in this issue:
hot button issues: DAY OF THE PREBORN / JUDIE BROWN’S BOOK / NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY
catholic hospitals: CONNECTICUT
cloning: INTERSPECIES
cytomegalovirus in pregnancy: SCREENING
down syndrome: SCREENING
politics: NEW YORK
planned parenthood: PILL PATROL
stem cell research / ethical: HEART FAILURE
vaccines: HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS
zinger: “DENOUNCING” MAGUIRE?
reminders: BISHOPS PETITION / ULTRASOUND VIDEO
reflection for prayer: JOHN 17:22-23
hot button issues
DAY OF THE PREBORN: American Life League has begun a petition to President Bush, asking him to follow the example set in nine Latin American countries and establish March 25, 2008 as the Day of the Preborn in the United States.
ACTION: Please sign the petition.
(Reading: “ALL asks Bush to declare Day of the Preborn,” American Life League news release, 3/26/07; “Announcing the Incarnation,” American Life League, 3/23/07)
JUDIE BROWN’S BOOK: Of Saving Those Damned Catholics, James Likoudis, Catholic author and president emeritus of Catholics United for the Faith, notes, “This fearless and hard-hitting indictment reflects the views of faithful Catholics outraged by the many dissenters who have betrayed the Church’s teaching on contraception, abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research.”
TO ORDER: “Saving Those Damned Catholics” is available from ALL in hardcover or paperback. Call 866-LET-LIVE or purchase online.
NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: April 24 is the date for ALL’s fifth annual National Pro-life T-shirt Day. The day provides an opportunity for all pro-life people, especially students, to make a public stand on behalf of preborn children. All shirt orders must be placed before April 10 to ensure delivery.
TO ORDER: The official shirt of ALL’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is available for $6 plus shipping and handling. Call 866-LET-LIVE or order online. Additional information is available at NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com.
catholic hospitals
CONNECTICUT: According to an editorial in the Hartford Courant, the Connecticut Catholic Conference has announced that their Catholic hospitals do provide emergency contraception, or Plan B, to victims of sexual assault when that hormonal medication can act as a contraceptive. The editorial criticizes Senate Bill 1343 for not including an exemption for Catholic hospitals with respect to what they consider to be ethical medicine, arguing that religious liberty is at stake.
COMMENT: We would add that not only is religious liberty at stake but so are the lives of preborn children when there is no way to prove when Plan B or other so-called emergency contraceptive pills have or have not killed a developing preborn human embryo.
(Reading: “Catholic hospitals draw line on abortion,” Hartford Courant, 3/25/07)
cloning
INTERSPECIES: “At least three respected teams of British scientists have reignited the moral debate over inserting human genes into animal eggs by proposing experiments similar to those once conducted by [Jose] Cibelli.”
(Reading: “Thinking outside the egg, scientists propose interspecies cloning,” Associated Press, 3/25/07)
cytomegalovirus in pregnancy
SCREENING: When the existence of cytomegalovirus is confirmed in an expectant mother, researchers say this confirmatory process “may significantly reduce the rate of unnecessary abortions.”
(Reading: “Impact of diagnostic and confirmatory tests and prenatal counseling on the rate of pregnancy termination among women with positive cytomegalovirus immunoglobulin M antibody titers,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 3/07)
down syndrome
SCREENING: According to another in the long list of studies focused on elimination of preborn children prior to birth if it is suspected that they might have Down syndrome, “in cases with trisomy 21, the termination of pregnancy is mentally and technically somewhat easier, although the decision to continue or to terminate the pregnancy is a difficult task.”
(Reading: “Clinical first-trimester routine screening for Down syndrome in singleton pregnancies in northern Finland,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 3/07)
politics
NEW YORK: Congressman John Hall is reported to be a Catholic who attends Anglican services these days, yet numerous biographies state that he is a Catholic. This is why pro-lifers are protesting Hall and asking Cardinal Edward Egan and his auxiliary, Bishop Dominick Lagonegro, to publicly make it clear that Hall cannot be Catholic and pro-abortion.
(Reading: “Group protests Rep. Hall’s position on abortion,” Times Herald-Record, 3/27/07)
planned parenthood
PILL PATROL: The most ridiculous item of the week is the announcement by Planned Parenthood that it has launched a campaign to make sure emergency contraception (early abortion) is available in every neighborhood in America.
COMMENT: Imagine what the promoters of chastity could produce if they had the megabucks currently pouring into the nation’s #1 promoter of abortion, Planned Parenthood!
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood launches ‘pill patrol’ campaign,” Cybercast News Service, 3/26/07)
stem cell research / ethical
HEART FAILURE: Scientists have announced that by using adult stem cells — cells from the patient’s leg — they were able to treat patients with heart failure. Nabil Dib, director of clinical cardiovascular cell therapy at the University of California San Diego, points out that one of the most notable aspects of the treatment was how minimally invasive it was. Patients do not even require anesthesia.
(Reading: “Stem cell treatment could save patients with heart failure,” ABC News, 3/26/07)
vaccines
HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS: A recent “review of the economic and quality-of-life burden of cervical human papillomavirus disease” concludes, not surprisingly, that “preventive strategies such as vaccination or the availability of a treatment for certain types of HPV likely would provide a significant economic relief for the health-care system.”
(Reading: “Review of the economic and quality-of-life burden of cervical human papillomavirus disease,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 3/07)
zinger
“DENOUNCING” MAGUIRE? The administrative board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement alleging that certain works by theologian Daniel Maguire “do not represent Catholic teaching.”
COMMENT: This is most interesting in view of the fact that Maguire has been spewing forth anti-life rhetoric for more than 30 years. Where have the bishops been? What will they do? A denunciation without teeth is nothing; nothing new for the USCCB.
(Reading: “US bishops denounce works by pro-abortion theologian,” Catholic World News, 3/23/07)
reminders
BISHOPS PETITION: An American Life League petition asks Catholic bishops to address the scandal caused by political figures who claim the Catholic faith but support abortion. Church law states that those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.”
ACTION: All Catholics are invited to sign the petition that will be delivered to U.S. bishops in June.
ULTRASOUND VIDEO: “Baby Steps: Live from the womb, 16 stages of pre-birth development,” is an amazing new video from American Life League that many in the pregnancy center movement say is certain to save lives. The video features dramatic 4-D ultrasound images of preborn babies from 8 to 34 weeks development.
TO ORDER: The “Baby Steps” DVD is available from ALL for $9.95 plus shipping and handling. Call 866-LET-LIVE toll-free, or purchase online.
reflection for prayer
JOHN 17:22-23: Christ prayed, “The glory which thou has given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou has sent me and hast loved them even as thou loved me.”