Thursday February 7, 2002

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BUSH ADMINISTRATION FILES BRIEF SUPPORTING PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION RESTRICTION IN OHIO

WASHINGTON, February 7, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The Department of Justice has filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to support Ohio's restriction on partial-birth abortion. The brief argues that Ohio's law restricting partial-birth abortion is different from the Nebraska law that was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Stenberg vs. Carhart, and therefore should be upheld.

"Forced abortion," Smith said, "as we all know, was properly ruled a crime against humanity at the Nazi War Crimes Tribunals that were held in Nuremburg. Enablers like the U.N. Population Fund, have white-washed these crimes [in China] for more than two decades."

Smith said, according to Dr. John Ayer, a leading demographer of China, China's population control program remains coercive today by design and intention. "Claims of moderation put forth by the UNFPA and other apologists, and repeated in the United States press, lack foundation." Coercion in China will continue "as long as the United States and other countries go on ignoring the human rights violations in the program, and providing financial support and encouragement for it."

"I know that this administration believes passionately in the right to life and in all human rights," he said. "I just ask you to put this higher on the visibility -- on the dialogue -- and let there be a tangible consequence if the Chinese just talk. but do nothing to mitigate these egregious abuses."

Powell responded, "You can be sure the president does feel that way. And so we are very sensitive to the concerns you raise, and we will raise them with the Chinese later this month."

Reacting to the news, Steve Mosher, president of Population Research Institute - the leading group in exposing the coercive abortion support of UNFPA - told LifeSite he is encouraged by the Bush Administration commitment to raise these issues with the Chinese. However, he cautioned, "Let's be realistic, they will be dealing with top officials of the world's most oppressive and totalitarian regime who are habituated in the art of double speak." Mosher continued, "The most effective way for President Bush to end US support of forced abortion in China is to permanently zero fund UNFPA."

Indeed the propaganda war has already begun. The London Telegraph reported Saturday that "Beijing is furious with Mr. Bush, who has been swayed by reports implicating the UNFPA in abuses of the one-child policy." China's foreign ministry told The Telegraph that the US had not made the 'correct choice'. The communist regime spokesman lobbied hard for UNFPA funding saying, "Some Americans, acting regardless of the facts, have lobbied for the US to cancel its donation to the UNFPA. This is with ulterior intentions, and is unfavourable for international co-operation in population control."

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INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT IS 8 RATIFICATIONS AWAY FROM ENTERING INTO FORCE

Remaining Ratifications Expected "In The Next Eight To Twelve Weeks"

UNITED NATIONS, February 7, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Four ratifications of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) this year have brought the total ratifications to 52, eight short of the number needed for the ICC to enter into force. In January Benin and Estonia became Parties to the ICC with Portugal and Ecuador joining February 5.

William Pace, Convenor of the more than 1,000 member NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court stated, "Due to the defining role the first sixty countries will play in shaping the future of the Court, it is likely that the remaining ratifications necessary to enter the Court into force will be received in the next eight to twelve weeks."

The ICC has been of great concern to pro-life and pro-family lobbyists at the international level since UN activists have pushed for the courts to define discrimination against homosexuality and the outlawing of abortion as crimes within the ICC. Moreover, the current setup of the ICC tramples the sovereignty of nations. Once 60 countries have ratified the treaty the ICC will assume universal jurisdiction even over countries that have not signed on to the agreement. Beyond that, a nation's own laws are counted as inferior to the ICC. Explanatory material on the ICC released by the Canadian government during its hasty passage of ICC ratification stated: "It would not be a defence that an offence was committed in obedience to the law in force at the time and in the place of its commission."

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), a network of groups promoting the ICC, revealed that following the treaty's entry into force, which will take place from two to three months after receipt of the sixtieth ratification, there will be an approximate twelve-month time period designated for establishing the framework of the Court and electing the Court's senior officials. While the Court's jurisdiction will be effective from the day of the Rome Statute's entry into force, the Court will not begin operations until its framework has been established.

See the UN's report on the status of ratifications of the Rome Statute:
http://untreaty.un.org/ENGLISH/bible/englishinternetbible/partI/chapterXVIII/treaty10.asp

See the CICC press release on the ICC:
http://www.igc.org/icc/html/pressrelease20020205.html

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ABORTION-BREAST CANCER AD VICTORY IN CANADA

VANCOUVER, February 7, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Pro-abortion groups are admitting defeat of their attempt to have an advertisement regulator declare inaccurate an ad presenting scientific evidence of the link between abortion and breast cancer. The Pro-Choice Action Network, run by pro-abortion activist Joyce Arthur, filed a formal complaint about the abortion/breast cancer ad by Surrey Delta Pro-Life with Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) in October.

The pro-abortion group's publication reveals that in late December, ASC declined to review the breast cancer/abortion ad any further. It said there are "serious and noteworthy considerations in dispute", but they are "complex" and "beyond the resources" and "expertise" of ASC to evaluate.

Hilda Krieg, President of the Surrey Delta Pro-Life group told LifeSite she only learned of the ruling in their favour with the February 2002 publication of the pro-abortion publication.

(with files from Pro-Life E-News Canada)

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BUSH ADMINISTRATION FILES BRIEF SUPPORTING PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION BAN IN OHIO

WASHINGTON, February 7, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The Department of Justice has filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to support Ohio's ban on partial-birth abortion. The brief argues that Ohio's law banning partial-birth abortion is different from the Nebraska law that was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Stenberg vs. Carhart, and therefore should be upheld.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio struck down Ohio's law, claiming it did not comply with the Supreme Court's decision in Stenberg vs. Carhart. The Supreme Court had ruled that Nebraska's law did not provide a sufficient exception for the "health" of the mother, and the ban could have extended to other methods of abortion.

The brief from the Department of Justice shows that the Ohio ban targets only partial-birth abortion, and "contains an exception to permit partial-birth abortion where 'necessary' to preserve the 'life or health' of the mother." The exception for health of the mother in the Ohio law is virtually identical to an exception upheld by the Supreme Court in its Casey decision for "medical emergency" described as a "condition which ... so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant woman as to necessitate the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death or for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."

Wendy Wright of Concerned Women of America commented on the Bush Administration measure saying, "It is never justified to mostly deliver a baby and suction her brains out. We are pleased to see the Bush administration is pursuing avenues to protect babies from this inhumane procedure."

See the full 27-page Justice Department brief at:
http://cwfa.org/library/life/2002-02-06_doj-oh-pba-brief.rtf

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21 PEOPLE KILLED BY ASSISTED SUICIDE IN OREGON LAST YEAR

SALEM, February 7, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The Oregon Health Division released its "Death with Dignity Act Annual Report 2001" Wednesday noting that in the fourth year of the legal physician-assisted suicide program 21 people killed themselves - down from 27 in both 1999 and 2000.

In 2001, 44 prescriptions for lethal doses of medication were written by 33 physicians, compared with 39 prescriptions in 2000, 33 in 1999, and 24 in 1998.

The report indicates that the 21 patients who committed assisted suicide during 2001 were demographically similar to patients who participated in previous years, except that a slightly higher percentage were women. Cancer was the predominant underlying illness. The three most commonly mentioned end-of-life concerns during 2001 were: loss of autonomy, a decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable, and losing control of bodily functions.

The deaths were not all quick and easy. The report notes one patient regurgitated some of the lethal concoction and in that sorrowful state went unconscious and died. One patient vomited after ingesting the prescribed medication and died 25 hours later; another patient lived for 37 hours after ingestion however neither patient regained consciousness.

See the full report at:
http://www.ohd.hr.state.or.us/chs/pas/ar-index.htm

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JESSE HELMS STATES THAT "FOR UNBORN AMERICANS EVERY DAY IS SEPTEMBER 11"

U.S. "will not survive long as a nation" unless moral and spiritual foundations are restored

Washington, February 7, 2002 (LSN.ca) - On Dec. 5, at the annual Hillsdale College Churchill Dinner in Washington, D.C., retiring pro-life Senator Jesse Helms gave a no holds barred speech on the emerging threats to U.S. National Security. His comments on certain U.N treaties, abortion and the need for the U.S. to return to its moral and spiritual roots were especially noteworthy.

Helms said, "Instead of focusing on new dangers, they (the Clinton administration) spent their time and energy forging ridiculous new treaties - like the Kyoto Protocol and the International Criminal Court...". Regarding the UN campaign against national sovereignty he said, "Can anyone imagine Kofi Annan today declaring, as he did two years ago, that the United Nations Security Council is the 'sole source of legitimacy for the use of force in the world?' Or former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott repeating his ridiculous assertion that all countries, 'no matter how permanent or even sacred [they] may seem', are in fact 'artificial and temporary...'" and that "'all states will recognize a single global authority'."

"In the long run", Helms warned, "the greatest emerging danger to America may not come from without, but rather from within" and that "we will not survive long as a nation unless and until" Americans get serious about "the task of restoring our nation's moral and spiritual foundations." Helms said that it was right for Americans to be angry about the 4,000 innocent civilians killed on Sept. 11, but he also emphasized "...let us not forget that every passing day in our country almost 4,000 innocent Americans are killed at the hands of so-called doctors, who rip those little ones from their mothers' wombs. These are the most innocent Americans of all - small, helpless, defenseless babies. For unborn Americans every day is Sept. 11."

See the entire speech on line at
http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/2002/january/default.htm

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LIFESITE NEWSBYTES

CBC REPORTS "YUKON SYPHILIS OUTBREAK LINKED TO LIFESTYLE CHOICES"
With infection rates of more than 100 times the national average, a major syphilis outbreak in the Yukon has health officials warned against the rampant casual sex.
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/02/07/syphilis_yukon020207

AUSTRALIAN ARCHBISHOP CALLS POLITICIANS TO PROTECT RIGHT TO LIFE
Catholic Archbishop Francis Carroll urged politicians to vote in favour of life two weeks before the ACT Assembly is to vote on decriminalizing abortion and repealing laws mandating waiting periods before abortions. "No human right is more basic than the right to live," Archbishop Carroll said. "And no human life is more vulnerable and innocent than the baby in its mother's womb."
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=
general%20news&story_id=125446&y=2002&m=2

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