in this issue:
hot button issues: STOPP / THE PILL
abortion: FACTS
adolescents: SEXUAL ACTIVITY
bush: LEAVITT / POPULATION CONTROL / SPECTER AND TILLER / THE BUSH RECORD
euthanasia: LIVING WILL DEATH WARRANT / NETHERLANDS
in vitro fertilization: FROZEN EMBRYO CASE / SINGLE EMBRYO TRANSFER
life quotes: ARCHBISHOP CHARLES CHAPUT / FR. JOHN HARDON, SJ
pharmacists: MASSACHUSETTS
reflection for prayer: IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD
hot button issues
STOPP: American Life League’s STOPP International has released its analysis of Planned Parenthood’s newest annual report. Among the findings:
- Planned Parenthood increased the numbers of surgical abortions at its own facilities by 6.1% to 244,628. Planned Parenthood has surgically killed 3.5 million babies since 1970.
- For the 18th year in a row, Planned Parenthood turned a net profit. This year’s $35.2 million brings its total profits over the 18 years to $538 million.
- The number of Planned Parenthood clinics declined from 866 clinics to 849 in the last year. Since Planned Parenthood’s heyday in 1995, when it operated 938 clinics, it has closed a net of 89 clinics.
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood loses clinics, private support,” American Life League news release, 12/15/04)
THE PILL: The director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, commenting on the findings of two major birth control pill studies, said the research was flawed. Contrary to reported findings, a new analysis showed no evidence that birth control pills cut the risk of heart disease. The same studies claimed no link between the pill and increased risk of breast cancer. American Life League is calling for a thorough, honest investigation of the birth control pill’s effects.
(Reading: “Study on birth control pill’s benefits flawed,” Associated Press, 12/15/04; “Feds admit recent birth control pill study was bogus,” American Life League news release, 12/16/04)
abortion
FACTS: Abortion proponent Ipas has created the International Data for Evaluation of Abortion Services (IDEAS) web site. Their announcement states, “Ipas is pleased to announce a new database of abortion and related reproductive-health information.”
(Reading: “Ipas launches new resource for reproductive health-care providers and advocates around the world,” Ipas news release, 12/9/04)
adolescents
SEXUAL ACTIVITY: The Department of Health and Human Services reports fewer teens are “engaging in sex.”
COMMENT: So why all the money for pro-promiscuity groups like Planned Parenthood?
(Reading: “Teens delaying sexual activity,” Washington Times, 12/11/04; “Teens delaying sexual activity, using contraceptives more effectively,” DHHS news release, 12/10/04)
bush
LEAVITT: President Bush is recommending former Utah governor Mike Leavitt as the new secretary of Health and Human Services. Leavitt vetoed a law that would have provided abstinence-based education to Utah school children, authorized funds for Planned Parenthood to teach abstinence, and dropped a federal court appeal rather than defend a pro-life law.
COMMENT: How could a “pro-life” president make such a nomination?
(Action: To let the president know your thoughts, e-mail or call 202-456-1111)
(Reading: “Bush names new HHS head,” Family News in Focus, 12/14/04; “Jane Fonda says pro-life people are hypocrites,” Salt Lake City Tribune, 4/6/00; “Why pro-life efforts fail in Utah,” Accountability Utah, 2003)
POPULATION CONTROL: Human Life International is urging the Bush administration to end the population control policies that have been in place since the Nixon administration. Of interest is the fact that population control funding through USAID is higher under Bush than it was under Clinton.
(Reading: “HLI calls upon Bush Administration to rescind Kissinger-Authored Population Control policy and withdraw related funding from United Nations,” Human Life International news release, 12/8/04)
SPECTER AND TILLER: Want a significant reason for exposing the pro-abortion Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and asking President Bush why he has not openly opposed the possible selection of Specter for chairman of the Senate judiciary committee? Read the Operation Rescue West item cited below.
COMMENT: How can a “pro-life” president be silent!
(Action: To let the president know your thoughts, e-mail or call 202-456-1111)
(Reading: “Specter in bed with abortionist Tiller?” Operation Rescue West news release, 12/1/04)
THE BUSH RECORD: Some people argue that President George W. Bush is enthusiastically pro-life. President Bush’s record, posted online, speaks for itself:
euthanasia
LIVING WILL DEATH WARRANT: Hanford Pinette died because his Living Will gave a hospital an indication that by going to a judge, doctors could disconnect his life support, even though his wife, to whom Pinette gave durable power of attorney, argued against the withdrawal of medical treatment.
(Reading: “Man at center of living will battle dies,” Associated Press, 12/9/04)
NETHERLANDS: Terminally Ill newborns are being killed because of “unbearable suffering” and “no quality of life” at Groningen Academic Hospital.
(Reading: “Child euthanasia already happens everywhere, says Dutch hospital,” CNSnews.com)
in vitro fertilization
FROZEN EMBRYO CASE: A federal appeals court refused to reinstate a 1999 lawsuit filed on behalf of frozen human embryos (persons) in an effort to block stem cell research.
(Reading: “Court refuses to reinstate lawsuit filed on behalf of frozen embryos,” Capital News Service, 12/8/04)
(Background: “The Mary Doe lawsuit,” National Association for the Advancement of Preborn Children, 8/11/99)
SINGLE EMBRYO TRANSFER: It is estimated that worldwide, 1.2 million children have been born using IVF technology. Approximately one percent of newborns in the USA “are now conceived through the use of assisted reproductive technology.” Researchers are finding that should techniques be used to identify and “select embryos with the highest potential for implantation,” success can be achieved with singe-embryo rather than multiple embryo transfer to the mother. The goal is to eliminate twins or multiple baby pregnancies.
COMMENT: This recent study is based on the thinking that “quality control” is more important than respect for each individual human being.
(Reading: “Elective single-embryo transfer – has its time arrived?” New England Journal of Medicine, 12/2/04, pp. 2440-2442; “Elective single-embryo transfer versus double-embryo transfer in in vitro fertilization,” New England Journal of Medicine, 12/2/04, pp. 2392-2402)
life quotes
ARCHBISHOP CHARLES CHAPUT: “Every abortion kills an unborn child. Every abortion leaves a woman emotionally scarred. Every abortion is a grave act of violence.”
(Reading: “Every election is a tale of two virtues,” Archdiocese of Denver, 10/30/02)
FR. JOHN HARDON, SJ: When asked if abortion could ever be considered in cases of birth defects, Fr. Hardon replied: “Pardon me, but we all have a birth defect.”
COMMENT: By that, of course, Fr. Hardon meant sin.
(Reading: e-mail to Judie Brown)
pharmacists
MASSACHUSETTS: A CVS pharmacist recently refused to fill a prescription for the birth control pill because doing so would have violated his conscience. In commenting on this, Marlene Fried, who teaches reproductive rights at Hampshire College, said “by refusing [to dispense birth control pills, pharmacists] are putting their moral judgment on a person.”
COMMENT: Fried refuses to acknowledge that objectively a human being is a human being at his point of creation, and that the pill kills such a person.
(Reading: “University Drive pharmacist denies a student birth control,” Daily Collegian, 12/13/04)
reflection for prayer
IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD: Blessed are the meek because they, in this world’s warfare, are protected against the devil and against earthy persecutors. They are like glassware so well packed into straw or hay that it is not broken when it is struck. Meekness is like a strong shield, which blunts and shatters the sharp arrows of anger. The meek are like people dressed in garments of thick quilted cotton, which protect them without harming anyone else. Anger in all its many forms is the material on which this virtue has to work. Meekness controls and directs it, so that it is aroused only when necessary and to the extent to which it is necessary?. Meekness is not a shelter for cowardice.
(Reading: “In conversation with God,” Vol. 1, p. 84)