hot button issues: KLINE / NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY
abortion: LIFE OF THE MOTHER EXCEPTION / POLAND
activism: ROCK THE VOTE
confusion: NEW YORK
euthanasia: WASHINGTON
morning-after abortion pill: CFFC SURVEY
personhood: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
planned parenthood: CONDOM WEEK / JEWELRY / PETITION
sex education: MASSACHUSETTS
wisdom: BENEDICT XVI
reflection for prayer: I CORINTHIANS 10:31-32
hot button issues
KLINE: American Life League saluted Kansas attorney general Phill Kline, who wants to hold Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers accountable for failure to report child abuse. A court ruling, however, is a setback for his efforts. The state supreme court wants a lower court to determine if Kline has the right to look at abortion clinic records involving girls under 18. The ruling says if indeed Kline does have that right, he must protect the patients’ confidentiality.
(Reading: “Forget Punxsutawney; watch Phill in Kansas,” American Life League news release, 2/2/06; “Kansas court blocks abortion records access,” Associated Press, 2/4/06)
NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: American Life League is sponsoring this event for the fourth year. On April 25, ALL is asking pro-life students to wear a pro-life message to class. All are invited to participate, but public schools are the primary focus. The official shirt of ALL’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is available online for $5 plus shipping and handling.
abortion
LIFE OF THE MOTHER EXCEPTION: Threat to the mother’s life is often cited as an excuse for abortion, but hundreds of pro-life doctors agree this is a bogus reason for killing an innocent human being. American Life League has a statement signed by doctors who assert there is never a reason for abortion to save a mother’s life.
ACTION: If you’re a pro-life doctor, please sign the statement. Pro-lifers, please bring this statement to your doctors and ask them to join their colleagues in proclaiming the truth.
(Reading: “Protecting the life of the mother,” American Life League)
POLAND: A Polish woman is complaining to the European human rights court that she should have been permitted on health grounds to abort her baby. Alicja Tysiac said three eye doctors told her that giving birth could harm her sight, but a gynecologist found no medical reasons for aborting the child. She claims her eyesight began to deteriorate following the baby’s birth five years ago. She tried to sue the gynecologist in a Polish court, but prosecutors said she didn’t have a case.
(Reading: “Polish woman refused abortion goes to Europe court,” Reuters, 2/7/06)
activism
ROCK THE VOTE: Rock the Vote, the youth-oriented voter registration effort whose web site is laced with sponsored links for abortion providers, is in deep financial trouble, according to the Los Angeles Times. The organization’s staff has been cut from 20 employees to two, and that may soon be down to one.
(Reading: “Rock the Vote is stuck in a hard place,” Los Angeles Times, 2/7/06)
confusion
NEW YORK: Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi claims a new county program brings together both pro-life and pro-abortion groups in an effort to cut the number of abortions. WCBS-TV reports that “representatives of dozens of groups from Catholic Charities to Planned Parenthood met for seven months to help design the grant program.” Planned Parenthood of Nassau was one of eight organizations sharing $1 million in county grants.
COMMENT: How to you find common ground with the devil?
(Reading: “Long Island abortion foes receive funding,” WCBS-TV, 2/7/06)
euthanasia
WASHINGTON: Former governor Booth Gardner will lead a campaign designed to put an assisted suicide referendum on the ballot in 2008. A similar effort failed to win voter approval in 1991.
(Reading: “Ex-governor backs effort to legalize assisted suicide,” Seattle Times, 2/7/06)
morning-after abortion pill
CFFC SURVEY: The pro-abortion group “Catholics” for a Free Choice surveyed Catholic hospitals, asking if the facilities distributed the potentially abortifacient morning-after pill to victims of sexual assault. The survey finds that some Catholic hospitals distribute the drug. A Life Site News report lists the 35 hospitals.
(Reading: “Complying with the law?” Catholics for a Free Choice, 1/06; “Study finds many U.S. hospitals distribute abortion drug, names them,” LifeSiteNews.com, 2/3/06)
WAL-MART: A coalition of pro-abortion groups is teaming up with an anti-Wal-Mart web site to challenge the company’s decision not to sell “emergency contraceptives.” A statement signed by the leaders of Planned Parenthood, NARAL and NOW calls the company’s decision “an outrageous intrusion into the health and privacy of all U.S. women.” Three women in Massachusetts have sued Wal-Mart over its refusal to carry Plan B, a drug sold as a morning-after pill.
(Reading: “Joint statement in support of lawsuit demanding access to emergency contraception at Wal-Mart,” WakeUpWalMart.com)
personhood
RIGHT TO LIFE ACT: This bill (HR 552) states, “The terms ‘human person’ and ‘human being’ include each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including, but not limited to, the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.” See Right to Life Act for details.
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? If not, ask!
planned parenthood
CONDOM WEEK: American Life League’s STOPP International says Planned Parenthood affiliates around the country are touting condom use during the week of February 14-21. “National Condom Week” is an annual event that coincides with Valentine’s Day. “In other words,” said ALL’s Jim Sedlak, “Planned Parenthood will use this week to promote its agenda of recreational sex.”
(Reading: “National Condom Week,” Wednesday STOPP Report, 2/8/06)
JEWELRY: First it was condom key chains. Now it’s earrings and necklaces made with expired birth control pills. Planned Parenthood of Greater Cleveland says it’s teaming up with a local artist to honor women. The pills, of differing colors, are arranged in various designs and encased in resin. Planned Parenthood “decided it would be a unique way for people to make a statement about access to women’s health, specifically birth control.”
(Reading: “Jewelry made of birth control pills has a message,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, 2/8/06; “Undercover,” Planned Parenthood of Greater Cleveland)
PETITION: American Life League is leading a major petition effort designed to cut all tax funding directed to Planned Parenthood. In its most recent fiscal year, Planned Parenthood received more than $265 million from federal, state and local government sources. Petitions may be signed online.
sex education
MASSACHUSETTS: The state’s Catholic bishops are strongly opposing a legislative proposal establishing a sex ed curriculum covering pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. The program would include instruction on birth control and abortion. Parents’ objections would become virtually moot, according to the bishops, because “children not attending sex education classes would fail to qualify for graduation. They would lack the requisite ‘knowledge’ contained in the sex education part of the core curriculum.” Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts is among the curriculum’s backers.
(Reading: “Oppose H. 1641 by contacting the education committee in Boston,” Massachusetts Catholic Conference, 2/3/06)
wisdom
BENEDICT XVI: Every human life, as it is, deserves and demands to always be defended and promoted…. We well know that this truth often risks being contradicted from the widespread hedonism in the so-called affluent society [in which] life is extolled as long as it is pleasurable, but tends not to be respected any more when it is sick or disabled.
(Reading: “Affluence threatens pro-life values, pope says,” Agence Presse France, 2/5/06)
reflection for prayer
I CORINTHIANS 10:31-32: Whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Avoid giving offense, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God.