in this issue:
hot button issues: PERSONHOOD / ROCK FOR LIFE / TERRI SCHIAVO
abortion: MORE CHRIS ROCK / ROE REVISITED
catholic bishops: CHAPUT
dark side: CONGRESS / PLANNED PARENTHOOD
ethics: STEM CELL RESEARCH
reminders: ALL’S NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY / RIGHT TO LIFE ACT OF 2005
reflection for prayer: EZEKIEL 18:21-22
hot button issues
PERSONHOOD: In a Washington Dispatch column, American Life League media director Amber Dolle writes of a recent Illinois court ruling: “Now that a legal precedent declares IVF embryos persons, we hope people will begin to think twice before creating and destroying life at a whim.”
(Reading: “Human embryos are persons: What a concept!” Washington Dispatch, 2/14/05)
ROCK FOR LIFE: American Life League’s Rock for Life is calling on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to remove Chris Rock as host of the Academy Awards show, following reports that Rock’s comedy act included comments that abortion is a “beautiful thing.”
(Reading: “Chris Rock calls abortion a ‘beautiful thing’; comedian has no place at Academy Awards,” American Life League news release, 2/15/05)
TERRI SCHIAVO: Children of God for Life, an American Life League associate group, is encouraging prayers for the conversion of Michael Schiavo, the estranged husband of disabled Florida woman Terri Schiavo. The feeding tube that keeps Terri alive could be disconnected February 22. Her parents are trying to prevent that from happening (see “Terri’s Fight“).
(Reading: “Novena for Terri,” Children of God for Life, 2/14/05)
abortion
MORE CHRIS ROCK: Columnist Dorinda Bordlee points out an unintended result of the brouhaha over Chris Rock’s “abortion is beautiful” comedy bit: “What’s ‘beautiful’ is that Chris Rock has exposed a profound side effect of legalized abortion — the sexual mistreatment of women? The real problem is that women have gotten the raw end of this deal. Roe has ruined romance. Every woman’s deepest desire to love and be loved has been distorted into a license to use and be used. Women have paid with their bodies and their souls. Abandoned emotionally and financially by the men they loved, and moved by profound grief at the loss of their children, they stand in front of crowds with signs that say, ‘I regret my abortion.'”
(Reading: “Rock on,” National Review Online, 2/16/05)
ROE REVISITED: It is reported that the U.S. Supreme Court will discuss today how it will handle a petition seeking reversal of Roe v. Wade, with results of that discussion to be made public next Tuesday. The group Operation Outcry is asking for prayer today on behalf of Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade, who launched the petition.
(Reading: “US Supreme Court to consider petition to reverse abortion law Roe v. Wade on February 18,” LifeSiteNews.com, 2/15/05)
catholic bishops
CHAPUT: Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput used a guest column in the Denver Post to outline exactly why the Catholic Church has a problem with so-called emergency contraception: “Backers of emergency contraception intend much more than simply blocking conception. They define it to include methods that are abortifacient — in other words, that kill the fertilized egg after pregnancy has begun by preventing it from implanting in the uterine wall. For Catholics and Catholic hospitals, this creates a grave moral problem. The size of an unborn human life doesn’t matter; the scientific fact that a human life has begun, does.”
(Reading: “Conscience and contraception,” Denver Post, 2/8/05)
dark side
CONGRESS: Legislation that is best described as an omnibus Culture of Death bill has 20 sponsors, plus the backing of the pro-abortion activists at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. The package would increase funding for Title X sex ed programs, mandate coverage of birth control prescriptions, promote abortion-causing “emergency contraception,” and gut efforts that encourage teens to practice chastity.
(Reading: “‘Prevention first’ a priority,” Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice news release, 2/11/05)
PLANNED PARENTHOOD: This organization is also attacking teen abstinence programs, ratcheting up the rhetoric to the point that it accuses the Bush administration of endangering teenagers’ lives by funding programs that promote sexual abstinence.
(Reading: “President Bush risks teen lives by increasing funding for dangerous abstinence-only education,” Planned Parenthood news release, 2/7/05)
ethics
STEM CELL RESEARCH: Commentator Donald May points out that proponents of human embryonic stem cell research are yet again ignoring the facts: “Adult stem cell research has shown significant success. As it is not politically correct research, it does not receive the credit and the funding that it deserves. As a result, future productive research will be slowed, and people will suffer and die from diseases that might have otherwise been treated earlier. The positive results from adult SCR are minimized and even disparaged… The supporters of embryonic SCR are apparently not as concerned about meaningful scientific results as they are about political and ideological success.”
(Reading: “Embryonic stem cell research as an obsession,” TownHall.com, 2/14/05)
reminders
ALL’S NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: American Life League’s third annual National Pro-life T-shirt Day is April 26. All pro-life Americans, especially students, are encouraged to wear pro-life apparel that day to show support for the preborn. The official shirt of ALL’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is available online. The cost is $5 plus shipping and handling. For more information, see www.NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com.
RIGHT TO LIFE ACT OF 2005: This bill (which will be identical to the previous version) 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.”
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? He or she should be. Ask!
reflection for prayer
EZEKIEL 18:21-22: If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him.