abortion
CATHOLIC AND PRO DEATH? In Mexico, a pro-abortion feminist has been excommunicated for her pro-abortion actions and prohibited from being a godmother. The vicar-general of the Diocese of Mexicali, Father Raul Enriquez Ramirez, said the woman had automatically excommunicated herself because of her pro-abortion activities, and therefore failed to meet the requirement of canon law that a godparent must set a good moral example for the child to be baptized.
COMMENT: Since Frances Kissling, founder of Catholics for a Free Choice, recently dared the pope or the bishops to excommunicate her, it is clear she has not learned the rules. She already is excommunicated.
(Reading: “A Pro-abortion Feminist,” Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, 7-8/00)
bioethics
BIONEWS: A free weekly digest of news stories about different aspects of human genetics and assisted reproduction, e-mailed each Monday. Visit their site to subscribe.
birth control pill
FDA PRODUCT LABELING: New guidelines for product labeling for the pill will include warnings of the increased risk of cardiovascular side effects in women who use the pill and smoke, the lack of protection for the spread of STDs including AIDS, and the association the pill has with ischemic stroke and breast cancer.
(Reading: “Oral Contraceptives: FDA Issues Updated Draft Guide for Product Labeling,” Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 7/13/00)
condoms
GENOCIDE IN AFRICA? A research article exposing the genocidal aspects of population control programs allegedly focused on controlling AIDS in Africa by distributing condoms makes many points, including the fact that the Centers for Disease Control warns on its web site that “condoms can be weakened by exposure to heat or sunlight or by age.” Tropical climates are very hot, and when even clean water is at times unavailable to the residents, can condoms really be of any use?
(Reading: “Is America Financing Genocide by Distributing Condoms in Africa?” Original Sources, 7/13/00)
emergency abortion pill
JAMWA: The Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association (JAMWA) has published a supplement on the question of “medical abortion” dealing with a wide variety of topics including the topic of making the emergency abortion (morning after) pill available without prescription.
COMMENT: Would that make the pharmacist an abortionist?
(Reading: Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association Supplement, 7/00)
human experimentation
OKLAHOMA: “Federal regulators have shut down all government-funded human medical experiments at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Tulsa amid evidence that researchers there broke multiple rules designed to protect patients and then tried to cover up their lapses by withholding information from university overseers and patients.”
COMMENT: The things abortion has lead to continue to be exposed while few make the connection.
(Reading: “U.S. Halts Cancer Tests in Oklahoma,” Washington Post, 7/10/00; for updates on all aspects of human experimentation, see Mad Nation)
imposed death
NULAND AGAIN! Communique reported (3/10/00) on Yale Professor of Medicine Sherwin Nuland, M.D., who recommended, “Physicians who believe that it is a person’s right to choose death when suffering cannot otherwise be relieved must turn to their consciences in deciding whether to provide help in such a situation. Once the decision to intervene has been made, the goal should be to ensure that death is as merciful and serene as possible.” Responding to several letters to the editor in NEJM, Nuland points out “there will always be a few patients for whom the best of our efforts in this regard (palliative care) are of no avail. If among those few patients there are some who request help with dying, physicians disposed to become involved should be provided with the wherewithal to do so effectively and mercifully.”
COMMENT: EXCUSE ME? When is direct killing ever merciful?
(Reading: “Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Practice,” New England Journal of Medicine, 2/24/00, pp. 583-584, “Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia,” New England Journal of Medicine, 7/13/00, pp. 150-153)
PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE (PVS): The British Daily Mail reports that “almost half the patients said to be in a ‘vegetative state’ following brain damage have been wrongly diagnosed.” Doctors studied 40 patients referred to their hospital since 1992, each having been diagnosed as PVS. Seventeen of them had been misdiagnosed.
(Reading: “Waking Nightmare,” Daily Mail, 7/18/00. Communique will fax or mail this item. We thank Dominic Baster of the SPUC Information office for reporting the story first in SPUC’s daily news digest and faxing the story to us.)
intrauterine device
MIRENA: The April 2000 issue of Contraceptive Technology Update focuses on the Mirena intrauterine device, manufactured by Berlex Laboratories. The device “delivers a 20 mcg daily dose of locally acting hormone directly in the uterus.” Patients who are eligible, in Europe, Asia and Latin America where the device is approved, are preferably women who have had one child, are in “a stable, mutually monogamous relationship and have no history of pelvic inflammatory disease.”
(Reading: “Mirena Intrauterine System Seeks US Nod,” Contraceptive Technology Update, 4/00, pp. 44-45, paid subscription only)
politics
LIBERAL MICHAEL KINSLEY SAYS: “Moral clarity is the great strength of the extreme pro-life position: Abortion is killing a baby, period. But it’s a position that’s hard to take, as the GOP continues to learn.”
(Reading: “Faking Right on Abortion,” Slate, 6/12/00)
pope john paul ii
NO COMPROMISE: “You know that it is never licit for a Catholic to be party to an alleged right to abortion or euthanasia. Since legislation allowing such crimes is intrinsically immoral, it cannot represent a moral imperative for the doctor, who will rightly have recourse to conscientious objection.”
(Reading: “Holy Father to Catholic Doctors’ Congress,” 7/7/2000)
selective reduction
ABORTION: Pontifical Council for the Family spokesmen explained that “from the first moment of conception” the unborn must be “accorded fundamental human rights, and above all, the right to life, which cannot be violated in any way.” Because of this, the Council affirms that “‘fetal reduction’ is the same as selective abortion. It consists precisely in the direct and willful elimination of an innocent human being.”
COMMENT: America needs a paramount human life amendment now!
(Reading: “Vatican Reminder: Elimination of Embryos Is a Form of Abortion,” Zenit news service, 7/13/00; for the full text of the statement by Alfonso Cardinal Trujillo, see On Fetal Reduction in Cases of Multiple Pregnancies)
sexually transmitted disease
HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV): “It is estimated that 80 percent of sexually active people contract it at some point in their lives, with 5.5 million new infections occurring yearly in the United States alone… Approximately 30 HPV types are sexually transmitted.” Some who get it develop genital warts and some will get cancer of the cervix.
(Reading: “HPV Hotline Is Focus of New Resource Center,” Contraceptive Technology Update, 4/00, pp. 46-47, paid subscription only)
unwanted children
PREGNANCY INTENTION and CHILD DEVELOPMENT: A very interesting study analytically reviewing previously published data was published earlier this year concluding that “the notion that unwanted pregnancy harms infant health and child development” is not valid.
(Reading: “Effect of Pregnancy Intention on Child Development,” Demography, 2/00, pp. 83-94)
you
ABORTION BREAST CANCER QUARTERLY: The newsletter that exposes the facts about abortion, breast cancer and the scientific truth. For a subscription, sign up at Abortion/Breast Cancer Link. Annual subscription rate is $45.
zinger
AVOIDING THE PLAGUE? A spokeswoman for NARAL, quoted in a recent editorial comment, said: “Women spend over 20 percent of their life avoiding being pregnant… Contraception is absolutely basic to women’s health care.”
(Reading: “Condommania,” Washington Times, 7/20/00)
reflection for prayer
To bear the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body, and bring it under subjection; to fly honors, to be willing to suffer reproaches, to despise one’s self and wish to be despised; to bear all adversities and losses, and to desire no prosperity in this world, are not according to man’s natural inclination. If thou look upon thyself, thou canst do nothing of this of thyself. But if thou confide in the Lord, strength will be given thee from heaven and the world and the flesh shall be made subject to thee. Neither shalt thou fear thine enemy, the devil, if thou be armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
-Thomas a Kempis, “Imitation of Christ,” Book 2, Chapter12, Section 9
CATHOLIC AND PRO DEATH? In Mexico, a pro-abortion feminist has been excommunicated for her pro-abortion actions and prohibited from being a godmother. The vicar-general of the Diocese of Mexicali, Father Raul Enriquez Ramirez, said the woman had automatically excommunicated herself because of her pro-abortion activities, and therefore failed to meet the requirement of canon law that a godparent must set a good moral example for the child to be baptized.
COMMENT: Since Frances Kissling, founder of Catholics for a Free Choice, recently dared the pope or the bishops to excommunicate her, it is clear she has not learned the rules. She already is excommunicated.
(Reading: “A Pro-abortion Feminist,” Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, 7-8/00)
bioethics
BIONEWS: A free weekly digest of news stories about different aspects of human genetics and assisted reproduction, e-mailed each Monday. Visit their site to subscribe.
birth control pill
FDA PRODUCT LABELING: New guidelines for product labeling for the pill will include warnings of the increased risk of cardiovascular side effects in women who use the pill and smoke, the lack of protection for the spread of STDs including AIDS, and the association the pill has with ischemic stroke and breast cancer.
(Reading: “Oral Contraceptives: FDA Issues Updated Draft Guide for Product Labeling,” Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 7/13/00)
condoms
GENOCIDE IN AFRICA? A research article exposing the genocidal aspects of population control programs allegedly focused on controlling AIDS in Africa by distributing condoms makes many points, including the fact that the Centers for Disease Control warns on its web site that “condoms can be weakened by exposure to heat or sunlight or by age.” Tropical climates are very hot, and when even clean water is at times unavailable to the residents, can condoms really be of any use?
(Reading: “Is America Financing Genocide by Distributing Condoms in Africa?” Original Sources, 7/13/00)
emergency abortion pill
JAMWA: The Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association (JAMWA) has published a supplement on the question of “medical abortion” dealing with a wide variety of topics including the topic of making the emergency abortion (morning after) pill available without prescription.
COMMENT: Would that make the pharmacist an abortionist?
(Reading: Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association Supplement, 7/00)
human experimentation
OKLAHOMA: “Federal regulators have shut down all government-funded human medical experiments at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Tulsa amid evidence that researchers there broke multiple rules designed to protect patients and then tried to cover up their lapses by withholding information from university overseers and patients.”
COMMENT: The things abortion has lead to continue to be exposed while few make the connection.
(Reading: “U.S. Halts Cancer Tests in Oklahoma,” Washington Post, 7/10/00; for updates on all aspects of human experimentation, see Mad Nation)
imposed death
NULAND AGAIN! Communique reported (3/10/00) on Yale Professor of Medicine Sherwin Nuland, M.D., who recommended, “Physicians who believe that it is a person’s right to choose death when suffering cannot otherwise be relieved must turn to their consciences in deciding whether to provide help in such a situation. Once the decision to intervene has been made, the goal should be to ensure that death is as merciful and serene as possible.” Responding to several letters to the editor in NEJM, Nuland points out “there will always be a few patients for whom the best of our efforts in this regard (palliative care) are of no avail. If among those few patients there are some who request help with dying, physicians disposed to become involved should be provided with the wherewithal to do so effectively and mercifully.”
COMMENT: EXCUSE ME? When is direct killing ever merciful?
(Reading: “Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Practice,” New England Journal of Medicine, 2/24/00, pp. 583-584, “Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia,” New England Journal of Medicine, 7/13/00, pp. 150-153)
PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE (PVS): The British Daily Mail reports that “almost half the patients said to be in a ‘vegetative state’ following brain damage have been wrongly diagnosed.” Doctors studied 40 patients referred to their hospital since 1992, each having been diagnosed as PVS. Seventeen of them had been misdiagnosed.
(Reading: “Waking Nightmare,” Daily Mail, 7/18/00. Communique will fax or mail this item. We thank Dominic Baster of the SPUC Information office for reporting the story first in SPUC’s daily news digest and faxing the story to us.)
intrauterine device
MIRENA: The April 2000 issue of Contraceptive Technology Update focuses on the Mirena intrauterine device, manufactured by Berlex Laboratories. The device “delivers a 20 mcg daily dose of locally acting hormone directly in the uterus.” Patients who are eligible, in Europe, Asia and Latin America where the device is approved, are preferably women who have had one child, are in “a stable, mutually monogamous relationship and have no history of pelvic inflammatory disease.”
(Reading: “Mirena Intrauterine System Seeks US Nod,” Contraceptive Technology Update, 4/00, pp. 44-45, paid subscription only)
politics
LIBERAL MICHAEL KINSLEY SAYS: “Moral clarity is the great strength of the extreme pro-life position: Abortion is killing a baby, period. But it’s a position that’s hard to take, as the GOP continues to learn.”
(Reading: “Faking Right on Abortion,” Slate, 6/12/00)
pope john paul ii
NO COMPROMISE: “You know that it is never licit for a Catholic to be party to an alleged right to abortion or euthanasia. Since legislation allowing such crimes is intrinsically immoral, it cannot represent a moral imperative for the doctor, who will rightly have recourse to conscientious objection.”
(Reading: “Holy Father to Catholic Doctors’ Congress,” 7/7/2000)
selective reduction
ABORTION: Pontifical Council for the Family spokesmen explained that “from the first moment of conception” the unborn must be “accorded fundamental human rights, and above all, the right to life, which cannot be violated in any way.” Because of this, the Council affirms that “‘fetal reduction’ is the same as selective abortion. It consists precisely in the direct and willful elimination of an innocent human being.”
COMMENT: America needs a paramount human life amendment now!
(Reading: “Vatican Reminder: Elimination of Embryos Is a Form of Abortion,” Zenit news service, 7/13/00; for the full text of the statement by Alfonso Cardinal Trujillo, see On Fetal Reduction in Cases of Multiple Pregnancies)
sexually transmitted disease
HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV): “It is estimated that 80 percent of sexually active people contract it at some point in their lives, with 5.5 million new infections occurring yearly in the United States alone… Approximately 30 HPV types are sexually transmitted.” Some who get it develop genital warts and some will get cancer of the cervix.
(Reading: “HPV Hotline Is Focus of New Resource Center,” Contraceptive Technology Update, 4/00, pp. 46-47, paid subscription only)
unwanted children
PREGNANCY INTENTION and CHILD DEVELOPMENT: A very interesting study analytically reviewing previously published data was published earlier this year concluding that “the notion that unwanted pregnancy harms infant health and child development” is not valid.
(Reading: “Effect of Pregnancy Intention on Child Development,” Demography, 2/00, pp. 83-94)
you
ABORTION BREAST CANCER QUARTERLY: The newsletter that exposes the facts about abortion, breast cancer and the scientific truth. For a subscription, sign up at Abortion/Breast Cancer Link. Annual subscription rate is $45.
zinger
AVOIDING THE PLAGUE? A spokeswoman for NARAL, quoted in a recent editorial comment, said: “Women spend over 20 percent of their life avoiding being pregnant… Contraception is absolutely basic to women’s health care.”
(Reading: “Condommania,” Washington Times, 7/20/00)
reflection for prayer
To bear the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body, and bring it under subjection; to fly honors, to be willing to suffer reproaches, to despise one’s self and wish to be despised; to bear all adversities and losses, and to desire no prosperity in this world, are not according to man’s natural inclination. If thou look upon thyself, thou canst do nothing of this of thyself. But if thou confide in the Lord, strength will be given thee from heaven and the world and the flesh shall be made subject to thee. Neither shalt thou fear thine enemy, the devil, if thou be armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
-Thomas a Kempis, “Imitation of Christ,” Book 2, Chapter12, Section 9