in this issue:
urgent / terri schiavo: BULLETIN / CONGRESS / COURTHOUSE / LEGISLATURE / RALLY REPORT / VATICAN APPEAL
hot button issues: STOPP
abortion: CLEFT PALATE
catholic bishops: ARGENTINA / PENNSYLVANIA / SCOTLAND
dark side: QUOTE OF THE WEEK / RUNNER-UP
in vitro fertilization: MY TWELVE EMBRYOS
morning-after abortion pill: WISCONSIN
planned parenthood: INDIANA
reminders: ALL’S NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY / RIGHT TO LIFE ACT OF 2005
reflection for prayer: PSALM 27:1
urgent / terri schiavo
BULLETIN: At 1 p.m. EST today, the tube providing food and water for disabled Florida woman Terri Schiavo is scheduled to be removed. While there are efforts under way at this time to prevent this from happening, the deadline remains in effect. Please pause right now, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, and pray that God will act in some fashion to spare the life of this innocent woman.
CONGRESS: A House committee is planning to issue subpoenas that could keep Terri’s feeding tube in place, at least while a Congressional investigation is under way. Under this scenario, subpoenas would be served to Schiavo’s doctors and hospice. It could be possible to hold the medical providers in contempt of Congress if they do not comply.
(Reading: “House panel seeks to keep Schiavo alive,” Associated Press, 3/18/05)
COURTHOUSE: A Florida appeals court rejected additional pleas from Terri Schiavo’s parents. Judge Chris Altenbernd wrote, “Not only has Mrs. Schiavo’s case been given due process, but few, if any, similar cases have ever been afforded this heightened level of process,” adding that the court was refusing to abandon the rule of law.
(Reading: “U.S. House acts to save Schiavo,” St. Petersburg Times, 3/17/05)
LEGISLATURE: Efforts to pass a bill designed to address the Schiavo case have hit a legislative logjam in Tallahassee. House and Senate members have thus far not been able to agree on language.
(Reading: “U.S. House acts to save Schiavo,” St. Petersburg Times, 3/17/05)
RALLY REPORT: LifeSite News offers two noteworthy stories on a rally held in Pinellas Park last weekend. One is about Kate Adamson, who personally experienced having a feeding tube removed while in a “persistent vegetative state.” She then recovered. The other item tells the experience of students from Christendom College, who took a 16-hour bus ride to attend the rally.
(Reading: “Recovered ‘vegetative state’ patient Kate Adamson speaks before Schiavo rally,” LifeSIteNews.com, 3/14/05; “Terri Schiavo may die because of country’s short attention span,” LifeSiteNews.com, 3/14/05)
VATICAN APPEAL: Bishop Elio Sgreccia, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, rarely comments on specific situations. But the Terri Schiavo case “goes beyond individual situations due to her exemplary character and the importance that the media have rightly attributed to it. Silence, in this case, could have been interpreted as approval, with consequences that could go greatly beyond the specific case.” He added, “As far as we can see, prohibiting someone access to food and water represents a ruthless way to kill that person… For this reason we consider the decision to remove the tube from Mrs. Terri Schiavo illicit.”
(Reading: “Vatican issues third intervention against forced euthanasia of Terri Schiavo,” LifeSiteNews.com, 3/11/05)
hot button issues
STOPP: David Bereit is the new national director of American Life League’s STOPP International. He joins STOPP after successfully leading a four-year fight against Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, with the Coalition for Life, a local non-profit organization. Gloria Feldt, past president of Planned Parenthood, once called Bryan, “the most anti-choice place in the nation.”
(Reading: “Newest member of the STOPP International team,” American Life League news release, 3/14/05)
abortion
CLEFT PALATE: U.K. authorities will not prosecute two doctors who allowed a late-term abortion on a baby diagnosed with a cleft lip and palate, having determined the doctors acted “in good faith.” Britain’s 1967 Abortion Act permits abortions beyond 24 weeks gestation if two doctors agree the child would be born with serious handicaps.
(Reading: “Cleft lip abortion done ‘in good faith,'” The Guardian, 3/17/05)
catholic bishops
ARGENTINA: The Argentine bishops’ conference is urging the country’s leaders to reject the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (known as CEDAW). The document itself does not deal with abortion, but it did establish a 23-nation committee that favors “safe abortion” and recommends its legalization and promotion in hospitals. The bishops wrote, “our commitment in favor of woman’s rights cannot depend on agreements and recommendations that endeavor to guarantee the practice of abortion as a public service.”
(Reading: “Abortion a new form of colonialism, say Argentine bishops,” Zenit News Agency, 3/16/05)
PENNSYLVANIA: A pastoral letter from Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh slams human embryonic stem cell research: “Morally, ethically and humanly speaking, one cannot justify taking innocent human life for any alleged good that might come from it. But even pragmatically, the potential benefit of embryonic stem cell research is a poor argument for [government] funding. Research conducted anywhere in the world has yet to produce a single medical benefit to any patient anywhere in the world.”
(Reading: “Bishop Wuerl rips use of human embryos,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/10/05)
SCOTLAND: Cardinal Keith O’Brien is calling on Catholics to boycott the national lottery after learning that more than $6 million in lottery proceeds had gone to organizations that refer women for abortions. He called it a “blatant misuse of funds,” adding that he was “quite staggered at the volume of funds provided to these agencies.”
(Reading: “Abortion support leads UK cardinal to demand lottery boycott,” LifeSiteNews.com, 3/14/05)
dark side
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Joyce Arthur of the Pro-Choice Action Network offers a concise pro-abortion rule of thumb for determining when human life begins: “A fetus becomes a human being when the woman carrying it decides it does.”
COMMENT: Of course, it is also abortion promoters who insist that pro-lifers stick to science and skip the ideology (see next item).
(Reading: “The fetus fallacy,” Pro-Choice Action Network, 3/05)
RUNNER-UP: Asked her opinion of the graphic posters of aborted babies shown by pro-lifers during a “Face the Truth” display in Tucson, Rachel Chanes of Planned Parenthood said, “I think it’s clear that the agenda is to promote their ideology over science.”
COMMENT: One picture is worth a thousand ideologies, but only if you face the truth.
(Reading: “Anti-abortion groups bring graphic images to UA campus,” Arizona Daily Wildcat, 3/11/05)
in vitro fertilization
MY TWELVE EMBRYOS: Family Circle magazine features a first-person account of a mother who underwent in vitro fertilization. The article subtitled, “When technology troubles the heart,” explores the dilemma of having “extra” human embryos frozen and stored. The writer refers to pre-embryos, potential babies and clumps of cells, but then also realizes that her 4-year-old daughter was at one point one of those “clumps.”
COMMENT: The writer is extremely confused, buffeted about by “experts” who try to convince her the “clumps” are not human beings. In her heart, she knows the answer. But she can’t quite admit to herself that the “clumps” are indeed persons.
(Reading: “My twelve embryos,” Family Circle, 3/8/05))
morning-after abortion pill
WISCONSIN: An ad in the college newspaper at the University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus advised students to pack a supply of “emergency contraceptives” for spring break. Money for the ad came from student fees. Peggy Hamill of Pro-Life Wisconsin (an American Life League associate group), called the ad “reckless.” There was no mention of the pill’s potentially abortifacient effect.
(Reading: “UW ad angers abortion critics; students urged to bring morning-after pill on spring break,” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 3/13/05)
planned parenthood
INDIANA: Planned Parenthood is suing the state, claiming an investigation of child abuse is an invasion of privacy. State law says sexual activity with anyone under 13 is child abuse. By searching Planned Parenthood records, the state says it would learn if any girls under 13 were being sexually abused. State law also requires anyone suspecting such abuse must report it to child welfare authorities.
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood sues Indiana over privacy,” Associated Press, 3/14/05)
reminders
ALL’S NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: American Life League’s third annual National Pro-life T-shirt Day is April 26. All pro-life Americans, especially students, are encouraged to wear pro-life apparel that day to show support for the preborn. The official shirt of ALL’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is available online at www.NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com. The cost is $5 plus shipping and handling.
RIGHT TO LIFE ACT OF 2005: This bill (which will be identical to the previous version) states, “The terms ‘human person’ and ‘human being’ include each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including, but not limited to, the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.”
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? He or she should be. Ask!
reflection for prayer
PSALM 27:1: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?