Pro-LIFE NEWS

Vol. 17 No.4 - Autumn/Fall 2001                                           Print Post Approved - 33L385/00042

Contents:

- Friends in High Places
- Editorial
- Joy for Tasmanian ProLifers
- One Man's Animal Husbandry
- Computer for Filipino ProLife Activist
- Deputy PM Condemns Cloning Plan
- An Inspiration for Australian ProLifers
- World View

After eight years of the intensified war waged upon them by the Clinton administration, unborn children in America now have a friend in the White House. At the beginning of a new century and anew administration in the US the words of President George W Bush, spoken at the recent dedication of the John Paul 11 Cultural Centre in Washington DC gives hope to unborn children and to us all in the prolife movement.

President George W Bush has made it clear he will leave "No Child Behind".

PRESIDENT BUSH: Your Excellency, thank you very much. You will be pleased to hear, my mother is still telling me what to do. (Laughter.) And I'm listening most of the time.

Cardinal Maida, thank you for your vision, and thank you for your smile. What a great smile. (Applause.) Cardinal Szocha, thank you very much for your hospitality and, Cardinal McCarrick, let me congratulate you on becoming a cardinal last m o n t h . Though we're both new to our jobs, I'm the only one who is term limited. (Laughter and applause.)

I may be just passing through and I may not be a parishioner, but I'm proud to live in your archdiocese. (Applause.) I'm pleased to join with all the church leaders and special guests here today to dedicate the cultural centre. It is my high honour to be here.

When Cardinal Wojtyla spoke here at Catholic University in 1976, few imagined the course his life would take, or the history his life would shape. In 1978, most of the world knew him only as the Polish Pope. There were signs of something different and deeper.

One journalist, after hearing the new Pope's first blessing in St. Peter's Square wired back to his editors: "This is not a pope from Poland, this is a pope from Galilee." From that day to this, the Pope's life has written one of the great inspiring stories of our time.

We remember the Pope's first visit to Poland in 1979 when faith turned into resistance and began the swift collapse of imperial communism. The gentle, young priest, once ordered into forced labour by Nazis, became the foe of tyranny and a witness to hope.

The last leader of the Soviet Union would call him "the highest moral authority on earth." We remember his visit to a prison, comforting the man who shot him. By answering violence with forgiveness, the Pope became a symbol of reconciliation.

We remember the Pope's visit to Manila in 1995, speaking to one of the largest crowds in history, more than 5 million men and women and children. We remember that as a priest 50 years ago, he travelled by horse-cart to teach the children of small villages. Now he's kissed the ground of 123 countries and leads a flock of 1 billion into the Third Millennium.

We remember the Pope's visit to Israel and his mission of reconciliation and mutual respect between Christians and Jews. He is the first modern Pope to enter a synagogue or visit an Islamic country. He has always combined the practice of tolerance with a passion for truth.

John Paul, himself, has often said, "In the designs of Providence, there are no mere coincidences." And maybe the reason this man became Pope is that he bears the message our world needs to hear. To the poor, sick and dying he carries a message of dignity and solidarity with their suffering. Even when they are forgotten by men, he reminds them they are never forgotten by God.

"Do not give in to despair," he said, "in the South Bronx. God has your lives and His care, goes with you, calls you to better things, calls you to overcome."

To the wealthy, this Pope carries the message that wealth alone is a false comfort. The goods of the world, he teaches, are nothing without goodness. We are called, each and every one of us, not only to make our own way, but to ease the path of others.

To those with power, the Pope carries a message of justice and human rights. And that message has caused dictators to fear and to fall. His is not the power of armies or technology or wealth. It is the unexpected power of a baby in a stable, of a man on a cross, of a simple fisherman who carried a message of hope to Rome.

Pope John Paul II brings that message of liberation to every corner of the world. When he arrived in Cuba in 1998, he was greeted by signs that read, "Fidel is the Revolution!". But as the Pope's biographer put it, "In the next four days Cuba belonged to another revolutionary." We are confident that the revolution of hope the Pope began in that nation will bear fruit in our time.

And we're responsible to stand for human dignity and religious freedom wherever they are denied, from Cuba to China to Southern Sudan. (Applause.) And we, in our country, must not ignore the words the Pope addresses to us. On his four pilgrimages to America, he has spoken with wisdom and feeling about our strengths and our flaws, our successes and our needs.

The Pope reminds us that while freedom defines our nation, responsibility must define our lives. He challenges us to live up to our aspirations, to be a fair and just society where all are welcomed, all are valued, and all are protected. And he is never more eloquent than when he speaks for a culture of life. (Applause.) The culture of life is a welcoming culture, never excluding, never dividing, never despairing and always affirming the goodness of life in all its seasons.

In the culture of life we must make room for the stranger. We must comfort the sick. We must care for the aged. We must welcome the immigrant. We must teach our children to be gentle with one another. We must defend in love the innocent child waiting to be born. (Applause.)

The centre we dedicate today celebrates the Pope's message, its comfort and its challenge. This place stands for the dignity of the human person, the value of every life and the splendour of truth. And, above all, it stands, in the Pope's words, for the "joy of faith in a troubled world."

I'm grateful that Pope John Paul II chose Washington as the site of this centre. It brings honour and it fills a need. We are thankful for the message. We are also thankful for the messenger, for his personal warmth and prophetic strength; for his good humour and his bracing honesty; for his spiritual and intellectual gifts; for his moral courage, tested against tyranny and against our own complacency.

Always, the Pope points us to the things that last and the love that saves. We thank God for this rare man, a servant of God and a hero of history. And I thank all of you for building this centre of conscience and reflection in our Nation's Capital.

God bless.
 

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Eight Year Vigil Ends as Clinic Closes Doors
by Harriet Binet - reprinted from The Hobart Mercury
 

CAMPAIGNERS for the closure of the abortion clinic at Moonah have had eight years of prayers answered. The Women's Health Foundation, Tasmania's only independent abortion clinic, closed its doors this week because of a decrease in demand for terminations. Every Thursday, supporters of the Human Life Protection Society have gathered in Moonah to pray for the protection of unborn babies in Tasmania. The group held its first meeting in a house next to the Pierce St clinic shortly after it opened. Society spokesman Noel Roberts said the ecumenical prayer meetings, which began in August 1992, were believed to be the longest running in Australia. "We have been praying for an end to this terrible thing in our society," Dr Roberts said. "We are pleased they are closing, but still horrified abortions are still taking place. "If it brings a real reduction in the number of abortions in Tasmania, then it will bring a sense of joy" The prayers are held at a different church in Moonah each week, but the gathering never had to cancel in its eight-year history. However, a women's health group yesterday said the clinic's closure could threaten the health of young women forced to use the less intimate public hospital system or fly to Melbourne to enter a private clinic. Hobart Women's Health Centre co-ordinator Iris Ritt said access to safe, affordable and accessible terminations was imperative. "The centre is extremely concerned about the future for women looking for pregnancy terminations," Ms Ritt said. "The public health system will have to prepare itself  to cope with greater numbers of women." The directors of the not-for-profit clinic declined to comment yesterday. Kamala Emanuel, who worked at the clinic on and off during the past three years, said about 10 terminations - costing between $200 to $300 - had been performed weekly at the clinic by a doctor flown in from Melbourne. Many women preferred the added privacy and intimacy of the clinic to the public system, Dr Emanuel said.
 

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by Debra Saunders reprinted from Chronicle of Higher Education
 

PETER SINGER, whose opposition to "speciesism" made him the father of the modern animal rights movement, once again is in the thick of controversy. Readers may remember Singer because publisher Steve Forbes withdrew financial support for Princeton when the university gave Singer an ethics professorship. Singer, you see, advocates killing disabled babies because babies are not yet "persons." Now, Singer has written an online book review for a pornographic Web site in which he defends bestiality. You could say Singer's take on animal rights is: You can have sex with them, but don't eat them. How does PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, feel about its ideological father endorsing six-legged sex? PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said of the piece, "It's daring and honest and it does not do what some people read into it, which is condone any violent acts involving an animal, sexual or otherwise." Newkirk wants America to know that Singer does not advocate sex that kills or damages animals or requires them to be restrained. Indeed, Singer condemns sex between men and hens because it is "usually fatal to the hen." But can an animal consent to sex?

Newkirk answered, "It sounds like this is an attempt to make this so narrow and so unintellectual in its focus. You know, Peter Singer is an intellectual, and he looks at all nuances of an issue." And: "The whole concept of consent with animals is very different." Singer is away from Princeton for the week, so he was not able to answer the question. But to know Singer's work is to understand how his "persons" ideology inevitably led to his acceptance (in principle) of fornicating with animals.

In his 1979 book "Practical Ethics," Singer wrote, "Because people are human does not mean that their lives are more valuable than animals." He has argued that it is more ethical to conduct medical experiments on comatose people than primates.

To Singer, "when the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects of a happy life, the total amount of happiness will be greater if the disabled infant is killed. Killing a disabled infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person. Often, it is not wrong at all."

From determining that babies aren't persons, but some other animals are, it's just a short step for Singer to assert that there should be no taboo against sex with animals that are fellow "persons."

Telling the story of a woman who was attacked by a priapic orangutan (which lost interest), Singer writes that "we are all animals, indeed more specifically, we are great apes. This does not make sex across the species barrier normal, or natural, whatever those much-misused words may mean, but it does imply that it ceases to be an offence to our status and dignity as human beings."

If you ask me, advocating killing disabled babies is an offence to Singer's status as a human being. But for such opinions, Princeton gave him a job.

So Singer takes on Kant for arguing that "humans have an inherent dignity that makes them ends in themselves, whereas animals are mere means to our ends."

Thus, it's wrong for animals to be a means to an end when it comes to food, but somehow this scholar finds a loophole for sex. That's taking on the taboos - man-style.
 

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A generous donation of $500 from a member of ProLife Victoria has enabled us to ensure prolife activist Eric Encino from the Philippines is able to buy a laser printer for the computer, monitor and scanner which have been sent to him this month from ProLife Victoria.

Following promptly on from our appeal for financial help for Eric in our Summer ProLife News was an offer of the computer and monitor from a supporter associated with Ausaid. ProLife Victoria was able to add a scanner and second hand typewriter.

The next prolife tool needed by Eric is a portable TV/video for him to transport around the villages educating his fellow Filipinos with prolife videos. Someone just might have a portable TV/video they no longer want or be willing to donate the money for Eric to purchase one in the Philippines. Please contact ProLife Victoria's Secretary Denise Cameron if you are able to help.

PHOTO: PLV Secretary Denise Cameron parcelling up a computer for Eric Encino in the Philippines.
 

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by Paul Heinrichs reprinted from The AGE
 

Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and Australia's IVF scientists have joined a global backlash against a plan by two international fertility doctors to clone a human being. Mr Anderson, who raised the possibility of government intervention on cloning, said the latest plan would "make children simple commodities". He said the idea of cloning humans raised serious issues. "For one thing these children would be deprived of the normal expectation of having parents," he said. "Secondly, we are opening up the door to conditional love of children based on whether we wanted them or not, rather than the unconditional love that should be offered any child." The plan reflected an obsession with adults' rights and r3 Poi res without proper thought for the needs of the children involved, he said. Some scientists had warned that research is this area had been taken further than the public knew or would be comfortable with, Mr Anderson said. "Inevitably there will be all the usual calls for government to step in, and that might well be needed, but this is a debate that goes to the value of human life and essentially it will be won or lost in the nation's living rooms," he said. Victorian doctors Alan Trounson and John McBain warned that severe abnormalities were the most likely result of the cloning experiment, which could not be justified on medical or ethical grounds. Dr Trounson, scientific director of the Monash IVF team, said: "It could well be possible, but the dangers are so high that you would equate it to, perhaps, thalidomide. That's the kind of area it's in."

Thalidomide was the drug prescribed in the early 1960's for pregnant women. Australian doctor William McBride later discovered it caused multiple limb deformities. Dr McBain, chairman of the Melbourne IVF group and Royal Women's Hospital director of surgery, said that given the abnormality rate for cloning in animals, "the rate for human cloning would probably be unacceptably high for humans". It was ethically unsustainable and would "irreparably damage the reputation of other forms of reproductive medicine", he said. The scientists' condemnation, joined by bioethicists, the pro-life lobby and church leaders including the Vatican, comes as the two doctors who plan the cloning experiments, Severino Antinori, of Italy and Panos Zavos, of the US, say 600 to 700 couples have volunteered to be part of experiments. Australians are believed to be among those who have sought the treatment. Soon after announcing their plans, the Antinori-Zavos team tried to entice Dr Trounson to join their project to give it more prestige and acceptability. But Dr Trounson vehemently ruled it out. "They are not serious people ... Antinori in particular is a self-seeking fame-maker, really," Dr Trounson said. "He's looking for international fame and glory, but neither of them of them has the capability of doing anything like that, and it's the most foolish thing you can think of." Dr Trounson said a lot of work was needed to make the techniques safe. "But these people, they're not allowed to do it in Italy, so they're going to do it on some Mediterranean island." He said the experiment was "nutty" and should be condemned. "It's dangerous and it shouldn't be contemplated ... It's really for self-gratification, it's for self-centered reasons," he said. "It's not to do with having a family - we've got plenty of other ways of doing that."
 

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by Carol Tobias National Right to Life PAC Director, from
National Right to Life News - US,
 

The story of Raimundo Rojas is the perfect example of how prolife hope and determination can change the world. Hundreds of thousands of you helped win the elections. Your countless hours of volunteer work, your sacrificial donations, your personal involvement mean unborn children will have a strong prolife voice in the White House for the next four years.

In telling Rai's story, I am saying "thank you" to each and everyone of you who mad a difference.

Mr Rojas has worked with National Right to Life and National Right to Life Political Action Committee since 1991. He has served as NRL Hispanic coordinator as well as an at-large member of the NRLC board of directors.

In November, 1992, the day after President George W Bush lost his bid for re-election, Rai was one of many supporters on the White House lawn to greet President Bush, Vice President Dan Quayle, and their wives as they returned via helicopter to Washington.

For Rojas, this was one of the saddest days of his life. Not only were unborn children losing a great prolife President and friend, but the incoming Clinton/Gore Administration had promised to do everything in its power to expand the "right" to abortion. Millions of innocent lives were about to be put in jeopardy.

When President Bush and Vice President Quayle arrived, tears flowed down Rai's face. Rai's grief was so

obvious that Marilyn Quayle, wife of Vice President Quayle, tried to console him.

"It'll be OK," she told him. But to Rai Rojas, it would be OK only when a prolife President returned to the White House.

At that very moment, one lonely leaf blew off a tree on the White house lawn and landed at Rai's feet. His immediate thought was, "Even the trees are weeping!"

Rai kept the leaf as a symbolic reminder of what had happened to unborn babies when Bill Clinton was elected. He framed it, resolving to personally return that self same leaf to the White House when a prolife President lived there again.

This autumn, Rojas, who lives near Miami, asked - in fact, insisted on - to coordinate the important election literature drop in the State of Florida.

With his framed White House leaf as motivation, and a map of Florida posted on his wall, Rojas was a man on a mission: to blanket the entire state with flyers asking Floridians to vote for George W Bush and protect unborn children.

Being a grassroots activist, Rai began to call volunteers all over Florida. Each time a local coordinator agreed to organise a drop, he would place another pin in his Florida map.

Every day, he watched the map fill until it seemed it could hold no more pins. When all was said and done, Rojas and his volunteers had arranged the largest prolife election literature drop in Florida history. Of course, today we know Florida was the decisive state in one of the closest elections in America's history. Every vote, every piece of prolife literature was critical to the outcome.

But it wasn't only in Florida that the election was decided. Rojas's work is just one example of what prolifers did in this year's elections. Every volunteer in every state made a difference. Every donor to NRL PAC gave Raimundo and the rest of us the funds we needed to win. You helped win this election, and the world will forever be better because of you.

And, thanks to you, Rai's leaf, a symbol of prolife hope, can now be returned to the White House.
 

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USAID in Tanzania: In the East African country of Tanzania, the road system consists of crumbling asphalt and dirt tracks. Travel in the countryside is only possible in 4 wheel drive vehicles or on foot. The country is the size of Texas and is sparsely populated. The land is fertile and there is no scarcity of food, but the lack of good roads has made it impossible to transport farm products to market. This keeps the villages out of the cash economy and makes the cost of owning a car or operating small machinery cost prohibitive. With the cost of fuel soaring, many villages cannot even afford to buy kerosene for lamps.

Yet each month family planning officials, funded in part by the US Agency for International Development, appear in even the remotest villages. The lack of good roads is no barrier for these officials, for they drive new and expensive Land Rovers, capable of negotiating the most difficult terrain. They are part of the government's health service, but they bring with them not medicines for the village clinic, but contraceptives. They go door-to-door and tell women they have a choice. She can elect to have the "the Shot" or "the Pill". No other choices are given. Confronted by an authority figure from the government, village women feel intimidated to accept one or the other. If they opt for "the Pill", they are told by the family planning official to save the empty package as proof that they actually took the pills that were left for them.

Senator Jessie Helms has suggested that USAID be abolished and that its funds be redirected to church related agencies.

from Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati Newsletter, March 2001.
 

USA - Arizona - Woman Dead: Lou Anne Herron should not have died, an emergency room doctor testified in to trial of abortionist John Biscind. Biscind is accused of manslaughter in her death. Ms Herron had her six month old fetal baby killed in an abortion. During that abortion he tore a 2 x 1 inch hole in her uterus. According to testimony, she was taken to the recovery room and continued to bleed. He checked on her and said everything was all right. An hour after the abortion, an intravenous drip of fluid was started. It was not enough. In three hours, lying in a pool of her own blood, she died. They finally called the emergency phone number 911. Paramedics arrived three hours after the abortion to find she had been dead for 10 to 20 minutes. Biscind 75, is on trial for manslaughter.

from Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati Newsletter, March 2001.
 

USA - Ashcroft and Religious Profiling: A coalition of religious leaders from Christianity, Islam and Judaism held a press conference during the hearings for Senator Ashcroft. They said, "Just as we protest the use of racial profiling to target blacks for arrest in inner cities, we are protesting the use of religious profiling to attempt to disqualify John Ashcroft for Attorney-General". They noted that by using his strongly held religious beliefs as a reason to oppose his confirmation, Senators Finegold, Schumer, Lahey and Kennedy were violating Article VI of the Constitution which says, "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned and the members of the several state legislatures and all executive and judicial officers both of the United States and of the several states shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States". It is clear that most people were shocked by the religious bigotry shown by these extremists assaulting John Ashcroft. Having failed in their first attempt to label him a racist, they fell back on "religious profiling" in their attempt to disqualify him.

from Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati Newsletter March 2001

USA - In Coma at Planned Parenthood: A 27 year old woman is in a coma after surgery at a Planned Parenthood facility in Sedalia, Missouri. KMBC TV News in Kansas City reported that during the surgery this lady, a mother of four, had gone without oxygen for a long period of time. The doctor involved is the notorious abortionist Robert Crist. Her sister has stated that the family will be taking legal action. According to Infonet©Prolifeinfo.org, "Lawsuits filed against Planned Parenthood facilities across the country include medical malpractice, violations of health codes, medical record and patient care deficiencies, unsanity conditions, altered lab reports, fraudulent billing, equipment and utility deficiencies and other defenses".

from Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati Newsletter, March 2001.
 

USA - UN Admits Plenty of Food: We still hear population control zealots prophesying about looming food shortages. Their stated problem is over population. Their answer is to control population. Such advocates were dealt a severe blow recently by an official report published in July by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA). It was entitled Agriculture: Toward 2015/2030. It notes that the world population is projected to be about 8 billion people in 2030, compared to 6 billion now. But, it states that these people are expected to be better fed and that more people will have adequate access to food than in years past. Specifically, "Growth in agriculture will continue to outstrip world population growth of 1.2% up through 2015 and estimated 0.8%o in the period up to 2030." Your editor notes that this is a rather generous estimate of population growth. Other authorities estimate considerably fewer people, and some major authorities now predict that world population will level by the year 2050.

from Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati Newsletter, March 2001.

USA - New 3-D Ultrasound: The Siemens Company is marketing a new hightech ultrasound machine at a cost of $175,000 each. This produces images of the baby's face and body so clear that you can recognise whether the little one resembles his father more than his mother. Both normal and abnormal characteristics of a fetal baby can be seen much more clearly with this new instrument. At present it is only available in a very few centres. we will be awaiting more details.

from Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati Newsletter, March 2001.

BRITAIN - Contraception Did Not Prevent Abortions: Britain has had emergency abortion (Emergency contraception) pills and has been pushing them for the last decade. If, in fact, these were to have reduced the pregnancy rate, they have certainly failed. Mr Paul Tully, Deputy Director of Britain's Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, recently stated, "Despite nearly a million prescriptions for morning-after pills being issued each year, the number of registered abortions has continued to increase and was at its highest ever level in 1998".

from Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati Newsletter, March 2001.

AUSTRALIA - The Senate has rejected a bid by the Australian Democrats to relax import restrictions on the abortion drug RU-486. Under existing law, RU-486 can only be imported if an application is made to the Federal Health Minister and any approval must also be tabled in Parliament. Democrats Leader Meg Lees' bid to remove political approval from the importation process was defeated after failing to win the support of Labor or Coalition Senators.

from ABC News Online March 2001.

USA - Researchers in California have claimed that doctors are misinterpreting markers on ultrasound scans which have been taken to indicate an increased chance of Down's syndrome. Dr Rebecca Smith-Bindman at the University of California in San Francisco said that only one in seven markers often used by doctors to detect Down's syndrome was found to have any significant reliability and, even with this marker, only three percent of unborn babies were found to have Down's syndrome after an amniocentesis test. Dr Smith-Bindman said that between 10 and 14 percent of unborn children display at least one of the markers, but fewer than one percent actually have the syndrome. The researcher used her findings to claim that most amniocentesis tests, which in themselves carry a small risk of miscarriage, were "unnecessary"

Alison Davis, head of SPUC's handicap division, who herself has spina bifida, commented: "The implication here seems to be that amniocentesis would be worthwhile if it could reliably detect a child with Down's syndrome. This constitutes a sinister form of potentially fatal discrimination against unborn children with Down's syndrome, whose lives are just as valuable as anyone else's."

from Fox News, February 2001.

USA - Kevorkian "Patients" Not Terminally Ill: A letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, reports on an analysis of 69 patients who were assisted in killing themselves by Jack Kevorkian before he went to prison. Only 17 of the 69 patients, after autopsy examination, were found to be terminally ill with a life expectancy of less than six months. The remaining 52 had a "recent decline in health status but were not terminally ill". It showed that "persons who were divorced or who had never married were over represented among its victims". Almost three-fourths were women, which is interesting because a majority of suicides are committed by men. In five of the cases, examination after death was unable to confirm any physical disease at all.

from Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati Newsletter, March 2001.

BRITAIN - SPUC has welcomed the pre election message of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales. Paul Tully, SPUC general secretary, said: "The bishops make it abundantly clear that voters must act out of concern for the weakest and most vulnerable members of society, and not out of self interest." The document's section on human life states: "Catholic electors need to discover the views of their local candidates on these fundamental issues (abortion, embryo research and cloning, euthanasia), which directly involve the intentional destruction of human life.

from SPUC Internet Page, March 2001.

USA - Missouri - Abortion/ Breast Cancer Bill: A bill has been introduced into the Missouri State Legislature to require a 24 hour waiting period to an abortion. It also would require that the woman be advised of the possible link between abortion and breast cancer.

from Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati Newsletter, March 2001.

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