Politics
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Tuesday January 29, 2002
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Print- CHRETIEN WANTS CLARK RETAINED AS CONSERVATIVE LEADER TO ENSURE SPLIT VOTE
- LEADING INT'L PHARMACY JOURNAL CONFIRMS MORNING AFTER PILL IS ABORTIFACIENT
- POPE SAYS FIGHT DIVORCE, "IT IS WORTH IT!"
- BIPARTISAN COALITION ASKS BUSH TO HALT UNFPA FUNDS
- U.S. SUPREME COURT ASKED TO OVERTURN RICO RULING AGAINST PRO-LIFE GROUPS
- LIFESITE NEWSBYTES
- US NEWS ROUNDUP
CHRETIEN WANTS CLARK RETAINED AS CONSERVATIVE LEADER TO ENSURE SPLIT VOTE
TODAY'S HEADLINES
OTTAWA, January 29, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Buried in a National Post story today is a claim that Prime Minister Jean Chretien is determined to ensure Joe Clark is retained as the Conservative Party leader to avoid a unification of conservatives.
Quoting an unnamed source, the Post reports that "While the Liberals will be happy to further weaken the opposition, Jean Chretien, the Prime Minister, wants to ensure the defections do not undermine Mr. Clark." According to the sources, "Mr. Chretien told the Liberal caucus yesterday he wants Mr. Clark to stay as leader to ensure the small "c" conservative vote continues to be splintered, which allows the Liberals to remain in power."
"We don't want to do anything to bring Joe down. We need him. It's necessary for a split in the vote," an MP quoted Mr. Chretien as saying.
See the coverage in the National Post:
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020129/1270361.html
Back to TopLEADING INT'L PHARMACY JOURNAL CONFIRMS MORNING AFTER PILL IS ABORTIFACIENT
CINCINNATI, OH, January 29, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The leading international peer-reviewed pharmacy journal has just released an article questioning the claims of morning-after pill advocates which suggest that the drugs "prevent pregnancy" rather than cause abortions. The report set to appear in the March issue of The Annals of Pharmacotherapy shows evidence that morning-after pill drug regimens may cause the death of a living embryo by blocking its attempts to attach inside the uterus.
"Postfertilization Effect of Hormonal Emergency Contraception," by Chris Kahlenborn, MD, Joseph B. Stanford, MD, MSPH, and Walter L. Larimore, MD, notes that morning-after pill regimens use the same active ingredients found in birth control pills - hormones such as levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol. It has been widely assumed that these ingredients work mainly by preventing ovulation. However, this report describes evidence that the drugs may sometimes fail to prevent ovulation and rely instead on an after-fertilization effect, causing abortion of the newly formed embryonic life.
The article points out that regardless of the personal beliefs of the physician or providers about the mechanism of these drugs, it is important that patients have information relevant to their own beliefs and value systems. Therefore, for women to whom the induced death of an embryonic life is important, failure to discuss the possibility of this loss, even if the possibility is judged to be remote, would be a failure of informed consent.
Kahlenborn and colleagues conclude that based on the data reviewed, an after-fertilization, early-abortion effect of these drugs is probably a more common event than is recognized by most physicians or patients. The questions raised by this timely analysis could have an impact on current, controversial efforts to make morning-after pill regimens available over-the-counter nationwide. They also present serious moral and ethical challenges to the use of these drugs in emergency rooms and private medical practice.
See the whole study on line in pdf format at:
http://phth.allenpress.com/images/Morning_afterpill.pdf
POPE SAYS FIGHT DIVORCE, "IT IS WORTH IT!"
Pope Addresses Fear of "Imposing" Morality
VATICAN, January 29, 2002 (LSN.ca) - In an address to the Roman Rota (Vatican tribunal that handles annulment appeals) yesterday, Pope John Paul II said the church must work to combat divorce and uphold the indissolubility of marriage.
"It is important to present in a positive way the indissoluble union, in order to rediscover the good and the beauty of it," said the Pope. "Above all," he continued, we "must overcome" the perception of the "indissolubility of marriage as a limit to the liberty of spouses and as a burden sometimes unbearable." He also stressed that Christians need to overcome the widespread notion that indissoluble marriage belongs only to believers, therefore they cannot 'impose' it on the civil society as a whole".
"It would almost seem," the Pope went on, "that divorce is so much rooted in certain circles of society, that it is not worthwhile to go on opposing by advocating a mentality of indissolubility in social customs and civil legislation. Indeed it is worthwhile!".
The Pope called for "strong opposition to all legal and administrative measures introducing divorce or that make equal to marriage defacto unions, even homosexual union." Rather, he said juridical measures should improve the "social recognition of true matrimony."
Addressing lawyers, he said, they "must always decline to use their profession to an end contrary to justice, such as divorce," noting that "they can only collaborate in such an activity when it, in the client's intent, is not aimed at the breaking of the marriage, but to other legitimate effects" such as care for the children. Judges, said the Pope, while having less discretion as to what cases they are called on to adjudicate, "must find effective means to favour the marriage union."
See the coverage of the Vatican Information Service (available today only) and the Catholic News Service:
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/20020128.htm
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/vis/dinamiche/d2_en.htm
BIPARTISAN COALITION ASKS BUSH TO HALT UNFPA FUNDS
WASHINGTON, January 29, 2002 (LSN.ca) - A bipartisan group of House members plan to send President George W. Bush a letter later this week demanding a halt to the $34 million in funding slated for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). "By operating in China, spending money there, and defending the Chinese population control system, the UNFPA clearly supports a program of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization," says the letter currently signed by six Republicans and three Democrats. Moreover, the Washington Times reports that House GOP leaders are drafting a similar letter to send to the White House.
At a press conference last week, Chinese immigrant Ma Dong Fang told the tragic story of how she was forced by the Chinese government to have an abortion after she became pregnant with her second child in 1991. She related that after the abortion she was given an IUD without her knowledge and then forced to have Norplant implanted before she fled China. "There are a million stories like mine in China, and a million women who wish to escape the one-child policy," she said.
Given the growing mountain of evidence showing the UNFPA support for China's coercive abortion program, the president has little choice but to deny the group funds. Since 1985, the foreign operations bill has included language prohibiting funds for any organization that "supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization." The Times notes that President Reagan denied federal funds for UNFPA based on that prohibition, as did Mr. Bush's father. UNFPA funding was reinstated under President Clinton.
For more see the Washington Times coverage at:
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020129-4094726.htm
U.S. SUPREME COURT ASKED TO OVERTURN RICO RULING AGAINST PRO-LIFE GROUPS
WASHINGTON, January 29, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The American Center for Law and Justice, an international public interest law firm, announced yesterday it is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take a case and overturn a lower court ruling that determined the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute could be used against pro-life organizations.
"It is clear that a federal statute - designed for drug dealers and organized crime - has been misapplied and turned against pro-life groups," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. "To let the federal RICO statute be misused to target the pro-life community is not only offensive, but represents a grave injustice. To equate a sit-in with criminal extortion and racketeering is an insult to the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, and just about any other serious social protest movement in this nation's history. We are hopeful the high court considers this case and overturns this disturbing decision."
The ACLJ filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court yesterday in the case of Operation Rescue v. National Organization for Women, et al. asking the court to overturn a federal appeals court ruling in October 2001 that upheld a lower court judgment that determined that pro-life defendants were liable for "extortion" and "racketeering" under the federal RICO statute and awarded damages to abortion businesses, while upholding a nationwide injunction issued against the pro-life groups.
The 15-year-old case culminated in October 2001 when a federal appeals court upheld a finding by a federal district court and jury that several pro-life groups engaged in a nationwide conspiracy to shut down the abortion industry and were punished with damages and an injunction under provisions of the federal RICO statute.
The Supreme Court may decide as early as March whether to review the case.
For more see the ACLJ press release at:
http://www.aclj.org/news/pressreleases/020128_rico.asp
LIFESITE NEWSBYTES
IRISH GOV'T EXPECTED TO ANNOUNCE DATE OF REFERENDUM THIS WEEK
Most likely date is March 7, 2001.
http://www.online.ie/news/latest_irish/viewer.adp?article=1647107
75,000 SIGNATURES SENT TO GERMAN PARLIAMENT IN DEFENCE OF HUMAN EMBRYO
A decision from parliament on the use of human embryos for stem cell research is expected January 30.
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=15688
US NEWS ROUNDUP
JUDGE ORDERS PRO-LIFERS TO STOP PICKETING AT TEA ROOM
An Illinois judge has ordered a pro-life group to stop demonstrations within 1,500 feet of a tea room that caters to young girls 3-12. Madison County Associate Judge Louis Mallott issued a temporary restraining order Friday against the pro-life group picketing at Teabearies Tea Room since its owner works at an abortuary.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-abort27.html
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