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Study: Maternal Death Rate From Legal Abortions Three Times Higher than from Childbirth

SPRINGFIELD, March 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study of pregnancy-associated deaths published in the latest issue of the "American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology" (AJOG) has found that the mortality rate associated with abortion is 2.95 times higher than that associated with pregnancies carried to term. The study included the entire population of women 15 to 49 years of age in Finland between 1987 and 2000. The researchers linked birth and abortion records to death certificates.

The annual death rate of women who had an abortion in the previous year was also 46% higher than that of non-pregnant women. Women who carried to term had a significantly lower death rate than non-pregnant women. Non-pregnant women had 57.0 deaths per 100,000, compared to 28.2 for women who carried to term, 51.9 for women who miscarried, and 83.1 for women who had abortions. The authors, led by Mika Gissler of Finland's National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, concluded that pregnancy contributes to a healthy effect on women.

The study also revealed the difficulties involved in identifying direct and indirect effects of pregnancy on subsequent deaths. An examination of deaths from natural causes that were identified as "not pregnancy related" revealed that women who had abortions were significantly more likely (1.7 times) to die from natural causes that were not attributed to pregnancy on the death certificates. They were also 6.3 times more likely to die from violent causes.

This is the second record-based study to be published in the last eighteen months to show that death rates following abortion are significantly higher than those associated with birth. The other study, published in the "Southern Medical Journal," linked death records to Medi-Cal payments for births and abortions for approximately 173,000 low income Californian women. In that study, the researchers discovered that women who had abortions were almost twice as likely to die in the following two years and that the elevated mortality rate of aborting women persisted over at least eight years.

The citations for the studies listed follow:

Gissler M, Berg C, Bouvier-Colle MH, Buekens P. Pregnancy-associated mortality after birth, spontaneous abortion or induced abortion in Finland, 1987-2000. Am J Ob Gyn 2004; 190:422-427.

Reardon DC, Ney PG, Scheuren F, Cougle J, Coleman PK, Strahan TW. Deaths associated with pregnancy outcome: a record linkage study of low income women. South Med J 2002 Aug;95(8):834-41.

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Former Member of President's Bioethics Council Accuses Chairman of Pro-Life 'Political' Bias

BOSTON, March 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - One of the members of the President's Council on Bioethics whose term has recently expired has co-authored a critique of the board's own reports on stem cell research. In the report, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, along with Janet Rowley, a University of Chicago biologist, accuses the council's chairman, Leon Kass of political bias in supporting the use of adult stem cells as opposed to stem cells derived from embryos. US stem cell researchers often complain of the restrictions placed on the use of embryos to create cultured stem cell lines for pure research.

The critique alleges that the council's last report, "Monitoring Stem Cell Research," omitted recent research findings that might cast doubt on the potential of adult stem cells. Adult stem cells have been used for many years to treat all kinds of serious diseases such as cancer. Recently, adult stem cells were used to all but cure a patient of severe Parkinson's disease in a clinical trial.

Some of the most prominent researchers in the field have admitted that the use of cells derived from embryos will likely never be used in direct therapies for diseases, but they continue to insist that embryonic cells are necessary as an aid to other important research.

Dr. Blackburn accuses the Council of advancing a political agenda saying, "There is always this strong implication [in the reports] that medical research is not what God intended, that there is something unnatural about it." Dr. Blackburn complained that she had been fired from the Council because of her opposition to the pro-life stance often taken by Council reports on the use of embryos in research. A spokesman for the Council said that her term had simply expired.

Previous LifeSiteNews.com Coverage:
Bush Appoints Three Pro-Life Members to Bioethics Council
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/mar/04030202.html

Boston.com coverage:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/03/06/presidents_panel_skewed_fa...

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Pro-Abortion "Catholic" Sheila Copps Loses Nomination Bid

HAMILTON March 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Sheila Copps, a pro-abortion "Catholic" MP and former Heritage Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, lost her bid for the Liberal nomination for her riding. Copps was in a fight for her seat in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek with the new Liberals under Paul Martin. She has been in a political free fall since dropping out of the Liberal leadership race against Paul Martin.

Copps has a long history of anti-life and anti-Catholic sentiments and votes. On almost every serious issue she has been on the wrong side of her own church.

In August 2003, Calgary bishop Fred Henry warned then Prime Minister Chretien that he endangered his immortal soul by his stance on homosexual "marriage". Copps responded, "I don't think the position that the prime minister is taking should subject him to the wrath of a religious leader who has a perspective. It's a perspective that clearly, in certain cases, does not embrace equality"

She is on record saying, "I can say unequivocally that I support gay marriage. Well, the right of same-sex couples to marry is a critical issue for me because it is a fundamental issue of human rights."

In her own opposition to the right of the unborn to life, she has been adamant. In November of 2000, she attacked the Canadian Alliance party for wanting "to take away a woman's right to choose."

The militant feminist MP is not going quietly, however, saying that she is considering a formal challenge to Transport Minister Tony Valeri's nomination. She alleged that a large number of her supporters were kept out of the nomination meeting, and says that she is collecting documentation for a challenge.

CNEWS coverage:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/03/07/374042-cp.html

Previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage of Copps' anti-life, anti-family position:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/aug/03080105.html

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National Action Committee on the Status of Women is Left Behind by Canadian Women

OTTAWA, March 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The militantly pro-abortion and anti-family National Action Committee on the Status of Women, (NAC), is claiming that it is insolvent and cannot afford to maintain office hours. The group is in talks with the federal government seeking relief of tax debts. Bev Meslo, the group's representative in B.C. says, "NAC is in crisis. It needs financial support."

Since its founding in 1972, the NAC has been a lobbying juggernaut for the full range of pro-abortion, feminist and anti-family measures at the federal level and internationally. For nearly thirty years the NAC and its affiliated organizations directed national policy on every conceivable issue affecting families. Its influence was felt in Revenue Canada, Canadian foreign policy at the United Nations, Child and Family services, legal challenges on "gay rights," and the suppression of religious freedom through the courts.

The NAC is perhaps best known as the lobby group that has vigorously fought to maintain the current lawlessness on abortion and which supported Dr. Henry Morgentaler in his abortion campaign. Judy Rebick, one of Morgentaler's most energetic and loyal defenders is a past president. More recently the NAC was a promoter and organizer in Canada for the World March for Women which co-opted Catholic support for its pro-abortion, pro-gay policies causing unprecedented turmoil in the Roman Catholic Church in Canada.

Seven years ago, however, the Liberal government cut funding to the group, which represents over 700 feminist groups as an umbrella organization. Since then the NAC has been working on fundraising. The group, despite its power in Ottawa, has been losing the support of many women in Canada with whom its radical policies and militant agenda fail to resonate. Despite their hopes, the funding shortfall has not been made up with donations and the head office in Ottawa is effectively closed.

Said Rebick "I've been sad about the demise of NAC and the demise of feminist activism on the national level over last five or six years."

Mary Ellen Douglas National Organiser for Campaign Life Coalition said, "The NAC is a throwback to the radical feminist days of the 60's and 70's and today's women are smarter than that."

CP coverage:
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2004/03/08/374224.html

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Governor General Award for Visual Arts goes to Author of "Blood Campaign"

Adrienne Clarkson calls artists the "advance guards of our developing culture"

OTTAWA, March 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Istvan Kantor has been selected as one of this this years' recipients of the Governor General's award for Visual and Media Arts. Kantor is well known for his 1977 "Blood Campaign" during which, among other stunts, he suspended himself naked in the lotus position with his mouth full of his own blood. The same "performance" displayed Kantor naked in a shallow grave while a vial of his own blood was made to ooze from his anus.

The awards acknowledge "distinguished career achievement" in media and visual arts. In a statement released in advance of the awards, to be given out on March 10, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson said "Whether as teachers, as advocates or as makers of art (and often as all three), the honourees are leaders, advance guards of our developing culture."

Among the recipients is also included Eric Cameron, famous for layering hundreds of coats of paint over normal, "everyday objects".

Each recipient gets $15,000 of Canadian taxpayers money, as well as a ceramic original from last year's winner of the Saidye Bronfman Award, Walter Ostrom.

Adrienne Clarkson was featured on LifeSiteNews.com last month for conferring the Order of Canada upon Eldon Hay, a homosexual activist United Church minister who performed a homosexual 'marriage' in New Brunswick. Same-sex "marriage" remains against the law in that province. See the report at: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/feb/04021001.html

Read the CBC coverage of the award at: http://toronto.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=to_kantor20040303

Also read the related LifeSiteNews.com report "Canadian Governor General Sends Congrats on Gay 'Marriage'" at: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/jan/01011601.html

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Toronto Priest Disciplined for Support of Homosexual 'Marriage' Now Says He's 'Gay'

Homosexual Activists Campaign Archdiocese on Priest's Behalf

TORONTO, March 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Father Tim Ryan, the Toronto Priest who was forbidden to say public Masses by the Archdiocese of Toronto last month for having submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court of Canada in defence of homosexual 'marriage', has indicated he is 'gay' in an opinion piece in the Toronto Star.

Rev. Ryan defends his position against the Catholic Church's consistent moral teaching saying, "For the last 30 years, I have struggled, along with many others, to develop mutual support structures for gays, lesbians and other sexual minorities within a church that has remained generally inhospitable to the acceptance of such human diversity." He indicates he is actively 'gay' saying, "While many Catholic gays and lesbians have left the Church behind or have opted to move on to more welcoming Christian communities, some of us have chosen to remain. In addition to trying to create and maintain a small welcoming community within the church, we have tried to engage in patient dialogue with the larger church."

Playing the martyr for his cause, Ryan writes that for his actions, "I have since been stripped of my ability to serve in public ministry in my church - a penalty I feel to be profoundly unjust. But if the price of siding publicly with our courts and government in their efforts to extend basic human rights to a minority in Canada in the year 2004 requires that I pay this heavy a price within my own church community, then I feel very deeply saddened, but at peace with my decision." Any sexual activity outside of marriage has always been considered a serious moral rather than "rights" issue and a mortal sin in Catholic teaching.

Meanwhile, the homosexual activists who helped mastermind homosexual activist legal challenges to the definition of marriage are now campaigning for Ryan. They have urged their supporters to call the Archdiocese of Toronto to complain about Ryan's suspension, supposedly to browbeat the diocese into caving into the demands of the publicly defiant priest.

In comments to homosexual activists Ryan was more blunt about his unrepentant state. "I'm not taking this lying down," he told Samesexmarriage.ca. "Since they've gone public, so have I." Ryan said, ""It's not that I regret providing the affidavit. I regret the penalty and I think it's unfair, but if that's the price to pay on a civil rights issue, I've paid it. It means a lot to me. It's a big loss. It's heavy handed. I thought they would publicly criticize me, which is fair, but I never expected they would go to these lengths."

See previous LifeSite coverage which includes a link to the full affidavit:
Toronto Diocese Serious About Defending Marriage: Disciplines Dissident Priest
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/mar/04030502.html
Toronto Catholic Priest Files Supreme Court Affidavit Supporting Same-Sex
Marriage
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/feb/04020308.html

See Tim Ryan's column in The Star and the homosexual activist's coverage:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_T...
http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/equality/030504.htm

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Vatican Counsels Animal Experiments Be Done Before Experiments on Humans

Notes 'what is technically possible is not for that very reason morally admissible'

VATICAN, March 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - With some researchers turning away from experimentation on animals out of political correctness, while at the same time engaging in research involving human embryos, a Vatican statement backing animal experimentation is sure to ruffle some feathers. The Pontifical Academy For Life has released a concluding communiqué on their Feb 24-26 meeting on the "Ethics Of Biomedical Research. For A Christian Vision"

The document speaks of the need to "fully respect every person's inalienable dignity as a person, his right to life and his substantial physical integrity." In a proposed ethical commitment for researchers in the field, researchers are asked to recognize, because of their "duty to safeguard human life and health, the usefulness and the obligation of a serious and responsible experimentation on animals, carried out according to determined ethical guidelines, before applying new diagnostic and therapeutic methodologies to human beings." Only when experiments are shown to be harmless or with acceptable degree of harm to animals, are they to be permitted on human beings.

Thus the Vatican points out that the human embryo, increasingly used today as research fodder, is in fact a human being, worth more than animals and worthy of the same dignity due all children of God.

Another highlight of the Pontifical Academy's document notes that "there are no ethical limits to the knowledge of the truth, that is, there are no 'barriers' beyond which the human person is forbidden to apply his cognitive energy." However, the dignity of the human person demands, "precise ethical limits are set out for the manner the human being in search of the truth should act, since 'what is technically possible is not for that very reason morally admissible'".

See the full document of the Pontifical Academy at:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdlife/documents/rc_pont...

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Seattle Mayor to Engage in Homosexual Activism

Will mandate recognition of same-sex couples "married" elsewhere

SEATTLE, March 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Seattle's mayor has announced a decision to recognize the same-sex "marriages" of city employees who are "married" elsewhere. By doing so, mayor Greg Nickels will confer upon them all the benefits and protections normally extended to legally married heterosexual spouses such as health care and pensions.

Nickels told The Associated Press that the measure is "the next best thing" to issuing marriage licenses - a move he says he cannot do, because that decision belongs to the county.

If council approves the idea, it would also mandate that all contractors who do business with the city tender the same benefits to its employees.

State Christian Coalition head Rick Forcier is critical of the plan. He calls the move an obvious abuse of state law. "What he's about to do is anarchy -- taking the law into his own hands," Forcier told the AP. "People cannot be recognized as married in one jurisdiction and not in another."

In 1988, state legislators passed the "Defense of Marriage Act", defining marriage as between a man and a woman. The move made Washington the 38th state to enact such legislation. Governor Gary Locke vetoed the law but was subsequently countermanded by the House.

The executive order to be issued by Nickels on Monday would alter the wording from 'husband' or 'wife' on current forms to simply say "spouse".

Read the CNN report at: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/LAW/03/08/gay.marriage.ap/

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Homosexual "Wedding" First in Korea

SEOUL, March 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two men took part in what is being called the first overtly homosexual "marriage" ceremony in Korea. The ceremony was attended by 20 friends and 10 reporters from both newspaper and television, but no family members were in attendance.

Same-sex "marriages" are not officially recognized by the state, thus the pair were refused a marriage certificate from the ward office. But Lee Sang-chul and Park Jong-geu were satisfied with the public acknowledgement of their undertaking. "Since it is virtually impossible to register our marriage, we will just be satisfied with an official endorsement of the wedding ceremony," Lee told the Korea Herald.

The president of the company Lee and Park work for -- an organization which disseminates information for Korean homosexuals --presided over the ceremony.

When a popular Korean actor divulged his homosexuality in 2000, a public outcry ensued. Hong Suk-cheon was not seen on the screen for almost four years. In December he returned to Television playing the part of a homosexual man.

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Former Homosexual Says the Issue is Not Protecting Marriage; It's Homosexuality

Say efforts wasted "into what will only boil down to preserving the word 'marriage'"

HUNTINGTON, CT, March 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Stephen Bennett spent 11 years of his life, up to age 28, actively living the homosexual lifestyle. He later wrote that "I've lost many 'gay' friends who are dead today because they contracted AIDS from sodomy".

Today, Bennett is now happily married to his wife of 10 years and is the father of their two little children. He is also Executive Director of Stephen Bennett Ministries in Huntington, CT - which he describes as "a pro-family organization advocating for the traditional family, the protection of children and proclaiming the truth about homosexuality".

In his Jan. 23, 2004 newsletter Bennett warned that Pro-family groups were making a serious mistake in their efforts to protect the traditional definition of marriage. He wrote that "countless hours and millions of dollars are being invested - and wasted - into what will only boil down to preserving the word 'marriage'".

Bennett expanded that "Many feel, 'What's the sense of this effort if homosexuals will ultimately be granted the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples, minus the word "marriage"? "Actually", he says, "many wonder, 'What's wrong with homosexual couples in committed, same-sex relationships having the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples?'"

The Director of Stephen Bennett Ministries concluded, "The issue here is not about protecting marriage - it's about homosexuality." Because of this he emphasizes that "Many fine pro-family groups are missing the whole boat on this issue" and that "they will ultimately fail in their attempt to preserve marriage" unless they address homosexuality.

Bennett is concerned about the welfare of those who are involved in the lifestyle into which he was immersed for 11 years. He states, "Granting homosexuals the right to marry or adopt children is deliberately creating dysfunctional families. This only enables them to remain trapped in a falsehood - a deception and a counterfeit of the real. It's about time we put down the politics and the spin, and address the real issue at hand".

LifeSite interviewed Stephen Bennett on March 1st about his January newsletter article and some of the changes in his understanding of an effective marriage protection strategy since that time.

See the interview in today's LifeSite Special Report at:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/mar/040308a.html

See the Stephen Bennett website at
http://www.sbministries.org/news.html

See CBN News article
Former Homosexual Says 'No one is born gay'
http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/News/030721a.asp

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LifeSite NewsBytes

The Passion of the Christ Total Revenue as of Mar. 7, 2004: $213,888,740 +
Overseas Gross: $3,491,000 / Australia, New Zealand & Greece
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=passionofthechrist.htm

Nurse gets 15 years for killing patient, 91, claims 'mercy killing'
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County...

UCLA Higher Ups Caught Selling Donated Cadavers
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040307/ts_latimes/arr...

Irish Pro-Abortion Group Seeks Repeal of Abortion Information Act
http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=79690840&p=7969y4zx&n=79691449

No shades of gray in Gibson's 'Passion'
http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/print.php?referer=http://www.azcentr...

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