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Thursday February 14, 2002
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Print- WORLD YOUTH ALLIANCE PROMOTES LIFE AT UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONFAB
- CATHOLIC LEAGUE DEFENDS RIGHTS OF PEOPLE OF FAITH TO PARTICIPATE IN POLITICS
- UK JUDGE DELAYS RULING ON MORNING AFTER PILL CHALLENGE
- IRELAND THROWN INTO FRENZY OVER ABORTION REFERENDUM
- STUDY FINDS MISCARRIAGE DOES NOT INCREASE WOMEN'S BREAST CANCER RISK
- LIFESITE NEWSBYTES
- US NEWS ROUNDUP
WORLD YOUTH ALLIANCE PROMOTES LIFE AT UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONFAB
TODAY'S HEADLINES
NEW YORK, February 14, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The World Youth Alliance (WYA), a global coalition of young people and youth organizations committed to promoting the dignity of the person at the international level, has developed a Declaration on Responsible Stewardship. The Declaration, which incorporates statements in support of life, was presented to delegates at the second preparatory committee meetings (PrepCom II) of the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) (Rio+10). It outlines a person-centered approach to environmental stewardship and development.
"We must foster responsible stewardship in every society. Each human being is called to recognize his or her personal responsibility to be an effective steward of the natural environment that all of us share. That responsibility springs from the intrinsic value and inherent dignity of each human person from conception to natural death," says the document.
The organization's global membership was represented at the WSSD prepcom by a group of WYA members from eight different countries who met delegates from around the world. WYA participated actively in the youth caucus, helping formulate youth statements and even addressing the entire conference from the official youth chair.
For more information see the WAY website:
http://www.wya.net
Back to TopCATHOLIC LEAGUE DEFENDS RIGHTS OF PEOPLE OF FAITH TO PARTICIPATE IN POLITICS
TORONTO, February 14, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) in Canada has expressed concern over statements by the administration of the Canadian Alliance and Liberal Parties suggesting intolerance against religious and/or ethnic groups.
"In the Canadian Alliance, orthodox Jews, pro-life Catholics and evangelical Christians are alleged to be manipulating the party's leadership race, to its detriment. In the federal Liberal party, a fight has broken out over the merits of soliciting members from particular ethnic or religious groups, as the party commissars decree such influence may be dangerous," explained the CCRL in a recent release.
CCRL President Thomas Langan noted: "Although the League does not participate in partisan political intrigues, we take very seriously any attempt to limit the participation of citizens to the political process based on their religious beliefs. Our constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion."
He continued, "The discussion of fiscal and social issues in Canada would be improved if more people of faith took up an active role in political parties. In fact, people of faith are only responding to the contempt with which their views are treated by the chattering classes and the media elites in this country. Religious people have a good record in volunteer service. They remind the society of human dignity and love of neighbour. They bring basic moral discussions into debate. They recall to us the Constitution's declaration, "God is Supreme."
CCRL relates in their release: "The current Prime Minister has resorted to parachuting candidates in "troublesome" ridings where pro-life candidates sought nominations." Asking, "Where were the advocates of inclusion when such anti-democratic measures were undertaken?"
"Would these same concerns by secularists about religious or ethnic views be used to dissuade a Martin Luther King from joining a federal party in Canada. Do we not recognize the influence of strictly secular, or perhaps more accurately, atheist views have led to the removal of prayer from public schools, the removal of God from Parliament Hill prayer services, and an unfettered abortion regime, which leads to the destruction of one in four unborn babies in Canada, which people of faith are required to finance?"
UK JUDGE DELAYS RULING ON MORNING AFTER PILL CHALLENGE
LONDON, February 14, 2002 (LSN.ca) - High Court hearings on a legal challenge to the reclassification of the morning after pill, as available from pharmacists without a doctor's prescription, which began Tuesday were completed yesterday. Mr Justice Munby, presiding, said that there was so much to consider that he needed time to prepare his judgment, which may not be delivered until after Easter (the 31st of next month). Health ministers and the leader of the House of Commons have asked to see the judgment five days before it is published in order to prepare to address any public policy implications.
John Smeaton, National Director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the group which launched the challenge, said: "The judge's comments and the government's request reflect the seriousness with which this case is being treated."
Pro-abortion groups complained that the challenge, if successful, would throw the country into disarray as it would also make illegal abortifacient contraceptives such as the pill and the IUD which are commonly used in Britain. SPUC's lawyer, Richard Gordon, said in court that he would not be pursuing any argument against these other abortifacients but he also said he would not shrink from further social or moral implications of the case against the morning-after pill.
(with files from SPUC News Digest)
For related LifeSite coverage see:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/feb/02020605.html
IRELAND THROWN INTO FRENZY OVER ABORTION REFERENDUM
DUBLIN, February 14, 2002 (LSN.ca) - As both the 'yes' and the 'no' campaigns were launched in Ireland yesterday to urge citizens for or against the March 6 abortion referendum, Irish Health Minister Michael Martin confirmed that a 'yes' vote would guarantee the availability of the abortifacient morning after pill. The referendum proposes a constitutional amendment to do away with the Irish Supreme Court ruling in the 'X' case which allowed abortion in cases where the mother threatens suicide, however it also falsely defines abortion as only after implantation rather than from fertilization.
The abortion referendum debate in Ireland is fraught with confusion which has led to a major split in the pro-life movement. Irish pro-life heroine and Member of the European Parliament, Dana Scanlon, came out against the referendum. Later the Irish Post reported that the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo, said during a conference in Rome that "The situation is delicate in Ireland but we expect that the Bishops will react against the proposals." However, within days of that report, the Irish Bishops Conference came out "grudgingly" in favour of a 'yes' vote on the referendum.
Irish pro-life groups Galway for Life and the Pro-Life Campaign have come out strongly in favour of a 'yes' vote in the referendum. Mother and Child Campaign, Youth Defense, Human Life International Ireland, and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) UK are against the proposals demanding a better referendum which does not threaten the lives of the youngest and smallest unborn children. Complicating matters, pro-abortion groups are urging a 'no' vote in the referendum and pushing pro-abortion legislation instead.
Mr Bertie Ahern, the Prime Minister, warned that a "no" vote in the referendum could lead to liberal abortion on demand. Speaking in the Dáil [the Irish lower house of parliament], Mr. Ahern claimed that the constitutional amendment was needed to avoid "the drift to abortion on demand". Debate on the referendum in the Dáil became so heated that the session had to be adjourned. Dominic Baster, SPUC's international secretary, pointed out the inconsistency and absurdity in claiming that a measure which would legalize the morning-after pill was pro-life, and accused Mr Ahern of blackmail in threatening liberal abortion if the referendum was lost.
Pro-life observers internationally are concerned about the precedent that would be set by the false definition of abortion in the Irish constitution if a 'yes' vote prevailed. Such a definition would allow for all abortifacient contraception but also permit destructive research on human embryos which is currently in high demand with stem cell research.
(with files from SPUC UK)
See media coverage of the Irish abortion referendum debate:
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=683887&issue_id=683...
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2002/0214/472443117HMFFABORT.html
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=688773&issue_id=6881
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=688871&issue_id=6881
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2002/0213/breaking45.htm
STUDY FINDS MISCARRIAGE DOES NOT INCREASE WOMEN'S BREAST CANCER RISK
Women Who Delay First Pregnancy Into 30's Are At Increased Risk
LONDON, February 14, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Having a miscarriage does not increase a woman's risk of breast cancer at any age, according to one of the largest ever studies on the link between reproductive factors and the disease, published in the British Journal of Cancer Tuesday. The research confirms the writings of Dr. Joel Brind, a world expert on the link between abortion and breast cancer, who noted that miscarriage does not lead to breast cancer as abortion does.
In the new study, researchers tracked women over a ten-year period, sending them detailed questionnaires and recording both reproductive factors and whether or not they developed breast cancer. Premenopausal and postmenopausal women were studied separately, in order to find out whether reproductive factors affected the two groups differently.
Of the 91,000 women in the study, 1,718 were diagnosed with breast cancer over the time period. Previous research on miscarriage had produced conflicting results, with some smaller studies suggesting that it might increase the risk of the disease. But the new, large-scale research found no evidence that women with a history of miscarriage were at higher risk of breast cancer in either the premenopausal or postmenopausal group.
Dr. Joel Brind, President of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute and Professor of human biology and endocrinology Baruch College, explained the reason for the increased risk of breast cancer with abortion and lack thereof with miscarriage in a 1997 paper entitled The Estrogen Connection.
Dr. Brind wrote, "pregnancies destined to abort spontaneously (i.e., end in miscarriage) during the first trimester usually do not generate estradiol in quantities exceeding non-pregnant levels." He explains that estradiol, which causes the breasts to grow during pregnancy makes for more undifferentiated cells - the same cells which are vulnerable to cancer - and thus with induced abortions, as opposed to miscarriage, there is a greater vulnerability to breast cancer. "Full term pregnancy," says Dr. Brind, "results in full differentiation of the breast tissue for the purpose of milk production, which leaves fewer cancer-vulnerable cells in the breasts than were there before the pregnancy began. This translates into the well known breast cancer risk lowering effect of a full term pregnancy."
See a pdf version of Dr Clavel-Chapelon's study:
http://www.nature.com/bjc/6600124a.pdf
See Dr. Brind's paper on The Estrogen Connection:
http://www.abortioncancer.com/estgen.htm
LIFESITE NEWSBYTES
FORMER ALLIANCE MP PESCHISOLIDO MAY FACE FORCED BY-ELECTION FOR SWITCH TO LIBERALS
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020214/54193.html
UK WOMAN AWARDED COMPENSATION FOR BIRTH OF HEALTHY BABY AFTER FAILED STERILIZATION
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1820000/1820144.stm
AUSTRALIAN EUTHANASIA CAMPAIGNER WANTS TO MEET WITH PREMIER
http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2002/02/14/FFX8LMOFNXC.html
US NEWS ROUNDUP
ACCOUNTING FIGURES REVEAL CLAIM OF US 'DEBT' TO UNITED NATIONS TO BE FRAUDULENT
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPentagon.asp?Page=\Pentagon\archive\200202\PEN2002021...
US SCIENTIST ZAVOS TO BEGIN EFFORTS TO CLONE HUMAN NEXT MONTH
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/043/nation/A_try_to_clone_human_being_is_set_t...
MICHIGAN PRO-LIFER'S RIGHT TO USE GRAPHIC SIGN UPHELD
http://www.thomasmore.org/index.cfm?location=5&subsectionid=1&release=100&pageid...
KENTUCKY SENATE OKAYS BILL DECLARING UNBORN CHILD A PERSON
http://www.messenger-inquirer.com/news/kentucky/4094074.htm
Canadian Alliance Leadership page
Ontario PC Leadership Page
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