PO Box 20203, Washington, D.C. 20041
2008 January
International Pro-Life Action
Vatican Launches Campaign Urging UN Moratorium on Abortion
Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, has announced a new Vatican-led campaign calling for a United Nations moratorium on abortion. The campaign will begin in Latin America, where Trujillo will meet with heads of governments and organizations of all ideologies to urge them to unite against abortion, and then continue throughout the rest of the world. The push behind this campaign stems from a recent UN issued moratorium on the death penalty, and is receiving support from a myriad of people, including Giuliano Ferrara, a non-Christian journalist and former head of the Italian Communist Party in Turin who suggested the campaign, Lenin Raghavarshi, an Indian atheist and winner of the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, and British philosopher Roger Scruton.
International Pro-Abortion Action
International Abortion Campaign Focuses on Chemical Abortion
Abortion advocates worldwide continue to focus on the use of medications for chemical abortion as an alternative to surgical abortion. Janet Ramos Barrientos of the Legal Committee of the Latin American Alliance for the Family (ALAFA) explained that a new document by the organization Gynuity (working with IPPF) entitled, Choices for Introduction of Medical Abortion in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, “seeks to promote access to chemical abortion and undermine national laws against abortion in Latin America.” Ramos continued, “Although the first paragraph says the document aims ‘to identify the best strategies for introducing medical abortion technology and increasing access throughout the region to the fullest extent allowed by the law,’ in the rest of the document there is no respect shown for current law. It’s practically a manual on how to ridicule the law.”
PNCI is deeply concerned that Gynuity and other abortion advocates are seeking the use of medications for chemical abortion worldwide. Gynuity has produced materials in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish advocating ways to change regulations for the use of medications for abortion stating, “Many countries do not have specific regulations dealing with medical [chemical] abortion since it is a relatively new technology.” Source: CNA
UNFPA Annual Report: Link Reproductive Health to Poverty Reduction
UNFPA’s recently issued annual report identified the primary focus of the organization’s efforts as the promotion of reproductive rights, including abortion services, around the world. UNFPA plans to pressure countries to change policies and increase spending for reproductive health programs, and cites family planning programs as a method of reducing “unsafe abortion”. Notably, “unsafe abortion” is defined by UNFPA officials as “illegal abortion.” In the forward to the report UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid states that the future work of UNFPA will seek “to link reproductive health, population and gender with the broader issues of poverty reduction.” Source: C-FAM
Legislative News
UK Pro-life Parliamentary Group Seeks Free Vote on Human Tissue and Embryo Bill
Members of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group are planning to meet with Prime Minister Gordon Brown to request a free vote on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. The legislation, which is expected in the House of Commons after Easter, is a government sponsored bill, and so Labour MPs could be disciplined for not voting for it. A number of Labour MPs who belong to the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group are due to meet the Prime Minister to explain the need for a conscience vote on the bill since it addresses critical ethical issues including the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos. The MPs are joined by several like-minded Ministers. Source: Guardian Unlimited
Philippine Legislature Considers Two-Child Policy
The Filipino House of Representatives is currently considering three bills that would institute a two-child policy. While legislation proponents claim the policy would be voluntary, the legislation includes criminal penalties. Eileen Macapanas Cosby, President and Founder of the Filipino Family Fund, based in Washington, D.C., is urging pro-lifers to sign a petition opposing the legislation, explaining these population control measures could lead to human rights abuses. Source: Life Site
Argentina: Governor Vetoes Pro-Abortion Legislation
The new governor of Argentinean province La Pampa, Mario Jorge, recently vetoed a pro-abortion bill passed by the legislature. The bill, which passed the legislature in November, created guidelines for physicians in dealing with non-punishable abortions. Governor Jorge declared the legislation was “unconstitutional” and that it would, in practice, pave the way for abortion on demand. Source: CNA
Canada’s Legislature Considers Bill to Recognize Unborn Victims
The Unborn Victims of Crime Act (C-484) which would recognize unborn babies as separate victims when their mother is the victim of a violent crime received its first hour of debate in the House of Commons. Citing the need to protect pregnant women against abusers, the bill’s sponsor Ken Epp noted, "This bill is about doing what is right and decent in a civilized and compassionate society. It is just, it is humane, and it is long overdue." The legislation comes in response to requests from victims’ families who want Parliament to enact legislation to recognize unborn children as separate crime victims when they are harmed or killed during criminal attacks against their mothers. Debate will continue once Parliament resumes at the end of January. Source: Life Site
Executive News
US President Bush Addresses March for Life
President Bush addressed the annual March for Life which marked the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion on demand for all nine months of pregnancy. In remarks delivered from inside the White House President Bush said, “I see people with a deep conviction that even the most vulnerable member of the human family is a child of God. You're here because you know that all life deserves to be protected.”
He continued to express his view that the pro-life goal was to create a “culture of life” where women with unplanned pregnancies can find care and young pregnant women can complete their education adding that America must be a place “where the dignity of both the mother and child is honored and cherished.” Such an effort he explained will require “changing hearts” on abortion.
Two days prior to the March President Bush proclaimed January 20, 2008, the National Sanctity of Human Life Day. The President urged all Americans to recognize the day with ceremonies and stated, “On National Sanctity of Human Life Day and throughout the year, we help strengthen the culture of life in America and work for the day when every child is welcomed in life and protected in law.” Source: CNA
Philippine President Orders Government Campaign Against Abortion
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has instructed the government to heighten its efforts to dissuade the public from abortion and provide counseling for women facing unintended pregnancies. A devout Catholic whose administration promotes natural family planning, abstinence, and the traditional family, President Arroyo’s recent actions follow the discovery of a dead fetus in the washroom of the Malacañang Palace complex, the New Executive Building. According to presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye, President Arroyo "…has given instructions to the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) to expand its community networking and outreach efforts to educate the public on the need to shun abortion as a health and moral hazard." Source: Life Site
Italian Health Minister: RU 486 Coming Soon
The Italian media is reporting that the abortion drug RU 486, mifepristone, will soon be approved for sale in the country. Health Minister Livia Turco, who supported hospital trials of the drug, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper, "We have pledged to make it available (in Italy)." She claims the use of RU 486 in the trials is within Italian law, which forbids abortion as a form of contraception. The previous Health Minister Francesco Storace, had previously suspended the drug trials due to participants taking the drug at home rather than in the hospital. A final decision is expected this February or March. Source: Life News
Nicaraguan President Denounces Media Campaign Against Country’s Pro-life Laws
Responding to repeated criticisms by European countries and pro-abortion international organizations, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega declared a “media war” of lies against his country for its protection of the unborn. "It's totally false, what they go around saying, that mountains of women are dying because the penalization of therapeutic abortion was approved in the National Assembly...that is a huge lie, a falsehood!" said Ortega. The President explained that the nation’s medical Procedural Code- requiring doctors to do what is necessary to save a woman's life if threatened by conditions related to her pregnancy- is not affected by the law. Ortega further defended his country’s defense of life and cited a decrease in maternal deaths to a delegation of parliamentarians from Nordic countries, several of which have been pressuring Nicaragua to change its law banning therapeutic abortion. Source: Life Site
Issues
U.S. Abortion Leaders: “Culture of Life” a Convincing Argument
Two influential abortion leaders have publicly admitted that pro-life arguments are convincing. In a recent opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, Kate Michelman (former president of the abortion lobby organization NARAL) and Frances Kissling (Catholics for a Free Choice) acknowledge the significant impact the focus on the unborn child and details of the brutality of abortion have had on the abortion debate, as well as the success of efforts to limit access to abortion. Citing the impact of the phrase “culture of life,” these abortion activists state that, “…the slogan, as much as it pains us to admit it, moved some hearts and minds. Supporting abortion is tough to fit into this package." Source: Life Site
Spanish Authorities Enforce Abortion Restrictions Leading to Arrests and Strike
Abortion clinics closed for a week in Spain in protest to arrests of abortionists for performing illegal late term abortions. During the strike it is estimated that 2,000 babies were spared from abortion. Spanish officials began to enforce the country’s restrictions on late term abortions by arresting abortionists who falsified documents so women could be aborted under legal exceptions. A Danish television revealed the illegal actions when a reporter who was seven months pregnant conducted an undercover investigation during which she sought an abortion. One abortionist who was arrested advised her to sign an already completed form claiming she had a mental disorder to qualify for the late term abortion. The report included showing actual abortions. After an abortion of a 21 week old unborn child the commentator remarks: "As soon as the baby is born, the doctor must cover it up. No one looks at it. No one examines it."
Other abortionists were arrested and clinics closed by authorities for violations of sanitation regulations that included throwing the grisly remains of aborted babies into the trash and in cases processing the remains in a garbage compactor. Bishop Munilla of Palencia noted that many people were disturbed by reports about the abuses at the clinics in Barcelona, “The blender connected to the drain pipe, the falsified scans to cover up abortions in the seventh or eighth month of pregnancy, etc, were just too bloody to be ignored.” He noted the contradictions that occur when the existence of the soul is denied. “Humans are treated like animals (as in the case of abortion) and animals are treated like humans (salons for dogs, hotels for pets, cemeteries and crematories for animals, etc). It’s an inversion of values that has as its root the denial of the immortal human soul.”
The strike by members of the Spanish Association of Accredited Clinics for the Interruption of Pregnancy (ACAI) included their claim that late term abortions were legal since under Spanish law a physician can claim “grave risk” to the mother’s physical or mental health at any stage of pregnancy. The abortion association based their argument on the broad definition of health used by the World Health Organization which defines health as "the state of physical, psychological and social well-being and not the mere absence of illnesses or conditions."
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The Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI) is committed to networking members of democratically-elected legislatures in efforts to advance respect for the inherent value, worth, and inviolable dignity of every human being from the first moment of existence. PNCI issues the Parliamentary Network E-News to provide lawmakers, and those who work with them, news from various sources on the international threat to pro-life laws and current legislative and judicial actions on critical life issues challenging parliamentarians around the world. PNCI is a project of Life Issues Institute.
All news articles include links to original source. PNCI cannot verify that the information contained in the news articles is accurate. info@pncius.org
