in this issue:
hot button issues: RACHEL’S VINEYARD
activism: MERCK BOYCOTT
birth control and health insurance: LOUISIANA
condom: UN REPORT
congress: TITLE X
endometriosis: INFERTILITY
morning-after abortion pill: HAWAII
nursing homes: QUALITY PROBLEMS
ywca: NOW?S PATRICIA IRELAND
zinger: PROCREATION CENTER
reflection for prayer: THOMAS A KEMPIS
hot button issues
RACHEL’S VINEYARD: A training conference is scheduled in Palm Beach, Florida, the weekend of July 11-13. The curriculum is designed to enhance knowledge of the psychological and spiritual techniques used in Rachel’s Vineyard retreats and post-abortion healing.
(Reading: “Rachel’s Vineyard leadership conference“)
activism
MERCK BOYCOTT: Pro-lifers are encouraged to write to Merck and let the company know that until it ceases production of unethical vaccines — manufactured using baby body parts from aborted children — pro-lifers will not purchase their products. A complete list of products and alternatives, as well as details on where to send a letter, can be found on the Children of God for Life site.
COMMENT: Merck recently advised employees that the company would not provide matching gifts if any employee chose Human Life International as the recipient. HLI started the Merck boycott in union with Children of God for Life. Let HLI?s know you support his principled action.
birth control and health insurance
LOUISIANA: The state senate rejected an amendment that would have required insurance companies to pay for contraceptives. Comparing birth control for women with Viagra for men, feminist supporters used the “discrimination” argument to attempt passage of the language.
COMMENT: The failure is a setback for the culture of death.
(Reading: “Louisiana senate rejects amendment requiring insurance companies to cover contraception,” Kaiser Daily Reproductive health Report, 6/24/03)
condom
UN REPORT: “A draft report for the UN?s AIDS agency has found that even when people use condoms consistently, the failure rate for protection against HIV is an estimated ten percent, making them a larger risk than portrayed by many advocate groups.”
(Reading: “UN report adds to a condom debate,” Boston Globe, 6/22/03)
congress
TITLE X: On June 12, eighty-five Congressmen sponsored the Parent’s Right to Know Act of 2003 (H.R. 2444) which will require recipients of federal Title X population control money to notify and obtain consent from a parent before providing their minor child with contraceptive drugs or devices. If passed, this bill would put a huge dent in Planned Parenthood’s operations.
COMMENT: What right does anyone, even a parent, have to consent to a morally illicit action, especially when one considers the fact that many so-called contraceptives act sometimes as abortifacients by preventing the implantation of a new human being in the mother’s womb?
(Reading: “Parent’s Right to Know Act of 2003,” HR 2444, Library of Congress and search by bill number; analysis available from , national director of STOPP International)
endometriosis
INFERTILITY: Researchers report that endometriosis is linked to gene defects that could explain infertility. Dr. Paul Hayes explains that endometriosis is a leading source of pelvic pain in women. He further reports that the risk of acquiring endometriosis increases among women who use the birth control pill.
(Reading: “Expression profiling of endometrium from women with endometriosis reveals candidate genes for disease-based implantation failure and infertility,” Endocrinology, 144:7:2870-2881; “Can I take the pill for medical reasons?” Paul Hayes, M.D.)
morning-after abortion pill
HAWAII: Governor Linda Lingle (R) vetoed SB 568, a bill that would have required hospitals in the state to offer emergency contraception to sexual assault victims. Hawaii Right to Life had circulated a petition statewide asking the governor for the veto and citing three reasons including the potential abortive action of the pills.
(Reading: “Hawaii governor vetoes bill,” Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 6/24/03; Hawaii Right to Life petition)
nursing homes
QUALITY PROBLEMS: The Consumer?s Union has issued a stinging critique of problems with U.S. nursing homes.
ywca
NOW?S PATRICIA IRELAND: An analysis of the changes at the Young Women?s Christian Association since former National Organization for Women leader Patricia Ireland was named CEO of the group exposes how the YWCA has changed.
(Reading: “Not your grandma?s YWCA,” Weekly Standard, 6/9/03)
zinger
PROCREATION CENTER: Chinese doctors claim to have “nurtured” an in vitro embryonic heart for 13 days. The embryonic heart was cultured after having been taken from a “53-day embryo” who had been aborted.
COMMENT: “Procreation” and “nurturing” are not associated with machines and acts of human destruction ? at least not until now.
(Reading: “Chinese doctors nurture in vitro embryonic human heart for 13 days,” People?s Daily, 6/19/03)
reflection for prayer
THOMAS A KEMPIS: When thou hast grace, think with thyself how miserable and poor thou art wont to be when thou art without it. Nor does the progress of a spiritual life, consist so much in having the grace of consolation as in bearing the want of it with humility, resignation, and patience so as not to grow remiss in thy exercise of prayer at that time, nor to suffer thyself to omit any of the accustomed good works.
(Reading: “Imitation of Christ,” Book III, Chapter 7, Section 1)