Politics
Tuesday February 25, 2003
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Print- U.S. SUPREME COURT ALLOWS STRONGEST EVER STATE ABORTION RESTRICTIONS
- SMALL GROUP OF CANADIAN RESEARCHERS ASK GOV'T TO ALLOW HUMAN CLONING
- FEMINISTS WHO INSISTED ON ABORTION FOR 9-YEAR-OLD NICARAGUAN GIRL EXCOMMUNICATED
- PRO-ABORTION TEACHER FIRED FROM CATHOLIC SCHOOL FILES COMPLAINT
- VATICAN NEGOTIATING CONSCIENCE CLAUSE IN SLOVAKIA
- PLANNED PARENTHOOD URGED 'SEND A CONDOM TO AFRICA IN THE PRESIDENT'S NAME'
- ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUP GIVES DONATIONS TO HUMAN EMBYRO RESEARCH COMPANY
- FOCUS ON THE FAMILY URGES BOYCOTT OF BIG BROTHERS, BIG SISTERS
- KOPP JURY SELECTION NEXT WEEK; JUDGE WANTS 'NO MORE DELAYS'
U.S. SUPREME COURT ALLOWS STRONGEST EVER STATE ABORTION RESTRICTIONS
TODAY'S HEADLINES
WASHINGTON, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld an eight-year-old Indiana state law that includes the country's most rigorous requirements for abortion, including
- mandatory face-to-face counselling about the risks
- with pictures of what the unborn baby looks like at the appropriate number of weeks
- a mandatory 18-hour waiting period before an abortion can be carried out.
Abortion clinics in the state had appealed to the court on grounds that in-person counselling was "an outrageous law that leaves many women without access to abortions, or certainly places a heavy burden, an undue burden, on a woman's right to choose" abortion, according to Kate Michelman with NARAL Pro-Choice America.
The new ruling means that Indiana can now finally enforce the law, which was passed democratically eight years ago but has been hamstrung in the courts by abortion industry lawyers.
For local coverage:
http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=57308
Back to TopSMALL GROUP OF CANADIAN RESEARCHERS ASK GOV'T TO ALLOW HUMAN CLONING
TORONTO, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A small group of professors and researchers from various Canadian universities are attempting to influence parliament to allow human cloning. The researchers claim that their aim is to use human cloning for research purposes only. Similar U.S. legislative proposals have been dubbed "clone and kill bills" since such cloning always involves the killing of cloned embryos.
The group has written an editorial in the Parliament Hill newspaper The Hill Times hoping to influence politicians to support human cloning. The list of professors includes: Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, University of Alberta, Abdallah Daar, Professor of Public Health Sciences and Surgery and Director, Program in Applied Ethics and Biotechnology, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, Bartha Knoppers, Canada Research Chair in Law and Medicine, University of Montreal, Peter A. Singer, Professor Medicine and Director, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, David Castle, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph and Ron Forbes, President and CEO, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF)
See the researcher's press release:
http://www.newswire.ca/releases/February2003/24/c2993.html
FEMINISTS WHO INSISTED ON ABORTION FOR 9-YEAR-OLD NICARAGUAN GIRL EXCOMMUNICATED
MANAGUA, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The top education official for the Managua Archdiocese has told the press that all those who participated in forcing the nine-year-old girl who was pregnant to have an abortion have excommunicated themselves. Monsignor Silvio Fonseca, said that the parents, the medical staff, and the feminist group, Network of Women Against Violence, which urged the abortion, "are excommunicated 'ipso facto'."
During his sermon on Sunday, Nicaraguan Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo warned that the abortion clinic staff were "putting themselves at the service of death" in killing the child. The Church had offered to care for the girl and cover medical expenses and take care of her child after birth if she so desired. Obando, the head of the Nicaraguan Bishop's conference said, "It's not that I'm going to excommunicate them, but that (the canonical sentence) falls upon them 'ipso facto.'"
PRO-ABORTION TEACHER FIRED FROM CATHOLIC SCHOOL FILES COMPLAINT
WILMINGTON, Deleware, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A pro-abortion woman who was fired from her post as a teacher at a private Catholic school after her support for abortion was mentioned in a newspaper ad celebrating Roe v Wade, has launched a discrimination complaint. Michele Curay-Cramer, 31, claims her dismissal violated the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which prohibits firing an employee for having an abortion.
Her attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger, believes the case will be a "slam-dunk". He said, "There are no exemptions for religious institutions for sexual discrimination." The investigation into the matter could take up to six months after which a court case may be launched.
Anthony Picarello, vice president and general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based public-interest law firm representing the school, said "we will be defending the school vigorously." He indicated that the school would not be intimidated by the legal tactics. "The school is not going to change its mind," he said.
See the News Journal coverage:
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2003/02/25firedursulinete.html
See related LifeSite coverage:
TEACHER AT CATHOLIC SCHOOL FIRED FOR PUBLIC SUPPORT OF ABORTION
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/jan/03012905.html
VATICAN NEGOTIATING CONSCIENCE CLAUSE IN SLOVAKIA
Allows Doctors to Refuse to Participate in Abortion, Parents to refuse Sex Ed
BRATISLAVA, Feb 24, 03 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) - Slovakia and the Vatican, which in November 2000 signed a general bilateral treaty, are now planning a new document to cover "reservation of conscience."
The new document will recognize the rights of Slovak citizens to refuse to carry out obligations imposed by the state, without incurring any penalty. It will cover such issues as conscientious objection to military service, the withdrawal of children from sex-education classes, and the refusal of teachers to give sex instruction. It will also protect workers who do not wish to work Sunday shifts (a major grievance in Slovakia is that certain enterprises- usually foreign or multi-national- have threatened staff with dismissal if they do not work Sundays). And, even more sensitive an issue at present, it will entitle doctors to refuse to carry out abortions.
The liberal abortion law currently in force in Slovakia dates from Communist times. However, the Christian Democratic Party, a junior member of the current ruling coalition, has challenged the legitimacy of this law, on the grounds that it contradicts the clause in the Slovak constitution guaranteeing the protection of human life. The constitutional court is due to rule on the issue at the beginning of April, and the legal challenge has inevitably sparked off a sharp debate.
Should the Slovak laws which currently ban euthanasia and human-cloning experiments be revoked, the measure will safeguard doctors who are opposed to such procedures.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD URGED 'SEND A CONDOM TO AFRICA IN THE PRESIDENT'S NAME'
Africans already inundated with condoms and needing basic medical supplies
LIFESITE, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U.S. Planned Parenthood Action Network campaign for National Condom Week, Feb. 14-21, encouraged supporters to send a condom to Africa in the President's name.
The campaign was launched to counter advice given to the president by conservatives emphasizing abstinence, not more condom use, in the massive African AIDS/HIV campaign announced by the president. The http://www.saveRoe.com web site stated, "President Bush and his extremist allies have launched a war on condoms. Unless you help, millions of men and women will be at risk as a result of the president's anti-condom agenda."
The program encouraged viewers to click on a link that would cause Planned Parenthood to send a condom to Africa in President Bush's name. Clicking on another link provided an opportunity for respondents to make a donation to send more than one condom.
As LifeSite has reported in previous stories, Africans are vastly overloaded with condoms and severely short of basic medicines, other health care, food and other basic survival supplies. As well, massive distribution of condoms across the continent has not appeared to lessen the severity of the epidemic and may in fact have made it far worse.
The African condom campaign has now been replaced on the website with a campaign to block the judicial nomination of legal conservative judge Miguel Estrada who does not believe the constitution could be interpreted to grant a right to abortion.
See Block Estrada page
http://www.ppaction.org/ppaction/home.html
and Save Roe page
http://www.saveroe.com/index.asp
See related LifeSite coverage:
CONDOMS SHOWN TO BE USELESS AGAINST HPV EPIDEMIC
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/sep/99092303.html
AFTER MASSIVE INCREASE IN CONDOM USE AIDS CONTINUES TO RAVAGE SOUTH AFRICA
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/dec/02120604.html
STUDY: CONDOMS HELP TO SPREAD AIDS
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/feb/00021103.html
AFRICAN BISHOPS SAY CONDOMS MAY BE MAIN REASON FOR SPREAD OF AIDS
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/jul/01073103.html
ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUP GIVES DONATIONS TO HUMAN EMBYRO RESEARCH COMPANY
Appears to prefer testing on human beings over animal testing
WASHINGTON, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has made grants totaling $300,000 to two research firms "to assist in the validation of non-animal test methods to replace existing animal tests," according to a column by David Kupelian on WorldNetDaily. But only one of the two companies "has denied using human embryos for their testing," raising the suggestion that PETA, world's largest animal rights organization, boasting 600,000 members, prefers testing on human beings over animal testing.
PETA's motive in making the donations, according to Kupelian, is to gain respectability and mainstream itself by showing "corporate citizenship in promoting alternative methods of testing." The implication is that experimenting with human embryos is more respectable to mainstream researchers than animal testing.
PETA's position is that it is easier to find consensus on animal rights because abortion rights involve a women's personal decision. "Okay, let's get this straight," Kupelian writes. "No one has the right to tell another person that it's wrong to kill the living, breathing, pain-feeling human baby living inside its mother. That's her business alone if she wants to kill it, so butt out." But animal testing is cruel and unnecessary, so
everyone should become a vegetarian.
For the full column see:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=18765
FOCUS ON THE FAMILY URGES BOYCOTT OF BIG BROTHERS, BIG SISTERS
In response to BBBSA directive telling chapters to accept homosexual mentors
LIFESITE, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - CNS News reported yesterday that the national Focus on the Family organization is calling on donors to the United Way to exclude Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) from their charitable contributions.
Focus on the Family initiated the action in response to BBBSA's national directive requiring its 490 local chapters to accept homosexual mentors to the children in its programs.
Dr. William Maier, vice president of Focus said that BBBSA leadership has been
inundated with criticism from parents, pro-family groups, members of Congress and even its own executive directors and board members on the policy.
Maier said that despite the inundation "the national office refuses to listen to their concerns" and "They're holding firm, they're being intransigent on this".
The policy was a result of the BBBSA choosing "to bow to the pressure
from gay activists".
In Canada, the Big Brothers organization has been accepting homosexual mentors for some time and in Toronto even awarded Big Brother of the year awards to a homosexual in 2000 and 2001.
See CNS News story
http://www.cnsnews.com/Culture/archive/200302/CUL20030224b.html
The original Focus article
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/commentary/a0024794.html
See related LifeSite coverage:
BIG BROTHERS PROMOTING HOMOSEXUAL MEN AS GUARDIANS FOR YOUNG BOYS
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/aug/01080303.html
NEW BOOK WARNS WE ARE AT 11TH HOUR OF HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVIST TRIUMPH OVER RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/feb/03022010.html
SPEAKER WARNS HOMOSEXUALITY BEING USED FOR INTERNATIONAL SECULAR HUMANIST AGENDA
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/feb/030207a.html
KOPP JURY SELECTION NEXT WEEK; JUDGE WANTS 'NO MORE DELAYS'
BUFFALO, February 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Jury selection in the trial of self-confessed abortionist shooter James C. Kopp will begin next Monday. Erie County Judge Michael L. D'Amico said, "We are picking a jury Monday, we'll start proof March 17."
But Kopp attorney Bruce A. Barket still wants state charges against Kopp thrown out, on grounds that France might not have extradited Kopp under current circumstances. Kopp was originally indicted for intentional murder, but after Kopp told reporters he did not intend to kill Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, prosecutors added a new charge of causing Slepian's death through "depraved indifference to life," the Buffalo News reports.
Judge D'Amico added, "I'm looking forward to starting on the 17th. I've been waiting to try this case since October. No more delays, we're getting going."
For local news coverage:
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030225/1022706.asp
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