in this issue:
hot button issues: HELP WANTED / MURDER / PLANNED PARENTHOOD BOSS / PRO-LIFE MEMORIAL DAY / SENATE / SPIRITUAL BOUQUET
abortion: NEW JERSEY / TEXAS
birth control: IMPLANON
birth control pill: FISH CHANGING SEX
catholic bishops: FLORIDA
euthanasia: CALIFORNIA / ELOQUENT SPEAKER / LOUISIANA
in vitro fertilization: CLINICS / FACTS
planned parenthood: WEDNESDAYS
stem cell research / ethical: BABY TEETH / BACK SURGERY / FAT / MICHIGAN / SPINAL CORD INJURY
zinger: EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL
reflection for prayer: GOD’S WORLD
hot button issues
HELP WANTED: American Life League is seeking an individual with an online marketing background to work closely with our web and publications teams in expanding and enhancing our pro-life communications, advocacy and fundraising efforts. The position is available at ALL headquarters in Stafford, Virginia. Details are posted online.
MURDER: ALL’s Judie Brown asks why there’s such a general unwillingness to call abortion “murder.” She observes that “the public doesn’t want to hear the truth and apparently there are too few people with the courage to state the obvious.”
(Reading: “Murder on my mind,” American Life League, 7/27/06)
PLANNED PARENTHOOD BOSS: ALL’s Jim Sedlak analyzes a Vogue magazine feature on Cecile Richards, who was recently appointed president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Notes Sedlak, “Here we have the president of the largest abortion chain in the country refusing to discuss her own abortion and surrounding herself with live, cute babies in an obviously staged picture to accompany an article in a fashion magazine.”
(Reading: “Will Cecile Richards last long at Planned Parenthood?” American Life League, 7/24/06)
PRO-LIFE MEMORIAL DAY: For the second year, American Life League is sponsoring Pro-life Memorial Day on October 2. Please join us as we pause to remember the 47,000,000 innocent lives lost through surgical abortion. Ordering information for the official T-shirt of Pro-life Memorial Day is available online at ProLifeGear.com.
SENATE: The Senate-approved Child Custody Protection Act (S.403) is labeled a pro-life bill, but ALL’s Judie Brown notes its shortcomings: “While the intentions behind it may be noble, this legislation presents a minor’s parents with a legal opportunity to sign their grandchild’s death warrant.”
(Reading: “Child custody protection act misses the mark,” American Life League news release, 7/26/06)
SPIRITUAL BOUQUET: American Life League is honoring Bishop John Yanta with a spiritual bouquet for his 75th birthday in October. When he became bishop of Amarillo, Bishop Yanta found that he had 19 Planned Parenthood clinics operating in his diocese and set a goal of closing them all down. At the present time, 17 of the 19 clinics have closed. Information about how to participate in the spiritual bouquet is available online.
abortion
NEW JERSEY: The state’s supreme court has agreed to hear the case of Rose Acuna, who claims that the abortionist who aborted her child gave her erroneous information.
(Reading: “N.J. Supreme Court to hear appeal of ruling that jury can consider whether physician being sued gave adequate information about abortion,” Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 7/18/06)
TEXAS: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has been asked to rule whether laws passed in 2003 and 2005 could subject doctors to capital murder charges for performing late-term abortions or abortions on minors without their parents’ consent. An interesting commentary published after this news report states: “The legal changes mean that doctors who perform the outlawed procedures — and thus, according to state law, intentionally kill a child — are now eligible to face capital murder charges and possibly a death sentence. By ‘changing the definition of “individual” … to include “an unborn child” at any stage of development, the legislature expanded capital murder to include the killing of that unborn child,’ reads the recent TDCAA [Texas District and County Attorneys Association] handbook.”
(Reading: “State rule sought on doctors, new abortion laws,” Houston Chronicle, 7/13/06; “A fetus is a fetus, or is it?” Austin Chronicle, 7/21/06)
birth control
IMPLANON: The Food and Drug Administration has approved the long-term implantable hormone called Implanon. “Implanon works by releasing its primary active ingredient, etonogestrel, which causes cervical mucus to thicken. By thickening the cervical mucus, sperm is dramatically less able to fertilize eggs, while any egg that does become fertilized will not be able to implant itself into the uterine wall, making the contraceptive one of the most, if not the most effective form of contraception available. Implanon also inhibits eggs from being released from the ovaries in the first two years, continuing to do so during the third year, but at a less effective rate.”
(Reading: “New implantable contraceptive for women gets go-ahead,” Reuters, 7/18/06; “Implanon,” Wikipedia, 7/18/06)
birth control pill
FISH CHANGING SEX: Hormones in the sewage in Britain, including those produced by the female birth control pill, are thought to be the cause of male fish showing female characteristics.
(Reading: “Pollution ‘changes sex of fish,'” BBC News, 7/10/06)
catholic bishops
FLORIDA: Bishop-elect Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice is reported to have taken a nuanced position regarding whether he will refuse Holy Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.
(Reading: “New bishop plans to be vocal politically,” Sarasota Herald Tribune, 7/21/06)
euthanasia
CALIFORNIA: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a plan requiring a half million elderly and disabled Californians on Medi-Cal to enroll in managed care plans in an effort to save money.
COMMENT: Citizens United Resisting Euthanasia points out that such a plan “is an integral aspect of ‘checkbook euthanasia.'”
(Reading: “Medi-Cal managed care plan dropped,” Sacramento Bee, 7/19/06)
ELOQUENT SPEAKER: If you are looking for an outstanding spokesperson to defend those who are threatened by euthanasia, including the disabled, learn about Mark Pickup.
LOUISIANA: A doctor and two nurses allegedly involved in deaths of hospital patients during Hurricane Katrina have been arrested and charged with being principals to second-degree murder. Upon learning this one Illinois physician wrote, “Administering drugs to relieve pain or suffering, with the knowledge that death might occur unintentionally, is among the highest acts of compassion a caregiver can perform. Terminal sedation and pain control are mainstays of hospice and end-of-life care. … Caregivers who administer narcotics and sedatives with intent to kill, I believe, should be prosecuted. And yet, there may be mitigating circumstances.”
COMMENT: In other words, acting to kill could be a good thing???
(Reading: “Arrests made for post-Katrina euthanasia,” United Press International, 7/18/06; “Where’s the line on euthanasia, killing?” Chicago Tribune, 7/21/06)
in vitro fertilization
CLINICS: “Playing God by creating humans in petri dishes is simply wrong… The pro-life movement needs to address the evils of in vitro fertilization with the same diligence with which we denounce all other forms of abortion.”
(Reading: “If embryos are human then fertility clinics are death camps: Pro-abortion columnist,” Life Site News, 7/21/06)
FACTS: It is estimated that one million cycles of “assisted reproductive technology” are given worldwide each year, resulting in the birth of around 200,000 babies.
COMMENT: And how many human embryonic children are, in one way or another, dismissed from the human race? The article does not say.
(Reading: “Assisted reproductive technologies hit all time high,” The Lancet, 7/22/06)
planned parenthood
WEDNESDAYS: American Life League’s STOPP International issues a weekly update, every Wednesday, on the worst of Planned Parenthood and the best of pro-life action. You can get on this list by sending a message to ?subject=subscribe”>STOPP with “subscribe” in the subject and/or body.
stem cell research / ethical
BABY TEETH: BioEden of Austin, Texas is said to be the only place in the world that is extracting stem cells from baby teeth. Such cells are similar to those found in the umbilical cord.
(Reading: “Stem cells from baby teeth? An Austin company says yes,” KXAN-TV, 7/19/06)
BACK SURGERY: Dr. Robert Johnson is one of the first orthopedic surgeons to use a patient’s bone marrow stem cells to treat patients with spinal problems such as degenerative disks.
(Reading: “Doctor uses stem cells to help heal back surgery patients,” KENS-TV, 7/3/06)
FAT: Cord Blood America is beginning a service to collect adult stem cells from fat. “Scientific studies indicate the stem cells harvested from human fat tissue have the ability to become nerve cells that could be used to treat brain and spinal cord injuries” such as Parkinson’s Disease.
(Reading: “Cord blood to collect stem cells from fat,” United Press International, 7/20/06)
MICHIGAN: The Michigan Community Blood Centers harvest stem cells from donated cord blood and provide them to patients who need bone marrow transplants. Since the program began in 1999, it is reported that 22 lives have been saved.
(Reading: “Cord blood stem cells harvested in west Michigan save lives around the world,” United Press International, 7/19/06)
SPINAL CORD INJURY: Scientists in Michigan “have shown that stem cells taken from the olfactory mucosa can be used successfully to treat spinal cord injuries.”
(Reading: “Spinal cord injuries improved years later with patients’ own olfactory cells,” Life Site News, 7/21/06)
zinger
EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL: After the Bush veto of a bill that would have allowed tax dollars to be used for human embryonic stem cell research, Harry Moore of the Center for Stem Cell Biology in Britain said, “Most embryos produced by a normally fertile woman will fail before implantation and not go on to a pregnancy. To call it ‘murder’ to use embryos donated for research is just emotional blackmail.”
COMMENT: Moore is wrong on three counts. First a natural miscarriage prior to implantation is an unfortunate act of nature. Second, a pregnancy does begin when a human being begins at fertilization. Third, it is murder to intentionally kill a human embryo, regardless of protestations to the contrary.
(Reading: “Stem-cell divisions transcend abortion fight,” Reuters, 7/19/06)
reflection for prayer
GOD’S WORLD: From the “Catechism of Perseverance,” published in 1840: “The world is a book. As the receptacle of the author’s thoughts, every book is made to be read. The world, which is God’s book, is the expression of His thoughts. God has only expressed His thoughts in order to make Himself known, consequently loved and served; for the manifestation of His thoughts reveals an infinite power, an infinite wisdom, an infinite love. The visible world, then, is only the transparent envelope of the invisible. Every creature is like a letter, or a word, in God’s great book.”
(Reading: “Saint Thomas Aquinas: The antidote to cultural disease,” Latin Mass, Summer 2006)