Life Advocacy Briefing

For the week of May 14, 2007

Thank You, Mom / Tragic Development / Loosening Limits? / Protecting Our Daughters & Sons
/ Parents Prefer Abstinence: Poll
/ Free at Last! / Futile Case / Credit Where Due /
Even Worse Than We Thought
/ Large Families Guilty of ‘Eco-Crime’: Environmental Extremists

 

Thank You, Mom

THOUGH WE’re A DAY LATE IN EXTENDING OUR GOOD WISHES to all the mothers among our readers – and to all those who cherish their mothers, as well – we salute today the mothers of America. Indeed, we find every day a fitting occasion to thank and salute those who bring forth the coming generations. Nothing in God’s Providence brings more hope to a family – yea, to the world – than motherhood.

 

Tragic Development

WITH SADNESS BUT WITHOUT SURPRISE WE REPORT A STATISTIC published May 9 in a lengthy story by the New York Times about the “new recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists” that doctors “offer a new, safer screening procedure [for Down Syndrome] to all pregnant women, regardless of age.”

Times reporter Amy Harmon writes: “Almost 90% of pregnant women who are given a Down Syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.” How tragic.

 

Loosening Limits?

A FIGHT IS BREWING OVER STOCKING ‘MORNING-AFTER’ PILLS at US military hospitals and clinics, reports Rick Maze for Army Times, whose report does not mention concerns among pro-life advocates that such drugs can act as abortifacients.

Rep. Michael Michaud (D-ME) has filed HR-2064 “requiring emergency contraception to be available,” writes Mr. Maze, “at all military health care facilities.” The measure is unlikely to move as a freestanding bill but could be offered as an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization bill.

Our Capitol Hill sources assure us the bill has emerged unscathed from the House Committee on Armed Services, but whether a bid will be made to amend it in the full House is not yet known. The bill is expected to come before the House this week.

Such a move would reopen “debate,” writes Mr. Maze, “over a 2002 Defense Dept. decision to remove emergency contraceptives from the basic stockpile of drugs kept at pharmacies only one month after they were made available. As a result,” reports the Gannett-owned Army Times, “a woman eligible for military health care who wants the so-called ‘morning-after’ pill must go off-base to get the drug.”

Other potential amendments to the Defense Authorization bill include the annual effort by abortion backers to force overseas military facilities to offer and commit elective abortions and/or a bid to force taxpayers to underwrite military facility abortions targeting babies conceived during the commission of a sex crime.

 

Protecting Our Daughters & Sons

REP. TODD AKIN HAS FILED LEGISLATION to require Title X (Ten) “family planning” agencies to notify parents at least five days before dispensing, prescribing or administering contraceptive drugs or devices to their minor children. Planned Parenthood is a major Title X grantee and demands secrecy in its encounters with adolescents and teens.

HR-2134 has been referred to the House Committee on Energy & Commerce. It was introduced with 37 co-sponsors and needs many more if it is to have a chance to move beyond committee under the current political makeup of the House.

Pro-life citizens should call their own Member ofCongress, via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121, to request co-sponsorship of HR-2134; recruitment of Democratic Members is especially critical. If the Member’s name appears on the co-sponsor list, a call should be made to thank the Member and encourage active support for the pro-family measure.

Here are the co-sponsors: Democratic Representatives William Jefferson (LA) and Mike McIntyre (NC), and Republican Representatives Robert Aderholt, Terry Everett & Mike Rogers (AL); Brian Bilbray, John Campbell & Duncan Hunter (CA); Doug Lamborn & Marilyn Musgrave (CO); Jeff Miller & Dave Weldon (FL); Phil Gingrey (GA); Bill Sali (ID); Dan Burton (IN); Harold Rogers (KY); Roscoe Bartlett (MD); Peter Hoekstra (MI); Roger Wicker (MS); Jeff Fortenberry & Lee Terry (NE); Scott Garrett & Christopher Smith (NJ); Stevan Pearce (NM); Walter Jones (NC); Joseph Pitts (PA); Gresham Barrett (SC); Zach Wamp (TN); John Carter, Michael Conaway, Kenny Marchant, Michael McCaul, Randy Neugebauer & Ted Poe (TX); Rob Bishop (UT); and JoAnn Davis & Thelma Drake (VA).

 

Parents Prefer Abstinence: Poll

ZOGBY INTERNATIONAL RELEASED A POLL early this month showing, reports the National Abstinence Clearinghouse (NAC) in a news release, “that informed parents greatly prefer abstinence education to ‘comprehensive’ sex education.

“Not only did thorough information regarding the content of the programs result in a significant increase in parents’ favor of abstinence education,” reports NAC, “but also a drastic decrease in their confidence in ‘comprehensive’ sex education” resulted from exposure to such content.

“At least 8 out of 10 parents polled preferred abstinence education’s overall approach to teaching sex,” reports NAC. “They were unsatisfied with the cursory coverage abstinence received from ‘comprehensive’ sex education programs and were more comfortable,” NAC writes, “with programs explaining the dangers of STDs and other health risks.”

NAC’s president Leslie Unruh declared in the release, “This completely flies in the face of what our opponents have been saying. They claim that we are trying to force an ideology contrary to what parents want. It’s clear,” she said, “that we are the ones who care not only about young people but about the interests of their parents as well.”

 

Free at Last!

THE ORDEAL IS FINALLY OVER. US District Judge David Coar last Tuesday “issued a final judgment,” reports Associated Press (AP) writer Karen Hawkins, “reiterating what the US Supreme Court said more than a year ago: that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used against anti-abortion protesters.”

The judgment dismisses – after 21 years of litigation – a massive lawsuit brought by the National Organization for [sic] Women (NOW) and several abortionists against the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, its founder Joseph Scheidler and several other pro-life activists under the federal Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act. The Supreme Court ruled in February 2006 that the RICO Act could not be used in such a case, and its ruling came on an 8-to-0 vote. But NOW has continued to bring motions before Judge Coar to try breathing life into the corpse of its bitter, vituperative litigation.

Said Mr. Scheidler in the AP report: “‘We were very happy to have it over with.’” We at Life Advocacy congratulate Mr. Scheidler and his co-defendants and extend our gratitude for their fortitude in not having settled the unjust case years ago, as many others might in order to avoid the financial and emotional strain. It’s a long time to wait for justice.

 

Futile Case

FEDERAL JUDGE PAUL CASSELL AGREED LAST TUESDAY TO RE-OPEN the litigation which had suspended Utah’s Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the federal ban. Planned Parenthood and the Utah Women’s Clinic, plaintiffs in the Utah case, co-signed the motion to reopen the case.

“‘We are not challenging this particular law any further,’ said Karrie Galloway, director of Planned Parenthood of Utah,” quoted by Matt Canham in the Salt Lake Tribune. “‘It is futile.’”

The judge has directed the state and the plaintiffs “to provide him a statement explaining their understanding of the case by May 30,” writes Mr. Canham. Assistant Attorney General Jerrold Jensen told Mr. Canham he “hopes the two abortion rights groups will agree in writing to lift the injunction, forgoing any need for further hearings. Such an agreement,” Mr. Jensen said, as reported in the Tribune, “could happen within the next few weeks.”

 

Credit Where Due

WE HAVE REPORTED PREVIOUSLY ON A LETTER FROM HOUSE MEMBERS to the President, requesting that he pledge to veto “any legislation that weakens present pro-life policy.” And we reported last week that the President has issued such a promise. But we just now picked up on the same letter having been sent by some 36 US Senators, and although it’s slightly old news now, we thought it only right that we publish, with our thanks, the names of the signers. Readers may wish to add their own thanks by way of calls to the signing Senators. They may be reached via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121.

The signers of the veto pledge request are Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) and GOP Senators Jeff Sessions (AL), Jon Kyl & John McCain (AZ), Wayne Allard (CO), Mel Martinez (FL), Saxby Chambliss & Johnny Isakson (GA), Chuck Grassley (IA), Larry Craig & Mike Crapo (ID), Sam Brownback & Pat Roberts (KS), Jim Bunning (KY), David Vitter (LA), Norm Coleman (MN), Trent Lott (MS), Chuck Hagel (NE), John Ensign (NV), Pete Domenici (NM), Elizabeth Dole (NC), George Voinovich (OH), Tom Coburn & Jim Inhofe (OK), Jim DeMint & Lindsey Graham (SC), John Thune (SD), Bob Corker (TN), John Cornyn & Kay Hutchison (TX), Robert Bennett & Orrin Hatch (UT), Michael Enzi & Craig Thomas (WY), plus two whose signatures are illegible.

 

Even Worse Than We Thought

WE REPORTED LAST WEEK THAT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL/U.S. had adopted a policy embroiling the “human rights” organization into the international abortion fight, on the side of the abortionists. Our source was LifeSiteNews.com, which now has run a correction on its May 3 story. LifeSite’s “story on Amnesty International,” reports the respected pro-life/family news service this week, “incorrectly stated that it was Amnesty International US which had adopted a policy in favor of advocating for abortion. Rather,” writes LifeSite reporter Gudrun Schultz, “it was the entire Amnesty International organization.”

In its corrected story, LifeSite also furnishes Internet website contact information for feedback to Amnesty International: http://web.amnesty.org/contacts/engindex. The corrected LifeSite story also presents later details concerning AI’s attempt to keep the policy change secret and to prevent AI members from knowing about the proposal in time to vote on it. The story can be found on the Internet at lifesite.net/ldn/2007/may/07050303.

 

Large Families Guilty of ‘Eco-Crime’: Environmental Extremists

May 8, 2007, LifeSiteNews.com report by Peter J. Smith & Steve Jalsevac

Environmental extremists are calling for a drastic reduction of the earth’s population to save the planet from global warming, saying the best “carbon offset” is no more carbon dioxide-emitting human beings.

The 1997 Kyoto accords sprang directly out of depopulation advocate Maurice Strong’s Rio conference in 1992, with Strong having a hand guiding the accords to fruition all the way, as a special advisor to the UN Secretary General.

Blaming increasing human populations and industry for many of the world’s problems, population control groups are now predictably using “global warming” (during cold winter months referred to instead as “climate change”) – a phenomenon many scientists [contend] is due to natural factors such as sun activity – to support their usual anti-human agenda.

A report published May 7 by the [Manchester, England-based] Optimum Population Trust [OPT] declared that the best “carbon-offset strategy” was to reduce the number of human beings and thus defeat the “global warming” phenomenon. “Population limitation should therefore be seen as the most cost-effective carbon offsetting strategy available to individuals and nations,” read the OPT report, “A Population-Based Climate Strategy.”

The report claims the climate cost of each new Briton over his lifetime equals roughly 30,000 British Pounds [$60,000], and so projects the lifetime emission costs of 10 million new Britons by 2074 as over 300 billion Pounds [$600 billion]. Therefore, the OPT recommends parents to invest in condoms (35 pence apiece) which would yield no children but a “spectacular” climate savings of nine million percent. “The most effective personal climate change strategy is limiting the number of children one has,” the report says. “The most effective national and global climate change strategy is limiting the size of the population.”

“The greatest thing anyone in Britain could do to help the future of the planet would be to have one less child,” John Guillebaud, co-chairman of OPT and emeritus professor of family planning at University College in London told the Sunday Times, adding parents ought [to] consider the environment first when they have a child.

However, Britain has already been experiencing a considerably lower than replacement birthrate for some time and, according to a June 2006 BBC report, is expected to encounter a doubling of the proportion of the population over 65 by 2050.

The Sunday Times said the report indicated large families constitute an environmental misdemeanor or “eco-crime” as much as 4×4 SUVs or failing to recycle. The Australian ran the headline “Children ‘Bad for Planet’.” Radical environmentalist Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which tries to increase whale populations, in a May 4 editorial on his website, denounced the “human virus,” saying, “We are killing our host the planet Earth.”

Watson, who has unapologetically called human beings the “AIDS of the Earth,” declared human beings must reduce the world’s population to less than one billion people, dwell in communities no larger than “20,000 people and separated from other communities by wilderness areas,” and recognize themselves as “earthlings” dwelling in a primitive state with other species.

“Curing a body of cancer requires radical and invasive therapy and therefore, curing the biosphere of the human virus will also require a radical and invasive approach,” Watson said. Although Watson’s extreme anti-human ideology is disturbing, his thesis is not at all dissimilar [to] the teachings of former US Vice President Al Gore, a prominent leader of the radical environmental movement.

In the book Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, Gore called for a “wrenching transformation of society” to save the world from man-made ecological disaster. The first principle of Gore’s “Global Marshall Plan or Strategic Environmental Initiative” is to stabilize what he believes is an overpopulated world through the power of government.

 

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