American Life League Associates Newsletter
September 24, 2007
Vol. 4, No. 37

From Associates

• Pro-Life Wisconsin

  Recently, PLW state director Peggy Hamill spoke at a local gathering on the issue of stem cell research. Rather than being just a presentation on the bioethics and developments surrounding stem cell research, however, the event also ended up celebrating a program that PLW helped to enact into law.

  In December 2005, a Wisconsin state law was enacted that requires prenatal healthcare providers to inform all pregnant women about the opportunity to donate their baby’s umbilical cord blood to public cord blood banks. One of the parishioners attending this event read about this opportunity in PLW’s newsletter and took advantage of it. Since her delivery, one of her friends has now participated and another friend intends to donate when her baby is born in October. All three women joyfully related their experiences to an enthusiastic audience.

Tip of the Month – Speaking the Gospel of Life
By Judie Brown

Near the beginning of his prolific encyclical Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II explains, “Even in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties, every person sincerely open to truth and goodness can, by the light of reason and the hidden action of grace, come to recognize in the natural law written in the heart (cf. Romans 2:14-15) the sacred value of human life from its very beginning until its end, and can affirm the right of every human being to have this primary good respected to the highest degree.”

Sometimes in our day, however, it is difficult to know what the truth is. So many are influenced by the media and catchphrases designed to throw us off guard or persuade us that some statement is true when in fact it is false.

For example, columnist Anna Quindlen wrote, “As the bitterest public-policy (and personal privacy) debate of the 20th century refused to resolve itself, those who believed in planned parenthood argued that easy access to birth control would make abortion less and less necessary.”

How many deceptive ideas are in these 36 words?

• Bitterest public policy (and personal privacy) debate
  What Ms. Quindlen is saying is that the act of abortion is really not an act at all, but a question that should be resolved after serious debate is concluded. She is also saying the act of abortion is a matter of personal privacy, involving a woman and her doctor. What she is not saying is that a mother who is considering aborting her child is someone who is either terribly confused or has been hoodwinked into thinking her baby is not a baby and the pregnancy is just a problem. Quindlen won’t use words like “mother” and “baby.”

• Planned parenthood
  The “planned parenthood” advocates are those who tell us that some babies are unwanted and better off dead; some babies are unplanned and will live a life of misery, so they are better off dead; and some babies are accidents of nature who will cause misery to family members and are better off dead. Not once will you hear proponents of “planned parenthood” express the truth that a child is a gift from God, the Author of life. They don’t like God.

• Easy access to birth control would make abortion less and less necessary
  This statement denies the fact that the vast majority of birth control methods – including the pill, morning-after pill, IUD and Depo-Provera – can abort human beings during their first few days of life. These methods do not make abortion less and less necessary, but merely less and less visible.

There are three lies in these 36 words! Yet this is how most of our fellow citizens are being informed – or, should I say, misinformed.

Remember the words of Pope John Paul II and help others know the truth by explaining the facts. Help your brothers and sisters in Christ see “the sacred value of human life from its very beginning until its end.”

News

• Massive study finds the pill significantly increases cancer risk if used more than eight years

  A new study recently published in the British Medical Journal claims to reassure women that taking oral contraceptives will, in fact, reduce their risk of getting cancer. News services throughout the world are touting the “medical breakthrough” that supposedly shows that "the cancer benefits of oral contraception outweigh the risks."

  In reality, the true facts of the study portray a very different result for the millions of women worldwide who use oral birth control.

• Contraceptives responsible for increased divorce, abortion rates

  There is a practice that has become so much a part of our culture that we have failed to see many of its effects, yet is eating away at the foundation of our society. The practice I'm referring to is the use of contraception. It's been a defining aspect of our culture for the last half century – long enough for us to look back and see its effects. And the time has come for it to go.

• Stem cell find to shed light on womb disorders

  Australian scientists have made a stem cell breakthrough that could shed light on mysterious reproductive ailments suffered by millions of women. Researchers at Monash University have identified stem cells in the lining of women's wombs that have the ability to switch into a range of fat, bone or muscle cells as needed.

• Catholic response to stem cells

  "It is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed." These words of Caiphas, aimed at convincing Pilate to crucify Jesus, reflect the same issues wrongly posed by the popular media to the people of today. "Is it acceptable to kill human life of a fetus, so that others may benefit?"

  Much discussion is occurring regarding the use of stem cells. As with any scientific discussion that enters the public domain, mass misinformation and exaggeration of facts is occurring, so that the faithful are cornered into the position to ask themselves whether stem cell research reflects the will of God, or whether this is a deception of the evil one, aimed at de-sanctification of human life. The Holy Fathers of the Church teach us that the "devil may appear as an angel of light." Could stem cells be one of these situations in which something is given to us that appears life promoting but really is a dangerous trap?

• Vatican: Nutrition, hydration obligatory for coma patients

  In a document released on September 14, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responded to questions that had been submitted by the US bishops' conference, regarding care for patients living in a "vegetative state." Because the moral principles involved are widely applicable, the full text of the CDF response, which was approved by Pope Benedict XVI, has been posted on the Vatican web site, with translations available in several languages.

  "The administration of food and water even by artificial means is, in principle, an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life," the CDF states. "In this way suffering and death by starvation and dehydration are prevented."

Closing thought

The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

—1 Corinthians 15:56-58