIA: When Congress passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, $40 billion in federal funding was set aside for a ten-year period to provide health coverage for an estimated twelve million uninsured children and adolescents. The state of Georgia prohibits coverage of all contraceptive devices.
GEORGIA: When Congress passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, $40 billion in federal funding was set aside for a ten-year period to provide health coverage for an estimated twelve million uninsured children and adolescents. The state of Georgia prohibits coverage of all contraceptive devices.
COMMENT: What happened to the other 49 states?
(Reading: “State CHIP Programs Up and Running, but Enrollment Lagging,” Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 10/99, pp. 6-9)
congress
CURRENT NEWS: Up to date reports on what is and is not happening on Capitol Hill are readily available from “>Life Advocacy Alliance, just an e-mail away.
CURRENT NEWS: Up to date reports on what is and is not happening on Capitol Hill are readily available from “>Life Advocacy Alliance, just an e-mail away.
CURRENT NEWS: Up to date reports on what is and is not happening on Capitol Hill are readily available from “>Life Advocacy Alliance, just an e-mail away.
depo-provera
EFFECT OF INJECTION: Researchers studying the human female epithelium point out that “it appears that women do not respond to exogenous progestins with the dramatic vaginal thinning seen in rhesus monkeys.”
EFFECT OF INJECTION: Researchers studying the human female epithelium point out that “it appears that women do not respond to exogenous progestins with the dramatic vaginal thinning seen in rhesus monkeys.”
EFFECT OF INJECTION: Researchers studying the human female epithelium point out that “it appears that women do not respond to exogenous progestins with the dramatic vaginal thinning seen in rhesus monkeys.”
COMMENT: Does this mean women are not animals or what?
(Reading: “The Effect of One Injection of Depo-Provera on the Human Vaginal Epithelium and Cervical Ectopy,” Contraception, 7/99, p.15)
eugenics
CANADA: “More than 200 people once labeled ‘mental defectives’ by the Alberta [Canada provincial] government” have been awarded a settlement of $325,000 per victim. In each case the person in question was forcibly sterilized. More than 2,800 boys and girls between 1928 and 1972 were treated likewise under the Alberta Sterilization Act.
CANADA: “More than 200 people once labeled ‘mental defectives’ by the Alberta [Canada provincial] government” have been awarded a settlement of $325,000 per victim. In each case the person in question was forcibly sterilized. More than 2,800 boys and girls between 1928 and 1972 were treated likewise under the Alberta Sterilization Act.
CANADA: “More than 200 people once labeled ‘mental defectives’ by the Alberta [Canada provincial] government” have been awarded a settlement of $325,000 per victim. In each case the person in question was forcibly sterilized. More than 2,800 boys and girls between 1928 and 1972 were treated likewise under the Alberta Sterilization Act.
COMMENT: Canadian disability rights activist Mark Pickup observes: “Perhaps events of this year illustrate that ‘boomers in power’ are willing to admit (and even pay) for the sins of others, distanced by time, but not their own sins. Certainly they would never act like Nazis toward the handicapped, would they? Would they?”
(Reading: “Sterilization Victims to Get $80M Package,” Edmonton Journal, 11/2/99, p. A7; 11/2/99 letter from “>Mark Pickup)
hollywood
SCHNOOBY: Lisa Kudrow of “Friends” comments on how it’s never the right time to have a baby, “Even if a child is an accident and someone didn’t think it was the right time, they’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, can you imagine life without little Schnooby?'”
SCHNOOBY: Lisa Kudrow of “Friends” comments on how it’s never the right time to have a baby, “Even if a child is an accident and someone didn’t think it was the right time, they’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, can you imagine life without little Schnooby?'”
SCHNOOBY: Lisa Kudrow of “Friends” comments on how it’s never the right time to have a baby, “Even if a child is an accident and someone didn’t think it was the right time, they’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, can you imagine life without little Schnooby?'”
(Reading: People, 11/8/99, p. 188)
imposed death
OREGON NURSES ASSOCIATION: The association’s official position paper on physician assisted suicide endorses the practice and states that “ONA believes that the health care patient has the right to privacy and the right to make decisions about personal health care based on full information and without coercion…. ONA supports the patient’s right to self-determination.”
OREGON NURSES ASSOCIATION: The association’s official position paper on physician assisted suicide endorses the practice and states that “ONA believes that the health care patient has the right to privacy and the right to make decisions about personal health care based on full information and without coercion…. ONA supports the patient’s right to self-determination.”
OREGON NURSES ASSOCIATION: The association’s official position paper on physician assisted suicide endorses the practice and states that “ONA believes that the health care patient has the right to privacy and the right to make decisions about personal health care based on full information and without coercion…. ONA supports the patient’s right to self-determination.”
(Reading: “ONA Provides Guidance on Nurses’ Dilemma“)
media
DRUDGE: Internet columnist Matt Drudge walked out of his weekly Fox News Channel program, charging network bosses with censoring his program. Drudge wanted to show a photo of a child undergoing surgery in the mother’s womb during the 21st week of pregnancy. The baby’s hand is seen clutching the surgeon’s finger. Fox says Drudge wanted to use the photo to talk about partial-birth abortion. Drudge says, “If I was going to show a picture of an ostrich egg with a foot popping out, it would be find. It happens to be a picture of a human. People get upset about that.” Use Fox News Channel’s online comment form to support Drudge’s attempt to show the photo.
(Reading: “Drudge, Fox in Conflict Over Fetus,” Associated Press, 11/15/99)
population control
FUTURES GROUP: The Futures Group International has a web site chock full of tidbits including outlines on how to improve and project family planning program needs. At the Hague, William McGreevey of the staff presented “Value for money in reproductive health: issues and options for governments and donors.” Various “Spectrum” manuals can be downloaded from the site.
FUTURES GROUP: The Futures Group International has a web site chock full of tidbits including outlines on how to improve and project family planning program needs. At the Hague, William McGreevey of the staff presented “Value for money in reproductive health: issues and options for governments and donors.” Various “Spectrum” manuals can be downloaded from the site.
FUTURES GROUP: The Futures Group International has a web site chock full of tidbits including outlines on how to improve and project family planning program needs. At the Hague, William McGreevey of the staff presented “Value for money in reproductive health: issues and options for governments and donors.” Various “Spectrum” manuals can be downloaded from the site.
violence
YOUTH OR NOT? “>Mike Males writes, “Today’s young people are less prone to serious or petty crime and drug abuse than their 1970s counterparts.” And he reports that “the fastest-growing crime and prison population is not among black or Hispanic teenagers, but among white, non-Hispanic, 30-60 year olds.”
YOUTH OR NOT? “>Mike Males writes, “Today’s young people are less prone to serious or petty crime and drug abuse than their 1970s counterparts.” And he reports that “the fastest-growing crime and prison population is not among black or Hispanic teenagers, but among white, non-Hispanic, 30-60 year olds.”
YOUTH OR NOT? “>Mike Males writes, “Today’s young people are less prone to serious or petty crime and drug abuse than their 1970s counterparts.” And he reports that “the fastest-growing crime and prison population is not among black or Hispanic teenagers, but among white, non-Hispanic, 30-60 year olds.”
(Reading: “America’s Youth Violence Hoax,” The Lancet, 10/30/99, pp. 1563-4)
zinger
FLORIDA: House Bill 55 “prohibits killing of dog or cat with sole intent of selling or giving away pelt of animal; provides third degree felony penalty for violation.”
FLORIDA: House Bill 55 “prohibits killing of dog or cat with sole intent of selling or giving away pelt of animal; provides third degree felony penalty for violation.”
FLORIDA: House Bill 55 “prohibits killing of dog or cat with sole intent of selling or giving away pelt of animal; provides third degree felony penalty for violation.”
COMMENT: But traffic in fetal body parts is not against the law!
(Reading: House Bill 55, Florida Legislature)
reflection for prayer
Consider within you how Jesus Christ was crucified, naked, blasphemed, calumniated, forsaken, overwhelmed with every kind of injury, sadness and toil; and reflect that your sufferings can in no way be likened to his, either in kind or degree, and that you can never bear anything for him compared to what he has borne for you.
-St. Francis de Sales
COMPLICATIONS-BANGLADESH: Researchers report that “a significant number of women” acquire tetanus after an abortion and subsequently die because they have not been immunized against tetanus. Abortion practices in the country include “insertion of roots or sticks into the cervix.”
(Reading: “Tetanus and Pregnancy-Related Mortality,” The Lancet, 10/30/99,p. 1562; “Tetanus and Pregnancy-Related Mortality in Bangladesh,” The Lancet, 8/14/99, p.565)
NURSE MIDWIVES-ARCHIVE ITEM: Certified nurse-midwives have prescriptive authority in 45 states and the District of Columbia at present but do have certain restrictions on that authority carved out in the law. As their 1998 “tip sheet” makes clear, being restricted from prescribing abortifacients “limits the ability of CNMs to incorporate new procedures into their midwifery practices and the ability of women to access medical abortion services from non-physician providers.”
COMMENT: The new abortionists?
(Reading: “Strategies for Implementing State Policy,” American College of Nurse-Midwives tip sheets, #16, 7/98)
STATISTICS: In response to the Forbes magazine statement, “Catholics are more likely to abort than Protestants,” (communique, 11/5/99) Alaskan pro-lifer Bob Bird says, “It is impossible for a Catholic to abort. Once a professedly Catholic woman makes the decision in her mind to do so, she is automatically excommunicated and is therefore no longer a Catholic. Too often we use the term ‘Catholic’ as a cultural moniker, and this causes much confusion.”
(Reading: e-mail from “>Bob Bird)
activism
IOWA: Life and Family, a pro-life organization in the Quad Cities area, is buying property directly across from a new Planned Parenthood facility. Life and Family wants to build a center on the property that would “educate and inform our community on the protection and dignity of human life from conception to death.”
(Reading: “Prolife Organization Purchases Property Across the Street from Planned Parenthood,” Life and Family news release, 11/9/99)
bioethics
NATIONAL BIOETHICS ADVISORY COMMISSION EXTENDED: The NBAC, with a two-year extension approved by President Clinton, plans to address questions including public health and population research, xenotransplantation, reproductive technologies and research on children.
COMMENT: The NBAC is no friend of the tiniest people whose lives begin at fertilization.
(Reading: “Federal Ethics Panel Returns to Human Research Concerns,” American Medical News, 10/4/99, p. 8-10)
chemical abortion [medical]
EMERGENCY [MORNING AFTER] PILL ARCHIVES: Kaiser Permanente‘s California newsletter tells the insured, “ECPs are intended for emergencies when unprotected sex has already taken place. Pills must be taken in two doses, the first within 72 hours (three days) of unprotected sex, and the second, 12 hours after the first dosage…. ECPs should not be confused with Mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486), a new fertility control agent that can cause the interruption of early pregnancy.”
(Reading: “The Latest in Birth Control,” California News, Kaiser Permanente Member News, Issue 4, 1998, p. 11)
children’s health insurance
GEORGIA: When Congress passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, $40 billion in federal funding was set aside for a ten-year period to provide health coverage for an estimated twelve million uninsured children and adolescents. The state of Georgia prohibits coverage of all contraceptive devices.
COMMENT: What happened to the other 49 states?
(Reading: “State CHIP Programs Up and Running, but Enrollment Lagging,” Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 10/99, pp. 6-9)
congress
CURRENT NEWS: Up to date reports on what is and is not happening on Capitol Hill are readily available from “>Life Advocacy Alliance, just an e-mail away.
depo-provera
EFFECT OF INJECTION: Researchers studying the human female epithelium point out that “it appears that women do not respond to exogenous progestins with the dramatic vaginal thinning seen in rhesus monkeys.”
COMMENT: Does this mean women are not animals or what?
(Reading: “The Effect of One Injection of Depo-Provera on the Human Vaginal Epithelium and Cervical Ectopy,” Contraception, 7/99, p.15)
eugenics
CANADA: “More than 200 people once labeled ‘mental defectives’ by the Alberta [Canada provincial] government” have been awarded a settlement of $325,000 per victim. In each case the person in question was forcibly sterilized. More than 2,800 boys and girls between 1928 and 1972 were treated likewise under the Alberta Sterilization Act.
COMMENT: Canadian disability rights activist Mark Pickup observes: “Perhaps events of this year illustrate that ‘boomers in power’ are willing to admit (and even pay) for the sins of others, distanced by time, but not their own sins. Certainly they would never act like Nazis toward the handicapped, would they? Would they?”
(Reading: “Sterilization Victims to Get $80M Package,” Edmonton Journal, 11/2/99, p. A7; 11/2/99 letter from “>Mark Pickup)
hollywood
SCHNOOBY: Lisa Kudrow of “Friends” comments on how it’s never the right time to have a baby, “Even if a child is an accident and someone didn’t think it was the right time, they’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, can you imagine life without little Schnooby?'”
(Reading: People, 11/8/99, p. 188)
imposed death
OREGON NURSES ASSOCIATION: The association’s official position paper on physician assisted suicide endorses the practice and states that “ONA believes that the health care patient has the right to privacy and the right to make decisions about personal health care based on full information and without coercion…. ONA supports the patient’s right to self-determination.”
(Reading: “ONA Provides Guidance on Nurses’ Dilemma“)
media
DRUDGE: Internet columnist Matt Drudge walked out of his weekly Fox News Channel program, charging network bosses with censoring his program. Drudge wanted to show a photo of a child undergoing surgery in the mother’s womb during the 21st week of pregnancy. The baby’s hand is seen clutching the surgeon’s finger. Fox says Drudge wanted to use the photo to talk about partial-birth abortion. Drudge says, “If I was going to show a picture of an ostrich egg with a foot popping out, it would be find. It happens to be a picture of a human. People get upset about that.” Use Fox News Channel’s online comment form to support Drudge’s attempt to show the photo.
(Reading: “Drudge, Fox in Conflict Over Fetus,” Associated Press, 11/15/99)
population control
FUTURES GROUP: The Futures Group International has a web site chock full of tidbits including outlines on how to improve and project family planning program needs. At the Hague, William McGreevey of the staff presented “Value for money in reproductive health: issues and options for governments and donors.” Various “Spectrum” manuals can be downloaded from the site.
violence
YOUTH OR NOT? “>Mike Males writes, “Today’s young people are less prone to serious or petty crime and drug abuse than their 1970s counterparts.” And he reports that “the fastest-growing crime and prison population is not among black or Hispanic teenagers, but among white, non-Hispanic, 30-60 year olds.”
(Reading: “America’s Youth Violence Hoax,” The Lancet, 10/30/99, pp. 1563-4)
zinger
FLORIDA: House Bill 55 “prohibits killing of dog or cat with sole intent of selling or giving away pelt of animal; provides third degree felony penalty for violation.”
COMMENT: But traffic in fetal body parts is not against the law!
(Reading: House Bill 55, Florida Legislature)
reflection for prayer
Consider within you how Jesus Christ was crucified, naked, blasphemed, calumniated, forsaken, overwhelmed with every kind of injury, sadness and toil; and reflect that your sufferings can in no way be likened to his, either in kind or degree, and that you can never bear anything for him compared to what he has borne for you.
-St. Francis de Sales