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Volume 18, Number 6
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November/December 2007
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Embryonic Stem Cell Debate is Over
This is a judgment that is being made by many experts and organizations around the world. The research of Dr. J. Thompson and Dr. S. Yamanaka, done independently,
just published in the journals Science and Cell, respectively, has shown that with a fairly simple process, embryonic type stem cells can be produced directly from ordinary human skin cells. This now can be done without creating or killing human embryos. We hold our breath and pinch ourselves to be sure that this in fact is what everyone says it is, for it is a historic achievement. This has dramatically expanded the scientific possibilities for stem cells and it has done it within a completely ethical pattern. This however does not completely clear the way for the use of embryonic type stem cells, for very possibly the tendency for these cells to form tumors may well also be present in these new cells. If so, they still could not be usable in human trials. Even if that is true, however, the remarkable continuing discoveries around the legitimate use of adult stem cells continue. For all of this, we can be thankful.
Bulgaria - One of Highest Abortion Rates
Studying 61 countries globally, a new UN report informs us that Bulgaria has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, aborting more than twice as
many babies per thousand women as the average nation.
Vietnam
The reports from the Central Hospital for Obstetrics and Gynecology in Hanoi, Vietnam detail high rates of infertility among
women there who have had abortions.
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Mexico's Abortion Count - Grossly Inflated
A Los Angeles Times article had reported that one million illegal abortions a year had been occurring in Mexico before its recent legalization. However, in the six months since legalization in Mexico City, only 3,400 women have been aborted.
This completely demolishes the absurd claim from the Times.
Britain Will Create Human Animal Hybrids
On 6 November, the British government announced that it intends to do this. Anthony Ozimic, SPUC Political Secretary, called this a "fateful decision, an unprecedented attack on the dignity of human life,
leading the world in truly sinister experiments."
South African Nurse's Right of Conscience?
A case has been referred to a top government agency, as to whether or not a nurse in South Africa has the right in conscience to refuse to participate in abortions. The nurse, Sister Wilhelmien Charles, was banned from her hospital three years ago for this reason.
She has taken the case to the top court.
Australia and Amnesty International
All 328 Catholic schools in the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese in Australia have been counseled to withdraw all aid to Amnesty International (AI) and to close their school sponsored Amnesty International support groups. It is noted that Ireland's bishops have also begun to advise
Catholic schools to terminate their AI support groups.
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"Women Deliver" Conference Fails to Deliver
This global conference presumably was called to illustrate prevention and treatment of problems of pregnancy and childbirth, particularly in developing countries and to offer solutions. The agenda however was almost totally preoccupied with promoting the ideology and practice of abortion. So much so, that the genuine health care needs of women and children were virtually ignored. The committee heads manufactured a false consensus that reflected only the views of the pro-abortion attendees, while at the same time it sidelined or ignored the main issues actually relating to
maternal mortality, vaccine, clean water, sanitation, etc.
Too bad, this was a major opportunity missed.
Portugal - Fewer Abortions Than Expected
According to health officials, this nation is seeing less than half the number of abortions that were expected when it recently legalized abortion. Currently about 25 abortions are done daily, which averages to about 9,000 abortions a year. The new law allows abortions up to ten weeks of pregnancy. As of late November, over 700 Portuguese doctors have signed a petition paper urging the nation's medical association to continue to oppose abortion. This is in response to their premier who is initiating legal proceedings
to force the doctors' group to alter its code of ethics.
Sweden - A New Mecca for Abortions
The Swedish Parliament has authorized offering abortions to women from nations where it is illegal.
The vote to approve it was 134 - 124, with 91 abstentions.
Dominican Republic Demonstrations Continue
A major march capped off a full month of pro-life demonstrations, including a massive demonstration at the Parliament in late October. Despite a heavy rainstorm, large numbers of people marched through the streets of its capital, Santo Domingo, to continue the protests against recent proposal by UN agencies to
decriminalize abortion in this Caribbean nation.
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WHO Abortion Study Fraudulent
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new study, which claims that abortions are just as frequent in nations where they are illegal as in those where it is legal. Examinations of the data however show this to be completely erroneous. Most of their figures, except in a few developed nations, are based on meager data with a lot of assumption-laden extrapolations. Almost no underdeveloped countries maintain detailed birth or mortality records, and almost none have any abortion statistics. This makes even the roughest of estimates nothing but guess work. WHO often relies on "public source data" which may be a single journal article, or an unpublished document from a pro-abortion organization, e.g. in Uruguay it quoted studies done in the 1970s and the 1980s with sample sizes of 5, 14 and 23 individuals. From these few cases they extrapolated the number of deaths from illegal abortions for the entire country. This is ridiculous. Accordingly, the entire WHO study must be thrown into a wastebasket, as it is completely inaccurate and totally biased.
WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, Have All Lied
These three major UN organizations consistently claim that over 500 thousand women die worldwide from complications of pregnancy, with 99% of them from undeveloped countries. These claims have now been shown to be pure guesswork with no substantiation. The former head of UN statistics office, Dr. Joseph Chamie, gives us information. The WHO has stated that only 31 of 193 states internationally have reliable cause of death statistics, and close to two-thirds of all deaths in developing countries are unreported. Two years ago, the UN Population Division issued a report stating that more than one-third of the 204 countries or areas examined did not report deaths by cause, sex, and age even once. There has been no improvement noted in reporting since 1975. The above countries reporting "maternal mortality 2005" states that 99% of these half million deaths occur in developing countries. But given that these agencies themselves admit that this kind of data is all but impossible to get, it is evident that their claim of deaths is based on virtually no data whatsoever, and accordingly,
should be almost completely ignored.
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Wales - Morning After Pills Increase Pregnancies
Despite government aid in giving morning after pills to young people, more fifteen to seventeen year olds than ever are aborting their babies. In 2005, it was 894, in 2006, 1,004.
Second abortions have also risen in number.
Rotary Club Pro-abortion
A new report by Life Decisions International (LDI) details Rotary's ties with groups that promote both abortion and population control. It has ties with the UN Children's Fund and the UNFPA. It has created a Rotarian Fellowship for Population and Development to "support Rotary Club projects." It provides grants to Rotary Clubs for population issues. LDI President Douglas Scott said, "This is no different than a hospital that commits abortion on one floor and has a pre-natal unit on other. On the one hand, Rotary works with population control
agencies and on the other it inoculates children against polio."
Spain Population Going Down the Tube
Since it legalized abortion in 1985, abortionists in Spain have killed more than 1.1 million Spanish babies and the number is rising.
In 2006, 97,000 abortions were reported.
Doctors Must Do Abortions?
The National Abortion Federation has demanded that Canada force all doctors in the country to perform abortions whether they object morally or not. The Canadian Medical Association's current policy states that doctors are not required to do abortions, nor do they have to refer women to another provider. The Canadian Medical Association did not favorably
receive the National Abortion Federation's demand.
English Babies Killed for Minor Abnormalities
The Daily Telegraph reports on eugenic abortions in its South West Congenital Anomaly Register. This shows that in three years abortion was used to kill 54 babies with clubfoot,
37 with cleft palate, and 26 with extra or webbed fingers or toes.
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Harvard Gets No Women's Eggs
In 2005, the state of Massachusetts passed a law prohibiting scientists from paying women to donate their eggs to research. It also required that they be given information about its health risks. Since then, Harvard has spent over $100,000 on ads to recruit female donors, but has not yet had a single woman contribute her eggs.
Risks to the women include blood clots, strokes and even death.
Premature Birth from Abortion
The November issue of The Journal of Reproductive Medicine links premature births and cerebral palsy to prior abortion. This is the result of their examination of data from over 4 million births. Dr. Brian Calhoun of University of the West Virginia states that about one-third of babies who are considered very pre-term result from a woman's prior abortion. Babies born before 32 weeks almost always have very low birth weight,
and 8% of these develop cerebral palsy.
Homosexuals Die Younger
Paul and Kirk Cameron, at the Eastern Psychological Association Convention, detailed the above. Denmark has the longest history of homosexual marriage. For 1990 - 2000, its married heterosexual men died at a medium age of 74, whereas in the 561 homosexual male "marriages" the men died at an average age of 51.
In Norway, married heterosexual men died at 77 years, homosexuals at 52. Further, "married" lesbians died 20 years earlier than married heterosexual women. Prior to this, reports of early deaths had come from obituaries in newspapers. These now come from official national statistics
and conclusively prove this earlier death rate.
Russia Attempts to Limit Abortion
Responding to its demographic crisis, the Russian Health Ministry now requires a woman to sign a document prior to an abortion. It details the possibility of "suffering grave complications from abortions" and provides a list of potential medical hazards. The abortionist must also sign indicating he has fully disclosed the risks to the women.
Russian population decline now stands at 700,000 per year.
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Monkeys Have Been Cloned
Since Dolly the sheep, we have seen increasing numbers of mammals cloned. The most difficult however have been primates, which includes monkeys and humans. Now for the first time scientists have cloned embryos from the cells of adult monkeys, using the somatic cell nuclear transfer technique. Taking cells from these cloned embryos, they have successfully turned them into heart cells and brain neurons.
The number of cloned monkey embryos is reported to have been 20.
Fetal Cells Still in Mother's Body
Fetal cells persist long after pregnancy in many women, and may give her an edge against developing breast cancer. This may be one of the reasons why women who have had babies have fewer cancers of the breast. One reason may be that these cells continue to keep the mother's immune system on alert for abnormal cells, and thereby help her destroy cancer cells in the future. This is according to the article, "Fetal
Microchimerism in Women with Breast Cancer" in October 1, 2007 issue of Cancer Research.
Stem Cells Help Liver Disease
At Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers have successfully treated rats with liver disease by injecting adult stem cells taken from their own bone marrow. Injecting these into their liver showed signs of it regenerating itself. If this can be verified,
it would be a far better solution than a liver transplant.
For Catholics - Feeding Tubes Obligatory
In a major statement from the Vatican, the Catholic Church clarified its position that giving of food and water to people in so-called vegetative state is, with exceptions, morally obligatory. In retrospect, this statement clearly included as relevant, the prolonged
starvation-dehydration of Terri Schiavo in Florida in 2005.
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Adult Stem Cells Heal Muscles
In the September journal, Nature Biotechnology, Drs. J. Huard and B. Peault at University of Pittsburgh have discovered stem cells taken from the lining of blood vessels (myoendothelial cells) that are easily isolated, grow rapidly, and will differentiate into muscle, bone, and cartilage,
making them ideally suited for muscle injuries and diseases.
Adult Stem Cells Can Restore Memory After Injury
In research by Dr. M. Blurton-Jones at University of California, Irvine, neuro adult stem cells have actually restored memory lost from an injury. There have been well-publicized studies of such stem cells restoring lost of motor
function, but this is the first one relating to memory.
Contraceptives Clog Arteries
A study of 1,301 women, age 33 to 55 in Ghent University in Belgium, reporting to the American Heart Association Meeting, November 7, 2007, stated that the likelihood of finding plaques narrowing key arteries is increased 20 -
30 per cent for every ten years of pill use.
South Africa - No To Nurses and Midwives
An attempt to authorize nurses and midwives to do
abortions has failed in the South African Parliament.
NuvaRing Contraceptive Causes Complications
Thirty-seven lawsuits were recently filed in New Jersey against the NuvaRing's maker, Organon. These allege that this contraceptive device has caused blood clot complications. These have resulted in amputations, pulmonary blood clots, and death. It is being marketed as a "safe alternative to the birth control patch."
Apparently this is not true.
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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
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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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