in this issue:
hot button issues: NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY
abortion: BREAST CANCER / MEDICAL ABORTION / TEN COMMANDMENTS
culture of death: CATHOLICS FOR A FREE CHOICE
morning-after abortion pill: ARKANSAS / MARYLAND
planned parenthood: PRO-LIFERS FILE COMPLAINT
targeting the preborn: DOWN SYNDROME / SPINAL MUSCULAR ATROPHY
violence: KILLED BY THEIR MOTHERS
web news: BRINGING UP BOYS
zinger: HE’S A MISTAKE
reflection for prayer: TERTULIAN
hot button issues
NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: The April 28 event is inching closer. American Life League is asking students across the country to wear pro-life T-shirts to school. Energetic young pro-lifers are responding enthusiastically. In Ohio, Mercer County Right to Life bought 100 t-shirts for students to wear on T-shirt Day. Within one week, all of the shirts were gone and nearly 200 more were ordered. To find out more, please see National Pro-life T-shirt Day.
abortion
BREAST CANCER: The National Cancer Institute has placed information on its web site denying the link between abortion and breast cancer, claiming that the studies cited to support the connection are flawed.
(Reading: “Abortion, miscarriage, and breast cancer risk,” National Cancer Institute, 3/21/03)
MEDICAL ABORTION: Researchers tracked 174 expectant mothers who were 9 weeks along or less. In each case the mothers requested medical abortion rather than a surgical method. All mothers had to sign a form advising them of off-label use of some drugs and the differences between a medical and a surgical abortion. Most mothers chose mifepristone (RU-486)/misoprostol abortions rather than methotrexate/misoprostol abortions; the latter was more frequently chosen by mothers who had had a previous abortion. The two methods were found to have very similar outcomes.
(Reading: “Mifepristone and misoprostol and methotrexate/misoprostol in clinical practice for abortion,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 3/03, pp. 664-669, abstract)
TEN COMMANDMENTS: Rock for Life founder Bryan Kemper explains “The 10 Commandments and Exceptions.”
culture of death
CATHOLICS FOR A FREE CHOICE: A recent news release indicates that the pro-death CFFC is defining the Catholic Church’s Canon law according to its pro-abortion viewpoint. A second release attacks the new lexicon of language, recently published by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, as part of a “crusade against reason and science in the modern world.”
(Reading: “Catholics for a Free Choice urges church hierarchy to come clean about church law and abortion,” CFFC news release, 3/31/03; “Catholics for a Free Choice says Vatican document defies history and science,” CFFC news release, 4/1/03)
morning-after abortion pill
ARKANSAS: House Bill 2836, currently in the House Public Health, Labor and Welfare Committee, requires that all health care facilities “shall ensure that each person who provides care to sexual assault survivors is provided with medically and factually accurate and unbiased information about emergency contraception” (20-36-105). However, the bill does not define the chemicals correctly, but rather states that “emergency contraception ? prevents pregnancy.” In fact, the regimen may chemically abort human persons prior to implantation.
COMMENT: We hope the people of Arkansas will make it clear that this bill is unacceptable.
(Reading: “The Emergency Contraception for Sexual Assault Survivors Act,” HB 2836, Arkansas State Legislature)
MARYLAND: The state senate blocked a house-passed bill (see Communique, 3/28/03, http://www.all.org/communique/cq030328.htm) that would have provided the morning-after pill regimen without prescription.
COMMENT: This is a victory for pro-life forces.
(Reading: “Maryland senate blocks over-the-counter abortion pill,” Baltimore Sun, 3/26/03)
planned parenthood
PRO-LIFERS FILE COMPLAINT: The United States Justice Foundation, on behalf of Elijah Ministries, has filed a complaint alleging that Planned Parenthood is operating a “public” library that has a policy excluding any pro-life protester from visiting the library.
(Reading: “Thomas v. Planned Parenthood of Central Texas, et al.,” U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, 3/25/03)
targeting the preborn
DOWN SYNDROME: Researchers compared costs for first-trimester screening versus second-trimester screening and note that a combination of tests in the first trimester is more cost effective. The researchers “assumed that all cases of fetal Down syndrome that were identified would be terminated.” So-called “live born Down syndrome costs” were estimated at $500,000. Researchers state, “Patients who pursue the pregnancy termination of an abnormal fetus who was identified in the first trimester may be afforded pregnancy termination options that are unavailable in the second trimester. Furthermore, these couples can be provided privacy with their decision because the information is obtained before the point when most women appear pregnant.”
(Reading: “Combined first-trimester versus second-trimester serum screening for Down syndrome: a cost analysis,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 3/03, pp. 745-751, abstract)
SPINAL MUSCULAR ATROPHY: Researchers have tested a technique on a total of 12 expectant mothers, each of whom was carrying a child at risk of suffering from the disease. A non-invasive genetic analysis of fetal cells showed three babies affected and nine unaffected. The researchers did not report any outcome, but the test could be used for eugenic purposes.
(Reading: “Prenatal diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy by genetic analysis of circulating fetal cells,” The Lancet, 3/22/03)
violence
KILLED BY THEIR MOTHERS: An overview of 34 North Carolina infant death cases over a 15-year period reveals that 17 of the mothers whose babies were either murdered or left to die were under the age of 21. The researchers recommend that one solution to the “problem” is “targets for educational programs about Safe Haven options need to be population wide (rather than focused exclusively on pregnant adolescents) and that family planning and prenatal clinics be targeted specifically.”
(Reading: “Newborns killed or left to die by a parent,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 3/19/03, pp. 1425-1429, abstract)
web news
BRINGING UP BOYS: The Cornerstone Policy Research web site promotes an event that should become the outline for similar events nationwide. It’s called “Bringing up boys: Shaping the next generation of men.” Find out more about doing your own similar event by contacting .
zinger
HE’S A MISTAKE: Professor Leon Kass writes, “Not long ago, at my own university, a physician making rounds with medical students stood over the bed of an intelligent, otherwise normal ten-year-old boy with spina bifida. ‘Were he to have been conceived today,’ the physician casually informed his entourage, ‘he would have been aborted.’ Determining who shall live and who shall die – on the basis of genetic merit – is a godlike power already wielded by genetic medicine.”
(Reading: “Oh yeah, he’s a mistake,” City File, Chicago Reader, 2/28/03, article available on line for $1.95)
reflection for prayer
TERTULIAN: Its [prayer] only art is to call back the souls of the dead from the very journey into death, to give strength to the weak, to heal the sick, to exorcise the possessed, to open prison cells, to free the innocent from their chains. Prayer cleanses from sin, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions, comforts the fainthearted, gives new strength to the courageous, brings travelers safely home, calms the waves, confounds robbers, feeds the poor, overrules the rich, lifts up the fallen, supports those who are falling, sustains those who stand firm.
(Reading: “Treatise on Prayer”)