in this issue:
abortion: BREAST CANCER / DECISION MAKING
activism: NEW YORK
adolescents: RACE AND CONTRACEPTIVE USE
condoms: USERS PROFILED
death and dying: LYING
excommunication: CATHOLIC FAMILY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
in vitro fertilization: SUCCESS RATES
morning after abortion pills: BACK UP YOUR BIRTH CONTROL / BRITAIN / VIRGINIA
personhood: POPE JOHN PAUL II
selective reduction: EUGENIC ABORTION AND GESTATIONAL DIABETES
sex selection: INDIA
web news: SEMINARIAN LIFE LINK
zinger: HUH?
reflection for prayer: CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
abortion
BREAST CANCER: Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is collaborating on a new television commercial to expose the connection between abortion and breast cancer.
DECISION MAKING: A study of 53,000 pregnancies, designed to evaluate the degree to which prenatal knowledge of fetal anomalies and sociodemographic characteristics determine the outcome of a pregnancy found that the “severity of anomalies directly correlates to abortion rates,” and that “central nervous system anomalies are more likely to lead to abortion. Maternal level of education inversely correlates with likelihood of termination of a normal pregnancy, whereas maternal age directly correlates with pregnancy termination when serious anomalies are present.”
(Reading: “Decision-making for termination of pregnancies with fetal anomalies: Analysis of 53,000 pregnancies,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2/02, pp. 216-222, paid subscriptions only)
activism
NEW YORK: Pro-lifers are being asked to sign a petition against the campaign of Eliot Spitzer, the pro-abortion New York state attorney general who is hammering pro-life pregnancy centers in New York.
adolescents
RACE AND CONTRACEPTIVE USE: A study of 605 female adolescents reporting to a teen family planning clinic for a first visit found that “black adolescents were three times more likely than white adolescents to be pregnant at presentation to the clinic.” Further, “ninety-one percent did not want to be pregnant.” The conclusion is that “understanding how black adolescents make contraceptive choices is essential to helping them avoid unintended pregnancy.”
(Reading: “Race, adolescent contraceptive choice, and pregnancy at presentation to a family planning clinic,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2/02, pp. 241-247, paid subscriptions only)
condoms
USERS PROFILED: Researchers studied 2,700 women to determine what psychosocial factors contribute to the use of condoms in heterosexual relationships. The women most likely to participate were “black, less educated, unmarried, receiving an income from welfare programs” and having a history of STDs. They were also involved with a large number of partners. The conclusion drawn is that a “history of STD could be an important factor in targeting condom use interventions.”
(Reading: “Psychosocial factors associated with self-reported male condom use among women attending public health clinics,” Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 7/01, pp. 387-393)
death and dying
LYING: One researcher writes, “The time has come for incorporating palliative care into the curriculum of medical school. This model of care should include the students facing the fact of their own death. Otherwise, they will not understand their dying patients, and they will develop the tendency to lie to their patients, a lie that interferes with the patient’s quality of death.”
(Reading: “Overcoming the tendency to lie to dying patients,” American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, 1-2/02, pp. 29-34)
excommunication
CATHOLIC FAMILY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: Please check this new website for updates on the excommunication petition and Divine Mercy Prayer Project.
in vitro fertilization
SUCCESS RATES: In an overview of procedures and outcomes during 1998 in the United States, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology reports that of 81,899 cycles of treatment, 20,241 deliveries took place, which is slightly less than 25 percent overall.
(Reading: “Assisted reproductive technology in the United States: 1998 results generated from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine/Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology Registry,” Fertility and Sterility, 1/02, pp. 18-31, paid subscribers can access some articles online)
morning-after abortion pill
BACK UP YOUR BIRTH CONTROL: The Reproductive Health Technologies Project is coordinating a month-long event in March designed to get women interested in the so-called emergency contraception pills. March 20 has been designated “as ‘a day of action’ when women, regardless of need, will ask their providers for EC; providers and pharmacists will discuss EC, and activists will lobby state and federal legislatures for increased access to and awareness about the method.” Some of the program’s co-sponsors include such pro-abortion organizations as NARAL, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy.
(Reading: “Make EC the focus during March Campaign,” Contraceptive Technology Update, 2/02, p. 18; Reproductive Health Technologies Back Up Your Birth Control project)
BRITAIN: Pro-lifers are pressing for a judicial review of the morning-after abortion pill regimen, which was recently reclassified in Britain as a drug available from pharmacists without a prescription. The review was requested because the pills can abort.
(Reading: “Judicial review of morning after pill,” The Guardian [UK], 2/1/02; Daily News, Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 2/1/02)
VIRGINIA: Virginia Senate Bill 623 would validate provision of the abortion regimen known as “emergency contraception.” American Life League testified against the bill and has pressed for its defeat. The Virginia Society for Human Life, an NRLC affiliate, takes “no position” on the bill.
(Reading: “‘Morning-after’ pill is abortion; so where are the pro-lifers?” American Life League news release, 2/5/02; “Senate panel approves ‘morning-after’ pill,” Associated Press, 1/31/02)
personhood
POPE JOHN PAUL II: Pope John Paul II commemorated Pro-Life Day in Italy by emphasizing that science has demonstrated that the embryo “is a human individual who possesses his own identity from conception.” To “recognize the value of life implies consistent measures from the legal point of view, especially the protection of human beings who are unable to defend themselves,” the Holy Father said.
(Reading: “Pope calls for legal recognition of human embryo,” Zenit News Agency, 2/4/02)
selective reduction
EUGENIC ABORTION AND GESTATIONAL DIABETES: Researchers studied 188 consecutive triplet pregnancies, 103 of which continued as triplets, while the other 85 mothers chose selective reduction. “The rate of gestational diabetes was significantly higher in the triplet group than in the reduction group.” Buried in the article is the admission that the results are not conclusive and that further studies are required to discern “whether diagnostic criteria for gestational diabetes should be altered in multiple gestations.”
(Reading: “Impact of fetal reduction on the incidence of gestational diabetes,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1/02, pp. 91-94)
sex selection
INDIA: A doctor writes that “some private clinics perform female feticide under various guises.” He then goes on to say that “with the proliferation of assisted reproductive centers (250 in India), many have advertised the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for the purpose of selection of a male child. The new technologies seem less violent and involve less guilt and hence add on to the social problem of the disadvantaged girl child. The Indian government is in the process of creating legislation that would ban PGD for nonmedical sex selection.”
COMMENT: Why not ban the killing process, period?
(Reading: “Ethical differences between sex selection by sperm and embryo?” Fertility and Sterility, 1/02, p. 202)
web news
SEMINARIAN LIFE LINK: See this page for information about the August 2002 National Conference and Retreat.
zinger
HUH? Planned Parenthood says, “By proposing to ‘clarify’ the definition of ‘child’ to mean from conception to age 19 years, the [Bush] administration is elevating the status of the fetus above that of a woman. This would effectively bypass the pregnant woman, granting insurance eligibility to her fetus instead.”
COMMENT: Talk about obfuscating the obvious! First of all, the Bush administration tossed out one tiny little morsel of language in one tiny little government subsidized health insurance program. And they took this baby step to assure that pregnant WOMEN could receive prenatal health care for THEIR HEALTH and that of their UNBORN CHILD. How does that place the child above the woman in status?
(Reading: Planned Parenthood Action Network, 2/5/02)
reflection for prayer
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: “The whole of man’s history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity.”
(Reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, Section 409)