hot button issue: APPROVE ALITO / CELEBRATE LIFE / ROCK FOR LIFE
catholic bishops: BOSTON / SAN ANTONIO
media: ABORTIONIST PROFILE
personhood: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
ru-486: FEDERAL STUDY
sperm banks: FAMILY TIES
stem cell research: CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISORS / MISSOURI PRIESTS
reflection for prayer: PSALM 118:8-9
hot button issue
APPROVE ALITO: American Life League is launching an official web site, ApproveAlito.com, encouraging citizens to sign a petition urging senators to approve his appointment. “Judge Alito’s confirmation to the nation’s highest court is of vital interest to those who are aware that the United States Constitution has never contained a so-called right to abortion,” said ALL president Judie Brown.
CELEBRATE LIFE: Featured articles from the latest issue of American Life League’s magazine are now online. Of particular interest in light of the changes on the Supreme Court is Mary Meehan’s article, “Dear Justice Blackmun,” which offers a history lesson on how to communicate with members of the nation’s highest court.
ROCK FOR LIFE: The campus newspaper at the City College of San Francisco included local Rock for Life chapter leader Brendan Ford in an article about students with “minority” viewpoints in the city frequently considered the most liberal in the nation. “In San Francisco, saying ‘conservative’ is like the new cuss word,” he said. Ford’s pro-life activities keep him busy, but he notes that “as far as school goes, it wouldn’t be very popular for me to state my conservative views here.”
(Reading: “Republicans hesitate to speak out,” The Guardsman, 11/2/05)
catholic bishops
BOSTON: Archbishop Sean O’Malley has cancelled plans to attend a dinner sponsored by the local Catholic Charities group after learning that the organization intends to honor Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, a pro-abortion Catholic. For its part, Catholic Charities said it disagreed with the mayor’s stand on abortion, but was honoring him for “his contributions to those we seek to serve each day in our city.”
(Reading: “Boston archbishop cancels attendance at Catholic Charities dinner honoring pro-abortion mayor,” Catholic News Agency, 11/23/05)
SAN ANTONIO: Noting the alarming number of pro-abortion elected officials who claim to be Catholic, Archbishop José Gomez of San Antonio said, “If some candidate campaigns for and supports laws that allow abortion and euthanasia, his pastor should meet with him, instruct him in the teachings of the Church and inform him that he should not present himself for Communion until he puts an end to the state of sin in which he finds himself.”
(Reading: “U.S. Catholic politicians confused about faith, bishop says,” Catholic World News, 11/22/05)
media
ABORTIONIST PROFILE: The Los Angeles Times published a feature on abortionist William Harrison of Fayetteville, Ark. Harrison will do abortions up to 26 weeks, but after that he claims an abortion is infanticide. Until that point, however, “It’s not a baby to me until the mother tells me it’s a baby.” Still, he told the paper, “I am destroying life.” Harrison said he considers his patients “born again” following their abortions. “When you end what the woman considers a disastrous pregnancy, she has literally been given her life back.”
(Reading: “Offering abortion, rebirth,” Los Angeles Times, 11/29/05)
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 Right to Life Act for details.
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? If not, ask!
ru-486
FEDERAL STUDY: The New York Times reports scientists from the FDA and the CDC will meet next year to study the cases of four California women who died of rare bacterial infections after RU-486 abortions. A doctor affiliated with Planned Parenthood warned against speculation, adding, “They’re all in California, so is this a local issue?”
WORTH NOTING: The New York Times did accurately refer to Planned Parenthood as “the nation’s largest provider of abortions.”
(Reading: “Deaths after abortion pill to be studied by officials,” New York Times, 11/22/05)
sperm banks
FAMILY TIES: Children whose fathers were anonymous sperm donors are finding one another through the Donor Sibling Registry. They are not finding their fathers. They are, however, becoming aware that something isn’t exactly normal about the way they were brought into the world, despite the New York Times’ assertion that “they are building a new definition of family that both rests on biology and transcends it.”
(Reading: “Hello, I’m your sister. Our father is Donor 150,” New York Times, 11/20/05)
stem cell research
CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISORS: According to one researcher, one of the benefits of adult stem cells is their role in tissue regeneration. Thomas Skalak of the University of Virginia says “a strategy of harnessing the body’s own reparative mechanisms could be more effective” than so-called blockbuster drugs. “The adult stem cells we studied appear to coordinate several processes in repair and growth,” he said.
(Reading: “Stem cells act like construction supervisors,” Better Humans, 11/23/05)
MISSOURI PRIESTS: Catholics across the state heard from their pastors at Mass last Sunday, who urged them to avoid a petition drive that seeks to establish a state constitutional amendment permitting human embryonic stem cell research. At St. Peter Church, across the street from the state capitol in Jefferson City, Fr. James Smith told parishioners, “The similarities of the arguments behind the destruction of life by the Nazis and the use of human embryos are scary,” he said. “There are real human lives that need our support and protection.”
(Reading: “Priests urge stem cell opposition,” Associated Press, 11/27/05)
reflection for prayer
PSALM 118:8-9: Better to take refuge in the Lord than to put one’s trust in mortals. Better to take refuge in the Lord than to put one’s trust in princes.