American Life League Associates Newsletter
February 19, 2007
Vol. 4, No. 8

From ALL Headquarters

• STOPP

  Many pro-lifers have heard of the play called “The Vagina Monologues.” Most are aware that it is a disgusting play that pro-abortion women's centers at college campuses across the country produce in order to "empower" women. Colleges often advertise the performance of this play (also known as V-Day) as a great way to benefit women because the proceeds from ticket sales are given to shelters for abused woman and other places that are supposed to help women.

  But were you aware that in many areas, funds raised through this performance are given to Planned Parenthood? Planned Parenthood is a big fan of this raunchy presentation and the local VOX Planned Parenthood college group often acts as sponsor of the event.

  For those of you in college towns that may be facing an upcoming V-Day, there is a great resource to help you counter this event. The Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute has created "The Vagina Monologues Exposed: A Student's Guide to V-Day." You can download a copy online.

  (*CAUTION*: Because of the vulgar nature of this event, the material on opposing it may not be suitable for everyone.)

  We must combat Planned Parenthood everywhere and V-Day will provide an opportunity to do so on your local college campus. According to the V-Day web site, there are hundreds of events scheduled on college campuses during February and March. To find out if an event is scheduled in your area, search online.

• National Pro-life T-shirt Day

  This year’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is Tuesday, April 24. This is a day when pro-lifers, especially those in public high schools and college campuses, join together to be a voice for the babies by wearing pro-life T-shirts. For more information, see www.nationalprolifetshirtday.com and to order the official National Pro-life T-shirt Day 2007 T-shirt (please order before April 10), check online.

• Petition to U.S. Catholic bishops

  American Life League is asking Catholics to sign a petition that will be delivered to the bishops of the United States at their next annual meeting in June. The petition respectfully requests the bishops to address the scandal created by pro-abortion Catholic politicians and to enforce Canon 915, which reads, in part, “those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.”

News

• Video: Quadruplets respond to father’s funny face

  This is a must see!!

• Legislation with abortion exceptions is evil

  If pro-lifers sponsor bills that include the rape and incest exceptions we must understand that we are directly attacking the personhood of the child, and the sacredness of all life. We are also leaving young women without protection while we legislate their innocent children to death. All of which will embolden the rapist and increase the number of rapists among us.

• States fund antiabortion advice - Public grants surge for the crisis centers

  In an experiment that's opening a new front in the culture wars, a growing number of states are paying antiabortion activists to counsel women with unplanned pregnancies.

  At least eight states — including Florida, Missouri and Pennsylvania — use public funds to subsidize crisis pregnancy centers, Christian homes for unwed mothers and other programs explicitly designed to steer women away from abortion. As a condition of the grants, counselors are often barred from referring women to any clinic that provides abortions; in some cases, they may not discuss contraception either.

  Most states still spend far more money subsidizing comprehensive family planning, but the flow of tax dollars to antiabortion groups has surged in recent months, as programs have taken effect in Texas and Minnesota.

  Crisis pregnancy centers have received tens of millions of dollars from the federal government over the last six years, mostly for abstinence education.

• Muscular Dystrophy breakthrough using stem cell research

  Stem cell researchers in Italy who have been working on a cure for muscular dystrophy are claiming a significant breakthrough. Scientists at the Stem Cell Research Institute in Milan, claim they've been able to regenerate muscles, treating a mouse as a model, using human adult stem cells. The work has been published online in the Nature Cell Biology.

  Muscular dystrophy is a hereditary and debilitating disease. The most common and severe form, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, affects one in 3,500 boys. Scientists working on a cure at the Stem Cell Research Institute in Italy have been exploring the regeneration potential of stem cells isolated from blood vessels. And now they claim to have found a way to regenerate muscles in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy using human adult stem cells.

  Professor Cossu, director of the research, says it raises new hope for treating muscular dystrophy using a patient's own cells.

• Embryonic stem cell pioneer says cures likely decades away

  The scientist whose group took part in groundbreaking embryonic stem cell research in 1998 says cures using embryonic stem cells are likely decades away.

  University of Wisconsin scientist James Thomson made the comments during a speech Feb. 8 in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, to the Wisconsin Newspaper Association's annual convention, the Associated Press reported. In 1998, Thomson's team became the first group to grow human embryonic stem cells in culture, sparking a controversy over the use of embryos in stem cell research that continues to this day.

• Study shows higher rate of birth defects in babies conceived through fertility treatment

  A new study has provided further confirmation that babies conceived through fertility treatments are at a higher risk of having a birth defect than children who are conceived naturally.

  The study was carried out by a medical team assembled in Ottawa, Ontario and is the largest of its kind to date. The study monitored 61,208 births in total of which 1,394 were of babies conceived through fertility treatments. The researchers took into account in their calculations the variable factors of age of the mother, sex of the child, whether the mother smoked and other relevant issues.

  According to the study, nearly 3 percent of babies conceived through fertility treatments had a birth defect while just under 2 percent of babies conceived naturally were reported to have a birth defect. Taking into account the relatively low number of children conceived through artificial means, that percentage translates into a 58 percent overall greater risk of a birth defect in artificially conceived children.

Closing thought

The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but the dwelling of the just he blesses; When He is dealing with the arrogant, He is stern, but to the humble He shows kindness.

— Proverbs 3:33-34