in this issue:
activism: WISCONSIN
birth control pill: YASMIN
bush watch: FEDERAL REGULATIONS, STEM CELL RESEARCH
fetal tissue research: GOVERNMENT FINANCED
in vitro fertilization: BAN IT!
methotrexate: ANTIDOTE
mifepristone (ru-486): NO PLACE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES, THIRD WORLD SIMPLE
morning after abortion pill: CHILE
norplant: THIRD WORLD
stem cell research: DECEPTIONS, REEVE IN CANADA
transdermal patch: ABORTS
web news: CHRONIC ILLNESS MINISTRY, DISABILITY LINK, POST-ABORTIVE WOMEN SET TO OVERTURN ROE, PRO-LIFE PRINCIPLE
reflection for prayer: ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA
activism
WISCONSIN: Pro-lifers are working hard to oppose a senate bill that would mandate contraceptive coverage in health insurance plans. For details see Pro-Life Wisconsin.
birth control pill
YASMIN: Berlex Laboratories announces FDA approval for “the first and only birth control pill to contain the unique progestin, drospirenone.” One side effect is breakthrough bleeding, which can be a sign of early abortion.
(Reading: Pharmacists for Life PharmFacts e-news, 5/15/01, subscribe via “>e-mail; to learn more see Pharmacists for Life; for background, see “Low-Dose Pill with New Progestogen Is as Effective as Current Formulations,” Family Planning Perspectives, 9-10/00; “Schering Unit’s Contraceptive [sic] Gets U.S. FDA Nod,” Reuters, 5/14/01)
bush watch
FEDERAL REGULATIONS: See special Communique issued May 14. Note that these regulations also contain the same erroneous definitions that have existed since 1975, as evidenced in the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, Report and Recommendations: Research on the Fetus (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1975).
DEFINITIONS:
HHS definition of “fetus” — “the human from the time of implantation [5-7 days] until a determination is made following delivery that it is viable or possibly viable.”
CORRECT SCIENTIFIC DEFINITION: a period in human development that begins at the ninth week gestational age.
HHS definition of pregnancy: begins at implantation.
CORRECT SCIENTIFIC DEFINITION: pregnancy begins at conception/fertilization.
COMMENT: The Bush administration must act to withdraw these regulations at once. Human beings are at stake. Time is running out. The government is not God. Until these changes are made, every type of ghoulish experimental practice, on persons at every stage of their lives, will continue with government approval.
Contact “>President Bush and “>Secretary Tommy Thompson.
STEM CELL RESEARCH: While Christian groups have sued NIH to stop destructive stem cell research requiring the deaths of human embryonic persons, the Bush administration remains silent on whether or not it will ban the practice and prohibit the use of federal funds. To learn about the suit see NIH Suit; contact “>President Bush and “>Secretary Tommy Thompson.
fetal tissue research
GOVERNMENT FINANCED: The National Institutes of Health reportedly funded AIDS research that required the transplantation of tissue from twenty-week-old aborted babies into a lab mouse. It is alleged that the research stopped last year.
(Reading: “20-Week-Old Fetal Tissue Put in Lab Mice,” World Net Daily, 5/14/01; for background, see “Recycling Babies,” and also “The Free Market Meets the Vampire,” by Suzanne Rini)
in vitro fertilization
BAN IT! In an interview with Catholic World Report, Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, points out, “The practice of in vitro fertilization must be stopped. It only encourages the production of frozen embryos, and freezing embryos is utilitarianism without mercy. When you start a wrong procedure like this, any solution is wrong and sad. Using a frozen embryo for research purposes is doubly criminal — first, because you are freezing an embryo; second, you are using them so as to destroy them.”
(Reading: “Utilitarianism Without Mercy,” Catholic World Report, 05/01, p. 56)
methotrexate
ANTIDOTE: A young woman exercised her “choice” to chemically abort, and then changed her mind. In an attempt to save the baby, Dr. Steven Roth prescribed Leukovorin (a drug given with methotrexate to protect normal cells). A healthy baby girl was born. Leukovorin is described in MIMS (medical drug information for Australia, provided to us by John Wilks, pharmacist, author and lecturer) as treatment for “overdoses of methotrexate.”
(Reading: “Healthy Baby Made Mother’s Day,” St. Petersburg Times, 5/13/01, http://www.sptimes.com/News/051301/Citrus/Healthy_baby_made_mot.sht; for details on drug information as sited above, http://www.mims.com.au/.)
mifepristone (ru-486)
NO PLACE ON COLLEGE CAMPUS: USA Today published an outstanding editorial view by Iowa State Rep. “>Barbara Finch (5/13/01).
THIRD WORLD “SIMPLE”: Researchers analyzed efforts to simplify the mifepristone-misoprostol abortion regimen by reducing the dose of mifepristone. “A simplified medical abortion regimen of 200 mg mifepristone followed by the option of home administration of misoprostol seems feasible” they conclude.
(Reading: “Can Women in Less-developed Countries Use a Simplified Medical Abortion Regimen?” The Lancet, 5/5/01)
morning after abortion pill
CHILE: A Chilean appeals court has ruled that the so-called “emergency contraceptive” levonorgestrel cannot be distributed in Chile because it causes abortion. The court reversed a lower court based on evidence provided by International Institute for the Study of Human Life and the Institute for Research and Advocacy for Women and the World Mothers Movement. Pro-aborts will appeal.
(Reading: “Appeal Court Bans Use of Emergency Contraceptive [sic] in Chile,” The Lancet, 4/14/01)
norplant
THIRD WORLD: Claims are being made that Norplant, the implant, is as effective as IUDs and sterilization based on a study “in partnership with researchers from the UN, WHO, the World Bank” and family planning groups in Bangladesh, Chile, China, Columbia, Egypt, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
(Reading: “Contraceptive Implant Matches Effect of IUDs and Sterilisation,” The Lancet, 4/7/01; study published in Obstetrics Gynecology, 4/01, pp. 539-47, paid subscriptions only)
stem cell research
DECEPTIONS: From a Scientific American article, “Save Embryonic Stem Cell Research”:
“Research should and will continue on the adult stem cells, and if they ultimately prove as capable as or better than embryonic ones, it might then be wise to forsake the embryonic cells in deference to the moral debate over whether an embryo is really a human being. Until then, however, adult stem cell work can only be an adjunct to the embryonic work.
“No one should too readily dismiss the objections that using embryos in this way is an insult to human dignity. But these were embryos already abandoned by their parents as by-products of other conception attempts. Currently these embryos have exactly zero chance of ever maturing into human beings. Stem cell research offers the cells more opportunity for life than they would otherwise see. It offers many afflicted people an opportunity for healthier, longer lives. Saving embryonic stem cell research may not be an easy choice, but it is the right and moral one.”
COMMENT: Professor Dianne Irving responds:
These people should be thrown in jail for scientific fraud and fined big time. Why isn’t anyone doing anything about this? These scientists — and politicians — know perfectly well that these are already existing human BEINGS from fertilization on — and if they don’t, they should not be permitted to hold any offices with such power and influence — nor should they be performing any experiments on human embryos if they are so ignorant about what it is they are “experimenting” on.
Three decades of lies is enough! What a colossal mind-boggling sham and HOAX on the entire society, not to mention “world”! Science has known since the 1880’s, with the three-volume tome by Wilhelm His, “HUMAN EMBRYOLOGY,” that the immediate product of fertilization is an already existing living human being! This is NOT NEWS.
There is, and has been, absolutely no accountability anywhere for such blatant lies whatsoever. If these scientists-and politicians-will lie about the simplest objective FACTS of human embryology, WHAT ELSE WILL THEY LIE ABOUT? If they will falsify this objective scientific TRUTH, will they also falsify their data on OTHER research projects for political expediency, money, power and influence too — research which will then be applied across the board to every member of this society and endanger the health and well being of us all, regardless? You bet. I am rapidly becoming ashamed and embarrassed to have ever been trained as a bench research scientist. It is as bad as being a politician these days. CLINTONESQUE BIOLOGY is what this is!
(Reading: “Save Embryonic Stem Cell Research,” Scientific American, 5/01, p. 6; “Academic Fraud and Conceptual Transfer in Bioethics: Abortion, Human Embryo Research and Psychiatric Research,” by Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.)
REEVE IN CANADA: Visiting Canada, Christopher Reeve praised Canadian researchers and described the U.S. as suffering from “unreasonable attitudes.” We presume this is because pro-life Americans respect all persons from conception.
(Reading: “Reeve Praises Our Health Care System,” National Post, 5/8/01)
transdermal patch
ABORTS: The latest anti-baby weapon in the feminist arsenal is a hormone-secreting patch that is alleged to be “as effective as the pill.” Developed by R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, the transdermal patch works by “creating an unfriendly atmosphere for sperm and discouraging implantation.”
(Reading: “Patch Matches Pill in Preventing Pregnancy,” HealthScout, 5/8/01, “web news
CHRONIC ILLNESS MINISTRY: For daily devotionals and inspirational reading visit Rest Ministries.
DISABILITY LINK: Visit Joni Eareckson Tada and experience the world of church-related ministry to the disabled.
POST-ABORTIVE WOMEN SET TO OVERTURN ROE: For details on the project being spearheaded by the Texas Justice Foundation and the Elliot Institute. The National Foundation for Life Litigation Project is also involved in such programs and projects.
PRO LIFE PRINCIPLE: For commentary and analysis on exceptions by pro-life strategist Thomas Longua, visit Colorado Right to Life.
reminder
PRO-LIFE CONFERENCE: American Life League and Population Research Institute are sponsoring the first major international pro-life conference of the new millennium. A Celebration of Life World Family Conference is scheduled June 20-24 in Bloomington, Minn. The event will include a banquet honoring Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, for his lifetime of pro-life activism. For complete schedules, speaker lists and registration information, see A Celebration of Life World Family Conference or call 888-546-2580.
reflection for prayer
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA (1347-1380 AD): From “Dialogue on Divine Providence”:
Eternal Trinity, Godhead, mystery deep as the sea, you could give me no greater gift than the gift of yourself. For you are a fire ever burning and never consumed, which itself consumes all the selfish love that fills my being. Yes, you are a fire that takes away the coldness, illuminates the mind with its light and causes me to know your truth. By this light, reflected as it were in a mirror, I recognize that you are the highest good, one we can neither comprehend nor fathom. And I know that you are beauty and wisdom itself. The food of angels, you gave yourself to man in the fire of your love.
You are the garment which covers our nakedness, and in our hunger you are a satisfying food, for you are sweetness and in you there is no taste of bitterness, O triune God!