in this issue:
hot button issues: PLANNED PARENTHOOD PROFITS / PLANNED PARENTHOOD SOUTH DAKOTA / PLANNED PARENTHOOD VACCINE PLAN / PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION
abortion: GRIEF / PERFECT BABIES / PREGNANCY CENTERS
bush watch: GAY RIGHTS
catholic bishops: DIALOGUE ABOUT SEX
morning-after abortion pill: NO PANACEA?
persistent vegetative state: PILL
personhood: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
pharmacists: JUDGE TOSSES CASE
stem cell research / ethical: BREAST SURGERY / HEART FAILURE
vaccines: ETHICAL VACCINE SUPPORT
wisdom: MORALITY
zinger: NFP KILLS HUMAN EMBRYOS?
reflection for prayer: SIGNS OF SUFFERING
hot button issues
PLANNED PARENTHOOD PROFITS: Newly released data reveals that for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, Planned Parenthood had a record income of $882 million and a profit of $63 million. “While Planned Parenthood is begging for increased government funding, it’s also admitting that it racked up record operating profits in its most recent fiscal year,” said American Life League vice president Jim Sedlak.
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood swimming in record profits,” American Life League news release, 6/5/06; “Strength in diversity, united in purpose,” Planned Parenthood annual report, 6/06)
PLANNED PARENTHOOD SOUTH DAKOTA: A fundraiser with an “Old West” theme is scheduled later this month in Washington, D.C. “I have to assume that Planned Parenthood’s South Dakota affiliate can’t raise a nickel in its own back yard,” said American Life League president Judie Brown.
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood seeks cash for S.D. battle,” American Life League news release, 6/5/06; “Join PPMW’s young professionals for our official 2006 kick-off,” Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, 6/06)
PLANNED PARENTHOOD VACCINE PLAN: The FDA has okayed a vaccine that targets four strains of human papilloma virus. HPV is transmitted sexually. American Life League’s Jim Sedlak points out that Planned Parenthood encouraged the FDA to approve the vaccine and notes, “It appears that Planned Parenthood wants this new HPV vaccine so it can continue leading our children into a destructive lifestyle while giving them a ‘shot’ to avoid some of the complications of that lifestyle.”
(Reading: “The health of our children is at risk,” American Life League, 6/2/06; “Cervical cancer vaccine approved,” Associated Press, 6/8/06)
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION: Stop the flow of your tax dollars to Planned Parenthood! Planned Parenthood received more than $265 million from federal, state and local government sources in its most recently reported fiscal year. Please sign American Life League’s online petition online and forward the link to others.
abortion
GRIEF: Researchers say further studies are required to examine the influence of a particular abortion technique on the process of handling the loss after “termination of a desired pregnancy” that is ended due to fetal deformity.
(Reading: “Does abortion technique influence the course of perinatal grief in second trimester termination for fetal anomalies?” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 6/06, pp. 1743)
PERFECT BABIES: Disabled preborn babies are being aborted at an alarming rate, according to recent reports. It is reported that late term abortions are being done because of “minor, treatable birth defects.”
(Reading: “Babies aborted for not being perfect,” London Daily Mail, 5/28/06)
PREGNANCY CENTERS: Pro-life centers and their impact on society are analyzed in an article by Melinda Delahoyde and Kristin Hansen.
(Reading: “Pregnancy centers: a practical response to the abortion dilemma,” Religion and Society Report, 4-5/06)
bush watch
GAY RIGHTS: “A coalition of radical homosexual groups” was able to pressure the Bush administration into changing a “no” vote to a “yes” vote on the question of allowing accreditation at the U.N. for gay-rights groups. In the final analysis the groups did not gain the accreditation.
(Reading: “US gay-rights groups claim victory after US switches vote in UN,” Catholic World News, 6/2/06; “US delegation to the UN flip-flops on homosexuality,” Focus on the Family Citizen Link, 5/24/06)
catholic bishops
DIALOGUE ABOUT SEX: The Washington Times reports that 18 politically diverse groups have decided to call for a “common vision — and more dialogue — on sexual health and public policy.” Among the groups are the National Minority AIDS Council, National Organization for Women and the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
(Reading: “Politically divergent groups call for dialogue about sex,” Washington Times, 5/19/06)
morning-after abortion pill
NO PANACEA? UCLA researchers point out that “patients may be reluctant to volunteer to clinicians their real contraceptive choices. Risk taking occurs at high rates, even among couples provided ready and free access to male condoms and EC [morning after pills/ emergency contraception].
(Reading: “Recent use of condoms and emergency contraception by women who selected condoms as their contraceptive method,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 6/06, pp. 1710-1716)
persistent vegetative state
PILL: South African researchers are claiming that Zolpidem, a drug used to treat insomnia, may be useful in treating patients who are diagnosed as being PVS. Within 20 minutes of taking the drug, 3 separate patients showed marked signs of responsiveness, suggesting that the drug works on parts of the brain that are not dead but perhaps damaged in some way.
(Reading: “Pill ‘reverses’ vegetative state,” BBC News, 5/30/06)
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 www.RightToLifeAct.org for details.
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? If not, ask!
pharmacists
JUDGE TOSSES CASE: Pro-life pharmacist Neil Noesen lost his bid to have a federal court hear his grievance against Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart fired Noesen for refusing to fill prescriptions for abortive birth control.
(Reading: “Judge dismisses Wal-Mart pharmacist’s contraception suit,” Associated Press, 6/2/06)
stem cell research / ethical
BREAST SURGERY: “Three women have had breast cancer surgery in which their own stem cells were implanted to help grow new tissue to repair the damage.” A study is currently being conducted in Japan, in collaboration with the American company Cytori Therapeutics, involving twenty women. The hope is that the new study will confirm the original hypothesis.
(Reading: “Stem cells used to repair damage of breast surgery,” London Telegraph, 5/27/06)
HEART FAILURE: Sixty Minnesota heart patients will provide researchers with their own bone marrow stem cells which will then be “injected through a catheter and descend via an artery into the heart.” The goal is to prevent congestive heart failure.
(Reading: “Can patients’ stem cells fight heart disease?” St. Paul Pioneer Press, 5/29/06)
vaccines
ETHICAL VACCINE SUPPORT: The Christian Medical and Dental Associations have endorsed the development of ethically permissible alternatives to the current vaccines that contain fetal tissue cells from aborted children.
(Reading: “Christian medical group calls for ethical vaccine production,” Children of God for Life news release, 6/5/06; “Immunization and potential for moral complicity with evil,” Christian Medical and Dental Associations, 6/11/04)
wisdom
MORALITY: “A founder of modern scientific medicine, Dr. Claude Bernard, cautioned in 1865: ‘The principle of medical and surgical morality … consists in never performing on man an experiment that might be harmful to him to any extent, even though the result might be highly advantageous to science, i.e., to the health of others.'”
(Reading: “The many casualties of cloning,” New Atlantis, Spring 2006)
zinger
NFP KILLS HUMAN EMBRYOS? Professor L. Bovens claims the “rhythm method” may kill off more human embryos than birth control methods such as the pill.
COMMENT: Dr. Mark Whitty writes in a letter to the editor: “The article fails to acknowledge the distinction between natural loss and loss caused by deliberate human intervention; common sense and every criminal law system recognize the importance of knowledge and intent in human responsibility; in particular, the fact that accidental deaths happen does not justify causing similar deaths. Bovens adopts Harris’ perspective that the knowledge that some embryos will not naturally survive, amounts to convicting any couple then continuing to conceive naturally of “destruction” of embryos.”
(Reading: “The rhythm method and embryonic death,” Journal of Medical Ethics, 6/1/06; “Comment on Bovens’ article on embryo death,” Journal of Medical Ethics, 6/1/06)
reflection for prayer
SIGNS OF SUFFERING: “Jesus isn’t a distant God who doesn’t know our sufferings. When he rose from the dead, he didn’t show great power to prove himself to the disciples. Rather, he showed his wounds. That was proof of his identity. In effect he told them: “See, I know what suffering is all about ? and I’ve overcome it.” Has it sunk in that Jesus knows about our suffering too? He knows what we are talking about when we take our complaints to him. Does that give me comfort?”
(Reading: “Soft knocks,” Regnum Christi, 6/4/06)