in this issue:
abortion: BREAST CANCER CONNECTION / RISK
congress: ALARMING / FILIBUSTER / HUMAN EMBRYO BILL
euthanasia: DYING NATURALLY / EXPOSE / SCHIAVO FOUNDATION / WINNING THE RIGHT TO HAVE A FEEDING TUBE
morning-after abortion pill: ACCESS / ILLINOIS WAL-MART WIMPS OUT / PHARMACISTS
organ transplant: DYING TO DONATE?
personhood: MORAL STATUS OF THE HUMAN EMBRYO
pro-life checks: NEW SOURCE FOR CHECKS
wisdom: POPE BENEDICT XVI
reflection for prayer: GALATIANS 1:12
abortion
BREAST CANCER CONNECTION: Joel Brind, PhD, has prepared an article for a professional journal in which he claims scientists are covering up the link between abortion and breast cancer, even though the evidence confirming the link is overwhelming.
(Reading: “Abortion-breast cancer link covered up by scientists,” World Net Daily, 5/16/05)
RISK: Dr. Caroline Moreau has discovered that mothers who have an abortion put a future child at double the risk by prematurely delivering her child. The study compared the history of 2,219 women with babies born at less than 34 weeks and found “overall, women who had had an abortion were 40 percent more likely to have a very pre-term delivery than those without a history.”
(Reading: “Revealed: how an abortion puts the next baby at risk,” The Telegraph, 5/15/05)
congress
ALARMING: A bill designed to make it difficult for pharmacists to respect their consciences by refusing to fill prescriptions for chemicals they know act to kill is languishing in the House and Senate, but should not be ignored. New York’s Carolyn McCarthy introduced H.R. 1539, which currently has no cosponsors in the House. In the Senate, S.809 is sponsored by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barbara Boxer, Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg. Detailed information on how pro life pharmacists are organizing is available from Pharmacists for Life.
COMMENT: The name “Clinton” should alert every pro-lifer who cares about defending pro-life pharmacists for simply doing their job correctly. As a member of our staff said upon analyzing the bills, we could effectively make our case by “arguing that the pharmacist cannot play any part in giving out drugs tat would harm an innocent person.”
(Reading: H.R, 1539 and S. 809 available online via the Congressional web site)
FILIBUSTER: American Life League’s Robert Sassone reminds those senators who are filibustering Catholics because they hold the Catholic position on abortion of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which states:
“The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support the Constitution; no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
(Reading: Article VI, United States Constitution)
HUMAN EMBRYO BILL: H.R. 810 is designed to permit federal funding for the wholesale killing of individual human beings. The proposed legislation has gained enormous support in Congress. Contrary to some polls, Americans are also increasingly supportive of this ghoulish practice.
COMMENT: Is your Congressman going to vote in favor of slaughtering the innocent?
(Reading: “Death to more embryos looming,” RNCLife FaxNotes, 5/12/05; “Do not fund research requiring the killing of human embryos,” NCHLA Action Alert, 5/13/05)
euthanasia
DYING NATURALLY: A family fight over whether or not Mae Magouirk should live or die ended when the 81-year-old Georgia widow died of natural causes.
(Reading: “Grandma Mae Magouirk dies,” World Net Daily, 5/16/05)
EXPOSE: The first “Expose and Source Book” about Terri Schiavo and her battle to live has been written by Cheryl Ford, RN. Register now at the Trafford Publishing web site to get more details when the book is published.
SCHIAVO FOUNDATION: The family’s organization urges Florida resident Eliza Thomas to allow her 34-year-old husband to live. Thomas wants to have her husband’s feeding tube removed.
(Reading: “Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation urges wife of disabled Jacksonville man to err on the side of life,” Schiavo Foundation news release, 5/14/05)
WINNING THE RIGHT TO HAVE A FEEDING TUBE: Wesley Smith writes about Leslie Burke, who had to sue for the right to have a feeding tube inserted should he get to a point in his life where one is required. Burke suffers from a degenerating neurological disease that could result in his inability to swallow. Britain’s general medical council is appealing, claiming that only a doctor should be allowed to decide whether Burke lives or dies.
(Reading: “The Leslie Burke case,” Secondhand Smoke, 5/15/05; also see Leslie Burke’s web site)
morning-after abortion pill
ACCESS: Researchers comment that there is no question about the “undisputed safety” of the pill regimen, and claim that those women who had an advance supply of the pills were almost twice as likely to use them as those who had to obtain the pills from a pharmacy or physician. But they admit that abortion rates are not declining, even with such optimistic reports, and therefore encourage the use of “new routes of supply” for these early-abortion-causing pills.
(Reading: “Enhanced access to emergency contraception,” The Lancet, 5/14/05, pp. 1668-1669)
ILLINOIS WAL-MART WIMPS OUT: Wal-Mart’s Super Center in Centralia is now filling prescriptions for morning after abortion pills. The governor has required that the pills be available.
(Action: Please contact store management and register your views: Wal-Mart Super Center Pharmacy, 1340 W McCord Street, Centralia, IL 62802 or call 618-533-1700)
PHARMACISTS: In a commentary on the right of pharmacists to refuse morning after pills based on conscientious objection, talk show host Bill Maher said of such pharmacists, “in the medical pecking order, you rank somewhere between a chiropractor and a tree surgeon.”
COMMENT: Clearly, Pharmacists for Life International and their collaborators are making headway or Maher would not be talking.
(Reading: “US pharmacies vow to withhold emergency contraception,” The Lancet, 5/14/05, pp. 1677-1678)
organ transplant
DYING TO DONATE? Nancy Valko, RN, exposes the horror of those who actually do die prematurely because their organs are harvested.
(Reading: “Should we be dying to donate?” Voices, 3/05)
personhood
MORAL STATUS OF THE HUMAN EMBRYO: Father Joseph Howard of American Life League debunks Princeton professor Peter Singer on the topics of individuality, humanity and personhood as they relate to the human embryo.
(Reading: “The moral status of the human embryo according to Peter Singer: Individuality, humanity and personhood,” American Life League, 2005)
pro-life checks
NEW SOURCE FOR CHECKS: Sanctity of Life personal checks are available online at Promise Checks.
wisdom
POPE BENEDICT XVI: Above the unleashing of evil energy, above the vehement interruptions of Satan, above the so many scourges of evil, rises the Lord, supreme arbiter of history.
(Reading: “Satan no match for God, says pope,” Reuters, 5/11/05)
reflection for prayer
GALATIANS 1:12: If I were trying to win man’s approval, I would surely not be serving Christ.