American Life League Associates Newsletter
November 20, 2006
Vol. 3, No. 45

From Associates

Mother and Unborn Baby Care

Please pray for a client of Mother and Unborn Baby Care in Appleton, Wisconsin, whose baby recently died of SIDS. This young mother faced many challenges when she heroically chose life and now she truly needs our prayers.

• Pro-Life Waco

  Please pray for the repose of the soul of Rose Pisciotta who passed away on November 11. Pray too for John Pisciotta, co-director of Pro-Life Waco, and his family during this time.

• Children of God for Life

  Reminder: Your comments opposing the use of aborted fetal cell lines in the production of vaccines are needed prior to December 28. This issue involves not only childhood vaccines but also vaccines being developed for ebola, HIV, flu and avian flu. Some of the pharmaceutical companies working to develop these new vaccines are using aborted fetal cell lines when there are ethical alternatives available. For further information and to take action, visit Children of God for Life.

• Victims of Choice

  Reminder: Victims of Choice, a post-abortion recovery ministry, is offering training to anyone interested in knowing more about the negative affects of abortion on women. The abortion recovery facilitator training will be held January 26-27 at St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Akron, Ohio. For more information, contact Kathy Keleher at 330-665-2227.

From ALL Headquarters

• Stop Planned Parenthood

  In case you missed the Wednesday STOPP Report last week, the first article is worth noting again:

  As a result of the November elections, the Democratic Party will take control of both the U.S. House and Senate beginning in January. As part of the change in power, it is expected that Nancy Pelosi will become the first woman to be speaker of the House.

  Pelosi will thus exert a tremendous amount of influence over legislation and over funding for various projects. With that in mind, we take note of the fact that Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, served in her career as deputy chief of staff for Ms. Pelosi. According to Richards’ official biography, during her time serving Pelosi, “she played a key role in the Congress member's election as the first woman Democratic leader of the House of Representatives.”

  We expect, then, that Planned Parenthood will put on a big push this year for more and more taxpayer money. Now is the time for pro-lifers across the country to immediately begin contacting your members of Congress and insisting that government funding of Planned Parenthood be cut. We do not want any government money going to PP and now is the time for action.

  American Life League will make use of the thousands of names that have signed our petition against Planned Parenthood funding to let congress know the American people do not want any money going to PP. We currently have over 25,000 signatures, but we need many more.

  In addition to contacting your members of Congress, we need you to sign the petition at www.StopPlannedParenthoodTaxFunding.com. We also need you to get everyone you can to sign. The more signatures we get, the more of a chance we will have to stop the flow of money to Planned Parenthood.

• Training and Activism Weekend 2007

  Make your reservations now to join Judie Brown, Jim Sedlak, David Bereit, Joe Scheidler, Fr. Thomas Euteneuer and Chris Slattery on January 21 in Washington, D.C. for ALL’s training and activism briefings. Hear these leaders speak on today’s most important and urgent pro-life issues!

  Then join us for breakfast on Monday, January 22, for a panel discussion on state human life amendments. Panel guests include representatives from Pro-Life Wisconsin, Michigan Citizens for Life and the Vote Yes on 6 Committee in South Dakota. Judie Brown will be the moderator.

  Make your reservations by contacting Erik Whittington.

News

• Plan B pill hits stores this week>

  The over-the-counter "morning-after" pill Plan B should hit pharmacy shelves this week. Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. said its subsidiary began nationwide shipments of the abortifacient contraceptive Plan B last week. The pill is a high dose of the most common ingredient in progestin-only birth-control pills. In August, amid controversy, the FDA approved the drug for over-the-counter distribution to consumers 18 years of age and older. It will be kept behind pharmacy counters but consumers don’t need a prescription to purchase it. Government-issued identification, such as a driver’s license, is needed to make an over-the-counter purchase.

• Missouri panel: Immigration, abortion linked

  A Republican-led legislative panel claims in a new report on illegal immigration that abortion is partly to blame because it is causing a shortage of American workers. The report from the state House Special Committee on Immigration Reform also claims that "liberal social welfare policies" have discouraged Americans from working and encouraged immigrants to cross the border illegally… Emery, who equates abortion to murder, defended the assertions. "We hear a lot of arguments today that the reason that we can't get serious about our borders is that we are desperate for all these workers," Emery said. "You don't have to think too long. If you kill 44 million of your potential workers, it's not too surprising we would be desperate for workers."

• Rethinking all the premature babies

  In the U.S., one of the richest countries in the world, the number of babies born too early keeps going up--and with all their medical savvy, doctors can't figure out why. Today nearly 13 out of every 100 births are premature, an increase of 30% over the past 20 years. Part of that rise is due to the advent of modern fertility treatments, which caused a sharp jump in the number of twins, triplets and higher multiples—most of whom are born early. But it turns out that 83% of preemies in the U.S. are singletons whose prematurity can be caused by any number of factors, including bacterial infections, ruptured membranes, cervical abnormalities, high blood pressure, stress, inflammation and the effects of smoking and alcohol consumption.

  Note: Once again, there is no mention of the increased risk for premature birth caused by induced abortion. The study cited in the article is sponsored by the March of Dimes, which won’t acknowledge the link, and Johnson & Johnson, a large corporate sponsor of Planned Parenthood.

• Adult stem cells offer hope for diabetes treatment

  Adult stem cells may soon be used to treat human diabetes, after a study by U.S. researchers showed the cells increased insulin production in mice with Type 2 diabetes, and may also have aided in kidney repair.

  Researchers at the Tulane University in New Orleans injected human stem cells, taken from bone marrow samples obtained from adult donors, into diabetic mice with high blood sugar levels and kidney damage. Tests after three weeks showed the mice who received the human stem cells had lowered blood sugar levels. The researchers found that the stem cells had traveled to each mouse’s pancreas and repaired insulin-producing tissues. The tissue produced mouse insulin, not human insulin, showing that the cells were highly adaptable to tissues in need of repair, Tulane University Magazine reported. As well, the mice also showed evidence of some kidney repair, indicating the stem cells were capable of repairing damaged kidney tissue.

Closing thought

“My thoughts,” says the Lord, “are not like yours, and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours. My word is like the snow and the rain that come down from the sky to water the earth. They make the crops grow and provide seed for planting and food to eat. So also will be the word that I speak – it will not fail to do what I plan for it; it will do everything I send it to do.”

— Isaiah 55:8-11