International Right to Life Federation, Inc.
Vol. 16 No. 5
(September/October 2005)

What Was The Doha Report?
Many of you have asked for details. In addition, it seems obvious that the proabortion, anti-family, feminist radicals at the UN have ignored it and just hope it will go away. Clearly it should not.

It’s a report on the Doha International Conference for the Family. (29,30 Nov. 04, Doha, Qatar) This conference was preceded by government meetings in Benin, Azerbaijan and Latvia. It included the World Congress of Families, March 04, in Mexico City, the Scandinavian Dialogue, May 04, in Stockholm, the European Dialogue, August 04, in Geneva, and the Asia Pacific Family Dialogue, October 04, in Kuala Lumpor. In addition, there were hundreds of civil society meetings in local areas in more than 134 cities around the world. Reports prepared for this international conference included a publication collecting the results of over 200 community meetings and a preliminary volume of international scholarship.

In December 2004, the UN General Assembly officially received this report. Among other things it “encourages” governments to make every possible effort to integrate a family perspective in the planning process. It “recommends that governments welcome NGOs, academic institutions, etc., to contribute to developing strategies and programs aimed at strengthening the livelihood of families.” Of the 191 member states of the UN General Assembly, 149 signed the resolution as cosponsors. The entire General Assembly then adopted it by voice vote. Many nations took the floor to affirm foundational principles of human rights, that marriage is the foundation of families, that families are the foundation of societies, and that the role of government is to protect and support families. Not surprisingly, the Dutch ambassador speaking for the European Union spoke to the fact that the family has “changed in the course of time and said that it is not up to the state to impose limitations on various types of families including on the basis of race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, or any other status.” The ambassador, however, was wrong for there is no source in international law that establishes a right to found a family regardless of sexual orientation. Fortunately, the majority of the delegates did not agree with the European Union which consistently has been on the far left end of the value spectrum on these issues. For anyone interested in a more detailed explanation of the Doha Report, we refer you to the website of Life Issues Institute: www.lifeissues.org.

Portugal Referendum Coming
The Portuguese Parliament has now approved legislation that will allow a referendum to be held to determine whether or not abortion should become legal in that country during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Currently abortion is illegal except in cases of assault rape or when a pregnant woman’s life is in danger.

Brazil Abortion Bill Stopped
A bill to legalize abortion in the first trimester was abandoned after opposition from Brazil’s National Conference of Catholic Bishops and President Luiz Silva. Similar controversial bills are still being put forth in Columbia and Uruguay.

Good News on Polish Election
From our representative Lech Kowalewski in Poland, we have the following news. Most of the anti-life people who were in Parliament have been defeated. The main party, promoted by International Planned Parenthood, failed to seat a single Member of Parliament (MP). A number of pro-life activists were elected Senators while pro-abortion activists were defeated. In the previous term, anti-life people had a majority. They have been replaced now by a pro-family majority. Good work guys.

One Million in Madrid
A pro-family demonstration in June drew one million people into the streets of Madrid. They were demonstrating their opposition to the incumbent Socialist government’s plans to give same sex unions the legal status of marriage. Cardinal Varela, speaking for the Spanish bishops, stated that the need to protect the legal status of the family was an issue of “notable gravity…The family will be completely without protection if the government carried through with its existing plans.”

Poll in Ireland
A new Irish Examiner-Lansdowne survey reveals that 47% would vote against legal abortion with 36% voting for it.

UN Millennium Summit Document
The final document of this summit meeting had all of the pro-abortion anti-family phrasing removed with the exception of the fact that the words “reproductive health” remained in the document. Relating to this, John Bolton, the new US Ambassador to the UN, added an official attachment. It stated “The US understands that reference to the International Conference on Population and Development, and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the use of the phrase reproductive health…do not create any rights and cannot be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement or promotion of abortion.” This statement has been attached to the official document itself.

Is There Fetal Pain?
A controversial article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (8/24/05) on fetal pain redefined the word “pain” and claimed that a developing baby in the womb does not feel pain until 28 weeks. This is simply wrong. If you define pain as being cerebral, as only existing when there is consciousness and memory, if you define all other responses to noxious stimuli as mere “reflexes” that don’t really hurt, then the article has merit. But herein lies the basic falsehood of their analysis. Anencephalic infants are born without higher brain centers. Some live several days or more, and if you stick them with a needle, they will cry. If their diapers are wet, they will cry. Do they feel pain? I doubt if any mother, father, or attending physician would claim that this is not pain, for certainly it is. Let’s try one more example, and this as early as 8-10 weeks of fetal age. If you stick this developing baby in the palm of her hand with a needle, she will withdraw her hand. She will also open her mouth. We can compare this to a newborn infant who is stuck with a pin while changing a cloth diaper. The baby will withdraw his little butt and will complain loudly. Both of these reactions are the same.

What is the neural mechanism? Peripheral pain stimuli go by way of a sensory nerve to the thalamus which is a bit of a switchboard and then back down a motor nerve to the fetus’ palm or the diapered baby’s little butt and activates a muscular recoil. This is the very same mechanism that you and I would respond with if we put our finger on a hot burner. We will withdraw that finger instantly and pull that finger away from the burner before we are conscious of it. So yes it is a reflex, but did it hurt? Yes.

Within its narrow perimeters, the article can make a case, but they certainly are not talking about pain in the sense that all the rest of us do. Incidentally, two of the five authors are active proabortionists.

IVF Demonstrates 85% Loss
A study in the Journal of Fertility and Sterility, Aug. 05, investigated how many living human embryos survive freezing and thawing. According to this study, when taken out of nitrogen-frozen storage and defrosted for use, 85% die. Only 15% survive for hopeful implantation.

Women Three Times More Likely To Die After Abortion Than After Childbirth
The National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health in Finland has published a new study. It shows that 94% of maternal deaths associated with abortion are not identifiable from death certificates alone. Proper tracking of associated history and other details plus the linking of death certificates brings a very different story. This study shows that rather than fewer deaths from abortion than childbirth, the opposite is actually true.

Planned Parenthood’s Alan Gutmacher continues to report that childbirth deaths are more common. They use national “maternal mortality” to compare with. Official “maternal mortality” figures include deaths from abortion, from tubal pregnancies and moral pregnancies and other problems not directly relating to childbirth but which occur within a few months of delivery. On the other hand, as noted, deaths from abortion are dramatically under reported so what Planned Parenthood tells us is simply unreliable.

Even though most abortion-related deaths are not officially reported as such, legal abortion is reported to be the fifth leading cause of maternal death in the US. A 1997 government-funded study from Finland showed that women who abort are four times more likely to die within a year than women who give birth.* By extending their scope beyond the very narrow time frame that is examined by most post-abortion studies, the researchers were able to get a better look at how abortion truly affects women’s lives. The results clearly show, compared to women who carry to term, women who aborted in the year prior to their deaths were:

· 60% more likely to die of natural causes,
· 7 times more likely to commit suicide,
· 4 times more likely to have fatal accidents,
· 14 times more likely to die from homicide.

India Approves Morning After Pill
As of September, the nation of India has approved over-the-counter sale of the morning after pill. It will be available from shops throughout the nation without a doctor’s prescription.

Britain, EC Pills Increase Pregnancy
There has been a major push across the US and in many other countries to sell so-called emergency contraception (EC) pills over-the-counter without a prescription. The claim has been that this will reduce abortion and pregnancy rates. New information from Britain has now confirmed a January study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. These report that selling EC over the counter has not reduced pregnancy or abortion. In fact, both have risen in Britain since these were made available. It is also noted that sexually transmitted diseases have increased sharply since these were made available. What is obvious is that older men now find it easier to exploit younger women by merely giving them pills after their Saturday night sexual encounter.

In Coma and Wakes Up
In Italy a man was in coma for two years after a traffic accident and has now recovered consciousness. He told reporters, “The doctor said I wasn’t conscious but I understood everything, and I cried in desperation.” Good thing his name wasn’t Terri Schiavo or they would have starved him to death.

China: Breast Cancer Up 40%
The Chinese Ministry of Health has reported that breast cancer in China has increased by 40% and the fatality rate by 39%. It is affecting younger women, ages 45 - 49. This is 10 - 15 years younger than their counterparts in the West. Breast cancer expert Angela LanFranchi, MD of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center, says this is a close association with the high incidence of abortion in women in China. She notes that, in contrast, nations like Ireland and Poland that prohibit abortion have significantly lower breast cancer rates.

Embryonic Stem Cells Cause Cancer?
This is a big one. It should be given wide publicity. Out of Johns Hopkins University, in a report in the journal Nature Genetics, Dr. Chakravarti reports on embryonic stem cell lines created before August 2001. These are the ones eligible for federal funding under President Bush’s limits. They compared these with more recently obtained embryonic stem cells. Out of 9 cell lines, 8 had developed one or more “genetic changes commonly observed in human cancers.” In an understatement they say, “This is not good news. It suggests that the biological properties of the cells before and after replicating could be different.” Translated that means that such embryonic stem cells transplanted into a patient might cause more problems than the good they might conceivably create.

Bush Again Defunds UNFPA
For the fourth year in a row, President Bush has decided to revoke funding for the UN Population Fund. He’s done this because of its continuing involvement in China’s coercive population control program, which includes forced abortion and sterilization. The UNFPA continues to provide funding and technical support for China’s one child policy. The $34,000,000 earmarked for this activity will be diverted to groups that try to stop the sexual trafficking of women.

Russia: More Die Than Are Born
The Vice President of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences said that 1.5 million women delivered babies in Russia last year while 1.6 million abortions were reported. Doctor Viadimir Kulakov, the Academy’s Vice President, stated that the number of abortions was probably “many more” than were being reported. The first child pushes many families into poverty, and they feel they cannot afford another child.

Italy Stops RU486 Trials
The Italian health minister, Francesco Storace, suspended Italy’s experimental trials of RU486. This was only two weeks after a hospital in Turin had begun using the drug. There were 20 women who had used it. Some had partial-births at home, others excessive bleeding. On the basis of this, plus the history from the US and abroad that 10 women had died from the drug, the health minister stopped the trials.

Stem Cells Good For Long Term
We’ve had a steady flow of good to spectacular results using adult stem cells in human treatments. A question hovered over this however. Would the good results we’re seeing persist or might we see those patients relapsing? Now we have a research report from the Fred Hutchinson Research Cancer Center. This report is in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. They followed 136 patients for a full decade after being treated with adult stem cells. Reporting their results, they state that these patients 10 years later were “largely indistinguishable from the general population in many areas of health and psychosocial functioning.” Good. That answers this question.

British Expert: Embryonic Stem Cells "Over Hyped"
Lord Winston, a famous science broadcaster and an expert on reproductive technology in the UK, has recently stated, “The study of stem cells is one of the most exciting areas in biology, but I think it is unlikely that embryonic stem cells will be useful in health care for a long time.” He criticized the hype over embryonic stem cells and said scientists were taking grave risks in raising expectations too high. He thought that stem cell research might eventually help Parkinson’s but not Alzheimer’s.

J.C. Willke, President, International Right to Life Fed.
1821 West Galbraith Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 45239 USA
Phone +1 (513) 729-3600
Fax +1 (513) 729-3636
e-mail: IRTLF@lifeissues.org

International Right to Life Fed., International Office
Ruitersweg 35-37 1211 KT Hilversum
The Netherlands
Phone +31 35 624-4352
Fax +31 35 624-9141
e-mail: info@schreeuwomleven.nl

Back to the International Right to Life Newsletter Index Page