in this issue:
abortion: MIFEPRISTONE + MISOPROSTOL / MISOPROSTOL
activism: MARS, INC.
condoms: SPINNING SAFETY
contraceptive mentality: HATING BABIES, HATING GOD
culture of death: ARTHUR CAPLAN
defending the church: RATZINGER
hollywood: MEL GIBSON
judicial nominees: POPE JOHN PAUL II
morning-after abortion pills: ABORTION / COLLEGE CAMPUSES / EFFICACY
reflection for prayer: IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD
abortion
MIFEPRISTONE + MISOPROSTOL: A study covering 18 months of experiences in the United States shows that of the approximately 80,000 women who have been “treated,” 139 adverse events were reported to Danco Laboratories, including 50 ongoing pregnancies and 13 patients who required a blood transfusion.
COMMENT: RU-486 abortion proponent and apologist, Richard Hausknecht, M.D, who is also Danco’s medical director, conducted the study.
(Reading: “Mifepristone and misoprostol for early medical abortion: 18 months experience in the United States,” Contraception, 67 (2003) 463-465)
(Background: “RU 486: The Ultimate Legacy“)
MISOPROSTOL: Recent studies indicate that 800 mg of misoprostol, when administered every 8 hours for a 24-hour period, “could be a valid method for abortion for up to 9 weeks of gestation.”
(Reading: “Oral and vaginal misoprostol 800 mg every 8 h for early abortion,” Contraception, 67 (2003) 457-462)
activism
MARS, INC.: Saint Antoninus Institute reports in its Spring 2003 newsletter that the Mars company has made a recent donation to Planned Parenthood. It is recommended that the products be boycotted and that concerned citizens make their voices heard by registering a . You may visit the Saint Antoninus Institute web site to subscribe to its newsletter.
condoms
SPINNING SAFETY: An excellent article exposes the deceptive rhetoric employed by those who market condoms as the fail-safe answer to avoiding HIV and AIDS.
(Reading: “The spin on condoms,” Concerned Women of America, 6/26/03)
contraceptive mentality
HATING BABIES, HATING GOD: Tracing the reasons why Protestants should be opposing the practice of birth control, Aaron Wolf exposes how denominations have ignored the wisdom of ages.
(Reading: “Hating babies, hating God: Caveat contraceptor,” Chronicle magazine, 6/03)
culture of death
ARTHUR CAPLAN: In an MSNBC commentary on “the problem with embryo adoption,” bioethicist Caplan writes, “using terms like ‘adoption’ encourages people to believe that frozen embryos are the equivalent of children.”
COMMENT: Clearly Caplan failed Biology 101.
(Reading: “The problem with embryo adoption,” MSNBC, 6/24/03)
defending the church
RATZINGER: During a round table discussion in April at the University of the Holy Cross, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger defended the notion that politics is part of the sphere of common sense, which enables us to “know the great values that determine our actions.” Faith can cure sick reason, as “there is a certain connection between faith and reason: faith can enlighten [reason], cure it when it is sick, and help it to be itself.”
If only materialist criteria prevail, reason would be blind to moral values, which would be relegated to the sphere of the individual, said Cardinal Ratzinger. Such a “mutilation … destroys politics and transforms it into a mere instrument conditioned by the strongest,” where morality is excluded, he warned. “At the same time, politicians who are believers can illuminate the political discussion with their conduct, witnessing to faith as a real presence, thus contributing with reason in the governance of every political act.
“The moral imperatives that the Catholic politician has are values to be defended always, including when the majority is opposed to them,” the cardinal said.
(Reading: “Ratzinger on politics,” This Rock, 5-6/03, p. 8)
hollywood
MEL GIBSON: Producer and analyst Barbara Nicolosi has seen a private screening of Icon Productions’ “The Passion” and describes the film as “a miracle.”
(Review: “I saw the passion,” LewRockwell.com, 6/26/03)
judicial nominees
POPE JOHN PAUL II: Is Roe v. Wade/Doe v. Bolton the “law of the land,” and a ruling that is to be “respected,” as some judicial nominees have suggested over the years? Not according to Pope John Paul II, as he notes in Evangelium Vitae:
The doctrine on the necessary conformity of civil law with the moral law is in continuity with the whole tradition of the Church. This is clear once more from John XXIII’s Encyclical: “Authority is a postulate of the moral order and derives from God. Consequently, laws and decrees enacted in contravention of the moral order, and hence of the divine will, can have no binding force in conscience…; indeed, the passing of such laws undermines the very nature of authority and results in shameful abuse.” This is the clear teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas, who writes that “human law is law inasmuch as it is in conformity with right reason and thus derives from the eternal law. But when a law is contrary to reason, it is called an unjust law; but in this case it ceases to be a law and becomes instead an act of violence.” And again: “Every law made by man can be called a law insofar as it derives from the natural law. But if it is somehow opposed to the natural law, then it is not really a law but rather a corruption of the law.”
(Reading: “Evangelium Vitae,” Section 72)
morning-after abortion pills
ABORTION: Australian reporter Miranda Devine writes that not enough is known about the pill regimen to make it as easily available as it has become in her country. She says “no one is sure how the pill works.” And Australian Medical Association spokesman Bill Glasson, “when asked if the pill stops pregnancy before or after fertilization, said the answer is: “It does both.”
(Reading: “An abortion by any other name, perhaps,” Sydney [Australia] Morning Herald, 6/26/03)
COLLEGE CAMPUSES: A 2001 survey of 139 college health centers found that 66.9% prescribe the pills, but “barriers exist to access.” Researchers claim that on most prescribing campuses, there is no access to the pills “on nights, weekends and holidays. Thus, when students are most likely to experience an act of unprotected intercourse, they are least able to access a prescription for ECPs [emergency contraception pills] in a timely and effective manner.” Further, “Planned Parenthood Federation of America has recently incorporated advanced provision into its medical provider protocols.” In other words, PPFA will give the pills to women who may need them later.
(Reading: “Emergency contraception pills (ECPs): current trends in United States college health centers,” Contraception, 67 (2003) 449-456, not on line.)
EFFICACY: Researchers claim that “the current three-day cutoff for using emergency contraception is unnecessary and is not supported by the scientific evidence.” James Trussell, Ph.D., told WebMD that the “72-hour window was completely arbitrary.”
COMMENT: Trussell, of course, is one of the pill regimen’s biggest promoters.
(Reading: “Morning after pill works up to five days,” WebMD Medical News, 6/16/03)
reflection for prayer
IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD: When we love, we desire what is the best for the other; our whole person is directed to this love, independently of our likes or dislikes or moods: the payment and the price of love is to receive more love.
(Reading: “In conversation with God,” Vol. 3, p. 673)