LifeZine No. 753: 10th Feb 10
Hear World Experts at Family & Life Seminar March 5th
Mark Friday evening, March 5, 2010, into your diary as a date not to be missed! Family & Life and the Second Look Project will co-sponsor a seminar featuring two of the world’s most renowned academics/scientists. The first speaker is Stanford University Professor William Hurlbut, a former member of the US President’s Council for Bioethics and a leading expert on ethical stem cell research. He is famous for his advocacy of the Altered Nuclear Transfer (ANT) process, a scientific method of obtaining pluripotent stem cells that does not involve producing and then killing embryos. Secondly, we have Princeton University’s Robert George, professor of jurisprudence, politics and philosophy, who is a former Judicial Fellow at the US Supreme Court. Professor George also served on the President’s Council for Bioethics and is a prolific author. He had a major influence in the writing of “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call to Christian Conscience”. Make your reservation early, because space is strictly limited for this important seminar. To book, please contact Family & Life at... Details: http://www.familyandlife.org/Pro-Life-Conference/128.html
IFPA, “Rights” Group, Newspaper Push for Abortion in Ireland
Human Rights Watch is a well-known abortion advocacy group, so the news that it issued another document scolding a country for not introducing a liberal abortion regime was yawnfully predictable. This time it was Ireland’s turn. What a surprise to read that a pro-abortion lobby group thinks it’s awful we don’t have abortion! But the document does contain one interesting fact: a note on page 53 states, “Human Rights Watch is particularly grateful for the information, support, expertise and feedback provided by many staff members of the Irish Family Planning Association” (IFPA). Another disturbing fact is the way the Irish Examiner gave the story top billing two days running, without printing one word from the Pro-Life Campaign disputing the document. The newspaper’s decision to showcase the story undermines its credibility and exposes its strong, ideological, pro-abortion bias. “Seeking to protect both mother and baby during pregnancy is not a violation of any human right. In fact it is the complete opposite”, said Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro-Life Campaign. “Human Rights Watch cannot credibly claim to be a human rights organisation while at the same time denying the rights of unborn children throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy”. The Irish Times. January 29. PLC. February 1.
Ways to Protect, Support the Rights of the Family
In a letter to the Irish Times, Margaret Desbonnet from County Galway asked whether there’s “a danger, given the present investigative obsession with past abuses, that we could become indifferent and even blind to current injustices in our society? It is widely accepted that the family is the natural cell of society and it is in the State’s best interest to invest in it and do all in its power to protect and enhance its development for the good of all humanity and social order. I don’t think this is happening. The necessity of both young parents to seek work outside the home to make ends meet is a blatant injustice and an erosion of the fundamentals for the formation of emotionally secure, healthy young adults. Whereas good progress has been made in meeting the nutritional needs of babies and young children, there seems to be a lack of understanding of their emotional needs. I believe that a premature breach in bonding between mother and baby is detrimental to the nurturing process begun in the womb, enhanced by breastfeeding where possible, and blossoming in a loving relationship between father and mother in the security of their own home. What should be a natural right for every child conceived has become a luxury for the few. Surely this deprivation has to impact on social behaviour, particularly in the teenage years? It would help if the State would remove the penalty tax (individualisation) on single-income families and financially reward mothers of young children who choose to stay at home. This would also facilitate some unemployed to get back to work. Employers too could be more flexible in accommodating mothers of young children in part-time work, and allowing working from home where it is feasible”. The Irish Times. January 27.
New “Morning-After Pill” Sparks Abortion Row
A new “morning-after” pill that women can take for almost a week after having sex has prompted a row over its function as an abortion pill. The drug, ulipristal acetate (UA), is effective up to five days after sex, compared with the three-day window that the conventional “morning-after” pill involves. The drug, which had trials in Ireland, was licensed in Europe in May last year but is not licensed here yet. It is three times as expensive as levonorgestrel, the current “morning-after” pill. Anti-abortion campaigners have called the new drug an “abortion pill” and have said it would mask the number of women aborting their babies. According to research published in the UK medical journal The Lancet, it more than halved the rate of pregnancy compared with levonorgestrel. Scotland-based doctors combined findings from their own trial with data from an earlier study. Women attending clinics in Britain, Ireland and the USA seeking “emergency contraception” within five days of intercourse were randomly given one of the two drugs. Among the 1,694 women, there were 15 reported pregnancies in the group that took UA and 22 in the levonorgestrel group. Three out of 203 women who asked for the drug between three and five days after intercourse became pregnant. All of them had taken levonorgestrel. But Josephine Quintavalle of the ProLife Alliance, a campaign group against abortion, said, “Five days is the time it takes for the egg to travel down the fallopian tubes where it is fertilised... This is like an abortion pill”. A spokesman for the Family Education Trust predicted the drug would increase promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases. Irish Independent. January 29. The Times. January 29. The Telegraph. January 29.
Government Abortion Drive Triggers New Pro-Life Rallies Across Spain
March 7 will see still more mass pro-life rallies across Spain. Spain Says Yes to Life is the theme chosen by organisers, who selected Sunday, March 7, to voice opposition to the Socialist government’s new abortion bill, which is expected to pass later that month. Simultaneous rallies will take place in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and France. The Irish Catholic. January 28.
Hillary Clinton Pledges Massive Funding for Global Abortions
While Russia is trying to reduce the number of abortions, in the USA, President Obama’s Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is doing just the opposite. In a recent speech, she declared, “We have pledged new funding, new programmes, and a renewed commitment to achieve…universal access to reproductive healthcare… This year, the United States renewed funding of reproductive healthcare through the United Nations Population Fund, and more funding is on the way. The US Congress recently appropriated more than $648 million in foreign assistance to family planning and reproductive health programmes worldwide. That’s the largest allocation in more than a decade—since we last had a Democratic president, I might add… [T]oday, the United States is proud once again to support the work of the UN Population Fund”. “Reproductive healthcare” is an anti-life euphemism for abortions and artificial contraception, and no one knows that better than the pro-abortion Mrs Clinton. Personal Update. No. 99. January/February.