in this issue:
hot button issues: ABORTION AND GOD / MS. MAGAZINE / ROCK FOR LIFE
abortion: DOE V. BOLTON
ballot issues: CALIFORNIA I / CALIFORNIA II / OREGON / SOUTH DAKOTA
campus journalism: OLE MISS / UCONN
catholic bishops: BISHOP OLMSTEAD / USCCB
dark side: MARGERY EAGAN
personhood: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
zinger: HOW LONG, OH LORD?
reflection for prayer: PSALM 13
hot button issues
ABORTION AND GOD: Five pastors held a news conference urging South Dakota voters to defeat a law banning medical and surgical abortions. ALL’s Jim Sedlak credits the influence of Planned Parenthood in encouraging that announcement: “the abortion chain has apparently manipulated a handful of pastors into supporting the brutal violence of abortion in an effort to confuse and mislead faithful Christians.”
(Reading: “Abortion business exploits South Dakota clergy,” American Life League news release, 10/12/06; “Pastors unite against ban,” Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 10/11/06)
MS. MAGAZINE: “It is beyond tragic that Ms. Magazine is encouraging women to celebrate an act of violence that has proven traumatic for millions of mothers and deadly for their innocent preborn children,” said ALL’s Judie Brown.
(Reading: “Nothing’s sacred with Ms. Magazine abortion story,” American Life League news release, 10/10/06)
ROCK FOR LIFE: American Life League’s youth outreach is offering two new pro-life hooded sweatshirts just in time for cooler weather. One carries the message, “Justice for all — born and pre-born.” The other proclaims, “1/3 forever silenced; 1 of every 3 babies is aborted.” The shirts are available online. Credit card orders may be made by calling toll-free 866-LET-LIVE.
abortion
DOE V. BOLTON: The Supreme Court has rejected Sandra Cano’s attempt to reverse the Doe v. Bolton decision, the companion ruling to Roe v. Wade that opened the door for abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy. Cano was “Doe” in the 1973 case.
(Reading: “Court rejects Roe v. Wade companion case,” Associated Press, 10/10/06)
ballot issues
CALIFORNIA I: Proponents of Proposition 85, a parental notification initiative in California, hope that kinder, gentler ballot language will make a difference. A previous version, which voters rejected, referred to abortion as a procedure resulting in the death of an unborn child. This year’s rendition only refers to “the use of any means to terminate pregnancy.” Polls suggest the vote is too close to call.
(Reading: “Teen-abortion measure reappears on the ballot,” Associated Press, 10/9/06)
CALIFORNIA II: Planned Parenthood Golden Gate is encouraging teens to actively campaign against the Proposition 85 parental notification initiative by designing a “virtual person,” an image they can use on their blogs and MySpace web sites to plug the pro-abortion cause.
(Reading: “Teens,” Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, 2006)
OREGON: The pro-life group Life Support says it cannot support a measure promoted as an attempt to reduce abortions. The group says Measure 43, the Parental Involvement and Support Act, “will unleash the force of law to drive a legal wedge between parents and their minor daughter by guaranteeing her the right to an abortion.”
(Reading: “Life Support opposes Measure 43,” Life Support news release, 10/4/06)
SOUTH DAKOTA: Writing in the Dakota Voice on this fall’s abortion referendum, columnist Rory King calls on voters to endorse the ban on medical and surgical abortions approved by state legislators. “South Dakota has done what is right,” he wrote, “Sometimes, a legislative body must forget about strategizing and calculating the odds, and simply do what is right.”
(Reading: “South Dakota abortion ban: Roe was bad law, should be abandoned,” Dakota Voice, 10/9/06)
campus journalism
OLE MISS: An opinion piece in the Daily Mississippian informs readers that “October is Let’s Talk Month, a time when adults are encouraged to listen to what kids and teenagers have to say about sex and sexuality and provide the answers they really need.” The column centers on a demand that abstinence-only sex education programs be ended, as they hand teenagers “a loaded weapon with no safety and telling them not to fire it.”
(Reading: “End abstinence-only programs,” Daily Mississippian, 10/10/06)
UCONN: An editorial in the University of Connecticut’s Daily Campus calls for defeat of the South Dakota abortion referendum. The commentator repeats familiar pro-abortion rhetoric and suggests that “contraceptives and accurate sexual health information should be made readily available to those who need and want it.”
(Reading: “South Dakota should reject ban,” University of Connecticut Daily Campus, 10/10/06)
catholic bishops
BISHOP OLMSTEAD: In the Diocese of Phoenix, Bishop Thomas Olmstead is publishing a booklet called “Catholics in the Public Square.” It speaks of taking Catholic principles into the voting booth on election day. The principles, including those on the sanctity of life, are described as “non-negotiable.”
(Reading: “Diocese’s booklet tells voters that matters of abortion, gay unions ‘intrinsically evil,'” Arizona Daily Star, 10/8/06; “The Rosary, faith and the public square,” Diocese of Phoenix, 10/7/06)
USCCB: Reports indicate the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will discuss a document on contraception at its November meeting. Another report is said to deal with reception of Holy Communion.
(Reading: “U.S. bishops conference set to release document on contraception and the culture of life,” Life Site News, 10/4/06)
dark side
MARGERY EAGAN: The Boston Herald columnist writes, “Abortion is awful, but necessary; terribly intimate and surely the last thing intellectually corrupt politicians, of all people, should dare issue moral edicts about.”
(Reading: “Sadness, courage on the abortion issue, then (’72) and now,” Boston Herald, 10/8/06)
personhood
RIGHT TO LIFE ACT: With the addition of the 100th Congressional sponsor to the Right to Life Act, the pro-life movement has reached an important milestone in its quest to end the slaughter of innocent preborn children by abortion.
COMMENT: Are your members of Congress co-sponsors? If not, ask them to get on board.
zinger
HOW LONG, OH LORD? Hartford Courant columnist Susan Campbell concludes a pro-birth control column, in which she bemoans the “obstacles” women face in obtaining contraceptives, by asking, “How long, oh Lord, how long before women in the Nutmeg State have the final and permanent say in their reproductive destiny?”
COMMENT: A mockery of the Word of God (see next item).
(Reading: “Squeamishness about birth control is a steady habit we should lose,” Hartford Courant, 10/11/06)
reflection for prayer
PSALM 13: How long, Lord? … How long must I carry sorrow in my soul, grief in my heart day after day? How long will my enemy triumph over me? … Grant my heart joy in your help; that I may sing of the Lord, “How good our God has been to me!”