in this issue:
hot button issues: ABORTION AND SOCIAL SECURITY / CONSUMER REPORTS / PLAN B / ROE V. WADE ANNIVERSARY
abortion: EFFICACY
activism: NOVENA
birth control: RISKS CREATE CONCERN / SEASONALE
bush: FUNDING CULTURE OF DEATH
congress: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
ethical research: DOWN SYNDROME
fetal tissue research: BRAIN STEM CELLS
lifelines: ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN
morning-after abortion pill: DIRECT ACCESS
politics: DEMOCRATS
selective reduction: KARYOTYPING
web news: MEDIA BIAS
zinger: OFFENSIVE ABSTINENCE
reflection for prayer: IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD
hot button issues
ABORTION AND SOCIAL SECURITY: An American Life League ad published in the Washington Times points out that the current Social Security crisis would not be happening if more than 50 million Americans had not been lost to abortion. The ad calls on President Bush to cut funding to Planned Parenthood and other organizations that fund abortion.
(Reading: “American Life League blows the whistle,” American Life League news release, 1/13/05; “Protect Social Security, help cure abortion,” American Life League ad, 1/13/05)
CONSUMER REPORTS: American Life League is calling on pro-lifers to cancel subscriptions to Consumer Reports, which published deceptive material about abortion and birth control in its February issue (see Communique, 1/5/05). Consumers Union CEO James Guest is a former Planned Parenthood executive. Jim Sedlak of ALL’s STOPP International said, “a Planned Parenthood ideologue has gone on to taint another organization whose reputation had previously been beyond reproach.”
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood bias infiltrates Consumer Reports,” American Life League news release, 1/12/05)
PLAN B: The Food and Drug Administration is expected to rule before Jan. 22 on Barr Laboratories’ request to make Plan B, a morning-after abortion pill, available over the counter to women over 16. The FDA had previously rejected a petition to make Plan B available over the counter without age restrictions. American Life League is calling on the FDA to remove Plan B from the market altogether.
(Action: Comments may be sent to at 301-827-2410)
(Reading: “Plan B up for over-the-counter review again,” American Life League news release, 1/13/05)
ROE V. WADE ANNIVERSARY: A schedule of American Life League’s activities in the Washington, D.C. area next weekend is posted online.
abortion
EFFICACY: Data on 6,568 women from previous studies dealing with mifepristone (RU-486) was studied to determine the effectiveness of the “medical” abortion drug. Because so many women were “lost to follow up,” the rate is skewed, but the study found “more than 80% of abortions were complete within a week of receiving mifepristone.” As time went on the “success” rate rose. However, many women had surgical procedures because the chemicals failed to abort.
(Reading: “Accounting for time: insights from a life-table analysis of the efficacy of medical abortion,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 12/04, pp. 1928-1933)
activism
NOVENA: Catholics in the St. Louis area are encouraging worldwide participation in a novena for Archbishop Raymond Burke, running from Jan. 14-22. The organizers are asking the Lord to offer strength to the archbishop, who has been attacked by the media and political figures for his defense of Catholic teachings on abortion. The prayer for the novena is the “Irresistible novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
birth control
RISKS CREATE CONCERN: Zenit reports on an overview of side effects caused by Depo-Provera, the pill and the patch.
(Reading: “Contraceptive dangers: Rising concern over side effects,” Zenit, 1/8/05)
SEASONALE: The Food and Drug Administration has advised Barr Laboratories that a current television ad is “false and misleading because it fails to reveal material facts about Seasonale and minimizes the risks associated with Seasonale,” which put the company in violation of FDA regulations.
(Reading: Letter to Barr Research, Food and Drug Administration, 12/30/04)
bush
FUNDING CULTURE OF DEATH: Ed Szymkowiak reports that on Dec. 8, President Bush signed H.R. 4818, which includes $729 million for 2005 population control programs that promote abortifacient contraception. Domestically, Title X of the Public Health Service Act got $288 million, and international population control got $441 million. Additionally, other federal programs, including Medicaid, will likely provide about $240 million to about 4,500 U.S. clinics in 2005 for controlling births, based upon a 2003 funding study by Planned Parenthood.
COMMENT: President Bush should cut off these funds. Please contact him today to urge him to do so in his 2006 budget. Letters or phone calls are best: , 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500. You may call 202-456-1111.
(Reading: H.R. 4818, U.S. Congress, pp. 190, 315; “Family Planning Annual Report: 2003 Summary,” Alan Guttmacher Institute, 8/04, pp. 9, 42)
congress
RIGHT TO LIFE ACT OF 2005: This bill 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.”
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? He or she should be.
ethical research
DOWN SYNDROME: Dr. Paddy Jim Baggott presented a final report in research he has conducted under the aegis of the Michael Fund, in which he said, “It is a modern tragedy that when Down syndrome is diagnosed in the fetus, the affected child is frequently aborted. Abortion is severely detrimental to the mother and obviously fatal to the baby. If this research could lead to fetal therapy for Down syndrome then mothers carrying affected babies may be given new hope and encouraged to carry their babies to term with a brighter prospect for not only the mother and her child but for the entire family and society as well.” The groundbreaking research addressing B-6 deficiencies and other detected possible causes for Down syndrome can be acquired by making a request from the Michael Fund.
fetal tissue research
BRAIN STEM CELLS: StemCells, Inc., has announced plans to investigate a new drug for treatment of Batten disease that will employ human neural (brain) stem cells “isolated from the fetal brain.”
COMMENT: The article is unclear about the fate of the human being whose brain stem cells are being taken, but we can presume the human being is not dead because dead cells are useless for this type of research.
(Reading: “StemCells, Inc. announces filing of IND for human neural stem cell transplant treatment for Batten disease,” BioSpace.com, 1/4/05)
lifelines
ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN: Tolerance applies to the erring; intolerance to the error.
morning-after abortion pill
DIRECT ACCESS: A recent study reveals that even when women have direct access to the pills or have them on hand, a significant drop in the pregnancy rate is not noted nor is a significant decline in sexually transmitted disease noted.
(Reading: “Direct access to emergency contraception through pharmacies and effect on unintended pregnancy and STIs,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 1/5/05, pp. 54-62)
politics
DEMOCRATS: Former Indiana Congressman Tim Roemer, a Catholic who is against abortion, is being opposed as possible chairman of the Democratic National Committee. At the same time some Democrats are proposing a change in the party’s abortion rhetoric that is more appealing to the American public. But as Republican National Coalition for Life director Colleen Parro warns, “We must not allow politicians, Democrat or Republican, to ‘use’ the pro-life cause to advance their own personal agendas. Please remain vigilant.”
(Reading: “Abortion stand could cost former Indiana congressman chairmanship,” Associated Press, 1/11/05; “Democrats prepare rhetorical shift on life issues,” Republican National Coalition for Life FaxNotes, 1/6/05)
selective reduction
KARYOTYPING: Researchers find that fetal karyotpying (analyzing the chromosomal characteristics of a cell) prior to fetal reduction helps eliminate those babies who could have a chromosomal abnormality.
(Reading: “First trimester fetal reduction to a singleton infant or twins,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 12/04, pp. 2035-2040)
web news
MEDIA BIAS: Life, God’s Sacred Gift is a new web site dedicated to tracking major media and their treatment of pro-life concerns.
zinger
OFFENSIVE ABSTINENCE: Lansing, New York’s board of education cancelled “I’m worth waiting for” because “many parents are upset with the program’s basic message of waiting for marriage.”
(Reading: “Abstinence program offends ‘nontraditional families,'” WorldNetDaily, 12/28/04)
reflection for prayer
IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD: Meekness sets its face against those pointless displays of violence which at bottom are signs of weakness, such as impatience, irritation, bad temper and hatred. It is opposed to all useless waste of energy in unnecessary anger, which so often originates in little things that might have been passed over in silence or with a smile, and which never has any useful results.
(Reading: “In Conversation with God,” Vol. 1, p. 85)