2/4/05
in this issue:
hot button issues: CANISIUS / CONGRESS / FELDT / NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY
abortion: HEARTBREAKING CHOICE
bush: ABORTION WILL OCCUR
congress: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT OF 2005
ethics: ANIMAL/HUMAN / VACCINE
euthanasia: TEXAS
schiavo: SUSPICIOUS RECORDKEEPING
reflection for prayer: THOMAS A KEMPIS
hot button issues
CANISIUS: American Life League helped lead a protest during a speech by pro-abortion Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) at Canisius College, a Jesuit institution in Buffalo. Bishop Edward Kmiec “reluctantly” allowed the event to take place, though without diocesan sponsorship.
(Reading: “Appearance by pro-abortion Hillary brings scandal to Catholic college,” American Life League news release, 1/31/05; “Bishop pulls sponsorship of Canisius event,” WGRZ-TV, 1/30/05)
CONGRESS: American Life League is critical of the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, proposed legislation that would suggest anesthesia for babies being aborted beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy. “This is not a pro-life bill,” said ALL president Judie Brown.
(Reading: “Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act is flawed; proposed bill implies legitimacy of abortion,” American Life League news release, 2/2/05)
FELDT: American Life League’s STOPP International calls the resignation of Planned Parenthood chief Gloria Feldt “good news.” During her eight years at the helm, some 1.3 million babies were surgically aborted at Planned Parenthood facilities.
(Reading: “Gloria Feldt’s reign of death comes to end at Planned Parenthood Federation of America,” American Life League news release, 1/28/05)
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.
abortion
HEARTBREAKING CHOICE: Abortion promoters have stooped to a new depth with a web site dedicated to parents who receive “grim prenatal news” and then make a decision to “end their pregnancy”
bush
ABORTION WILL OCCUR: President Bush tells the New York Times regarding the goal of the pro-life movement, “I think the goal ought to be to convince people to value life. But I fully understand our society is divided on the issue and that there will be abortions. That’s reality. It seems like to me my job is to convince people to make the right choices in life.”
COMMENT: I wonder how pro-life this man would be viewed if his statement had read “there will be slave owners,” or “there will be gas chambers.”
(Reading: “Bush discusses abortion and gay adoption with New York Times,” LifeSiteNews.com. 1/28/05)
congress
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!
ethics
ANIMAL/HUMAN: Scientists in China are fusing human cells with rabbit eggs. In Minnesota, researchers at Mayo clinic created pigs with human blood coursing through their veins. And at Stanford University in California, an experiment later this year will create mice with human brains.
COMMENT: This is not science fiction.
(Reading: “Animal-human hybrids spark controversy,” National Geographic News, 1/25/05)
VACCINE: Children of God for Life, an American Life League associate group, has learned that an Alabama biotech firm plans to market a new flu vaccine developed using tissues from aborted babies. According to Debi Vinnedge of Children of God for Life, “None of the current flu vaccines on the market today use objectionable sources. Why should we start now?”
(Reading: “Consumer warning: New flu vaccine from Vaxin to use aborted fetal cell lines,” Children of God for Life news release, 2/3/05)
euthanasia
TEXAS: A 4-month-old boy who has been diagnosed with a fatal, inherited skeletal disorder is now at the center of a court battle pitting his mother against the hospital staff. The hospital wants to shut off machines that keep her baby alive; the mother refuses to allow this.
(Reading: “Mom, hospital fight for boy’s future,” Houston Chronicle, 1/25/05)
schiavo
SUSPICIOUS RECORDKEEPING: The Florida Inspector General’s office issued a report indicating that complaints against Michael Schiavo concerning alleged abuse of his disabled wife Terri may have been swept under the rug and that documents pertinent to a doctor Michael had sued for malpractice may have been destroyed.
(Reading: “Florida DOH destroyed records after Schiavo doctor cleared of wrongdoing following investigation,” The Empire Journal)
reflection for prayer
THOMAS A KEMPIS: No man is fit to comprehend heavenly things who has not resigned himself to suffer adversities for Christ.
(Reading: The Imitation of Christ, 2:12)