in this issue:
hot button issues: PREDATORS / SOUTH DAKOTA / STOP PLANNED PARENTHOOD
abortion: DREADED COMPLICATION
activism: OHIO VANDALISM / VIRGINIA ZONING
birth control: FDA WARNING
dark side: CFFC / NARAL / PLANNED PARENTHOOD / SOUTH DAKOTA
in vitro fertilization: SEX SELECTION
personhood: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
stem cell research / ethical: HEARTS AND SPIN / PAPAL SUPPORT
reflection for prayer: PSALM 90:14, 16-17
hot button issues
PREDATORS: American Life League’s Judie Brown examines the targeting of college students by Planned Parenthood’s express clinics.
(Reading: “Beast of prey,” American Life League, 9/22/06)
SOUTH DAKOTA: American Life League’s David Bereit looks at the showdown over South Dakota’s abortion law, and what’s at stake for the pro-life movement. Meanwhile, the pro-abortion coalition campaigning for the law’s repeal has produced its first TV ad, an inaccurate soft-sell message that brands the law as extreme.
(Reading: “America must stand with South Dakota,” American Life League, 9/18/06; “Life,” Campaign for Health Families, 9/06)
STOP PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Jim Sedlak and David Bereit of American Life League have produced a four-CD set of talks on how Planned Parenthood is harming the nation’s communities and what active pro-lifers can do to stop the organization from achieving its objectives. The package is available online. It can also be ordered by phone at 866-LET-LIVE. The set is $29.95 plus shipping and handling.
abortion
DREADED COMPLICATION: Police in Hialeah, Florida want to bring charges against the operators of an abortion facility where a baby was born alive during an abortion attempt. According to the Miami Herald, “The case began July 20 when an anonymous woman called from a pay phone outside the clinic, saying a baby had been born alive and was killed by employees.” It was also reported that the child’s body was tossed on the roof of the building, where it remained for eight days. Deputy police chief Mark Overton said, ”This has to be a homicide, an unlawful killing. It could be manslaughter, but we believe it falls in that realm.” But thus far, prosecutors have not filed charges.
(Reading: “Dead fetus’ age crucial to possible criminal case,” Miami Herald, 9/16/06)
activism
OHIO VANDALISM: Pro-Life Ohio is offering a reward after vandals destroyed a Cemetery of the Innocents display outside Resurrection Church in Lexington. All 4,000 crosses in the display were uprooted and some were broken. WMFD-TV reports “three derogatory signs” were also placed on church property.
(Reading: “Pro-life display vandalized in Lexington,” WMFD-TV, 9/13/06)
VIRGINIA ZONING: Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge is involved in a court battle regarding its facility in Charlottesville. A judge ruled that the facility is a hospital, a use that is not permitted under current zoning. Planned Parenthood counters that the facility is a medial office, which is an allowable use. However, WCAV-TV reports that in a 2004 newsletter, Planned Parenthood bragged that the facility was built to meet hospital standards.
(Reading: “Battle continues over Planned Parenthood permit,” WCAV-TV, 9/12/06)
birth control
FDA WARNING: Following up on a study showing that risk of blood clots doubled for women using the Ortho Evra birth control patch, the Food and Drug Administration has updated label information to address that concern.
(Reading: “Birth control patch label warns of blood clots,” Associated Press, 9/20/06)
dark side
CFFC: The anti-Church organization “Catholics” for a Free Choice is renewing its call for the pope to condone condom use. “You can’t tell people to love and care for one another and deny them the means by which to protect each other,” said the group’s Frances Kissling, adding that “lifting this cruel and stigmatizing ban on condoms would be a positive and life-affirming move.”
(Reading: “Participants at international AIDS conference to ask Pope Benedict XVI to lift ban on condoms,” Catholics for a Free Choice news release, 8/10/06)
NARAL: The organization is trotting out the old “governmental intervention” argument as elections draw near. It a poll it commissioned, NARAL claims “roughly three quarters of likely voters (77 percent) agree that the government and politicians should stay out of a woman’s personal and private decision whether or not to have an abortion.” The poll was released shortly after the 100th Congressional co-sponsor signed on to the Right to Life Act.
(Reading: “New poll reaffirms that Americans oppose Congressional attacks on a woman’s right to choose,” NARAL Pro-choice America news release, 8/16/06)
PLANNED PARENTHOOD: In another attempt to debunk chastity, Planned Parenthood says “recent research is challenging the abstinence-only movement’s longtime arguments against condoms.” The research quoted notes that “condoms do reduce a woman’s risk of getting human papilloma virus.”
COMMENT: Never mind that abstinence eliminates the risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease.
(Reading: “Condoms and HPV,” Planned Parenthood, 9/20/06)
SOUTH DAKOTA: Participants at a pro-abortion “religious” conference talked about the November 7 referendum on the state’s ban on medical and surgical abortions. Attendees were members of denominations that consider abortion a matter of individual conscience. A typical comment came from Rev. Jeri Behringer, a former United Church of Christ pastor, who said, “I don’t think that abortion is ever a good choice, but sometimes, it’s the only choice.”
(Reading: “South Dakota clergy learns ways to discuss abortion in divided congregations,” Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, 9/06)
in vitro fertilization
SEX SELECTION: A new survey suggests that half of all fertilization clinics in the United States that use embryo screenings permit parents to use that process to select the gender of the babies that will be implanted in the mother’s womb.
(Reading: “Many U.S. couples seek embryo screening,” Associated Press, 9/20/06)
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!
stem cell research / ethical
HEARTS AND SPIN: In a preliminary report, Australian doctors say they’ve found success in treatment of heart failure with adult stem cells. Of three patients tested thus far, all showed varying degrees of improvement after receiving injections of their own treated stem cells. A U.S. report, however, suggests that adult stem cell therapy is ineffective, leading some scientists to call for additional research with embryonic stem cells. These scientists allege that embryonic stem cells offer more promise, despite the fact that such research results in death for embryonic human beings.
(Reading: “Stem cell treatment improves patients’ hearts,” ABC News [Australia], 9/19/06; “Adult stem cells little or no help to heart repair,” Associated Press, 9/20/06)
PAPAL SUPPORT: At a Vatican conference on stem cell research, Pope Benedict XVI praised researchers dedicated to developing ethical treatments using adult and umbilical cord stem cells. The pope said unethical stem cell research that involves the destruction of living human embryos is “not only devoid of the light of God but is also devoid of humanity” and “does not truly serve humanity.”
(Reading: “Pope endorses adult stem cell research,” Catholic News Service, 9/18/06)
reflection for prayer
PSALM 90:14, 16-17: Fill us at daybreak with your love, that all our days we may sing for joy. Show your deeds to your servants, your glory to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God be ours. Prosper the work of our hands.