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Volume 20, Number 4
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July/August 2009
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Women on Waves is Beached
This Netherland based abortion boat will not sail again. Thanks to changes in law in Holland.
U.N. Geneva Meeting
Some E.U. members collaborating with the international pro-abortion lobby attempted to include a right to abortion in the declaration for the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in Geneva in July. Malta, Poland, and Ireland resisted the attempt
and the final declaration contained no new pro-abortion language.
Slovakia - Abortion Barriers Are Tightened
New legislation in Slovakia now requires a woan to undergo specific counseling on risks and alternatives by her doctor, and have a two-day waiting period prior to obtaining an abortion. Parental consent for an adolescent abortion has been raised from 16 to 18. At present, there is one abortion for every three live births.
It is hoped that this will reduce the number of abortions.
Honduras – Ban on Abortive Drug Vetoed
The Honduran legislators passed a law outlawing the use of abortifacient “emergency contraception.” Its president, M. Zelaya, vetoed the bill. Pro-life leaders had stated that when the bill returns to Congress, they have sufficient votes to override his veto.
Note that the army has just deposed Zelaya who is now out of the country.
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Swiss Suicide Tourism May Be Stopped
The Swiss government is considering a proposal that would ban the assisted suicide operation run by Dignitas. If adopted this would end suicide tourism, whereby residents of other nations, particularly from England and Germany,
travel to Switzerland to have their lives ended.
Cameroon, March against Abortion
A Catholic cardinal has led over twenty thousand people in the capital city of Douala to
march against the legalization of abortion in that country.
More Women Die
Previous confirmed reports had shown that thirteen women have been killed as a direct result of using RU 486, the abortion pill. Now the maker of the drug in Europe has stated that
twenty-nine women have died. This information was given to the Italian Pharmaceutical Agency by the European abortion drug maker, Exelgyn.
We anxiously await further confirmation of this important comment.
Indonesia – Abortions
In this heavily populated Asian nation we now have a report of more than 2.6 million abortions each year. According to the Indonesia Islamic University this is a rate of 43 abortions for every 100 pregnancies delivered,
which is about twice that of the United States.
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Important Study – Breast Cancer Risk
A statistically significant new study at the Istanbul Medical Facility and Magee-Women’s Hospital reports a 66% increase in breast cancer risk among women who had any abortions.
Reference: Ozmen et al. Breast cancer risk in Turkish Women, World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2009 7:37.
Mexico – Another Pro-Life State
In July, the Mexican state of Yucatan became the fourteenth state to pass a constitutional
amendment protecting lives from conception.
World Congress of Families V
This international, interreligious, and interracial conference on family issues was held Aug. 10 – 12. One scheduled event was the screening of the “Demographic Bomb: Demography is Destiny.” This is a follow up documentary to last year’s highly successful “Demographic Winter: The Decline of the Human Family.” The premise of these movies is that efforts to limit child bearing have worked all too well. Most nations today have birth rates under replacement level. As a result of millions of couples now deciding to have only one child,
or none at all, these films show the potential major negative consequences for a national economy.
Britain Assisted Suicide Defeated
The British House of Lords has defeated an attempt to make it easier for British to engage in assisted suicide.
The vote was 194 – 141.
Chinese Kidnap Baby Girls
China’s One Child Policy has led to a severe shortage of females. Recently kidnappers have exploited this. A public ministry has reported that up to 3,000 children and young women are kidnapped every year. However, a state-controlled newspaper estimated 20,000.
The British Medical Journal reported 124 boys are born for every 100 girls in the country as a whole. In one province, the figure is 192. In reaction to kidnapping, the state ministry has launched a nationwide DNA database to help resolve
identification of missing children.
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Russian Population Continues to Decrease
Prime Minister Putin has called this, “the most acute problem facing our country today,” saying that “the population has been falling by 700,000 people annually.” Particularly in the large cities, Russian population is being replaced by foreigners. Detailing this, the government states that in Moscow the number of Koreans has increased 2.3 times; Armenians and Georgians, 2.8 times; Arabs, 12.2 times; Azerbaijanis, 4.6 times; Moldavians, 5.2 times; Ingush, 5.9 times; Chechens, 6.9 times; Kijiks, 12.2 times; Vietnamese, 14 times; and Chinese, 35 times. Symbolic of the many Islamic immigrants, plans are afoot to erect a giant Islamic center in Moscow with minarets higher than Christ
the Saviour Cathedral.
Amnesty International Runs Wild
Not only has this previously honorable organization flipped and become pro-abortion, now it has been publicly criticizing Poland for denying women “access to abortion.”
It demands that abortion be recognized as a “human right.”
Africa – Illegal Abortion Deaths Wildly Overestimated
Representatives from ten African nations have called for legal abortions “in order to prevent deaths from illegal ones.” They estimate that 30,000 women die from these in Africa every year. However, such figures are based on meager data and the extrapolation of a lot of assumptions. Typically, such a guess comes from an article, report or unpublished document. Typically these come from a pro-abortion organization, which raise questions as to its validity. A few confirmed abortion deaths in one area might be extrapolated to allegedly represent the number for an entire country. David Reardon of the Elliot Institute points that legalizing abortion doesn’t make it any safer, that legal abortion only increases the number of women exposed to unsafe abortions. Legal abortion is also inherently unsafe. Further it is linked to higher rates of maternal deaths, premature delivery, handicapped newborns, depression, suicide,
drug abuse and a host of other negative problems.
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Singapore – Low Birth Rate
Singapore’s population is 4.8 million and it hopes to increase that number to 6.5 million. This may be very optimistic, as there are now 12,000 abortions every year, compared to approximately 40,000
births with the birth rate being below replacement level.
Abortion Leads to More Maternal Deaths
Contrary to conventional wisdom, recent developments have shown that countries with legal abortion have higher maternal death rates, e.g. the African nation of Mauritius, with one of the continent’s most protective laws for the unborn, also has the lowest maternal mortality rate. In contrast, Ethiopia, which recently legalized abortion,
has a maternal death rate 48 times higher than Mauritius.
In South America, the lowest mortality is in Chile, which protects unborn life in its constitution. The highest is Guyana with a rate 30 times higher than Chile. Guyana has had abortion on demand for a decade and a half. Nicaragua has been the target of massive international lobbying, including cuts in funding, e.g. from Sweden and others. Nicaragua statistics show a decline in maternal death rates since the law was tightened up in 2006. Another example is Asia. Nepal, with no restrictions on abortion, has the highest maternal mortality. Sri Lanka, which is very protective of the unborn,
has a maternal mortality rate fourteen times lower than Nepal.
Canada – News Bias
The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper in its largest city, did not report the March for Life by over 12,000 Canadians on Parliament Hill. However, it did give extra coverage to the killing of abortionist, Tiller, in Kansas – bias anyone!
A Reproductive Health Plan for Cook Islands
These Pacific islands have a reproductive health plan being formulated. It includes preventing teen pregnancies, identifying pre-existing health threats to pregnant women, discouraging smoking and alcohol consumption, etc.
All of this sounds good, except that a UNFPA consultant has been working on the plan – bad news.
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Death in England from RU 486
Apparently not recorded when it happened in June 2005,
we now hear of an eighteen-year-old girl who took RU 486 and who died in England.
Another Woman Dies
The London Daily Mail has reported another death due to a blood clot from
taking hormonal birth control pills. (25 June)
Dominican Republic Pro-Life
The Dominican Republic recently adopted a new pro-life constitution. While debating it, N. Kastberg, UNICEF Director of Latin America and the Caribbean, condemned the nation’s high teen birthrate and called for legalized abortion. Refusing to cow-tow to UNICEF and the pro-abortion NGOs, their assembly voted 167 – 32 to approved a new charter. It declares, “The right to life is inviolable from conception to death.”
Another article defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
Scotland – Diseases Increased Despite Plan B
Abortion advocates have loudly proclaimed that if the morning-after pill, Plan B, is widely available, it will cut down on pregnancies, abortions, and sexually transmitted disease. In Scotland, this pill has been heavily promoted and is available over– the–counter.
Results show that teenage Chlamydia is up 27%.
Supreme Court – Pro-Abortion
Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. The vote was 68 - 31. She replaces retiring pro-abortion Justice David Souter.
All indications are that she will vote pro-abortion.
Australia Population Growth Helps
Australia has experienced only a very mild economic down turn. Its Reserve Bank has reported that its continuing population growth has played a significant role in boosting domestic demand and economic output. This high level of immigration and a surge in births have meant more consumption and more production which has provided an automatic
boost to its gross domestic product.
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Turn Skin Cells into Stem Cells
Researchers at Worcester PolyTech Institute and CellThera have discovered a novel way to turn on stem cells in human skin cells without the risk associated with inserting extra genes or using viruses. This opens a new avenue for reprogramming cells that could eventually lead to treatment for a range of human diseases and traumatic injuries by coaxing a patient’s
own cells to repair and regenerate the damaged tissues.
Embryonic Stem Cells May Kill Boy
In Israel, a nine-year-old boy was treated with fetal embryonic stem cells in 2001, 2002, and 2004. These were injected into his brain and the fluid that surrounded it. The hope was to cure his neuro muscular disease, Ataxia Telangiectasia. Tragically, four years later, multiple tumor growths were found in his brain and spinal cord due to this injected tissue.
Prognosis is not good.
Writing in U.S. News and World Report, its editor, the well-known Dr. Bernadine Healy, denounced the experiment. She called the use of embryonic stem cells “obsolete because of their proven dangers”
and pointed to the major “wins” of adult and cord blood stem cell research.
Premature Survival
Dr. K. Marsal in Sweden has published interesting information regarding age and birth weight of premature babies. He reports that 10% of babies born at 22 weeks survived one year, 53% of babies at 23 weeks survived at one year, and 85% of those born at 26 weeks survived.
Age and maturity are much more important factors predicting survival than is weight alone.
Unprecedented Global Aging
The U.S. National Institute on Aging notes that the world’s population is aging at “an unprecedented rate” and that “within ten years for the first time in human history
there will be more people over 65 than children under 5 in the world.”
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Adult Stem Cells Help, Not Embryonic
Adult stem cells, not embryonic stem cells, work best. New research published in the Medical journal, Nature, reports on experiments in mice. Research in the Carnegie Institute’s Department of Embryology has learned that there is a set of genes active in adult muscle stem cells which repair muscle damage.
This suggests a possible treatment for Muscular Dystrophy and muscle injuries.
IPS Cells Now from Human Blood
James Thomson in Wisconsin who discovered embryonic stem cells has now generated induced pluripotent stem cells from human blood samples. These apparently have the ability to generate all tissue types in the body with the potential for new cellular therapies for disease.
This opens a vast potential and by-passes the multiple negatives of using embryonic stem cells.
Tiny Preemie Survives
In Pittsburgh, tiny Taylor Rideout was born at 26 weeks gestation, being half the weight of a normal 26 week baby. She tipped the scales at 12.5 ounces or 350 grams. She has survived to go home with her parents.
This extraordinary baby’s survival was largely due to her maturity of being 26 weeks.
The Journal of Translational Medicine, April
It reports a preliminary study that examined the use of the adult stem cells retrieved from a patient’s own fat tissue. These showed promising results in combating the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
This may hold promise also for treating other autoimmune diseases.
Europe – More Deaths than Births
By 2015, European Union reports that there will be more indigenous deaths than births.
It is quite likely however that continuing immigration by Moslems will fill that gap and more.
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www.internationalrighttolife.com
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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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