in this issue:
hot button issues: CROSSROADS / PARTIAL-BIRTH INFANTICIDE / ROCK FOR LIFE
atrocity: WEB-ASSISTED SUICIDE
birth control pill: EFFICACY / HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS / THROMBOEMBOLISM
bush watch: PROJECT ROSEBUD
imposed death: AMA
morning-after abortion pill: MODE OF ACTION
philanthropy: BILL GATES AND JOHNS HOPKINS
rhetoric: NARAL
web news: POWERFUL SITE
reflection for prayer: FRANCIS FERNANDEZ
hot button issues
CROSSROADS: The team of college students walking across the country with American Life League’s Crossroadsproject is in Utah this weekend. Last year, police hassled walkers for crossing California’s Golden Gate Bridge with their signature PRO-LIFE t-shirts. This year, the team actually had a police escort and reported no trouble at all.
(Reading: “Annual pro-life cross-country trek under way,” Agape Press, 6/9/03)
PARTIAL-BIRTH INFANTICIDE: ALL’s Judie Brown told Agape Press, “It’s just a shame that the partial-birth abortion bill claims to ban a procedure that by the definitions and exceptions in the bill will not ban anything and probably will not stop one abortion.”
(Reading: “Pro-life leader says PBA ban won’t stop a single abortion,” Agape Press, 6/5/03)
ROCK FOR LIFE: American Life League’s Rock for Life youth outreach is beginning a summer tour of major Christian music festivals. Director Bryan Kemper and several chapter leaders will be manning booths, distributing pro-life material and sharing the pro-life message with young people across the country.
(Reading: “Rock for Life summer tour,” Rock for Life)
atrocity
WEB-ASSISTED SUICIDE: The San Francisco Chronicle uses the story of a 21-year-old Florida State student who took her own life to illustrate how young people are finding online support to commit suicide. Suzy Gonzales learned how to make a lethal cocktail with cyanide, received encouragement from online pals, and sent her family a suicide e-mail timed to arrive after her death.
(Reading: “A virtual path to suicide,” San Francisco Chronicle, 6/8/03)
birth control pill
EFFICACY: Researchers find that in a representative sample of 1,034 French women of child-bearing age who had either had an abortion or whose last pregnancy was “unintended,” 33% of those pregnancies came about while the women were using contraception. The conclusion is: “improving the training of family planning providers remains a major goal to ensure that women use a contraceptive method that fits their social and sexual lifestyle.”
(Reading: “Contraception: from accessibility to efficiency,” Human Reproduction, 5/03, pp. 994-999)
HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS: Researchers point out that hormonal contraceptive use might be associated with “a higher aggregate temporal exposure of the cervix to HPV-infected make epithelia or secretions. Consistent with this suggestion, data from cohort studies have indicated a higher rate of incident HPV infection in individuals who use oral contraceptives.”
(Reading: “Hormonal contraception and cervical cancer,” The Lancet, 5/31/03, p. 1915; background: “Acquisition and natural history of human papillomavirus Type 16 variant infection among a cohort of female university students,” Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, 4/02, pp. 343-351)
THROMBOEMBOLISM: A new study analyzing previous research articles reveals that when comparing the risks associated with second- and third-generation versions of the birth control pill to those associated with pregnancy, the birth control pill presents a greater risk. Researcher J.F. Wilks notes, “the rate of fatal thromboembolic events during the first year of use of the third-generation BCP [birth control pill] is double the rate seen in pregnancy.”
(Reading, “Hormonal birth control and pregnancy: a comparative analysis of thromboembolic risk,” Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 6/03, pp. 912-916, paid subscriptions only)
bush watch
PROJECT ROSEBUD: This online effort enables pro-lifers to send President Bush a single red rose, a “symbol of life,” with a message that the president is in the sender’s prayers. Organizers note the possibility of one or more Supreme Court vacancies, and the need for God’s wisdom to guide Bush in selecting nominees.
imposed death
AMA: Doctors will be asked to vote on an American Medical Association resolution that would reverse the association’s stand against assisted suicide. Some doctors would like to see the AMA take on Attorney General Ashcroft, who ruled that federally-controlled drugs cannot be used to assist suicide. The decree currently targets Oregon, the only state where assisted suicide is legal.
(Reading: “End of life drug and pain treatment,” Resolution 213, American Medical Association House of Delegates, 5/7/03; “AMA to vote on stand against physician assisted suicide,” Hospice Patients Alliance Newsletter, 6/10/03)
morning-after abortion pill
MODE OF ACTION: The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals is claiming that IPPF has shown that the morning-after abortion pill will not cause abortion by interfering with implantation. However the actual report does NOT state that the regimen will not alter the lining of the womb, but reports contradictory conclusions: “The studies conducted so far have not fully characterized the mechanisms of action of EC pills. The information analyzed provides evidence for pre-fertilization effects and offers no evidence that EC pills prevent pregnancy by interfering with implantation of fertilized eggs.”
COMMENT: In other words, there is no conclusive evidence that the pro-aborts are willing to share.
(Reading: “AHRP Editorial,” Contraception, 67:2003:341, paid subscriptions only; “Emergency contraception pills: how do they work?” IPPF Medical Bulletin, 12/02)
(Background: “Morning After Pill,” American Life League)
philanthropy
BILL GATES AND JOHNS HOPKINS: $40 million in Gates Foundation grant money will fund expanded “reproductive health” programs at Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. The Baltimore Sun cited a World Health Organization estimate that there are 123 million women, mostly in developing countries, who want to use birth control. “The need in terms of global population and reproductive health is enormous,” said Dr. Alfred Sommer, the school’s dean. The grants bring total gifts to Hopkins from the Gates Foundation to $100 million
(Reading: “Hopkins school of public health to get $40 million Gates grant,” Baltimore Sun, 6/5/03)
rhetoric
NARAL: A new $3 million ad campaign trumpets, “there’s still time to protect your right to choose.” NARAL claims, “We’re one Supreme Court justice away from losing our most basic freedom.”
COMMENT: Abortion is “our most basic freedom”?
(Reading: “Ad campaign warns of possible Roe v. Wade overturn,” Associated Press, 6/7/03)
web news
POWERFUL SITE: Groundpickle.com represents a noteworthy effort to bring truth to kids, to counter the lies told by schools, and to expose the hypocrisy of the media and pro-death groups like Planned Parenthood.
reflection for prayer
FRANCIS FERNANDEZ: Jesus’ goodness towards men — towards all of us — goes far beyond human reckoning. That man who fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him half dead … it was He who comforted him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He it was who then made him mount on His own horse, and found accommodation for him at the inn, so that he should be cared for. It was He who paid a large amount of money for him, and promised the inn-keeper that, on His return, He would pay him whatever more He should spend. He has taken the same care of each individual man. Time and again he has lifted us up when we have been badly injured, He has poured balm into our wounds, and has bound them up. Our salvation is in His mercy; in just the same way as the sick, the blind and the crippled have done, we must turn to the Tabernacle and say to Him: Jesus have mercy on me.
(Reading: “In Conversation with God,” Volume 3, p. 536)