11/8/02
in this issue:
american life league: HOT BUTTON ISSUES
abortion: DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS / NONE DARE RISK MURDER / RU-486 I / RU-486 II
birth control pill: GENERIC / RISKS
bush watch: FDA
euthanasia: HEMLOCK & HOSPICE / TERRI SCHIAVO
humor: CHRISTIANITY
lunelle: MARKETING
morning-after abortion pill: ACCESS
nursing: RISKS TO PATIENTS
pediatricians: ACPEDS
politics: PRINCIPLE / TEXAS
stem cell: HUMAN EMBRYO
sterilization: PERMANENT BIRTH CONTROL
reflection for prayer: WISDOM 6:1-3
american life league
HOT BUTTON ISSUES:
HOT BUTTON ISSUES:
Judie Brown says, “Yes, Congress is now Republican; but is the majority truly pro-life?”
STOPP on nationwide tour to shut down the world’s leading promoter of abortion; subscribe to the new e-mail version of STOPP’s Ryan Report
Rock for Life adds new chapters, focuses on pro-abortion rock groups
Rachel’s Vineyard retreat program continues to grow
abortion
DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS: The Elliot Institute has published a 336-page bibliography of studies.
(Reading: “Research on post-abortion issues,” Elliot Institute)
NONE DARE RISK MURDER: St. Jerome (AD 340-420): “You may see many women widows before wedded, who try to conceal their miserable fall by a lying garb. Unless they are betrayed by swelling wombs or by the crying of their infants…Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness …Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder…Yet it is these who say: “…my conscience is sufficient guide for me…”
(Reading: “The early Church fathers and abortion,” American Life League)
RU-486 (mifepristone) I: According to the New York Times, in clinical trials where this drug was used to treat severe depression, at least one patient died. The report was also carried in the BBC, but that report failed to note the death.
(Reading: “Abortion pill may help treat severe form of depression, New York Times, 10/22/02; “Abortion pill may treat depression,” BBC News, 10/8/02)
RU-486 (mifepristone) II: The pill regimen is analyzed in an article by Gene Rudd, M.D., who points to the less obvious side effects, both spiritual and psychological.
(Reading: “Mifepristone: less obvious adverse effects,” Concerned Women for America, 10/11/02)
birth control pill
GENERIC: Watson Pharmaceuticals plans to manufacture generic versions of Ortho birth control pills through an agreement recently made with OMJ Pharmaceutical Inc.
(Reading: “Watson expands oral contraceptive portfolio,” Dow Jones Newswires, 10/28/02)
RISKS: A full examination of the relative risk factors between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer versus risks for women who use the birth control pill and breast cancer is available on line. Author John Wilks maintains that the pill can be legitimately viewed as a risk factor for breast cancer in the same way that the current media has indicated HRT is a causal factor.
(Reading: “The comparative potencies of birth control and menopausal hormonal drug use,” The Parents Net, 7/26/02)
bush watch
FDA: Dr. W. David Hager, the Bush administration’s choice to head the FDA’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee, is coming under fire from an organized effort spearheaded by the pro-abortion National Women’s Health Network. Dr. Hager has been the brunt of many editorial attacks, including one story with the headline “Jesus and the FDA.”
(Action: Please let the White House know that you support Dr. Hager and urge the president to remain strong; e-mail or call the White House at 202-456-1111)
(Reading: “FDA appointment — read and weep and e-mail the White House,” Medical Students for Choice action alert, 11/4/02; “Jesus and the FDA,” Time, 10/5/02)
euthanasia
HEMLOCK & HOSPICE: Hospice physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains and home health care aides have formed a support group for the philosophy espoused by the Hemlock Society, which is focused on active pursuit of euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, assisted suicide and “self-deliverance.”
(Reading: “Hospice for hemlock“)
TERRI SCHIAVO: The battle rages around whether this woman lives or dies. Her life hangs in the balance. She has been diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state and requires nutrition and hydration by tube. Her husband wants the feeding stopped; her parents do not.
COMMENT: Pray for this family.
(Reading: “Terri’s fight“)
humor
CHRISTIANITY: “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.”
(Reading: “Quick Quotes,” The Star, 9/02, p. 15; for copies write Fr. Rawley Myers, 22 W. Kiowa, Colorado Springs, CO 80903)
lunelle
MARKETING: The early abortion injectable Lunelle is being heavily promoted by Contraceptive Technology Update, which has created a special patient handout on the product, based on information available at “Managing Contraception,” a site produced by the Bridging the Gap Foundation “with support from the Packard Foundation.”
morning-after abortion pill
ACCESS: Planned Parenthood’s Alan Guttmacher Institute has published the first in a series of articles on how to “increase public awareness” about the early abortion pill regimen they define as “contraception.” Be on the lookout for their stealth proposed legislation which would approve $10 million per year for five years for “information and education campaign on the safety, efficacy and availability of ” the early abortion compound. The bill (HR 3887/S 1990 IS) was introduced in March.
(Reading: “Emergency contraception: The need to increase public awareness,” Guttmacher Report, 10/02)
nursing
RISKS TO PATIENTS: A new study indicates that where the patient-to-nurse ratio is high, “surgical patients experience higher risk-adjusted 30-day mortality and failure-to-rescue-rates.” In addition, nurses are much more likely to burn out.
(Reading: “Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 10/23/02, pp. 1987-1993)
pediatricians
ACPEDS: The American College of Pediatricians has been formed to respond to the anti-life, anti-family pronouncements of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Core Value #4 reads: “Recognizes the unique value of every human life from the time of conception to natural death and pledges to promote research and clinical practice that provides for the healthiest outcome of the child from conception to adulthood.”
(Reading: “Core values,” American College of Pediatricians)
politics
PRINCIPLE: Following is a statement every single pro-lifer should require from any man or woman who wishes to be described as pro-life: “When working on legislation or litigation, I must treat every preborn child with equal dignity. Every preborn baby, regardless of health or circumstances surrounding conception, is equally precious in the eyes of God, and therefore every preborn baby is deserving of equal protection. Laws that classify some babies as not as worthy of protection as others (as with fetal deformity, rape, and incest exceptions) are inherently illicit. By contrast, imperfect legislation does not divide preborn babies into classes. It treats all of them equally. Measures that treat all preborn babies as equally valuable involve parental notification, abortion funding cuts, decent burial requirements, laws that require that only licensed physicians commit abortions, and tighter abortion mill regulations.”
(Reading: “Exceptions and imperfect legislation,” Humphrey Waldock)
TEXAS: Wondering why the Texas Catholic ran a full-page ad in support of a pro-abortion candidate, Theresa Daniel? Maybe you could ask the .
stem cell
HUMAN EMBRYO: Australian Peter Silburn has written a comprehensive article in which he makes a point never reported in the United States: “The embryo research bill does not mean the difference between patients living or dying, walking or staying paralyzed, as some misguided souls have been led to believe. True service to the suffering relies on proven science that can be trusted.”
(Reading: “Embryos promise no miracle cures,” The Australian, 9/20/02; a related statement, “Research on Embryos,” signed by Peter Silburn and several others)
sterilization
PERMANENT BIRTH CONTROL: The FDA has approved Australia’s Essure, which is a procedure designed to permanently block fallopian tubes.
(Reading: “A gentler approach to permanent birth control,” Essure) (Action: for ongoing and timely updates on the latest travesties in the birth control movement, contact and request placement on their PharmFacts E-News list)
reflection for prayer
WISDOM 6:1-3: Listen then, kings, and understand; rulers of remotest lands, take warning; hear this, you who have thousands under your rule, who boast of your hordes of subjects. For power is a gift to you from the Lord, sovereignty is from the Most High; he himself will probe your acts and scrutinize your intentions.