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International Right to Life Federation,
Inc.
Vol. 16 No. 6
(November/December 2005)
COLOMBIA'S BABIES ARE IN TROUBLE
The nation of Colombia, in S. America, has a constitution
which categorically protects unborn babies. In April ‘05,
the powerful pro-abortion organization, The Center for
Reproductive Rights, petitioned the Colombian
Constitutional Court to allow an exception to the
prohibition of abortion for reasons of health, privacy
and dignity. Unfortunately, this is supported by the
First Lady of Colombia. This constitutes a serious threat
to the rights of the unborn in this nation. The Court,
in response, declined to rule on the petition. The pro-
aborts then resubmitted a second petition.
PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT DEFIES UN
At a meeting of the Interfaith Dialogue and Conference for
Peace, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
announced that all United Nations money coming into the
Philippines, to be used for family planning, will be used
to promote effective natural family planning. E.g. It
will not be used for contraceptives or abortive drugs.
SWEDEN MECCA FOR INTERNATIONAL ABORTIONS
A new government report from Sweden states that it will
work to become the world’s abortion capital. It wants
to open itself up to allow free abortions for non-
residents who come there. At present, the law in Sweden
allows abortions, state paid, up through the 18th week
of pregnancy but only citizens can take advantage of it.
The government report asks that the availability of free
abortions be extended to any person who visits the country.
REMOVE RU 486 FROM MARKET?
Five young women have now died from this drug in North
America. All of these are linked to infection by a rare
germ,clostridium sordellii, a rare fatal infection. The
US Food and Drug Administration is investigating. They
have determined that there was no contamination of the
pills that were taken. They have issued a top-level
public health advisory warning physicians to look for
signs of this infection. The FDA recently told US
Senator Jim DeMint that if they do find a direct
relationship that they will remove this drug from the
market. We note that there are now 10 women who have
died from taking this pill. Such removal is overdue.
PORTUGAL'S ABORTION REFERENDUM BLOCKED
In a surprise development, a Portuguese high court has
cancelled Portugal’s planned referendum on abortion.
It seems that the Portuguese Parliament had rejected a
referendum earlier in the year and that its decision
was governing. The court has ruled that such a vote
cannot occur before September 2006. This means that
Portuguese babies will have their lives protected for
at least one more year.
BRAZIL - "NO" TO LEGAL ABORTION
A bill had been introduced into the Brazil Parliament
to legalize abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy.
It was strongly opposed by Brazil’s National Conference
of Catholic Bishops and, importantly, also by President
Luiz Inacio Lala Da Silva. Following this opposition,
the proposed bill was dropped.
19-YEAR-OLD WOMAN WALKS
According to Britain’s SPUC newsletter, a 19-year-old
woman with multiple sclerosis, who traveled to the
Netherlands for stem cell treatment using adult
umbilical stem cells from, has claimed that she no
longer needs a wheelchair but is now able to walk.
This news was from the Scottish Herald of 17 November.
MORE ON CURING SPINAL CORD INJURIES
The journal Cythotherapy has now reported details on
a Korean women whose quadriplegia was treated with
adult cells. We quote, “The patient could move her
hips and feel her hips’ skin on day 15 after
treatment. On day 25, her feet responded to
stimulation. On day 13, she could maintain an
upright position by herself. From day 15, she began
to elevate both lower legs about 1 centimeter and
hip flexor muscle activity improved until day 41.”
It notes that “41 days after stem cell
transplantation, testing showed regeneration of the
spinal cord at the injured sight.” This is
according to Cythotherapy, 05 vol. 7 #4 268-73.
CANADA INCREASES SUPPORT FOR UNFPA
The United States has, once again, withheld
$34,000,000 which had been earmarked for the United
Nations Fund for Population Activity. This was done
because of its continuing genocidal abortion and one
child policy. Canada’s increase was done to make up
some of the funding shortfall. Regarding this, we
quote Steve Mosher of the Population Research
Institute.
“Talk about ironic: Canada’s politicians,
sitting in a vast empty land that has fertile soil,
many resources, few people, many abortions and a
non-survival birthrate are sending Canadian’s taxes
overseas to make family loving people in the
developing nations stop having children - to follow
dying Canada into the demographic grave---There are
sorrows too deep for tears.”
LIECHTENSTEIN LEGALIZES ABORTION
This began when the government changed legislation
which sought to limit abortion to cases where life
of the mother was in danger. This tiny European
nation has only 33,000 residents but 2/3 of them
voted on this issue. Proposed was a comprehensive
pro-life measure that would have prohibited
abortion and assisted suicide. Only 20 percent of
the people backed the initiative. 80 percent of
the citizens voted to support a government-
sponsored counter-proposal which allows abortions
in the first three months.
RUSSIA
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has become
aware of the serious problem that abortion poses
for the Russian Federation. He has called abortion
“a national problem.” According to official
reports, Russia’s population, to a good extent due
to abortion, is declining by more than 750,000 a
year. Other sources estimate it over 1 million.
In any case, there are more Russians being buried
than there are Russians being born and that, by any
dimension for any nation, is a demographic
catastrophe.
SWISS KILL PATIENTS
According to The Guardian, 19 December, Lausanne
University has announced that it will allow doctors
and nurses, in that hospital, to kill patients.
The hospital’s legal director, Elberto Cresbo,
stated “We are not trying to encourage suicide but,
at the same time as a hospital, we have to respect
the wishes of someone who wants to die.”
ENGLAND: 50 BABIES BORN ALIVE
According to the Times, 27 Nov. as reported by SPCU
Info, a report has it that around 50 babies are
born alive each year in the United Kingdom after
failed abortion attempts. The report suggests
that doctors are failing to carry out the Royal
College of Ob-Gyn guidelines which attempt to
insure that babies are definitely killed before
delivery in induced abortions. They worry that, if
the baby is born alive following a failed abortion
and then dies, the doctor could be charged with
murder. Yes, that sounds true to us, and it sounds
like that is exactly what should be done.
MORNING AFTER PILL IS BAD NEWS
Controversy continues worldwide on the use of the
morning after pill, and recently that has focused
down to whether or not it should be sold over the
counter and how old the young woman might be who
would purchase it. Claims of those who want wide
usage are very consistent. “It will reduce
pregnancies,” and “It will also reduce
abortions,” they say. The experience in Britain,
however, points rather dramatically in the other
direction. A report by Wendy Wright in Washington
presented the findings of several studies on this
topic. The one from Glasgow stated that morning
after pill prescriptions increased 300% from 1992
- 1999 and abortions did not decrease. In one
city, Lothian, condoms were handed to pupils, and
they were sent to clinics for morning after
pills. Among the 13 - 15 year olds in this
school, pregnancies increased 10% in one year.
Research from the UK also revealed that, in one
study, over the counter sales to minors produced
a rise in cases of Chlamydia from 7,000 to 10,000
in three years. Gonorrhea cases climbed 50%.
Abortions increased by nearly 6,000 in a one year
period, increasing over 3% with the largest
increase being among girls under the age of 16.
Of specific concern in Britain is the fact that
older men are now exploiting underage girls and
then giving them these pills to take the morning
after.
US - NO OVER-THE-COUNTER PILLS
After intense lobbying from both sides on this
issue, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has
announced that it will not allow the morning-
after pill to be sold over the counter. It
stated that its decision came because of
insufficient safety data, as they were
concerned about the effect of the pills on
minor women. Their decision traditionally has
been made on a relatively narrow area of
judgment, i.e. whether the drug can be used
safely and effectively without the supervision
of a physician. It is noted that some time
ago an advisory panel of “experts” had voted
23 to 4 in favor of the over-the-counter sales.
The drug company has been asked to do further
research on whether it is safe to allow
teenage girls to buy these for repeated use.
CHILE - PILLS ARE CONSTITUTIONAL
The Supreme Court of the nation of Chile has
ruled that, even though the country has a very
clear law forbidding any abortions, the so-
called emergency contraception pill can be sold
and distributed. The government distributes
such pills at no cost to women who have been
raped.
ALASKA LAW INFORMED CONSENT
Alaska has done something new. A law is now
operational that requires abortionists to give
a woman detailed information prior to her
abortion. It requires them to show patients
a web site. It requires the abortionists to
have the women certify in writing that the
doctor gave them such information. The web
site includes information about fetal
development; photographs of a fetus at four-
week increments; descriptions of abortion
procedures, risks and complications,
including physical and psychological effects
comparison of abortion procedures with
childbirth; eligibility for medical
assistance benefits; child support orders
and various contraceptive options. All such
information is objective and was approved by
a group of specialists appointed by the
State Medical Board. It also lists support
services available in the state and references
for further reading. It is to be updated
annually. Previous laws in almost half of the
states have required some informed consent,
usually in the form of literature given to the
woman. This is a whole new direction and in
far greater detail. It bears close watching.
MORE TROUBLE FROM THE UN
On October 26, 2005, Togo became the 15th
country to ratify the Protocol on the Rights
of Women in Africa. With this number of
ratifications, the protocol will enter into
force. The protocol, which supplements the
African Charter on Human and People’s Rights,
is a treaty that provides broad protection for
“women’s human rights.” This includes sexual
and reproductive rights. Other countries that
have ratified are Cape Verde, the Comoros,
Djibouti, Gambia, Lesotho, Libya, Malawi, Mali,
Nambia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa
and Benin. This information is according to
International News October ‘05.
ADULT STEM CELLS HELP YEARS LATER
Adult stem cells taken from the patient’s own
bone marrow have recently been reported as being
very effective in helping damage suffered from
heart attacks. Actually, some of this type of
treatment has been done for a number of years.
Now we have a report of 18 patients eight years
later. In the November 1, 2005, issue of the
Journal of the American College of Cardiology
is this report: “This new therapy is able to
treat what has been until now irreversible heart
damage and function disturbances in patients
with chronic coronary artery disease after
myocardial infarction even many years after a
heart attack.” So it seems that “unlike
embryonic stem cells which have not been useful
here, the use of adult stem cells can help to
reverse heart attack damage and improve
functioning, not just temporarily but on a semi
permanent basis.”
PREMATURE SURVIVAL
The University College Hospital in London has
published statistics that have found that “42
percent of babies born at 23 weeks survived.
Further, 72 percent of those born at 24 weeks
survived.”
OBJECT TO EU'S EMBRYONIC STEM CELL FUNDING
According to LifeSiteNews.com 29 Nov.,
officials from six European countries have
registered objections to the European Union
funding embryonic stem cell research. These
include Malta, Austria, Germany, Italy,
Slovakia and Poland. These countries have
petitioned the European Union to support adult
stem cell research instead and to leave decisions
about embryonic stem cell funding to the
individual states. We note once more that the
only way to obtain embryonic stem cells is to
directly kill a 5-day-old living human embryo
and to extract these cells from the interior
of his or her tiny forming body.
NEW DISCOVERY WILL EXPAND ADULT STEM CELL RESEARCH
Researchers at Florida State University report
that they have designed a biomedical device that
will allow adult stem cells to be grown in much
larger quantities than is now possible. This
allows faster growth of tissues that then can be
used to treat patients in adult stem cell research
and treatment. The device they have created is
called a perfusion bioreactor. It is designed to
mimic conditions encountered by adult stem cells
within the human body. It bathes them in a
protein rich liquid while also stimulating the
flow of the body’s circulatory system. They note
that “within the human body each cell is no more
than 200 micrometers from a source of nutrients.
The perfusion bioreactor will deliver essential
nutrients to stem cells in a similar manner.”
By altering this flow of nutrients to the stem
cells, these researchers hope to control what
type of cell these stem cells will ultimately
become.
STEM CELL THERAPY
According to the prestigious British journal, the
Lancet, 4 June, this proabortion medical journal
ran an editorial entitled, Stem Cell Research Hope
and Hype. It declared, “No safe and effective
stem cell therapy will be widely available for at
least a decade, and possibly longer.” They were
referring to embryonic stem cells not adult ones.
In the same issue, Dr. Neil Scolding at Bristol
University stated, “An increasing appreciation of
the hazards of embryonic stem cells has rightly
prevented the immergence or immediate prospect of
any clinical theories based on such cells. The
natural propensity of embryonic stem cells to
form tumors, their exhibition of chromosomal
abnormalities and abnormalities in cloned mammals
all present difficulties.”
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
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