3/12/04
in this issue:
hot button issues: STOPP INTERNATIONAL / YOUTH VOTER DRIVE
abortion: MATERNAL MORTALITY / MILITARY
catholic bishops: TORONTO I / TORONTO II
catholics and birth control: DENVER
conscience: WISCONSIN
fertility clinics: UNITED KINGDOM
planned parenthood: ALEXANDER SANGER / NORTH CAROLINA / TEXAS / WISCONSIN FOLLOW-UP
stem cells: HARVARD
reflection for prayer: PSALM 34:4-7
hot button issues
STOPP INTERNATIONAL: Any thoughts that the Girl Scouts would back away from Planned Parenthood following a dispute in Waco, Texas (see Communique, 2/27/04) were quickly put to rest last week. Kathy Cloninger, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, appeared on NBC’s Today Show and said, “We partner with many organizations. We have relationships with our church communities, with YWCAs, and with Planned Parenthood organizations across the country, to bring information-based sex education programs to girls.”
American Life League’s STOPP International has responded by launching an effort designed to survey every Girl Scout council in the United States to see which local units have any involvement with Planned Parenthood. Said STOPP’s Jim Sedlak, “we are creating a tool by which parents can determine if their local Girl Scouts still deserve that trust.”
(Reading: “Girl Scouts to stick with Planned Parenthood,” Pro-Life Waco e-mail update, 3/7/04; “New STOPP effort aimed at ousting Planned Parenthood from Girl Scouts,” American Life League news release, 3/11/04)
YOUTH VOTER DRIVE: American Life League’s Rock for Life youth outreach is launching a campaign to encourage more than 500,000 pro-life youth to register to vote.
(Reading: “Rock for Life announces voter registration program,” American Life League news release, 3/9/04)
abortion
MATERNAL MORTALITY: A study from Finland compared “mortality rates for women who were pregnant or within one year of pregnancy termination with all other women of reproductive age.” Researchers found that “the mortality was lower after a birth (28.2/100,000) than after a spontaneous (51.9/100,000) or induced abortion (83.1/100,000).”
(Reading: “Pregnancy-associated mortality after birth, spontaneous abortion, or induced abortion in Finland, 1987-2000,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2/04)
MILITARY: U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have introduced legislation that would make the military pay for abortions of service personnel who are the victims of rape or incest. Women who wish to have abortions in military hospitals have to pay for the procedure themselves.
(Reading: “Reports of rape in Pacific spur Air Force steps,” New York Times, 3/9/04)
catholic bishops
TORONTO I: The Archdiocese of Toronto has suspended the priestly faculties of Fr. Tim Ryan, who filed a pro-homosexual marriage affidavit with the Canadian supreme court. In response to the action, Ryan wrote a commentary in a Toronto newspaper in which he said, “While many Catholic gays and lesbians have left the Church behind or have opted to move on to more welcoming Christian communities, some of us have chosen to remain.”
(Reading: “Toronto Diocese Serious About Defending Marriage: Disciplines Dissident Priest,” LifeSiteNews.com, 3/5/04; “Same sex marriage: A Catholic priest dissents,” Toronto Star, 3/8/04)
TORONTO II: The archbishop of Toronto has refused to confer a degree on a nun because of the subject of her doctoral thesis: “Listening for the Echo: Contribution of Lesbians’ Journeys to Spiritual Direction and Theological Reflection.” Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic told the president of St. Michael’s College he “was concerned about whether it was appropriate for him to personally confer the degree.” In response, Sister Christina Cathro called the Catholic Church “homophobic.”
(Reading: “Cardinal’s decision shocks nun,” The Globe and Mail, 3/8/04)
catholics and birth control
DENVER: The local Catholic Charities group says it is changing its health plan, following the discovery that the package covered birth control. “I’m embarrassed,” said director Jim Mauck. “Ultimately, I blew it. We’ll just have to correct it and go on with it.” An archdiocesan spokesman says the oversight will be corrected as soon as possible.
(Reading: “Charity to alter health plan,” Denver Post, 3/5/04)
conscience
WISCONSIN: The “conscience” bill recently approved by the state legislature (see Communique, 3/5/04) offers no specific protection to pharmacists who conscientiously object to dispensing abortion-causing birth control drugs and devices, including the morning after pill. Pro-Life Wisconsin (an American Life League associate group) notes that the original bill was so gutted by amendments that the version sent to the governor “could actually weaken current statutory conscience rights protections for pharmacists under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act.”
COMMENT: In various parts of the country, pharmacists have been fired recently for conscientiously refusing to fill prescriptions for the abortion-causing morning-after pill. The law must protect these pharmacists’ rights.
(Reading: “Legislative update: AB 67 leaves pharmacists out in the cold,” Pro-Life Wisconsin Monday Update, 3/1/04; “Legislative update: Conscience clause legislation,” Pro-Life Wisconsin Monday Update 2/9/04)
fertility clinics
UNITED KINGDOM: A new fertility clinic will target its business towards lesbians and single women who wish to get pregnant using sperm from anonymous donors. Backers will take over an existing clinic and rename it the Man Not Included New Life Centre.
(Reading: “Sperm donor clinic for lesbians,” The Guardian, 3/8/04)
planned parenthood
ALEXANDER SANGER: Margaret’s grandson has this observation: “Abortion should be legal because giving parents the ability to control their reproduction helps more of humanity survive.”
(Reading: “Sanger continues his feminist grandmother’s work,” San Diego Union-Tribune, 3/8/04)
NORTH CAROLINA: Pro-lifers are picketing weekly sessions that a local Planned Parenthood office bills as “peer education” for teenagers. The pro-lifers are turning to American Life League’s STOPP International for advice. STOPP’s Ed Szymkowiak said, ”Planned Parenthood’s scheme is to get your kids hooked on sex while making a lot of money by providing abortion and contraception.” Demonstrators are also asking the building’s owner to cancel its lease with Planned Parenthood. The owner is unmoved, and calls the protesters “below scum.”
(Reading: “Teen classes draw protests,” Fayetteville [N.C.] Observer, 3/8/04)
TEXAS: Contractor Chris Danze, leader of a builders’ boycott against Planned Parenthood’s Austin abortion mill construction project, will be one of the speakers at a March 13 seminar sponsored by the Catholic Pro-life Committee of Dallas and American Life League’s STOPP International. STOPP’s Jim Sedlak will also speak, as will Jason Jones of American Life League’s youth outreach. The event is from 3:30 to 5:00 at the Adam’s Mark Hotel at 400 North Olive Street in Dallas. It’s free, but seating is limited.
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood — the problem, not the solution,” Catholic Pro-life Committee of Dallas news release, 3/7/04)
WISCONSIN FOLLOW-UP: Pro-lifers protesting the fact that a local YMCA rented its facilities to a Planned Parenthood group say they’ll keep up the pressure until the YMCA changes its policy. Pro-lifer Darla Meyers said, “Planned Parenthood promotes sexual promiscuity and tries to stop the most successful preventer of unintended pregnancy — chastity among our youth.” A Planned Parenthood official characterized that assessment as “absurd, ignorant, intolerant, irrational, inflammatory and false.”
(Reading: “Hudson: 40 protest use of Y camp,” St. Paul Pioneer-Press, 3/7/04)
stem cells
HARVARD: Researchers supported by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation have created 17 new lines of human embryonic stem cells. The research was completed with private funding. Government regulations prohibit creation of such cell lines with federal funding. In a detailed report, researchers admit that they have observed “abnormalities” develop in the human embryonic stem cell lines.
COMMENT: Dianne N. Irving, Ph.D., writes, “If there are so many massive chromosomal abnormalities documented (and even yet undocumented) in the human embryos frozen, thawed, cultured and killed in order to derive these human embryonic stem cell lines, wouldn’t those stem cells be genetically abnormal, cause antigenic rejection reactions and/or cause tumors in any patient who is injected with them (and cause unknown other abnormalities) — even if originally derived by cloning from the same patient — in these patients? And would patients be fully informed about this before giving their “informed consent” to be used as experimental guinea pigs?”
(Reading: “New human embryonic stem cell lines to be made available to researchers,” Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation news release, 3/3/04; “Derivation of embryonic stem-cell lines from human blastocysts,” New England Journal of Medicine, 3/25/04)
reflection for prayer
PSALM 34:4-7: Magnify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, who answered me, delivered me from all my fears. Look to God that you may be radiant with joy and your faces may not blush for shame. In my misfortune I called, the Lord heard and saved me from all distress.