7/11/97
DEPO PROVERA: In 1991, researchers at the University of Auckland,
New Zealand, announced evidence that bone loss is associated with the use
of Depo Provera. These same researchers now report that estrogen deficiency
is the cause of the bone loss.
(Reading: “Bone Loss and Depot Medroxyprogesterone,”
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 5/97, Vol. 176, No.
5, pp. 1116–1117)
LIES: Responding to an article in the Washington Times about
pharmacist Michael Katsonis’ refusal to fill a prescription for
“emergency contraception,” Gloria Feldt, president of Planned
Parenthood, denied that it causes an abortion. She wrote that it “prevents
pregnancy by preventing implantation,” and she criticized the efforts
of Pharmacists for Life to legalize “concientious objection” for
pharmacists who do not want to facilitate the killing of these youngest humans.
Ms. Feldt twists her facts: a human being’s life begins at fertilization
and emergency “contraception” [oxymoronic label] kills a human
being.
(Reading: “Emergency Contraception Does Not actually
Cause Abortion,” Washington Times,
6/8/97)
RU-486 STALLED: Danco Laboratories, which would like to distribute
RU-486 in the US, has filed suit in New York against Gedeon Richter, a Hungarian
drug manufacturer. In 1995, the two signed an agreement under which Gedeon
Richter would produce the abortifacient drug; but last February Gedeon announced
that it was cancelling the contract and ceasing to manufacture RU-486. Danco,
claiming breach of contract, wants to compel Gedeon to resume production,
because of what it called the “ruinous” effect on efforts to bring
RU-486 to the US.
(Reading: “Abortion Pill’s U.S. Sponsor Suing
Hungarian Drug Firm,” Washington
Post, 6/12/97, p. A3)
COLOMBIA: At the last women’s summit in Beijing, Colombian
congressional Rep. Piedad de Cordoba promised the group “that she would
secure the legalization of abortion in Colombia,” according to Catholic
World News. On June 12 she submitted to the Colombian congress a bill to
legalize abortion. The ensuing five-hour debate included “an avalanche
of pro-life statements from doctors, nongovernmental organizations and
congressmen. . . . Before the bill was debated, de Cordoba decided to withdraw
her proposal.”
(Reading: “Decisive Pro-Life Victory in Colombian
Congress,” Catholic World News Service, 6/13/97)
NEW TECHNOLOGY: Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine report
having successfully aborted the babies of women who were less than six weeks
pregnant. In the course of testing their new technique, they “performed
6,947 first-trimester abortions at Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast
Texas.” The technique requires keeping the child’s tissues as intact
as possible, for later examination. “To avoid shredding of the chorionic
membrane by the electric vacuum pump, [a Milex Handyvacc . . .] was used
to aspirate the products of conception.”
(Reading: “New Technologies Permit Safe Abortion at
Less Than Six Weeks’ Gestation and Provide Timely Detection of Ectopic
Gestation,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 5/97,
Vol. 176, No. 5, pp. 1101–1106)
POLAND: On June 9, 1997, Pope John Paul II lauded the doctors in his
homeland who refuse to perform abortions: “With my whole heart I praise
the doctors, nurses and all Polish health care workers who place the Divine
law ‘Thou shalt not kill’ above what human law allows.” He
was addressing the staff of a Krakow hospital during the dedication of a
new wing. “A nation which kills its own children is a nation without
a future,” he said. Government studies have shown that about half of
Poland’s 436 hospitals have refused to carry out abortions under the
newly relaxed law.
(Reading: “Pope Backs Polish Doctors Refusing
Abortions,” Reuters, 6/9/97)
PRACTITIONER—MISSOURI: Dr. Robert Crist has been cleared of any
wrongdoing in the death of Nichole Williams, on whom he performed a
first-trimester abortion. “Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Graham said
the cause of death—amniotic fluid embolus—‘is a rare but
recognized complication of both childbirth and abortion,’” according
to the Abortion Report. But Missouri Right to Life spokesperson Pam Manning
said, “had she not walked into the abortion clinic she’d be alive
today.”
(Reading: “Missouri I: Physician Cleared in Abortion
Death,” Abortion Report, 6/13/97 item 3)
DEATH IN AUSTRALIA: The autopsy of a 47-year-old woman showed that
she died of a blocked artery in her brain. The coroner’s report noted
that “Spontaneous thrombosis in the basilar artery in the absence of
atheroma has been documented in women and is particularly associated with
a high dose contraceptive pill.”
(Reading: Post Mortem Report, Dr. R. Sheers, Glan Clwyd
General Hospital, 11/1/94)
“HISTORY”: The National Museum of American History has a
permanent exhibit entitled Science and American Life, which includes an exhibit
on the birth control pill. It acknowledges that population control (not concern
for women’s well-being) was the main reason for the development of the
pill. A portion of the exhibit discusses the Catholic Church’s opposition
to the pill, but does not explain why the Church holds that position. It
doesn’t mention that the pill can act as an abortifacient. Nor does
the exhibit acknowledge the detrimental effects that contraceptives have
had on marriages and families. The exhibit promotes propaganda, and exposes
children to information that could destroy their innocence.
(Reading: personal statement from Kate Fitzgerald, ALL Public
Policy Director, 6/24/97)
(Take action: Write to the curator of the Science and Life
Exhibit: Arthur Molella, National Museum of American History, Department
of History, Room 5119, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560; Write
the American Chemical Society, which sponsored the exhibit: Marlene Weidner,
Director Public Outreach, American Chemical Society, 1155 16th Street, Suite
200, Washington, DC 20036)
FDA WARNS ABOUT TWO INTERNET KITS: A home sterilization kit and a
home abortion kit have been offered on the Internet. The FDA has issued a
warning against both of these. According to Reuter, “The FDA said these
products pose ‘significant, possibly life-threatening risks.’”
The sterilization kit contains “pellets of quinacrine hydrochloride,
an unapproved drug that can cause ectopic pregnancy, other abnormal pregnancies,
and permanent damage to the reproductive organs.” The abortion kit contains
methotrexate and misoprostol. None of these drugs have been approved by the
FDA and all three are very dangerous.
(Reading: “FDA Warns of Abortion, Sterilization Internet
Kits,” Reuters, 6/17/97)
VACCINES PROTESTED: The Campaign to Stop Research on Anti-Fertility
Vaccines is “an international assembly of women’s health organizations
uniting against the research and development of abusive and hazardous
contraceptives,” according to WomenWise. The group is fighting
the use of these vaccines, which “may induce autoimmune disease and
allergies, exacerbate already existing infections and immune disturbances
in the body, have unpredictable reliability and are not user-controlled.”
(Reading: “Anti Anti-Fertility Vaccines,” Women
Wise, Winter 1996, p. 4)
BACK ALLEY? The National Bioethics Advisory Commission has recommended
banning human cloning for three to five years. They would allow human cloning
experimentation, on the condition that the embryos are not implanted and
allowed to be born. Randolfe Wicker of Clone Rights United Front said that
critics of cloning are treating it as they did abortion prior to Roe
v. Wade: “They can’t stop progress, but they can push cloning
into the back alleys, just as abortion was pushed into the back alley.”
(Reading: “Ethics Panel Urges U.S. to Ban Cloning
Humans,” Chicago Tribune Web page, 6/7/97, Gay Today
Website)
$200,000 FEE? The founder of the religious group Raelian Movement,
has started up a company named Valiant Venture Ltd. This company says it
will offer human cloning for $200,000 to infertile couples, homosexual couples,
or anyone willing and able to pay the fee. The Raelian Movement “claims
that life on earth was created scientifically in laboratories by
extraterrestrials whose name (Elohim) is found in the Hebrew Bible and was
mistranslated by the word God, and which also claims that Jesus’
resurrection was, in fact, a cloning performed by the Elohim.”
(Reading: “Rael Creates The First Human Cloning Company;
First Press Conference Given By Rael,” PRNewswire, 5/20/97; Clonaid
Website, 6/11/97)
AUSTRALIAN ARMY WANTS THE COLORS: Senators want to know why the army
has budgeted $18,000 to buy condoms. Queensland Labor Senator John Hogg said
“We want to know what colour they are,” according to the Australian
Associated Press. The condoms are part of the army’s safe sex campaign,
designed to protect against HIV and Hepatitis B.
(Reading: “Fed: Army Buys Up Big On Condoms,”
Australian Associated Press, 6/12/97)
MICHIGAN UPDATE: In the June 6 issue of communiqué,
we reported that the pro-euthanasia group Merian’s Friends had begun
a petition drive to place assisted suicide on the ballot for the 1998 elections.
according to Right to Life of Michigan, the pro-death group has run out of
funds and the petition has been put on hold. The group has until 1998 to
begin the drive.
(Reading: personal letter from Erin Wilson, Director of
Public Policy Information, Right to Life of Michigan, to Judie Brown;
6/17/97)
(Contact: Right to Life of Michigan,
616-532-2300)
WISCONSIN: The state Supreme Court has ruled that Betty Spahn may
not remove the feeding tube from her 73-year-old sister Edna Folz. Spahn
argued that her sister, who has Alzheimer’s disease, “once told
her that she would rather die than lie helpless,” according to the
Associated Press. She wanted no “extreme measures” used to prolong
her life. But the Court ruled that “We do not have any clear statement
of what her desires would be today, under the current conditions.”
One woman was saved but, had she signed a document, her feeding tube would
have been defined as an “extreme measure.”
(Reading: “Court Nixes Ending Life Support,”
Associated Press, 6/12/97)
UTAH: Pharmacist Michael Katsonis says that he will not fill prescriptions
for emergency contraception because he is morally opposed to abortion. The
Utah Board of Pharmacy president E. Ray Beacies has said that he believes
that Katsonis’ refusal is legal.
(Reading: “Utah Pharmacist Refuses to Prescribe Emergency
Contraception,” Planned Parenthood Public Affairs Action Letter,
6/16/97)
ORPHANS IN AUSTRALIA: As recently as 1970, orphaned children in Victoria,
Australia, were being used in vaccine experimentation. Melbourne Online reports
that “the experiments included trials of new vaccines that did not work
or failed to pass safety tests in animals.” Consultant ethicist nicholas
Tonti-Filippini said that experiments are done on poor children because the
poor are less educated and are not likely to tell the researchers that they
don’t want their children used as guinea pigs.
(Reading: “Trial Vaccine Failed To Pass Animal Safety
Test,” Melbourne Online Web site, 6/10/97; “Science’s
Playground,” Melbourne Online, 6/14/97)
GREAT BRITAIN: A baby born prematurely at 25 weeks was abandoned by
the attending physician after he declared that the child would not live.
When Kirsten-Anne Cassidy, 23, gave birth to her daughter Rebecca at Ayrshire
Central Hospital last September, the doctor did not arrive for about five
minutes. He then told the parents of the newborn that she was too small to
survive. The mother told an inquiry at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court: ‘He
just looked at her, and looked at me and said: “I’m sorry, she’s
too small, she’s not viable, there’s nothing I can do, and I’m
not going to do anything,” reports PA News. The baby died an hour later.
(Reading: untitled article, PA News,
6/9/97)
NETHERLANDS: “Sixty-four percent of Dutch psychiatrisis believe
that physician-assisted suicide can be acceptable for patients whose suffering
is based on a mental disorder in the absence of terminal (or even physical)
illness,” say two doctors in a letter to the New England Journal
of Medicine. They note that “In the United States, the mentally
ill are a stigmatized and vulnerable group. No matter how much the misery
experienced by a mentally ill person elicits our sympathy, a policy that
allows assistance in the suicide of patients whose suffering is based only
on mental disorders would be unacceptable.”
(Reading: “Psychiatry and Assisted Suicide in the United
States,” New England Journal of
Medicine, 6/19/97, Vol. 336, No. 25, p.
1826)
NURSE TRAINING: Nursing Education of America is offering a
“Symposium on Assisted Suicide.” Among the “guest faculty”
is Faye Girsh, Executive Director of the Hemlock Society. No prominent pro-life
speakers were listed.
(Reading: brochure from Nursing Education of
America)
(Action: Contact Nursing Education of America at PO Drawer
149, Ridgedale, MO 65739, and ask why the faculty does not include an outspoken
opponent of murdering patients.)
POLLS AND ETHICS: The New York Times reported on a poll which
found that 51% of Americans support physician-assisted suicide and only 40%
think it should be outlawed. In the breakdown of the survey, blacks
overwhelmingly disapproved of the practice, acceptance dropped as age increased
and acceptance increased as income increased. The newspaper summed up the
position of Lewis Smedes, professor emeritus of ethics at the Fuller Theological
Seminary in California, in the following: “Physician-assisted suicide,
he said, is one of the rare issues in which ambiguity is preferable to moral
consistency, in which judgments on a case-by-case basis are better than strict
laws or guidelines about what is right and what is wrong.
‘Sometimes,’ Mr. Smedes said, ‘it is better just to leave
things murky.’”
Thou shalt not kill is not a murky statement!
(Reading: “Americans Want a Right to Die, Or So They
Think,” New York Times, 6/8/97, p. E3)
SUPREME COURT—ONE MAN’S ANALYSIS: “Legislatures and
courts have traditionally drawn a sharp line between withdrawing medical
treatment and providing active assistance in the dying process,” wrote
Lawrence O. Gosten, JD, in the Journal of the American Medical
Association. But last year, two federal appeals courts declared
unconstitutional “state laws that prohibit physicians from prescribing
medication to assist in the death of a competent terminally ill patient.
The two courts did not find a legally sufficient distinction between
physician-assisted dying and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. . .
. The Supreme Court’s decision in these cases is due during the summer
of 1997. The Court may well revisit the loose language it adopted in Cruzan
and decide, after all, that a patient does not have a constitutionally
protected right to die.”
(Reading: Lawrence O Gostin, J.D. “Law and Medicine,”
Journal of the American Medical Association, 6/18/97, Vol. 277, No. 23, pp.
1866–1867)
NEW JERSEY—ONE DEAD, ONE ALIVE: High-school senior Melissa Drexler
gave birth to a baby boy during her prom. She dumped the child in a trash
can and went back to the dance floor, where she requested a song from the
band later in the evening. A maintenance worker found the child dead in the
trash can after he had received a complaint about blood in one of the
women’s bathroom stalls. Drexler has been charged with murder. While
this story was still making headlines, 19-year-old Claudette Felix (who lives
only an hour away from Drexler) gave birth in her family’s garage. She
cleaned the baby, wrapped her in a blanket, and went inside to clean herself.
She passed out in the bathroom. When her father found the child in the garage
he alerted a neighbor, who was a policeman. The family had not known that
Claudette was pregnant. She and her baby girl are both recovering. She is
expected to plead guilty to endangering the welfare of a child.
(Reading: “Tragedy at the Prom,” Newsweek,
6/23/97, p. 64; “N.J. Student Gives Birth In Family’s Garage,”
Washington Post, 6/13/97, p. A23; “Teen Mom Charged
WithMurder,” Associated Press, 6/24/97)
SKILLS OR VALUES? Family Planning Perspectives has published
a report about the curriculum known as Postponing Sexual Involvement. In
describing the goals of the curriculum, the authors state that the course
“aims to support adolescents in delaying sexual activity by helping
them understand the various social pressures that encourage adolescent sexual
activity and by teaching teenagers skills that will enable them to set limits,
resist peer pressure, be assertive in saying “no” to sex and develop
nonsexual ways to express their feelings.”
But they leave out God, and no program will succeed without emphasizing
the fact that human sexuality is a gift from God. That’s why parents
were given authority by God to teach their children in His ways.
(Reading: “The Impact of the Postponing Sexual Involvement
Curriculum Among Youths in California,” Family Planning
Perspectives, 5–6/97, Vol. 29, No. 3, p. 100)
MEDIA GIVES RECIPE: Reporting the story of a mass suicide by a cult
in California, USA Today detailed the exact mixture of drugs and alcohol
that would bring about a quiet death. The description even told how long
one should expect to wait for the concoction to take it’s deadly affect.
(Reading: “Deadly Mix of Alcohol Depressants,”
USA Today, 3/28/97, p. 5A)
WASHINGTON STATE STUDY: A recently completed 16-year study revealed
that suicide is the 8th leading cause of death for the state. There are an
average of 14.22 suicides per 100,000 population. Ten thousand residents
committed suicide during the 16 year period.
(Reading: “Child, Elderly Suicide Rates Climbing,”
Reuters, 6/10/97)
BUMMER: George F. Will wrote a column about Melissa Drexler (see page
3, NEW JERSEY item). In an attempt to determine what would teach a young
girl to do such a thing, Will looks at various social teachers, such as
television and popular music lyrics; cultural teachers saying that killing
a child can be a matter of choice “like choosing to smoke a
cigarette”; and the Supreme Court, which taught Drexler that a fetus
is a “potential life.” Will sums up his questioning with this
paragraph: “Pregnancy is a continuum. What begins at conception will,
if there is no natural misfortune or deliberate attack, become a child. If
it becomes a child at a prom, it must be attacked quickly, lest the whole
night be a bummer.”
(Reading: “Bummed Out At the Prom,” Pro-Life E-News
Canada, 6/16/97)
PRAY & FAST . . . PRAY & FAST . . . PRAY &
FAST
It is essential for us to understand that Jesus has a specific task in
life for each and every one of us. Each one of us is handpicked, called
by name—by Jesus! There is no one among us who does not have a divine
vocation! Now this is what Saint Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians:
“Each one of us has received God’s favor in the measure in which
Christ bestows it. . . . It was he who gave apostles, prophets, evangelists,
pastors, and teachers in roles of service for the faithful to build up the
body of Christ” (Eph. 4: 11–12).
—Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II, p.
259
Lord, God of heaven and earth, hear our prayer. Heal our nation of the many
grave sins against the human being. Help us in our hour of need to trust
in you, surrender everything to you, and recognize you in the face of every
person who passes our way this day. Amen.
—Evangelium Vitae, section
45
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