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Friday January 7, 2000
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PrintCHARGES DROPPED AGAINST JAILED BC PRO-LIFER
TODAY'S HEADLINES
VANCOUVER, Jan 7 (LSN.ca) - The first set of charges against BC pro-life activist Mary Wagner, 25, were dismissed yesterday after the Crown prosecutor failed to provide sufficient documentation to the defence lawyer. This technical oversight prevented the Crown from proceeding further, prompting the courtroom to erupt into applause.
Wagner was charged with two counts of breaching a so-called "bubble zone" around abortuaries. The other charge will be heard in Provincial Court Jan. 11. She has pleaded not guilty.
Wagner, who has been in jail since her Dec 3, 1999 arrest, was retained in custody until her next hearing since she cannot in good conscience promise to stop trying to offer last minute assistance to mothers as they enter the abortuary. She received a second round of applause as she was led away.
Back to Top5 YEAR EUTHANASIA REVIEW AGREED TO BY CANADIAN SENATE
OTTAWA, Jan 7 (LSN.ca) - Senator Sharon Carstairs seems to be continuing her campaign to push Canada towards euthanasia. A senate committee has been formed at her request to perform a five-year review of the 1995 report of the Special Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. While Carstairs, a euthanasia activist, claims that the review is simply an innocuous attempt to update the government's information, she stresses the need for it to include "research ... on requests for euthanasia (and assisted suicide) in Canada."
Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Ontario told LifeSite that the review is of concern since it involves a re-evaluation of the global assessment of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Schadenberg explained that whereas in 1995 no country in the world had legalized assisted suicide or euthanasia, the practice is now legal in Oregon and is soon to be formalized legally in Holland. Furthermore, other countries such as Belgium are seriously considering euthanasia legislation. Such developments could provide impetus that did not exist five years ago for Canada to also consider a move in this direction.
Carstairs has also introduced a bill, S-2, in the Senate (as previously reported in LifeSite), which experts have warned opens the door to euthanasia in Canada. It passed second reading in the Senate in November.
See the Motion in the Senate Hansard:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/36/2/parlbus/chambus/senate/deb-e/10db_1999-11-23-e.htm#0....
Motion carried:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/36/2/parlbus/chambus/senate/deb-e/12db_1999-11-25-e.htm#0....
For a comprehensive analysis of Bill S-2 see:
http://www.lifesite.net/euthanasia/s-2analysis.pdf
BRITAIN TO ENSHRINE INT'L ABORTION SUPPORT INTO LAW?
LONDON, Jan 7 (LSN.ca) - The UK's International Development Secretary, Clare Short, is fighting to have her reforms to overseas aid enshrined into law. The International Development Act is intended to stifle efforts of future governments from reversing the aid package. While foreign aid and developmental assistance is usually thought of primarily as food aid, on-going controversy over the international aid package reveals that substantial money goes towards "family planning", which can include abortion, forced sterilization and contraceptive distribution.
The overt pro-abortion stance of Minister Short lends to the speculation that the new law would enshrine UK funding for global abortion into law. LifeSite reported last July that Short appeared before the United Nations General Assembly saying "it is hard to forgive those who deny women access to contraception and drive them into the arms of illegal abortionists and then claim to dislike abortion. The fact is that women regularly risk their lives for want of a safe abortion."
Short added that "there can be no talk about safe motherhood and commitments made at Cairo if there is a failure to recognize that abortion is a reality in the lives of tens of millions of women." Continuing to advance her extremist view that abortion is an absolute right that should trump all religious and cultural concerns, she added: "Those who want to deny women's rights cannot hide behind culture, religion or tradition. None of the values of the great world religions or proper interpretation of any tradition calls for the oppression of women. The right to health is a fundamental human right. Reproductive health is an essential element of health."
Pro-life forces strongly back short's observation that "great world religions" do not justify the oppression of women, emphasizing that this is one of the strongest arguments against - not for - abortion.
See the report on the overseas aid law from the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000142592815120&rtmo=VwZuVxkx&atmo=HHHHHH8L&pg=...
BELGIAN GOV'T BILL TO LEGALIZE EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE
BRUSSELS, Belgium, Jan 7 (LSN.ca) - The Socialist Belgian government, which ended the 40-year rule of the Christian Democrats last year, has introduced a bill to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia in the predominantly Catholic country. A Reuters report distributed by Pro- Life Info Net December 23 indicates that "the bill would legalize assisted suicide for adults with an incurable illness causing them unbearable and constant suffering and who are of sound mind and have clearly asked to die. Euthanasia would also be legalized for anyone in a coma with no prospect of recovering consciousness and who had requested, before two witnesses, to have their life ended in such circumstances within the previous five years."
In related news, Catholic World News reported today that the official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano criticized a new Belgian government policy, which allows for legal registration of non-marital unions. The paper called the policy which recognizes homosexual unions "dangerous and perverse" and a "concession to deviancy."
See the Catholic World News report at:
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=45284
LIFESITE NEWSBYTES
The number of abortions performed in the U.S. dropped from 1,221,585 in 1996 to 1,184,758 in 1997 - the lowest level in two decades, according to today's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The CDC announced a second low, noting that the number of abortions for every 1,000 live births dropped from 314 in 1996 to 305 in 1997, the lowest national abortion ratio since 1975. http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4851a3.htm
The UN has admitted that it has played a role in spreading the AIDS virus through its "peacekeepers", reports the LA Times today. Peacekeepers have been found to have sex with local prostitutes in the countries where they are stationed thus introducing AIDS strains and carrying some new strains home. http://www.latimes.com/print/asection/20000107/t000002071.html
The Federalist Digest, a weekly analysis of American news distributed on the Internet, reported today that in Maryland, "a Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge claimed an 11-year- old girl was to blame for a sexual assault by a 23-year-old man she 'met' through an Internet chat room. 'It takes two to tango,' he said."
The National Post reports today that the federal government has filed its submission in defence of Canadian laws against child pornography in advance of the upcoming Supreme Court of Canada hearing beginning January 18. http://www.nationalpost.com/news.asp?f=000107/170504
Catholic World News reported today that L'Osservatore Romano has condemned the distribution of the "morning-after pill" in French schools saying the "morning-after pill, ... has the effect of destroying an egg which has already been fertilized, and thus is a human embryo, rather than by preventing conception." "The intention to abort is manifest - for the adolescent and for the public authorities as well." http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=45285
Scientists in England believe they have stumbled upon research that will lead to the creation of a male contraceptive pill. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=001851641145319&rtmo=aTuW6CXJ&atmo=99999999&pg=...
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