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International Right to Life Federation,
Inc.
Vol. 18 No. 2
(March/April 2007)
Philippines - Youth Rally
Over 10,000 young people attended a rally accompanied by major political and academic figures. Their purpose was to publicly proclaim the respect of young people for the dignity and value of the gift of life and to condemn abuses of life through abortion,
drugs and alcohol.
Vermont Defeats Assisted Suicide Bill
To everyone's surprise, the Vermont House of Representatives voted 82 - 63 to defeat a bill patterned after Oregon's Assisted Suicide Bill. Its supporters "had everything money could buy.eight of the top lobbyists in the state, T.V. commercials featuring three former governors running continuously and a House with a heavy liberal Democrat majority." This near miracle came about because of an enormously effective grass-roots effort led by Vermont Right To Life and the Catholic Church, and the fact that there was a lengthy, honest, real debate about the bill on the House floor. Many representatives apparently changed their mind as a result of the open debate on the floor.
It had been assumed that the bill would pass by a large margin.
Hawaii Defeats Suicide Bill
The Hawaiian state legislature, facing a proposed bill to legalize assisted suicide, defeated it 6 - 1 in committee. Its chairman said, "That testimony ran 10 - 1 against the bill."
The governor also said that he was "strongly opposed to this bill."
Portugal Abortion Now Legal
Portugal's Parliament has approved a bill that would permit unrestricted abortion up to the tenth week of pregnancy. This follows a failed referendum attempt to legalize it. The Social Democrat Party and the Christian Democrat Party opposed this bill but the ruling
Socialists hold an absolute majority and rammed the bill through.
Suriname May Legalize Abortion
A UN committee with no legal authority recently insisted that Suriname repeal its pro-life law and allow abortion. Less than a month later, the health minister of this small Caribbean country began debating whether it should be allowed in the case of assault rape. Not surprising, the website of the International
Planned Parenthood Federation is actively supporting such a change.
Ireland - Both Parties Condemn Abortion
In March, both Catholic and Protestant candidates in Northern Ireland united in supporting an initiative to oppose abortion as a key election issue. This was done to counteract guidelines on abortion issued in January by the U.K. Department of Health. This shows, that after more than 30 years,
opposition to abortion is still one of the few issues that unite both parties in the north.
Egg Harvesting Can Be Dangerous
Prior to invitro fertilization and now commonly before harvesting a woman's eggs, she is given powerful hormone stimulating drugs. These increase the number of eggs. Reports now accumulating tell us that such a procedure can cause paralysis, limb amputation, and even death. This research comes from the University of Padua. It reports that 60% of the accidents involved blood clots in the head and neck. This flies directly in the face of Britain's human fertilization and embryology authority, which expected to endorse a new and controversial law allowing doctors
to pay healthy women for harvesting their eggs for research purchases.
Donate Eggs for Money
The American Society of Reproductive Medicine has set a $5,000 compensation guideline for egg donation. Often women have donated eggs to help family or friends but for others money is the main reason. In the United Kingdom, the Human Fertilization and Embryology
Authority has approved a policy that will give women $487 USD plus travel expenses.
Canadian National March for Life
The 10th annual such march will be held in Ottawa, May 9 to 11. Nearly 6,000 people marched last year and more are expected this year. It will commemorate the death of more than three million unborn Canadian children over the last four years.
It will call for their protection in the future.
France - Petition to Legalize Euthanasia
More than 2,000 French medical professionals have signed a petition calling for laws to permit active euthanasia. This was published in early March shortly before their upcoming national election.
Candidate, S. Royal, favors legalization while N. Starkozy opposes it.
Kissling Finally Quits
Frances Kissling, longtime president of Catholics For A Free Choice, has ended her twenty-five year rabid opposition to the Catholic Church's policy of sanctity of all human life, marriage and family. While claiming the title of Catholic, she spent her life advocating for abortion on demand and criticizing the Church's position. Backed by Ford and other pro-abortion foundations, she took her campaign international and was gleefully supported most of the time by the pro-abortion media. While claiming the title of Catholic,
according to this Church's teachings she had long since excommunicated herself.
Peru - Abortion Now Legal?
Reports from Peru remain conflicting, but the Peruvian daily, "El Comercio", reports that a directive is now in effect allowing for "therapeutic termination of pregnancy up to 22 weeks." Does this mean that the push from the United Nation's World Health Organization and the
USAID has finally overridden the laws of this pro-life nation?
UN Sex Selection Abortions Okay
A U.S. sponsored resolution called on states to eliminate pre-natal sex selection and female infanticide. Despite a ground swell of support from the NGO community and many of the country delegations at the Committee on the Status of Women this week, this resolution was withdrawn. This was due to pressure from China, India, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico and others. It is noted that China and India are the worse cases of
female infanticide and sex selective abortions.
A Wolf Has Been Cloned
Researchers at Seoul National University, which have produced the first cloned dog, now have cloned a wolf. Hundreds of wolf embryos died in the process. This is where the disgraced researcher, Hwang Woo-Suk had claimed to have cloned humans. The scientists had to transfer 251 wolf embryos into 12 potential surrogate wolf
mothers in order to achieve the birth of this one cloned wolf.
A European Court Levies Fine on Poland
A certain Alicja Tysiac claimed that unless she had an abortion she would become blind. There was no medical proof of this. However, she took this to the European Union and a decision there by the European Court of Human Rights upheld her right to have an abortion. Stating that her privacy rights had been violated and that current Polish law "did not contain any effective mechanism capable of determining whether the conditions for obtaining a lawful abortion had been met," they awarded $33,000 USD in damages. In reaction to this,
a law has been introduced into the Polish Parliament to ban all abortions.
"The Day of the Unborn Child"
Many nations internationally observed "The Day of the Unborn Child" on 26 March 2007. This coincides with the Christian celebration of the Feast of the Annunciation when the Virgin Mary was told that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit of the person of Jesus Christ. This movement started in El Salvador in 1993. It has since spread to many countries, particularly in South and Central America, as well as the Philippines and Australia. Some nations celebrate it officially, others unofficially,
such as Austria, Slovakia, Uruguay and Spain.
Pope Warns Pro-Abortion Politicians
On 13 March 2007, Pope Benedict XVI released Sacramentum Caritatis or the Sacrament of Love. In it, he warns Catholic politicians against receiving Communion unworthily. He states that politicians must adhere to "non-negotiable values, such as respect for human life, its defense from conception to natural death." He quoted the Bible passage from I Corinthians 11:27-29, "Therefore, whosoever shall eat the Bread or drink the chalice of the Blood of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord.For he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself." Drawing on this dire warning from St. Paul, some Catholic clergy have denied Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians. He states that such action not only causes them to reflect seriously on their disconnect from the Church,
but would also save them from committing a gravely sinful act which portends "judgment".
Stem Cell Research Guidelines
The International Society for Stem Cell Research has released non-binding guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research.
This was published in the February 2 issue of the journal, Science. Pro-lifers judged them to be worthless as an ethical guide, because they were issued by scientists and entrepreneurs who have dedicated their careers to human cloning, human embryo research, and the killing of these embryos. For instance, they request that certain requests from individuals be honored before donating eggs, that the research must be approved by the institution's oversight mechanism, and other worthless meanderings. It would allow research to create chimeras i.e.,
living individuals containing both animal and human cells.
National Poll
A national poll in the U.S. by Zogby asked the following: Which of the following statements most closely describes your
own position on the issue of abortion?
|
Abortion never legal
|
18% |
} 56% |
Abortions legal only when the
life of the mother is in danger
|
15% |
Abortions legal only when the
life of the mother is in danger
or in case of rape or incest
|
23% |
Abortions legal for any reason
during first three months
|
25% |
} 42%
|
Abortions legal for any reason
during the first six months
|
4% |
Abortions legal for any reason
at any time during a woman's
pregnancy
|
13% |
Don't know/refused |
2% |
|
In comparison to the general public above, the age group 18-19 scored 60 pro-life, 39 pro-abortion.
Hispanics were 78-21. African-Americans 62-38.
Japan - Teeth Growth
Normal looking teeth have been successfully grown from primitive cells and transplanted successfully into mice. These cells, successors of stem cells, "provide the first evidence of a successful reconstitution of an entire organ via the transplantation of bio-engineered material"
(Reuters, 19 Feb. 2007).
Repeat Abortions In U.S. Now Almost Half
Slowly over the years, the percentage of women having more than one abortion has slowly increased. For a number of years, it stalled at 44-45 percent, now a new figure released by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the scientific arm of Planned Parenthood, places the number at 48% for the year 2002. The typical woman having a repeat abortion was over
thirty years old and had been using contraception when she became pregnant.
Abortion and Later Miscarriage
The British Journal of Gynecology (December 2006) has reported a study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It reports that women who have had an induced abortion have a sixty percent higher risk of having a miscarriage in a subsequent pregnancy.
It notes that those using invitro fertilization had a forty percent greater risk.
Breakthrough on Childhood Leukemia
For the first time, a child with leukemia has received a treatment from his or her own cord blood stem cells, which had been frozen when she was born in 1999 and stored.
She is now in remission and "has an excellent chance of being cured."
Whole Ovary Transplant Successful
For a variety of reasons, mostly cancer therapy, women often lose their ovaries. Now we have a report from the Infertility Center of St. Louis in the U.S. of the first complete ovary transplants. This raises the possibilities that a woman could have an ovary removed and frozen, then have chemotherapy treatment for cancer, and then have the ovary transplanted back into her body.
Well maybe it is a dream, but this would be a step on the way.
Oral Contraceptives and Premenopausal Breast Cancer
A meta-analysis has been published in the journal, Mayo Clinic Proceedings. It studied reports over the last two and a half decades tracing oral contraceptive use to increased breast cancer risk, and found that there was a definitive linkage particularly when the OCs are used before the birth of her first child. We note that the World Health Organization, in 2005, classified the combined estrogen-progestin OCs,
as used in hormone replacement therapy, as "Group one carcinogens."
Stem Cells Help Heart
The American College of Cardiology recently met in New Orleans. At the meeting, a breakthrough in cardiac treatment was announced. Rush University had used an intravenous preparation of adult stem cells from the patient to prevent scar formation in the heart after a heart attack. Animal studies have shown that this treatment
can return heart function to near normal as quickly as in two months.
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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