in this issue:
abortion: VIRGINIA
catholic bishops: BURKE I / BURKE II / MEXICO
fetal tissue: GEORGETOWN
naral: PUNK
planned parenthood: TEXAS
politics: THE ROE EFFECT
postscript: YOUTH ACTIVISM
reflection for prayer: MARK 6:10-12
abortion
VIRGINIA: State Del. Robert Marshall (R-Manassas) is sponsoring a bill that would impose health regulations on abortion clinics that apply to all other outpatient surgery centers. A favorable editorial in the Fredericksburg, Va., Free Lance-Star notes, “Virginia does not permit eye-surgery clinics, tonsillectomy providers, and many other outpatient facilities to beg off a regulatory safety regimen because of cost. The same principle governs manicurists. Those who cut life from a woman’s womb should be exempt?”
(Reading: “Darkrooms,” Free Lance-Star, 2/1/04)
catholic bishops
BURKE I: In commenting on his pro-abortion political stance, U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said, “what I believe personally as a Catholic as an article of faith is an article of faith.” But, he added, it is not “appropriate in the United States for a legislator to legislate personal religious beliefs for the rest of the country.” Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, when asked about Kerry’s comments, said, “I would have to admonish him not to present himself for Communion. I might give him a blessing” if he approached the altar at the cathedral in St. Louis. A Kerry spokeswoman said, “The archbishop has the right to deny Communion to whoever he wants, but Sen. Kerry respectfully disagrees with him on the issue of choice.”
(Reading: “Archbishop Burke says he would refuse Communion to Kerry,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, 1/31/04)
BURKE II: In a commentary on Archbishop Raymond Burke’s pronouncement that pro-abortion Catholic politicians should be denied Communion, professors Robert George of Princeton and Gerard Bradley of Notre Dame say the archbishop is right on target and not a “fanatic”: “Catholic legislators remain legally free to vote as they please. Bishop Burke, in turn, enjoys the legal right to exercise his spiritual authority as a bishop to order them to refrain from receiving Communion so long as they persist in what the Church teaches are acts of profound injustice against their fellow human beings. Freedom is a two-way street.”
(Reading: “Leading his flock,” National Review Online, 1/29/04)
MEXICO: President Vicente Fox’s administration plans to hand out the morning-after pill at government clinics. In response, Mexico’s Catholic bishops blasted the proposal. Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar said the potential post-fertilization action of the pills “is clearly abortion. It kills a newly conceived human being, the most innocent of lives.” Cardinal Norberto Rivera reminded Mexican Catholics that anyone who participates in abortion is excommunicated. “This is not the opinion of a bishop or even the opinion of the pope,” he said. “It is law of the church.”
(Reading: “Morning-after pill use enrages Mexican bishops,” Houston Chronicle, 1/28/04)
fetal tissue
GEORGETOWN: Last month, it was reported that concerns over research using fetal tissue from aborted babies at Georgetown University had been “resolved.” Now it appears that the “resolution” is a finding that continuing the research would be ethical. The Washington Post reports the reasoning is that “scientists did not know the cells had come from aborted fetuses when they began their work and should not be forced to abandon potentially lifesaving studies or risk forfeiting grants.” The group that lodged the original complaint against Georgetown, Children of God for Life, has launched a petition drive in an effort to stop the research.
(Reading: “GU to continue controversial research,” Washington Post, 1/30/04; “Petition to Georgetown University,” Children of God for Life)
naral
PUNK: In one of her final acts as leader of the group that now calls itself “NARAL Pro-Choice America,” Kate Michelman announced a partnership with punk rockers designed to convince young voters to defeat George Bush in this fall’s election. Said Michelman, “Young people who’ve never lived in a time when they didn’t have the right to choose shouldn’t wake up one day in a world they don’t recognize. We know that when young people have the facts, they’ll get active to protect their liberty.”
COMMENT: Finish the sentence, please — their “liberty to kill their preborn children.”
(Reading: “Pro-abortion group goes ‘punk,'” Cybercast News Service, 1/30/04)
planned parenthood
TEXAS: The work of pro-lifers in the Austin area is catching the attention of major media outlets around the country. The Chicago Tribune, for instance, is reporting on contractor Chris Danze’s boycott that effectively shut down construction of a new Planned Parenthood abortion facility.
In the meantime, a local atheist group has thrown its support to Planned Parenthood, noting that “these important services have already become less available to poor or uninsured women due to the influence of Catholic Church doctrine at Brackenridge, Austin’s public hospital. Now, a minority of religious extremists are waging economic blackmail.”
(Reading: “New tactic in abortion battle,” Chicago Tribune, 2/2/04; “The board of directors of the Atheist Community of Austin resolves to support the Choice Project,” Atheist Community of Austin news release, 1/6/04)
politics
THE ROE EFFECT: Columnist James Taranto notes that there are relatively few young voters taking part in this year’s political primaries. He says that younger adults “tend not to exist.” This is the 18-29 age group, whose numbers have been diminished because of the impact of legal abortion. His conclusion: “It seems reasonable to assume that more potential Democrats than potential Republicans have been aborted. After all, their would-have-been mothers show through their actions that they agree with the Democratic position on the issue. Result: fewer younger voters in Democratic primaries, as we saw [in New Hampshire], and probably a boost for Republican candidates in the general election.”
(Reading: “Roe v. Dean,” Wall Street Journal, 1/28/04)
postscript
YOUTH ACTIVISM: Perhaps “young voters don’t exist” (see item above), but the new voters are pro-life. For a photo spread of some of the activities that took place during American Life League’s January workshop, please see ALL’s 2004 week of youth activism in Washington, DC.
reflection for prayer
MARK 6:10-12: Jesus said to the disciples, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” So they went off and preached repentance.