International Right to Life Federation, Inc.
Vol. 11 No. 5
(September/October 2000)

European Parliament Condemns Cloning

The European Parliament adopted a resolution 237 to 230 (43 abstentions), which was unequivocal. It opposed so-called therapeutic cloning of humans. It called on members of the European Union States "to introduce binding norms that prohibit all forms of research on any type of human cloning in their territory and provide penal sanctions for any violation." It explicitly called upon the British government to "modify its intention" to allow such research. It urged the European Union to promote in the U.N. "a universal and specific prohibition of the cloning of human beings at all stages of development." It urged financial backing for research into alternatives to human cloning. Supporting it was a coalition of Greens, Conservatives and others. Opposing it were Socialists and liberal groups.

Stem Cells – "Totipotent and Pluripotent?"

These two descriptions of stem cells have been used extensively to justify the killing of human embryos to obtain their stem cells. At a recent congressional hearing, Dr. Diane Irving, professor at Georgetown U. and former bio-chemist with the National Cancer Institute, in relating to the new National Institutes of Health guidelines, stated that "The so-called science used by the NIH is a scientific fraud." One of the errors that she pointed to centers around the stem cells. "The terminology of totipotent and pluripotent are now totally passé," she said, "given Dolly the sheep and adult stem cell study successes… These cells are actually all totipotent and pluripotent, depending on what process they are subjected to. These cells are all very plastic. None of their fates are genetically set in cement. Yet this entire debate and the NIH guidelines never mention or acknowledge these facts."

RU 486 Legal in USA

Pro-life forces in the United States finally lost a battle that they had been waging for a full decade, and this was largely because of the result of a delegation from the U.S. which met with European drug makers in 1989. Led by Dr. Willke, this group, representing over 100 million people in the United States, apparently convinced the makers of RU 486 not to legalize it in the U.S. President Clinton, when inaugurated in 1993, immediately set about prioritizing its legalization. He finally prevailed in September. A new company, Danco, funded and created specifically by pro-abortion foundations for the sole purpose of distributing this drug, will import the drug from China. It will be distributed only to abortionists. It will be used with the prostaglandin Cytotec, which is already available on the market. The federal Food and Drug Administration recommends three visits to the abortionist but has offered no enforcement mechanism for any of its recommendations.

The Hague, 27-30 November

The Sixth International Leadership Pro-Life Networking Conference, THE ABOLITION OF ABORTION, will be held in The Netherlands November 27-30, 2000. It is being organized by Schreuw om Leven (Cry for Life), Dr. Bert P. Dorenbos, President, and co-sponsored by the International Right To Life Federation. For information contact Ruitersweg 35-37, 1211 KT Hilversum, The Netherlands. Phone: +31-35-6244352, Fax: +31-35-6249141. E-Mail: schreeuw@solcon.nl.

Treaty on Women Looks Like a Bad Deal

President Clinton has supported a binding United Nations treaty called the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). That sounds like a good goal, but the treaty raises serious sovereignty issues. The 165 countries that have already signed it have to report every four years on their efforts to advance women’s rights. A group of 23 experts reviews these country reports. World magazine obtained some of the country reviews, reporting that each of the 20 reports that it examined "targeted traditional understandings of family and morality." For example, the committee admonished Ireland to "facilitate a national dialogue on women’s reproductive rights, including the restrictive abortion laws." It gave similar advice to other countries. It advised Luxembourg to "amend the Constitution to include the principle of equality between women and men." And in the "Can you believe it?" category, the committee criticized Belarus for celebrating Mother’s Day! A treaty to help women sounds like a good idea, but this one seems more like a blueprint for a feminist utopia. Happily, the U.S. has not ratified it.

Norplant "Should Not Be Used"

Norplant, the contraceptive abortive implant, has just run into another major bit of trouble. Its pharmaceutical manufacturing company, Wyeth-Ayerst, has put out an urgent recall recommending that its most recent shipments of this drug not be used and that patients should be given "a choice of using other birth control or having their Norplant removed." Because of the multiple and oft times serious side effects that have been reported, its sales have dwindled from a 1992 peak of $141 million dollars to $13 million in 1999. It looks very much as though this abortive method will die of its own complications much as the intrauterine devices did ten years ago, as more than 36,000 women have joined in a lawsuit which claims that these implants caused headaches, irregular bleeding, nausea and depression. Further, there are reports from Bangladesh of blindness.

London – Fewer Abortionists

According to the London Times, one-third of junior doctors in national health services hospitals are now refusing to do abortions, and this on moral grounds. A study into conscientious objection has shown that in some hospitals every junior doctor has exercised the right to refuse to do abortions. This has necessitated these hospitals being forced to turn away women seeking an abortion. This is quite interesting, as it follows a trend in some other nations.Manila – RU 486

The mayor of Manila announced that he will arrest any official and raid any warehouse should an attempt be made to import RU 486. He described this drug as a "do it yourself murder kit." He notes that he was sworn to uphold the constitution of the Philippines, which explicitly protects the unborn’s life from conception.

Meanwhile, the Philippine bishops announced that any woman who takes the abortion drug RU 486 will be automatically excommunicated. About 80% of the Philippines 75 million population are Catholic.

Also, Senate Majority Leader Kit Tatad called RU 486 the equivalent of a chemical bomb in her womb and called on the Health Department to ban it.

AIDS in African Girls

A U.N. report offers new information here. It tested 8,000 men and women randomly selected in two African towns in Kenya and two in Zambia. AIDS infection among teenage boys was 3-4%, in teenage girls 15-23%; but in men over age 25, it was 26-40%. This clearly shows that older men are exploiting young girls. The Wall Street Journal (9-15-99) said, "The sheer breadth of the AIDS crisis is daunting in sub-Sahara Africa, where two-thirds of the world’s 33 million HIV-infected people live, and where the infection rate is rising by 20% a year." Last year an estimated 2 million Africans died from AIDS, making this disease the leading cause of death among Africans.

UN – Blowing Smoke Again

Recently the United Nations Population Fund has claimed that in Indonesia there are about 1.3 to 1.45 million illegal abortions performed. They state that "experts estimate that between 750,000 and one million Indonesian women died while undergoing abortions last year." These figures are so wildly inaccurate that we can only assume that they were either smoking something or else knew better and lied.

We all know that any statistics on illegal abortions that are listed are a pure guess, for illegal abortions, by their very definition, are not reported. Further, we know that pro-abortion sources, and this includes the UNFPA, wildly and grossly exaggerate their guesses on this. Further, their estimate of almost one million dying is ridiculous in the extreme. Official statistics in Indonesia report that 19,000 women die annually from "maternal complications" which include abortions. If we take this figure at face value, and it certainly is more likely to be reliable than their fantastic claims, then only a portion of the 19,000 would be due to induced abortion, for certainly pregnancy and childbirth are hazardous and would account for most of the "maternal" deaths.

Peru – Problems Continue

In past years it was revealed that the Peruvian government was forcibly sterilizing Indian women in villages, and this against their will. In response to this, the U.S. Congress passed the Tihart Amendment, which prohibits U.S. funds from going to any non-voluntary foreign family planning program. It was thought the issue had been laid to rest, as the Peruvian government claimed it would be. Now, new investigations have demonstrated that the compulsory program continues. This has been uncovered by the Population Research Institute, through Stephen Mosher. In response, Congressman Tihart has called on U.S. Aid for International Development to reinvestigate this, and assuming it is going on, asks that the USAID’s $36 million annual funding for family planning programs in Peru be cancelled.

Reproductive Health?

Statistics published in a pro-life newspaper suggest that world bodies over-emphasize so-called "reproductive health" at the expense of other vital health issues, including access to clean water. A sample from figures issued by the U.N. in 1997 indicated that, whereas only 28% of Haitians had access to safe water, 81% had access to contraception. In Uganda the figures were 34% and 82% respectively, while in Vietnam 36% had access to safe water but 95% had access to contraception.
[Humanity, New Zealand, July 2000]

"Over-Population" Cause of Poverty?

Dr. Jacqueline Kasun, a world authority on demography says this: "In reality, problems commonly blamed on overpopulation are the result of bad economic policy. For example, Western journalism blamed the Ethiopian famine on overpopulation, but this was not true. The Ethiopian government caused it by confiscating the food stocks of traders and farmers and exporting them to buy arms. That country’s Leftist regime, not its population, caused the tragedy. In fact, Africa, beset with problems often blamed on overpopulation, has only one-fifth the population density of Europe and has an unexploited food-raising potential that could feed twice the present population of the world, according to estimates by Robert Roger Ravelle of Harvard and the University of Dan Diego.

Economists writing for the International Monetary Fund in 1994 said that "African economic problems result from excessive government spending, high taxes on farmers, inflation, restrictions on trade, too much government ownership and over-regulation of private economic activity." The report did not even mention the population.

Algeria – Rape Pregnancy

A panel of Muslim clerics has decided to allow Algerian women, pregnant from rape, to undergo abortions. Militants there have reportedly raped almost 2,000 women in the last decade.

Condoms Useless Against Papilloma Virus

The second deadliest form of cancer for women around the world is cervical cancer. A recent Canadian study reports that condoms "do not appear to be effective in preventing HPV infection…We owe it to young Canadian women to tell them that condoms will not protect them from sexually incurred cervical cancer." According to a recent survey published in the Canadian Medical Journal, 24% of Canadian women, age 20 to 24, were HPV positive and 20%, ages 15 to 19, were positive. The reason for this is that HPV infection is spread by skin-to-skin contact, not just by body fluids. It concludes: "If we really want to teach young Canadian women about safe sex, medical evidence, as much as traditional morality, suggests that parents and educators must place a greater emphasis on sexual responsibility and the dangers of promiscuity and less on a ready supply of condoms."HIV and Condoms – Prevention?

In an article in the British Journal, Lancet, Dr. John Richens at the University College, London, has concluded that "increased condom use will increase the number of HIV/AIDS transmissions that result from condom failure…." and could negatively affect the decisions of individuals to "switch from inherently safer strategies of partner selection or fewer partners to the riskier strategy of developing or maintaining higher rates of partner change while relying on condoms." He concludes that "a vigorous condom promotion policy could increase rather than decrease unprotected sexual exposure if it has the unintended effect of encouraging a greater overall level of sexual activity." (Lancet vol. 355, no. 9201, 29-1-00, 400-403) It is noted also that an Ontario Ministry of Health campaign in Canada, which promoted condoms by means of televised AIDS messages, made respondents more inclined to use condoms but also resulted in the respondents being less inclined to avoid casual sexual partners.

Canada – Abortions Increase

Our readers may recall that the law that legalized abortion in Canada was passed in 1969. It required that most abortions be done in a hospital and that such abortions would have the approval of a medical committee. This was the situation for over two decades. During this time, abortions stayed at a level of about 1 for every 6 live births. Then, about a decade ago, their high court threw out the law. Their parliament has been unable to pass a new one, with the result that they have no law.

Under this new situation, the notorious abortionist, Henry Morganthaler, has proceeded to enlarge his single abortorium into other provinces, now operating 6 large ones. Other free-standing abortion mills have also sprung up. As a result of this, the number of abortions in Canada continues to climb. In 1996, the official total was 111,659 – in 1997, 114,848. Today there is one abortion for every four births. Concurrent with this, the birthrate has progressively dropped, so that Canada is now well below replacement level. Sadly, the federal government has actively aided and abetted the abortion culture, as reported earlier, even funding security guards outside of these abortoriums. Laws continue to be passed in various provinces undermining marriage and undermining parental rights over their children in various ways. Canada has canceled the tax exempt status of the national pro-life organization, Alliance for Life, which then disbanded. In other ways, it has funded and supported a broad-based radical, anti-life, anti-family feminist agenda.

And we think it’s bad here in the United States!