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LifeSiteNews.com Stories Now Posted on Line During The Day

January 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As of today, LifeSiteNews.com has begun posting its stories on line one at a time during the day as each story is completed. We will no longer be publishing our reports all at once at the end of the day.

This new process will allow us to provide you the news in a more timely manner and will lighten the end of day workload for our very busy staff.

Another small step for mankind! Well, it's an improvement that we are sure many of our readers will appreciate. We know some of you would prefer to get to bed a bit earlier rather than wait up for our eventually arriving daily news.

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Senator Hillary Clinton Blasts Bush Administration over Abortion

NEW YORK, January 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Abortion crusader and New York Senator Hillary Clinton condemned US President George W. Bush Tuesday, claiming his withdrawal of funding from organizations that commit or promote abortions is harming women.

Speaking at an International Women's Health Coalition-sponsored dinner, Clinton claimed that "reproductive health care and family planning service is a basic right," and said this was based on decisions reached at the 1994 U.N. Population Conference in Cairo, as well as the 1995 U.N. women's conference in Beijing, where Clinton gave a keynote address.

She argued that the Bush administration has failed to uphold the so-called reproductive rights of women, by withdrawing funding from abortion-supporting organizations such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Clinton also maintained that the President’s focus on abstinence in sex education was hampering efforts to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, despite the UN’s own admission that condom failure rate for preventing HIV transmission may be as high as 20 percent.

"ABC is a good strategy, but it has three parts to it and we need to remind the administration of that".

The highly successful Ugandan ABC program first emphasizes abstinence, being faithful within marriage, and lastly, condom use, as measures to prevent the HIV transmission rate. Experts say the Ugandan success is comparable to a "highly effective vaccine." The last, least emphasized and least effective part of the Ugandan program, which involves condoms, is presumably the component that Clinton was referring to.

The innocuous-sounding International Women's Health Coalition promotes abortion and contraception through funding programs in Africa, South and Central America. Their web site describes “. . . the world's most challenging health and rights issue” as “comprehensive sexuality education for adolescents and young adults.”

IWHC also actively opposes the Bush administration policies that oppose the funding of abortion. “We have worked with other organizations and governments to defeat U.S. efforts at meetings in Asia and at the UN to remove ‘reproductive health’ and other key phrases from negotiating texts,” their web site states.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Democrats Gear Up to Launch Hillary Clinton for President in 2008
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04110403.html
New Research Confirms Condoms Not Effective in HIV Prevention
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jan/04011408.html
United Nations Report says Condoms Fail to Protect against AIDS 10% of the Time
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/jun/03062303.html

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German School Official Declares "Homeschooling Illegal"

PADERBORN COUNTY, Germany, January 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A German school official has ordered seven families homeschooling their children in Northwest Germany to enroll their children in public schools immediately, or the children will be forcibly removed by police and taken to school. Any resistance on the part of the parents will result in the children being removed from their homes, according to a Home School Legal Defense Association report.

The families argued that, as Christians, they wanted to protect their children from the godless and humanistic values being taught in public schools. They also assured officials that they were providing an adequate education through a German correspondence school.

County education director Heinz Kohler dismissed the families' beliefs, stating, "you and your children are not living in isolation on some island but rather in an environment posing intra- and extracurricular situations where you'll have to accept that your world view will be curtailed."

Kohler further explained that homeschooling could not be allowed as "children should not be encapsulated or kept apart from the outside world. In these cases, the parents' rights to personally educate their children would prevent the children from growing up to be responsible individuals within society…"

The Home School Legal Defense Association is calling all those concerned to contact their German embassy to voice disapproval of the measure:

Wolfgang Ischinger, Ambassador
German Embassy - US
4645 Reservoir Road NW
Washington, DC, 20007-1998
(202) 298-4000

The US embassy can also be e-mailed from its website: http://www.globescope.biz/germany/reg/index.cfm

Christian Pauls, Ambassador
German Embassy – Canada
1 Waverley Street, Ottawa, ON, K2P 0T8
Tel.: 613-232-1101 Fax: 613-594-9330
Email:

You may also contact the local German officials involved in the case:

Mr. Manfred Mueller (county official)

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Vancouver Woman Chooses Life for Her Baby just before Dying of Breast Cancer

VANCOUVER, January 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Gabriele Helms, an assistant professor of English at the University of British Columbia died on New Years Eve of breast cancer, but not before giving life to her much-awaited daughter who was born at 26 ½ weeks just before her mother’s death.

Helms’ first battle with breast cancer was in 2001 after she miscarried her first child. She went through months of treatment and afterward helped found a support group for women survivors of breast cancer. When the cancer returned in September 2004, she was already pregnant again with her second child. Friends report that her joy at being a mother was visible even through the difficulties of treatment.

In Canada it is routine for pregnant women diagnosed with cancer to abort, but Helms’ friends said that being a mother was her first priority. Ruth Kwok, Helms’ friend and fellow breast cancer survivor, told the Province newspaper, “She was in excruciating pain but she was still elated about her pregnancy. I saw her during her stay in the hospital and she was always putting her hand on her stomach because she could feel the baby by that time. In (Gabi’s) obituary, it says she chose her daughter over herself. She did that because she wanted the child so much.”

The baby, Hana Gabriele, was due in early April and she will have to spend several months in hospital yet. “I believe she (Helms) was happy when she passed. The doctors believe that Gabi was aware, that she knew she had delivered a child,” Kwok said. “It was the No. 1 priority in her life.”

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Sweden's Conviction of Pastor for Preaching on Homosexuality Violates International Law

WASHINGTON, January 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty submitted an amicus (friend of the court) brief yesterday with the Swedish Supreme Court calling for the Court to reverse the conviction of a pastor prosecuted for presenting Christan teaching on homosexuality from the pulpit.

Pastor Ake Green was sentenced to one month in jail for a sermon he preached to his congregation in 2003 on Biblical texts addressing homosexuality. The sermon was later printed in a local newspaper and Green was prosecuted on the basis that his sermon offended Sweden's homosexual community.

The Becket Fund, a nonpartisan, interfaith, public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions, is a Non-Governmental Organization in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.

The Becket Fund submitted the brief to inform the Gotta Supreme Court of Sweden's obligations to guarantee each of its citizens the religious liberty, freedom of expression, and equal protection of the laws secured by Articles 18, 19, and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ("ICCPR"), to which Sweden is a signatory.

Article 18 provides, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching."

As The Becket Fund's brief notes, "Article 18 provides that it is not the role of a government composed of men to declare what is orthodoxy by punishing those who publicly teach one religious view of what is right, even if that view may offend others."

Article 19 states, "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds . . ." And Article 26 prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion "or other opinion."

"Should this Court uphold Pastor Green's conviction-which was based solely upon the expression of his religious beliefs in a sermon preached to his congregation-Sweden will be in violation of all three of these bedrock principles of international human rights law," the brief declared.

"Pastor Green's case is a wake-up call that we must be vigilant not to let that happen here," declared Becket Fund Director of Litigation Derek Gaubatz. "Free religious expression is a fundamental human right. People around the world have always looked to their religious leaders for moral guidance, and those leaders must be allowed to provide it free of state censorship.

See the amicus brief in full:
http://www.becketfund.org/pdfs/333_36.pdf

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German Cardinal Does Not Apologize for Abortion-Holocaust Comparison but Regrets Misinterpretation

COLOGNE, January 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A press release clarifying the abortion-holocaust comparison made by German Cardinal Joachim Meisner in a recent homily has been taken for an apology. However, there was no apology for the comparison made but only an expressed regret that the comments were misinterpreted.

Several news organizations ran with headlines such as ‘German Catholic Leader Apologizes for Abortion-Holocaust Comparisons’, ‘Archbishop regrets comparing abortion to Holocaust’, ‘Bishop sorry for abortion, Holocaust comparison’. However, nowhere in the release from the archdiocese does the Archbishop of Cologne suggest that the comparison was inaccurate.

The Cardinal’s German-language release clarifies that the statement he made in a January 6 homily stating that “first there was Herod, who ordered the children of Bethlehem to be killed, then there was Hitler and Stalin among others, and today unborn children are being killed in their millions.” The release notes that the quotation came in the midst of explaining that “When man makes himself Lord over life, others lose their lives.”

In his sermon the Cardinal said that since God is the only Lord of life, when man does not recognize he is not the center of the universe, or see and accept his limitations, attacks on life such as the holocaust and abortion take place. He noted that “Abortion and Euthanasia are the results of these arrogant revolts against God,” and offences against the first commandment.

The original statement was attacked vehemently by pro-abortion political parties but also by Jewish groups, one of which went so far as to threaten a lawsuit against the Cardinal. The president of the Central Council for Jews in Germany, Paul Spiegel (photo), said the cardinal had insulted the millions of victims of the Holocaust and that he was considering taking the matter to court.

Condemnation came even from groups some may have expected to be onside. The ecumenical movement Initiative Kirche told the press, “Meisner has completely lost his authority as a bishop and has publicly done a great wrong to the Catholic Church and to dialogue between Jews and Christians."

In the release, Cardinal Meisner said, “If I would even have suspected that my reference to Hitler could have been so misunderstood, I would have omitted it. I am sorry that it came to this.” He allowed that in the documentation of the sermon the reference to Hitler’s name would be omitted. Therefore the comparisons between Herod’s killing of the innocents at the time of Christ, and Stalin’s war crimes, to abortion would be retained. As would the point of the homily: “When man makes himself Lord over life, others lose their lives.”

The release also noted tragically: “Today, there exists nearly universal acceptance that man can decide on the right to life of unborn children.”

Pro-life leaders have suggested that the comparison between abortion and the other atrocities throughout history are not only appropriate but necessary. “In today’s relativistic times, it seems the only evil which still touches people whose hearts have grown cold are the atrocities of Hitler. The comparison not only fits like a glove, but is necessary to bring people out of their blissfully ignorant slumber,” Jim Hughes of the International Right to Life Federation told LifeSiteNews.com.


See the release (in German):
http://www.erzbistum-koeln.de/opencms/opencms/erzbistum/Aktuelles/index.html?cms...

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Consumer Reports Feb 2005: Pro-Abortion Edition

CEO of Consumer Organization is Former Planned Parenthood Leader

YONKERS, New York, January 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The latest edition of Consumer Reports compares contraceptive methods, including abortion as a means of contraception. WorldNetDaily also reported today that James A. Guest, CEO of Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports, was once head of Planned Parenthood Maryland.

Jayne Wallace, a communications consultant with Consumers Union, told WND, "The fact that [Guest] worked for Planned Parenthood had nothing to do with this article."

The Consumer Report claims that abortion fatalities are 1 per 100,000 v 11.3 per 100,000 for carrying a baby to full-term, figures typically used by pro-abortion organizations that disseminate misinformation on abortion and contraception.

In fact, a study of pregnancy-associated deaths published in a March 2004 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.

American Life League president Judie Brown also points out that "a woman obtaining an induced abortion is 6 times more likely to die from suicide (intentional injury) than women who give birth, and 3 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population."

Brown also highlights that the information given by Consumer Reports about the pill fails to mention that, besides preventing ovulation, the pill also causes abortion by preventing a newly formed baby from implanting within the mother's womb.

"If this organization is serious about presenting fair, unbalanced, unbiased information about this 'product,' it needs to include the most important fact about this drug: the birth control pill can and will kill preborn babies," Brown says in a release.

"Consumer Reports needs to get its facts straight on birth control pills," Brown continues. "Otherwise, it should focus on its traditional reviews of sewing machines and toasters."

To express views to Consumer Reports: http://custhelp.consumerreports.org/cgi-bin/consumerreports.cfg/php/enduser/ask....

Or write to: Consumer Reports, 101 Truman Ave., Yonkers, NY 10703-1057.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com report:
Study: Maternal Death Rate From Legal Abortions Three Times Higher than from Childbirth
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/mar/04030801.html

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LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes

See what state gay activists have in store for Christians who exercise free speech rights
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42337

No Kid Rock at Bush concert
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42351

President outlines role of his faith
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050111-101004-3771r.htm

Pro-abort Soros group raises stakes in battle with US neo-cons
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c0e45a86-6408-11d9-b0ed-00000e2511c8.html

Consumer Reports CEO led Planned Parenthood - Revelation comes after story pushing abortion from publication that claims it has 'no agenda'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42339

Mobile phones tumour risk to young children
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2-1436543%2C00.html

CBS' Downfall Just the Tip of the Iceberg
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6813945/

Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta 1
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1749935,00.asp

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