in this issue:
hot button issues: HOMESCHOOLERS FOR LIFE / HONOR THE BISHOP / REMEMBER THE BABIES
in vitro fertilization: COSTS
politics: BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION / BUSH AND PLAN B / CONGRESSMAN BOB INGLIS / OREGON RIGHT TO LIFE / SENATOR RICK SANTORUM
stem cell research / unethical: NATURE CORRECTS REPORT
vaccine: HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS
voting: THINK ABOUT IT
zinger: PLANNED PARENTHOOD LOGIC
reflection for prayer: FULTON J. SHEEN
hot button issues
HOMESCHOOLERS FOR LIFE: Homeschooled students between the ages of seven and 17 are eligible to enter Homeschoolers for Life first pro-life essay contest. For information and contest rules, see Homeschoolers for Life. Essays must be postmarked by October 16. Homeschoolers for Life is an American Life League Associate group
HONOR THE BISHOP: Bishop John Yanta of Amarillo, Texas will be turning 75 on October 2. This outstanding pro-life bishop has closed down 17 of the 19 Planned Parenthood clinics in his diocese. Pro-lifers will honor Bishop Yanta by giving him a spiritual bouquet on his birthday, and you’re invited to participate. Please let us know what prayers or other spiritual exercises you would like to offer for his intentions. Send an e-mail to /subject=Bishop_Yanta”>Jim Sedlak, or send a card to American Life League, P.O. Box 1350, Stafford, VA 22555.
REMEMBER THE BABIES: Please join us as we pause to remember the 47 million innocent lives lost through surgical abortion. American Life League is sponsoring its second annual Pro-life Memorial Day on October 2. Ordering information for the official T-shirt of Pro-life Memorial Day is available online.
in vitro fertilization
COSTS: A recent study reveals that it is less expensive for “society” if one single human embryo is transferred to his mother; from the parental perspective, it is less expensive to transfer two or more. The study suggests that in order to avoid multiple births, which are costly to “society,” policies need to be put in place to make it less expensive for the parents to receive a single embryo.
(Reading: “Cost of transferring one through five embryos per in vitro fertilization cycle from various payor perspectives,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 9/1/06)
politics
BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION: With the addition of the 100th Congressional sponsor to the Right to Life Act, the pro-life movement has reached an important milestone in its quest to end the slaughter of innocent preborn children by abortion.
COMMENT: Are your members of Congress co-sponsors? If not, ask them to get on board.
BUSH AND PLAN B: Commenting on the Bush compromise regarding the over-the-counter status of Plan B, Father Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, said, “Enough is enough. If the president and his handlers can’t make certain fundamental distinctions about life and put the very few principles they have left above this kind of wretched tampering with lives and health, it’s time to stop pretending that this administration is ‘pro-life.'”
(Reading: “Enough is enough,” Human Life International news release, 9/1/06; “Bush Administration grants big victory to abortion industry,” Republican National Coalition for Life FaxNotes, 9/1/06)
CONGRESSMAN BOB INGLIS: Writing about the stated position of Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) on abortion, Richard LeBoeuf comments: “Based on his platform, I think Bob meant to say ‘It’s not a mass of tissue, it’s a child deserving protection — unless its father was a rapist, in which case it deserves no protection.'”
(Reading: “No exceptions,” Go Upstate, 9/3/06)
OREGON RIGHT TO LIFE: The group has given its support (though not its endorsement or money) to Ron Saxton, a Republican candidate for governor who favors abortion.
(Reading: “Right to life supports Saxton for governor,” The Oregonian, 9/2/06)
SENATOR RICK SANTORUM: On “Meet the Press,” Santorum (R-Pa.) discussed his support for exceptions to abortion in cases of rape, incest and life of the mother, stating: “It is, there’s no question it’s the taking of a life. But if it-it is an attempt for me to try to see if we can find common ground to actually make progress in limiting the other abortions. So yes, that’s what I would do.” Santorum also completed a questionnaire for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference six years ago, which asked which exceptions, if any, “you would require.” Santorum listed rape, incest and life of the mother exceptions.
COMMENT: Perhaps the senator is actually seeking common ground with himself.
(Reading: Meet the Press, NBC News, 9/3/06; “2000 United States Senate survey,” Pennsylvania Catholic Conference)
stem cell research / unethical
NATURE CORRECTS REPORT: A study the journal Nature is publishing was initially described as an effort to “derive human embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryo.” However, the fact is that the embryos used in the study were destroyed.
(Reading: “Language changed in news release for study that reports method of creating stem cells without destroying embryos,” Medical News Today, 8/30/06)
vaccine
HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS: In Michigan it is reported that when the vaccine becomes available, it will be provided to patients in three separate doses, each of which will cost $120.
COMMENT: Abstinence costs nothing and saves lives.
(Reading: “Vaccine difficult to find,” Battle Creek Enquirer, 9/5/06)
voting
THINK ABOUT IT: In 1980, the archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Humberto Medeiros, said, “Those who make abortion possible by law, such as legislators and those who promote, defend and elect these same legislators, cannot separate themselves totally from the guilt which accompanies this horrendous crime.”
COMMENT: The cardinal made no exception; neither must we.
(Reading: “How pro-life people can effectively impact the election process,” Students for Life, 1994)
zinger
PLANNED PARENTHOOD LOGIC: Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood’s president, is railing against programs for teens that stress abstinence to prevent the spread of HIV. Repeating her view that such programs must promote condom use, Richards said, “There is no valid rationale for this zealous focus on abstinence-until-marriage programs. And with so many lives – young lives – at stake around the world, there is no room for politics to get in the way of good medicine.”
COMMENT: In other words, telling people not to have sex to prevent diseases transmitted through having sex is not an effective way of stopping the transmission of these diseases. Huh?
(Reading: “Abstinence-only harms HIV prevention,” Planned Parenthood news release, 9/6/06)
reflection for prayer
FULTON J. SHEEN: “If Jesus Christ thirsted for souls, must not a Christian also thirst? If He came to cast fire on the earth, must not a Christian be enkindled? Has He not called us to be His apostles and His ambassadors, in order that His Incarnation might be prolonged through the continued dispensation of the divine through the human?” He answered his own question by declaring that, “A Catholic who does not strive to spread his faith is a parasite on the life of the Church.”
(Reading: “Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Author, orator and missionary,” Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.)