Articles for Month: March 2003

US HOUSE APPROVES NATIONAL DAY OF HUMILITY, PRAYER AND FASTING https://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V4074.AP-War-National-Fa.html   FLORIDA HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE APPROVES FETAL HOMICIDE BILL https://www.sptimes.com/2003/03/28/news_pf/State/Penalty_in_pregnancy_.shtml   OREGON HOUSE PASSES WOMEN’S RIGHT TO KNOW LEGISLATION https://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1048856344250440.xml?oregonian?lcpl   AIDS FUNDING: A GOOD IDEA GONE MISERABLY BAD?  https://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=3645&department=BLI&categoryid=femfacts

NICARAGUAN BISHOPS SOUND ALARM OVER UNPRA PAMPHLET TARGETING YOUTH WITH ‘SEXUAL RIGHTS’ AND ‘GENDER IDEOLOGY’  https://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=33521

JOHANNESBURG, March 31, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled that in vitro twins born two years ago to a lesbian living with her female partner are “legitimate,” a term that until now has been reserved for children born born in wedlock.  In issuing the ruling, the court determined that section 5 of the Children’s Status Act is unconstitutional because it recognizes only the birth mother as a rightful parent. The child’s father, by donation of his seed, was anonymous. But the court said the law must now recognize both same-sex partners as the parents.  “Comprehensive legislation regularising […]

WANANGUI, March 31, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Australia’s Dr. Death is intervening in defence of assisted suicide advocate Lesley Martin, charged with the attempted murder of her terminally-ill mother in 1999. Police began investigating her admission that she gave her mother a morphine overdose and smothered her with a pillow.  Dr. Philip Nitschke, on tour promoting his patented suicide/homicide suffocation kits, known as Exit bags, said in the woman’s defence: “What she has done is to say very openly what she has done – we as a society keep sticking our head in the sand over the issue of euthanasia.” The […]

Issues call for investors

LONDON, March 31, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The UK Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has condemned the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for exploiting war-torn Iraq in order to promote abortion.  UNFPA has launched a campaign to provide “reproductive health” to Iraqi refugees.  “Reproductive health” is a euphemism which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined as including abortion on demand.  SPUC political spokesman Anthony Ozimic commented: “These women need care, but UNFPA is not the agency to deliver it.  UNFPA’s plan is full of euphemisms for abortion. “Surgery units” can refer to abortion operating theatres. “Emergency reproductive […]

Says Bishops are "the first ones called to be untiring teachers of the Gospel of life"

UNITED NATIONS, March 31, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the European Union have teamed up to target youth in seven Asian countries with “reproductive health services” – which includes abortifacient drugs.  The agreement signed last week will see the European Union give $24 million to UNFPA for the three-year ‘Reproductive Health Initiative for Youth in Asia’, targeting Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam.  In the press release, UNFPA boasts that last year it signed a similar agreement with the EU for nearly the same amount of money to target 10 African […]

FAIRFAX, VA, March 31, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two researchers at George Mason University have published a paper that shows how the legalization of abortion has impacted sexual behaviors, substantially increasing rates of sexually transmitted diseases.  The study, “The Effect of Abortion Legalization on Sexual Behavior” published in The Journal of Legal Studies notes that since abortion was legalized, there has been a stunning increase in sexually transmitted diseases.  The authors, Jon Klick and Thomas Stratmann, note that “Legalizing abortion provided extra incentives to engage in risky sexual activity. Legalization led to a lowering of the cost of abortions and this […]

OTTAWA, March 31, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In another surprise move the Liberal government had its Assisted Human Reproduction Act, Bill C-13 suddenly scheduled for final third reading debate today rather then Tuesday or Wednesday, previously expected.  A look at the legislative Order Paper revealed, however, that insufficient time was allotted to the three different bills on today’s order paper. Thus the time for debates on bills ended before C-13 could be considered.  Since the vote is set to immediately follow third reading debate, C-13 will be voted on shortly, some believe as early as this week. However, considering the autocratic, […]

AT&T GETTING PORN RING OUT OF ITS COLLAR https://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=3583&department=LEGAL&categoryid=pornography   WHY NASHVILLE SHOULD REJECT THE ‘SEXUAL ORIENTATION’ LAW https://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=3443&department=CFI&categoryid=papers

ARIZONA SENATE VOTES ABORTION PILL FOR RAPE VICTIMS https://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0325az-morningafter25-ON.html   ARKANSAS VOTES ULTRASOUND REQUIRED BEFORE ABORTION https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/ftproot/bills/2003/public/SB729.pdf   ILLINOIS HOUSE VOTES TO WELCOME STEM CELL RESEARCH https://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-leg27.html

The March 27 story, QUEBEC BISHOPS AGAIN SAY THEY DO NOT OBJECT TO HOMOSEXUAL CIVIL UNIONS,  contained an outdated email address for the Apostolic Nuncio to Canada.  The correct email address is [email protected]

"The media did not create the crisis: the priests and the bishops did"

Changes in the role of women cited as a key factor

BISMARCK, March 28, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – North Dakota’s state senate voted   unanimously, 46 to 0, to ban cloning for both human reproduction purposes and so-called “therapeutic”research. Sen. Dick Dever, Republican of Bismarck, drew a distinction between positive medical advancements that are in keeping with sound ethics and research which is not ethical. He said it is the responsibility of lawmakers to put restrictions on the latter. For local coverage:  https://www.kxmc.com/news/local.asp?ID=1911

All that would remain is for Bush to sign it into law

TORONTO, March 28, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a decision sure to infuriate the pro-life community, the woman convicted of pepper spraying and temporarily blinding, crisis pregnancy counsellor Robert Hinchey last summer walked out smiling after she was granted an absolute discharge in a Toronto courtroom this morning. Carol Ann Trueman had been convicted on a charge of assault last Monday.  Judge Cathy Mocha accepted defence submissions that Trueman did not realize the effects a pepper spray attack would have and was truly remorseful. Mocha, while noting abortion is “an emotional issue,” added Trueman was acting out of fear, not aggression, […]

105,427 babies were deliberately killed in their mothers' wombs in 2000

WHO DECIDES: PARENTS OR THE HOSPITAL? TEXAS CASE HIGHLIGHTS PREEMIE DILEMMAS https://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0327/p01s01-usju.html   JEALOUS WOMAN WHO KICKED RIVAL FOUND GUILTY OF FETAL HOMICIDE https://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2067625/detail.html   REFORM RABBIS ELECT WOMAN PRESIDENT https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29328-2003Mar25.html

Email spam has become a major problem for many of our readers and the Internet community in general. Sales messages and porn spam are rapidly increasing and clogging inboxes.  Effective new products have recently become available to deal with this onslaught. One that some of us use is called Firetrust Mailwasher which discovers most spam before it even gets to your email inbox and sends it back as though your address was rejected. A companion to that is Firetrust Benign which prevents the capturing of your email address when you preview messages and it handles a lot more of the […]

ST. THOMAS, Ont., March 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Lawyers for the Christian families terrorized by St. Thomas and Elgin Children’s Aid vow to appeal the decision of Madam Justice Eleanor Schnall, saying it gives too much power to social workers.  In spite of the clear evidence that the children are happier and healthier than most these days, the judge slapped six-months’ probation on the parents, giving social workers unannounced access to the family’s home and prohibiting physical discipline of the seven children, aged between 8 and 16.  Effectively, Schnall has stripped parents of any protection against overzealous and inexperienced social […]

TORONTO, March 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino wants his force to have more control over demonstrators since anti-war rallies have become more violent and alarming in recent years. Fantino is asking the federal government to amend the Criminal Code to strengthen the hand of police with “deterrent sentences” for offences committed at rallies and demonstrations.  Under the plan, says the Toronto Star, individuals or groups with a “history of violence or abuse at a demonstration would be disqualified from getting a protest permit” for two years or more, and would be obliged to post a bond […]

Scalia and Renquist Warn of Constitutional and Other Problems with Decision

Merck & Co. Refuses to Allow Shareholders to Know of Tainted Vaccine Boycotts

See How Your MPs Voted On Pro-Life Measures On LifeSite

OTTAWA, March 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After more than a year of consistent effort, Canadian MPs voted in a narrow majority yesterday to support an amendment to the Assisted Reproduction Act to ensure all human cloning is banned.  However, Parliamentary sources have informed LifeSite that the Liberal Government intends to use its majority in the Senate to strip the ban on all human cloning from the bill before its passage by the Senate.  Reliable sources report that Liberal Health Minister Anne McLellan was heard yesterday smugly suggesting that Paul Szabo’s successful Motion 13, which amended the bill to ban cloning […]

Bill Was Nearly Defeated on Technicality But Liberal Trickery Averted Defeat

A toll-free telephone line has been launched by LifeSite allowing you to easily contact us from the U.S. or Canada with news tips or other important information. Telephone calls or emails from readers have been an important resource for LifeSite. After receiving such calls we attempt to verify and further research the information given.  Call LifeSite at 1-866-787-9947 or email [email protected] For those from outside the U.S. or Canada, please use the email address or call 1-416-204-9749 ext 444

NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE REVISES WEB PAGE TO DENY ABORTION BREAST CANCER LINK https://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/3_75.htm   PARENTAL NOTIFICATION BILL PASSES NEW HAMPSHIRE HOUSE https://www.seacoastonline.com/news/03262003/news/19646.htm   U.S. JESUITS PROPOSE DIALOGUE WITH ABORTION SUPPORTERS TOWARD OUTLAWING ABORTION https://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20030325.htm#head6

BUENOS AIRES, March 26, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The idea of celebrating a “Day of the Unborn” is gaining some ground around the world, as pro-lifers paid tribute to human life and dignity on the Feast of the Annunciation yesterday.  El Salvador was the first to take the plunge in in 1993, with the national Legislative Assembly declaring the Day of the Right to Be Born. Five years later, then Argentine President Carlos Menem also declared March 25 the Day of the Unborn. Chile, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Peru have followed suit, and a bill awaits approval in Brazil. In […]

But pro-lifers suffer setback over parental notification

SUVA, March 26, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Even though abortion is illegal in this South Pacific island state, Fiji’s abortionists earn $1 million annually, with the country’s 12 known abortionists themselves earning an average of $120,000 per year as authorities turn a blind eye.  The price for aborting a one-month unborn child ranges from $150 a month to $200 for the 10,000 women per year believed to seek an abortion, up from 7,000 just five years ago. Fiji Medical Association president Mary Schramm says many of the country’s doctors oppose abortions, but the high fees that are the going rate probably […]

However Renegade Pro-Homosexual Bishop Unwilling to Accept Solution

RICHMOND, March 26, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Radically pro-abortion Virginia Governer Mark Warner has vetoed a bill allowing “Choose Life” license plates.  Moreover, Warner also inserted a health exception into a bill barring ‘partial birth infanticide’ and made it easier to bypass a law on parental consent for abortion on minors.  The bills on partial birth infanticide and parental consent passed both legislatures by such wide margins proponents of the bills believe legislators may be able to approve the measures by a veto-proof margin. That will require a two thirds majority at both levels of the legislature.  See the coverage in […]

House Version Does Not Include Roe V Wade Support

SYDNEY, March 26, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney has announced it is funding adult stem cell research.  A $50,000 grant made available on 9 April 2002 by Archbishop Pell to support adult stem cell research has been awarded to a research team at Griffith University, led by Professor Alan Mackay-Sim.  Archbishop Pell said “This is an Australian project of genuine excellence, Australian science at its best, and I warmly congratulate Professor Mackay-Sim and his colleagues on winning this grant.” Professor Mackay-Sim said that this grant will fund research into the use of olfactory stem cells in treating […]

Catholics "Cannot in Conscience vote for a bill which allows killing innocent human beings"

Motion 13 Passed, Motion 17 Defeated

PENNSYLVANIA SUPERIOR COURT RULES MINOR CAN CHOOSE LATE-TERM ABORTION https://biz.yahoo.com/law/030321/7add889a88ff738b9ce179c5ee37a90b_1.html DNA STRUCTURE DISCOVERERS BASH RELIGION Francis Crick and James Watson, two atheists who helped to invent biotechnology with the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, used the 50th anniversary of their discovery to bash religion.  https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/21/1047749938110.html CLONING CULT RESEASES PHOTO OF SUPPOSED CLONED BABY https://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/25/1048354578434.html RULING BARRING PRO-LIFERS FROM SIDEWALK COUNSELLING QUASHED   The California Court of Appeals today ordered publication of a decision reversing a ruling binding pro-life protester Rossi Foti and two fellow protesters to an injunction issued against Operation Rescue in the early 1990’s. The decision […]

SUVA, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A prominent doctor in Suva is in police custody, accused of having carried out an abortion that was fatal for the mother as well as the unborn child. According to reports, the doctor performed the abortion on a young university student on Friday night and left her unattended for the night, during which she died.  “All I can tell you at the moment is the doctor is in custody and is still being questioned. No other details can be released at the moment,” said Acting Police Commissioner Sada Nand.  For more details:  https://www.fijilive.com/news/show/news/2003/03/24/24a.htm

ITALY, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The BBC reports today that Italian researchers have warned that exposure to cannabis in the womb might cause learning difficulties and hyperactivity. A team at the University of Cagliari injected a group of pregnant rats with a quantity of cannabinoid equivalent to a low to moderate daily dose of cannabis in humans, and compared the offspring to those of rats who had not been injected with the drug. They found that the offspring of the injected rats were significantly more hyperactive in infancy, and scored lower on learning tests throughout their lives. It is […]

EDMONTON, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Alberta government has agreed to pay 13 same-sex partners $1,000 compensation per person over the alleged injustice of having been refused spousal health benefits.  Keith Purdy and his male partner, joined by 12 other “couples,” challenged the province’s rules surrounding health care premiums. Even though their employers were willing to pay the premiums for their partners, Alberta’s health ministry until now had refused to pay.  “This was to get the laws changed and achieve family status for same-sex couples,” Mr. Purdy said. “The reason why we appealed the general damages section is so […]

WELLINGTON, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New Zealand Member of Parliament is joined by a Roman Catholic ethicist and the country’s Roman Catholic bishops, among others, in denouncing the country’s potential moves toward legalization of assisted suicide.  Pro-euthanasia M.P. Peter Brown’s “Death with Dignity” private member’s bill, was selected earlier this month for debate. In response, pro-life Kaikoura M.P. Dr. Lynda Scott has been receiving assistance from Fr. Michael McCabe, director of the Nathaniel Centre (a Catholic bioethics centre) and the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, which has said that life is the most basic gift of a loving […]

LITTLE ROCK, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has signed into law a bill to ban the cloning of humans for any purpose, including so-called “therapeutic” cloning for medical research. The proposal has passed the state's Democrat-controlled lower House by a 88-5 vote and the Democrat-controlled Senate by a vote of 34-0, says a report from the Washington Times. “We commend the legislature and Governor Huckabee,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.

CANBERRA, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Australia is now retreating from its former “absolute” ban on the export of human embryos after it emerged during Senate debate that the prohibition would have the unintended effect of preventing couples from taking their own embryos overseas for IVF treatment.  In order to protect the apparent sanctity of artificial fertility treatments (and in spite of mounting evidence that birth defects are much more likely among IVF children), the government is now considering amendments “to allow women to export embryos for their own invitro fertilisation purposes and related matters.”  The legislation says the export […]

BALTIMORE, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Maryland House narrowly passed a bill Monday to allow abortifacient morning after pills (MAP) to be available over-the-counter.  The 71-66 vote passed mainly on disinformation suggesting that the pills “prevent” unplanned pregnancies and thus prevent abortions.  However, the pills are known to cause early abortions by stopping the embryo from implanting in the mother’s uterus. Del. John Adams Hurson, the chairman of the House Health and Governmental Operations Committee, supported the measure saying that 27 countries and three other states – Alaska, Washington, and California already permitted over-the-counter access to MAP. A similar […]

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Abortion proponents are losing the monopoly on “women’s rights” with some 23 state legislatures taking up women’s right to know legislation on abortion.  The bills require that, prior to obtaining an abortion, women are provided with information on the procedure, other options available to them and, in some cases, a waiting period to consider the information.   The Catholic News Service reports that such laws in Delaware, Florida and Indiana are facing legal challenges despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has sanctioned them by refusing to reconsider a lower court decision affirming […]

TORONTO, March 24, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After a bizarre, six-hour odyssey of meetings, consultations, negotiations, statements, retractions of statements, recesses and changes in courtrooms, a woman charged in connection with a pepper spray attack on Aid to Women counsellor Robert Hinchey last August was convicted of the crime in a Toronto courtroom Monday afternoon. Carol Ann Trueman pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of common assault. The proceedings were marked by a confusing procedure in which Hinchey was placed on the witness stand and allowed to give his version of events surrounding the assault without provision for cross-examination by defence […]

AMSTERDAM, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a case that has caused some in the Netherlands to rethink the country’s law permitting euthanasia, Lucy de Berk, 41, was sentenced to life in prison Monday for the murder of three young children and an elderly woman.  De Berk, a nurse, was charged with killing 13 patients in her care but was only convicted of the four murders. Like the doctors which commit legal euthanasia in the country, De Berk administered lethal drug doses to her victims.  “The victims were sick and defenseless babies, children and elderly people who were entrusted to […]

U.S. Bishops Conference "considered an integral part of the pro-life movement."

OTTAWA, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Liberal government has once again delayed House of Commons debate and voting on the Assisted Human Reproduction Act Bill C-13. No debate on the matter was held today. It is also not expected tomorrow as the controversial gun registration program additional funding request and budget legislation have been given priority. Evidence against C-13 is mounting even at this late date.  However, the Liberals appear determined to force through the legislation which Members of Parliament have exposed as being riddled with major deficiencies and loopholes.  See LifeSite’s Stem Cell page https://www.lifesitenews.com/features/stemcellembryo/index.html

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) –  Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 26, at 10 a.m., the House Judiciary Committee will hold a markup (voting) meeting on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (H.R. 760).  The bill was approved in subcommittee today.  The Senate also approved similar legislation (S. 3) on March 13.  President Bush strongly supports legislation that would ban partial birth abortion. For more see the National Right to Life website at:  https://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/index.html

Feminists want 25% of military to be women

Will use only pre-2001 lines as authorized by Bush

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Bush Administration has announced $120 million in abstinence education programs this year, up from $80 million in 2001 and $100 million in 2002.  The funding includes $117 million to strengthen programs already underway and $3.5 million in one-time grants for specific programs. Bush hoped for $135 million, budgeting $73 million for one particular abstinence grant, reduced by Congress to $55 million.  “Abstinence education is very valuable in promoting a viable alternative to sexual activity” and informing teens of the consequences of premature engagement in it, said Sen. Arlen Specter, a strong promoter of […]

NEW HAVEN, March 24, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic family fraternal service organization with 1.6 million members, will hold a prayer service observing the second annual Knights of Columbus Day of the Unborn Child.  The date selected bears much religious significance as it is the traditional Catholic observance of the Incarnation of Christ which took place at the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary. Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson remarked that “The feast of the Annunciation reminds us once again that what we have learned through science can never contradict what has been […]

Meeting Suspended After Dispute Causes Disarray

Cruel "reward and punishment" system proposed for food aid.

ARIS, March 24, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Members of the steering committee of the International Criminal Court have gone outside the normal process for nomination of a prosecutor for the International Criminal Court and have selected a likely candidate according to the New York Times.  Louis Moreno Ocampo, an Argentine lawyer, is being touted to be the court’s first prosecutor, after a secret meeting by the steering committee.  The final endorsement of Ocampo is left to the 89 member countries of the ICC at their April meeting. Critics of the court have warned that ICC documents afford the prosecutor unchecked power […]

IT’S WAR! SENATE DEMOCRATS BLOCK MORE BUSH JUDGES https://www.frc.org/?i=WU03C24

Two new studies

LONDON, March 21, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Birth defects are on the rise in Britain due to illegal drug use and the increase of artificial estrogen drugs in the environment.  Certain kinds of birth defects, such as cleft lip and palate, hypospadias (a penis deformity), and gastroschisis (when intestines protrude through the abdominal wall) have risen by 50% in the past 5 years, according to the UK’s Birth Defects Foundation.  Dr. Michael Patton of St George’s Hospital says the increase “could be due to recreational drug use during pregnancy.” The increase in hypospadias, says Iuen Hughes, professor of paediatrics at Cambridge […]

Defective embryo search and destroy efforts now more efficient

Teens and HIV-positive "gay men" are chief carriers; similar trend in other countries

States are looking at ways to increase parental awareness of teen "reproductive health"

Government says "Suicide has become a national epidemic,"

Cytotec Ulcer Remedy Spreading As Abortion Method

POPE’S, PRESIDENTS AND POWERS   **There was an error in the link for this newsbyte yesterday https://www.ncregister.com/Register_News/031703ppp.htm   Federal Judge Strikes Down Delaware’s 24 Hour Abortion Waiting Period https://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2003/03/18abortionsdontre.html Indiana Appeals Court Rules Lesbian Couple Can Jointly Adopt Kids https://www.hoosiertimes.com/stories/thisday/news.0320-HT-C2_PM035332.sto Former Presidential Candidate Keyes Compares Abortion To Terrorism https://www.thebostonchannel.com/sh/health/stories/health-205001820030319-100348.html AIDS Assistance Bill Halted in Senate for Revisions on Abstinence Focus https://www.washtimes.com/national/20030320-976365.htm   RELIGIOUS BOOT CAMP RESCUES YOUNG LIVES https://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=CAMP-FAITH-03-05-03&cat=LR   COVERAGE OF THE RECALL EFFORT TO OUST PRO-ABORTION CALIF. GOVERNOR https://www.humaneventsonline.com/articles/03-03-03/gizzi.htm   CLONAID (AGAIN) VOWS PROOF OF CLONED BABIES “The baby in Israel – Eve – is doing well. She […]

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. House of Representatives voted 315 to 113 yesterday for bankruptcy reform that makes it harder for people to evade their debts by filing for bankruptcy. The vote was important for pro-lifers, who were the target of Democratic amendments designed to curtail their free speech.  The changes have been held up in Congress for years by, among other factors, Democratic efforts to attach special pro-abortion measures that empower liberal judges to shut down pro-lifers by imposing huge fines to ruin their finances.  The Senate is still debating the pro-abortion measures. Senator Charles E. […]

TORONTO, March 20 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ontario Premier Ernie Eves has put the Equity in Education Tax Credit back on track today, restoring Jim Flaherty’s original plan. The credit will now once again rise from 10% to 20% of the first $7,000 per child for tuition fees at independent schools, instead of being stalled at 10% as Eves had ruled last year.  Eves, who made the announcement at Covenant Christian School in Smithville, said: “Parents have told us that the tax credit supports the choices they make when it comes to the education and future of their children.”  The move means […]

TORONTO, March 20 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canada’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) issued a release yesterday with evidence that Dying with Dignity does in fact strongly advocate illegal assisted suicide measures for vulnerable individuals.  Controversy has been growing following the discovery by (EPC), of a $177,800 grant by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), to Dying with Dignity (DWD). The EPC release states DWD, Canada’s largest organization promoting Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, received a three year grant for the purpose of establishing a counseling program for terminally-ill people. On February 5, 2003 EPC called for an independent inquiry by the Ontario Ministry of […]

Misleading headlines portray marriage as key to unhappiness

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two pro-abortion liberal Democratic congresswomen are fighting for $134 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in an effort to undermine Bush Administration policy to curb the UNFPA’s international abortion empire. Among other actions, Bush reinstated the Mexico City screening policy to prevent aid dollars from supporting abortion. Bush also cancelled $34 million allocated to UNFPA in 2002-03.  Carolyn Maloney of New York, who is working with Barbara Lee of California, said Bush is “rolling back women’s rights through regulation, policy changes, and executive orders.” Evidence is also emerging that USAID is doing […]

FRONT ROYAL, March 20, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Population expert Steven Mosher offers a unique pro-life angle on the anti-terrorist war now underway in Iraq. In his March 18 Weekly Briefing from the Population Research Institute, Mosher says Saddam Hussein’s defeat will open the door for the pro-abortion, pro-condom United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Mosher says the agency is “better at promoting population control and radical feminism than in building free market democracies abroad.” He cites the precedents in Albania and Pakistan as a portent of post-war Iraq.  Mosher predicts USAID will “inaugurate programs which will subject Iraqi children, […]

Hear the audio from EWTN’s recent fascinating TV interview of Mel Gibson about the movie he is currently making on the passion of Christ.  https://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/SeriesSearchprog.asp?SeriesID=-6892288&NewList=&T1=world~over   POPE’S, PRESIDENTS AND POWERS The National Catholic Register responds to Rod Dreher’s column questioning why the Pope has been using all authority and influence available to him against the U.S. action in Iraq and yet appears to have used far less of his powers to correct the deadly church scandals.  https://www.ncregister.com/Register_News/031703ppp.htm   SAYING NO TO THE MONOLOGUES Five Catholic Colleges rejected the vulgar play, shouldn’t others?  https://www.ncregister.com/Register-News/031703mono.htm

BALTIMORE, March 19, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have discovered that primitive human embryonic stem (ES) cells can be nurtured with the help of bone marrow cells. Prior to this animal fetal cells were used which brought fears of cross-species contamination. Scientists in Singapore last year used human cells from fetuses and women's reproductive tract as feeder cells embryonic stem cells. To access the journal Stem Cells:  https://stemcells.alphamedpress.org For the Johns Hopkins press release:  https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-03/jhmi-sfn031803.php

NEW YORK, March 19, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg yesterday issued legislation to make abortifacient “emergency contraception” (EC) available in the city’s STD clinics and health facilities.  The argument for EC is based on the belief that “unintended pregnancy is a reproductive and public health problem with tremendous impact,” including “maternal death, low birth rate, birth defects, infant death, and social and economic hardship.” The city’s records show that 41% of New York City pregnancies in 2000 “ended in induced abortion”—but that is not described as a “problem.”“Although EC prevents pregnancy, it will not interrupt an already established […]

HELSINKI, March 18, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The use of the abortifacient morning-after pill quadrupled in Finland last year after the pills became available without prescription. The Helsingin Sanomat reported yesterday that about 100,000 euros worth of the Norlevo pills were sold in 2001, when they still required a prescription. Last year a total of 36,000 packages were sold, at a total cost of 400,000 euros. The paper notes that the overall abortion rate – some 10,000 per year – remained virtually the same.  However, the number of girls under 15 committing abortions has risen from 73 in 2001 to 90 […]

MONTREAL, March 19, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The French Quebec publication La Presse reported March 16 that there have been 149 homosexual civil union ceremonies in Quebec since July 2002 when the law allowing the practice came into effect. The paper reported that one third of the ceremonies were religious though the denominations conducting the services were not listed.  Of the 149 unions, 82 couples were male, 67 were female.  The participants were said to be between 35 and 55 years old.

OTTAWA, March 19, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Homosexual activist MP Svend Robinson’s private members Bill C-250, which would see “sexual orientation” added to Canadian hate crimes legislation, is due to be out of the committee stage no later than May 15.  LifeSite confirmed today that the bill remains in committee and the Justice committee could, anytime before May 15, report back to the House of Commons with recommendations. The committee could return the bill to the House for Third Reading with or without amendments or it could recommend that the House not proceed with the legislation.  If no action is taken […]

Vote on Amendments Did Not Take Place Today

OTTAWA, March 19, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an eleventh hour brief to members of her Liberal caucus, Health Minister Ann McLellan tried to quell what is believed to be a groundswell of confusion and doubt surrounding Bill C-13, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act. In the brief, the Minister attempts to counter claims that the bill does not ban cloning or hybrids, and that embryonic stem cell research could not be pursued. Besides the fact that she does not provide any scientific backing for her claims, she makes some startling admissions. Significantly, the government is not attempting to refute the fact […]

Vigorous Opposition to Motion 13 Confirms Government Duplicity

GLOBAL ORGAN TRADE HAS CANADIAN CONNECTION   https://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/17/organ_trade030317 IRELAND PAID FOR TWO TEEN ABORTIONS SINCE ABORTION POLL https://www.online.ie/news/irish_examiner/viewer.adp?article=1971366 IOWA SENATE PASSES LEGISLATION MANDATING ABORTION PILL REPORTING https://www.theiowachannel.com/health/2047059/detail.html

BUENOS AIRES, March 18, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Argentine capital region of Buenos Aires and Río Negro province became the first jurisdictions in Latin America to recognize homosexual civil unions this week, after months of pressure from the Socialist Party and homosexual groups.  Three other provinces are considering a similar step.  The new laws grant homosexual “civil unions” many of the rights previously reserved to husbands and wives, stopping short of same-sex marriage and adoption but scoring a clear blow against traditional marriage. Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio said the change “goes against natural law,” noting that homosexual unions […]

BUFFALO, March 18, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Judge Michael D’Amico has found James Kopp guilty of intentional murder in the shooting death of abortionist Barnett Slepian.  Kopp, who is a suspect in several non-fatal shootings of abortionists in Canada, said through his lawyer that he intended only to injure the abortionist so as to prevent further abortions.  In a November 2002 interview in the Buffalo News Kopp first publicly admitted that he shot Slepian. He was quoted by the News as stating “I aimed at his shoulder. The bullet took a crazy ricochet, and that’s what killed him.”  He continued, “One […]

Announces 27 Percent Decline in Abortions in Nebraska Since 1998

Crown Council Has Not Yet Approved Charges Say Police

WELLINGTON, March 18, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New Zealand’s parliament is set to debate assisted suicide legislation, the Death With Dignity Bill. “The voluntary euthanasia movement believes that this would enable a comprehensive, nationwide debate, which has been too long avoided,” said Jack Jones with the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.  New Zealand First MP Peter Brown introduced his member’s bill to the House on March 6. It calls for two independent medical opinions, mandatory counseling with a psychologist or psychiatrist, a mandatory stand-down period, and a minimum age of 18, before a person can access the provisions of the bill and seek […]

MONTREAL, March 18, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Filipina immigrant woman who works as a live-in caregiver was taken to hospital by her employers for an abortion without even being consulted. When she refused to have the abortion, she was fired and threatened with deportation.  Marisa (not her real name), who is 33, came to Canada two years ago under a federal live-in caregiver program. Marisa states her employer, a busy family man who found her pregnancy inconvenient, “told me I was just an immigrant and what future would this child have?” Together with her employment agency, Eurasian Homecare Services, the […]

VALLEYFIELD, Quebec, March 18, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Claude Fluet, a Catholic priest in the diocese of Valleyfield wrote a letter to the editor published in Le Devoir March 14 in which he says he would rather be excommunicated than give up his convictions about allowing abortion in certain cases.  The letter entitled “Perhaps I too should be excommunicated,” took issue with the Catholic Church in Nicaragua which told the parents of a nine year old girl that by advocating abortion for their daughter they incurred ipso facto excommunication.   The case in Nicaragua has caused much commotion since feminists are […]

WESTMINSTER, March 18, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has welcomed a report which criticises the British government’s slow progress in its human rights dialogue with China – including the issue of what the Committee called the “often brutal enforcement of China’s one-child policy”. In its report issued today on the Foreign Office’s Human Rights Annual Report 2002, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee calls upon the Foreign Office to “present a more honest picture of what has and has not been achieved by the Dialogue,” saying that the Government’s “current strategy appears […]

OTTAWA, March 17, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canadian Forces chaplains are likely to begin conducting same-sex marriage ceremonies “as a gesture to help homosexual service people feel more at ease” in the military. Anglican army chaplains are said to be in the forefront, taking a page from renegade Bishop Michael Ingham, whose Vancouver diocese is moving ahead with homosexual marriage.  But an evangelical minister is working against the tide. Rev. Sheldon Johnston of the Church of God in Canada says chaplains are forbidden to mention Jesus and other “exclusively Christian terminology” in public military services to avoid offending non-Christians.  Johnston says […]

PRETORIA, March 17, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled Monday that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits as heterosexual couples.  The court noted that the country’s constitution bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. See the AP coverage from Yahoo:  https://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030317/ap_wo_en_ge/af_gen_south_africa_gay_rights_1

HAMBURG, March 14, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – German women are embracing the abortifacient morning-after Mifepristone RU-46 abortion pill. The drug, which delivers a fatal chemical dose to the unborn child, has been sold in Germany since late 1999 under the brand-name Mifegyne.  Statistics show that the number of oral-chemical abortions increased about 17% last year, following a 44% increase in the previous year – totaling 7,000 abortions in 2002, or 5% of all abortions. Expectations are that the chemical’s use will eventually constitute 20% of future terminations. But because it can be harder to track who is using it and how […]

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An overhaul of bankruptcy laws which could have serious implications for the pro-life movement is about to pass the House Judiciary Committee. But the legislation faces one more hurdle in the Senate, where pro-abortionists are vowing to put up a fight.  House Democrats tried to insert an amendment into the regulations in an effort to ban pro-lifers from using bankruptcy to avoid life-destroying fines imposed by liberal judges exacting vengeance. But the latest attempt to get the law through the House omitted the controversial provision.  Senate Democratic assured Reuters news service that their bosses […]

BEIJING, March 17, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A group of delegates to the National People’s Congress (NPC), the national assembly of the People’s Republic of China, wants the country to experiment with “right to die” legislation, according to a report from the government newspaper China Daily.  Shanghai representative Zhu Shiming and 31 other delegates say the program could be first tested in Beijing and Shanghai. He cited as his motivation the recent death of his brother-in-law from cancer. “If China had a law allowing termination of life by painless means to end severe physical suffering, my brother-in-law and other patients wouldn’t […]

WASHINGTON, March 17, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following the recent Senate vote to regulate partial-birth abortions, the ‘Crusade for the Defense of our Catholic Church’, a project of American Life League, is intensifying its outreach to Catholics in public life who support abortion.  The group published a list of Catholic politicians who have defied Church teachings by voting in favor of abortion. “These purportedly Catholic senators, who either voted against the bill or voted to re-affirm Roe v. Wade, have betrayed their faith, their country and their constituents.  They continue to bring great scandal to the Church and its faithful by […]

LONDON, March 17, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Diabetes is the latest in a growing list of diseases that may be on the threshold of being treated with cures derived from adult stem cells, according to a new study. The other diseases include brain damage, multiple sclerosis and sickle cell anaemia.  Researchers at the New York University School of Medicine suggest that adult bone marrow may be converted into insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas to replace those damaged when someone has diabetes. So far, they have found that the cells developed properties associated with the crucial beta cells in mice.  Mehboob […]

QUEBEC CITY, March 17, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Quebec, the Canadian province with the highest rate of abortion and one of the lowest birthrates, is attempting to divert the looming ageing and worker shortage crises with incentives for child birth. The ruling PQ Party has offered to pay half the loans of graduating students if they have children within the first five years after graduation.   The PQ has already promised to enact a four-day work week for parents with young children.  Historically they have offered baby bonuses of $500 for the first child, $1,000 for the second and $7,500 for […]

Important Group 2 amendments to be debated and possibly voted on by Wednesday

PRO-LIFERS WON MORE THAN ONE VOTE IN THE SENATE https://www.nationalreview.com/ponnuru/ponnuru031403.asp   ADULT STEM CELLS MAKE PROGRESS https://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-smith031403.asp   ON THE SET OF MEL GIBSON’S THE PASSION https://www.ncregister.com/Register_News/030903gibson.htm   ANOTHER VOTE ON ESTRADA NOMINATION LOST https://www.cnsnews.com/Politics/archive/200303/POL20030314a.html   MORE US PRO-LIFE LEGISLATION IN THE PIPLINE https://www.frc.org/?i=WU03C16   THE LITTLE GIRL BARBARA BOXER TRIED TO HIDE https://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31493 MORE ‘GAY’ ATTACKS ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH https://www.catholicinsight.com/last_feature.html

TORONTO, March 14, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Taboos seem to have fallen completely with even politically incorrect evils such as rape becoming commonplace on movie screens.  Opening in movie theatres across Ontario today is ‘Irresistable’ a French film containing a graphic nine-minute rape scene. A CBC story on the approval of the film by the Ontario Film Review Board noted that the film caused 250 people to walk out when it was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.  Twenty people were given oxygen after fainting from viewing the film.  See the CBC coverage:  https://www.toronto.cbc.ca/template/servlet/View?filename=to_irreversible

LONDON, March 13, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Britain's Law Lords, a group of House of Lords judges who act as the country's supreme court, have unanimously rejected a pro-life appeal seeking to ban human cloning for 'therapeutic' or research purposes. The Pro-Life Alliance tried to show that embryo cloning for medical research falls outside the scope of the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. The pro-lifers previously won a case in the lower High Court, which ruled that the 1990 Act was ineffective to control cell nuclear replacement processes developed after 1990. But Lord Bingham, one of the five Law Lords […]

VATICAN, March 14, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Pontifical Academy for Life has issued a list of seven commitments – a ‘manifesto for researchers’ – asking scientists for an ethical commitment in the field of biomedicine in order to achieve a more humanized medicine. Published in the March 13 edition of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, the manifesto says “this invitation for personal adhesion is extended to all researchers and workers in research in the biomedical field and in the bioethical field.” It asks those who wish to adhere to the seven commitments to contact the Academy by e-mail ([email protected] ), […]

LONDON, March 14, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has reported that the upper house of the UK’s parliament has approved the first stage of a bill to ban euthanasia by starvation and dehydration. The Patients’ Protection Bill, tabled by veteran pro-life campaigner Baroness Knight of Collingtree, was given a second reading in the House of Lords Wednesday and sent without a vote to a committee for further consideration. The bill has received support from across the political spectrum, says SPUC. Lord Howe, the Conservative health spokesman, said: “[T]he volume of letters and e-mails […]

NEW YORK, March 14, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As if the March of Dimes (MOD) support of eugenics and abortions in cases of fetal abnormality were not enough, pro-lifers now have an additional reason not to give money to the MOD.  The Eliott Institute has pointed out that MOD has refused to admit that abortion is a major risk factor in low-birth weight of subsequent babies.  In announcing a major fund-raising effort, MOD claims a 27 percent rise in premature births “is a mystery.” Yet, points out the Eliott Institute’s Dr. David Reardon,  the organization should know that at least 48 […]

Comments Indicate Other Reasons Why U.S. Feared by Some Europeans

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President George W. Bush issued a statement yesterday praising the U.S. Senate for passing legislation to ban partial-birth abortion.  The President said “partial-birth abortion is an abhorrent procedure that offends human dignity.”  Moreover, the President’s short remarks indicate that he sees the legislation only as only an incremental measure in the work towards full pro-life legislation.  “Today’s action is an important step toward building a culture of life in America,” he said.  See his remarks from the White House website:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030313-3.html

KENYAN HEALTH MINISTER BACKPEDDALS ON ABORTION SUPPORT AFTER CHURCH CRITICISM https://www.eastandard.net/headlines/news060320030018.htm   MAN ATTEMPTS TO MURDER MISTRESS FOR REFUSING ABORTION https://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny—explosion-assault0312mar12,0,6456110.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire SUPREME COURT TEMPORARILY STOPS 300TH TEXAS DEATH PENALTY EXECUTION https://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030313_356.html   ORIGINAL REFORM PARTY MP DEBORAH GREY WON’T RUN AGAIN   https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030313/UGREYN/National/Idx   IN VITRO FERTILIZATION COMES TO UGANDA https://allafrica.com/stories/200303060566.html

NEWTON, N.J., March 13, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New Jersey judge has ruled that two lesbians can be listed as the “parents” on the birth certificate of an IVF baby one of them is expecting in May. One of the women is carrying the child, and her lesbian partner provided the egg.  Family Court Judge James A. Farber issued the ruling, which also means the women will share financial responsibility for the child, and if one of them dies, the other will have custody.  For news coverage:  https://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2003/mar/12/031201967.html

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Texas Supreme Court Judge Priscilla Owen, nominated by President Bush to the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans last year, will make another appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee now that a GOP majority may be able to get her nomination onto the floor of the Senate. Republicans now control the committee with a 10-9 majority.  The Senate’s GOP majority will also try Thursday to get another U.S. Appeals Court nominee, Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada, past a Democratic filibuster. Both appointments have been hamstrung by Democrats because the two judges are suspected […]

MELBOURNE, March 13, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Australian couple has been granted permission to collaborate with an IVF clinic to create a “designer” baby from which to harvest “spare parts,” manufactured through genetic screening and tissue matching, in the hopes of curing their sick child, who may be terminally ill. It is possible that a cure could come from a transfusion of umbilical cord blood from a perfectly matched sibling, who would be impossible to create by natural means. The two applicants were first given interim approval by the Infertility Treatment Authority a year ago. But only this week did […]

MUNICH, March 13, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pro-life movement has taken note of news reports on a young woman who emerged from a six-year coma at a Bryan Adams concert.  Christiane Kittel, now 24, was said to be in a vegetative state and on life support, a condition which is sometimes declared hopeless and family members are often encouraged to “pull the plug” in such cases.  However, news reports suggest that at the concert Kittel had a breakthrough and began to move slightly and call her mother’s name.  Another important factor in the story is that, according to doctors, Kittel’s […]

NAIROBI, March 13, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Nairobi’s Catholic Archbishop Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki yesterday censured a Catholic nun, Sr. Anne Nasimiyu Wasike of the Little Sisters of St Francis based in Nairobi for touting pro-abortion sentiments at an international conference in Addis Ababa last week.  Wasike who is professor at the Kenyatta University was also reprimanded by the Superior General of her Order, Mother Elizabeth Achieng.  The archbishop condemned Wasike’s statements as completely against the position of the Catholic Church, stressing that abortion is illegal and criminal.  See the coverage from All Africa:  https://allafrica.com/stories/200303120202.html

Question about sincerity of at least one of the cancellations

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Census Bureau released a Census 2000 report on married- and unmarried-couple households today.  The 16-page report, Married-Couple and Unmarried-Partner Households: 2000, indicates that homosexual couples account for only 1 percent of all couples – married and non-married.  Of the 60 million households headed by couples, 0.6 million were headed by same-sex partners.  The report marks the first time the Census Bureau has issued a census report on ‘unmarried partners’. Census 2000 enumerated 105.5 million households in the United States, of which the majority (52 percent) were maintained by married couples (54.5 million). 5.5 […]

Non-Binding Amendment Supports Roe V. Wade

PRETORIA, March 12, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A premature baby who was born after an attempted abortion was then left for dead in the back of a car—but survived after being rushed to Pretoria Academic Hospital in the South African capital.  A local man found the baby in a garbage bag and “dumped the bag on the ground in front of us,” said Inspector Riaan Klopper of Pretoria Central police station. Klopper continued, “I thought he was dead, but then he wriggled.” The mother and the woman allegedly responsible for the botched abortion were arrested and charged with attempted murder. “If […]

BIRMINGHAM, March 12, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Andrew Gbinigie, the abortionist who started pulling out a woman’s organs during a botched late-term abortion, has been reprimanded by the UK’s General Medical Council for not having enough experience to abort “older” unborn babies.  Gbinigie told the hearing: “It’s hard for me to recall how long, but about 10 to 15 minutes into the procedure I removed this bit of tissue. I said, ‘Oh, what a disaster. I have perforated the uterus…’”  For local coverage:  https://www.expressandstar.com/artman/publish/article_26794.shtml   For previous coverage:  WOMAN LOSES SEVERAL ORGANS IN HOSPITAL ABORTION https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/mar/03030410.html

CANBERRA, March 12, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Australia’s national capital district, the Austalian Capital Territory (ACT), is set to pass 37 amendments that will remove “discriminatory language” from the region’s statutes on marriage. While the move will not give homosexuals full marriage rights, it will extend existing protections already available to common-law couples.  Jon Stanhope, Chief Minister of the ACT, said: “Most legislation already recognises heterosexual partnerships where a couple live together but are not married. This Bill simply extends that recognition to all partnerships, no matter what the sex of the partners. The definition of domestic partnership is simple and […]

BRISBANE, March 12, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Queensland has become the first Australian state to authorize embryonic stem cell research using so-called “surplus” embryos from IVF clinics. Under the law, scientists will be able to experiment on all leftover embryonic humans created by IVF before April 5, 2002, with the sperm/ova donors' consent. The bill was opposed on a conscience vote by 8 government MPs and 12 opposition MPs. But 65 government, independent and Opposition MPs, including Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg, ganged up to pass the law. Labor backbencher Ronan Lee criticized the government for arguing that embryos are not important […]

Democrats attempt to derail partial birth abortion ban with morning after pill amendment

Lawyer for pro-abortion movement incensed about quick trial

Adds to previous fears about probable social engineering agenda of the court

ARKANSAS GOV. SIGNS LAW ALLOWING PRO-LIFE LICENCE PLATE https://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030311/ap_wo_en_ge/na_gen_us_choose_life_plates_1

SEATTLE, March 11, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Washington state has been plunged into the homosexualist war against marriage, with legislation to recognize same-sex unions without using the word marriage. Five states are now debating laws to either expand or equalize the privileges of homosexual relationships.  Part of the strategy is to get pro-homosexual lawyers into a position to challenge the federal Defense of Marriage Act in the courts. The law, passed by Republicans in Congress in 1996, protects marriage as an institution consisting of one man and one woman, and upholds the democratic right of individual states to refuse to recognize […]

LONDON, March 11, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dozens of women carrying more than one baby after fertility treatments have had a number of their unborn children “killed by lethal injection” within the womb, says a report from the BBC. According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, 49 unborn children were destroyed by lethal injection in 2001, the majority of them normal and healthy.  In two cases, sets of quadruplets in the womb were culled down to one baby—and in five cases of triplets, the mother had two of the unborn culled. Part of the reason is the official recommendation of […]

BEIJING, People’s Republic of China, March 11, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In Vitro Fertilization authorities in Beijing have received 10,000 applications for test tube babies, says a report from Beijing Morning News—in a country where at least 6,000 abortions are carried out every day.  According to Dr. Zhang Lizhu of the No. 3 Clinical Hospital at Beijing University, the People’s Republic has 200 increasingly popular IVF clinics. But at least two million unborn children per year are eliminated through abortion and infanticide in China’s hospitals and clinics. The World Health Organization has reported that 50 million women are now statistically “missing” […]

MANILA, March 11, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit has proposed a ban on the birth control method known as the intra-uterine device (IUD).  Dayrit noted that the IUD violated the pro-life law in the country since it could cause early abortions rather than acting as a contraceptive.  The move is similar to the removal of the abortifacient morning after pill after it was demonstrated that it acted as abortifacient rather than only a contraceptive.  Pro-abortion advocates were outraged at the move to withdraw the morning after pill and are hopping made with Dayrit’s suggestion on the IUD.  They […]

THE HAGUE, March 11, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The eighteen judges elected to serve on the International Criminal Court (ICC) were sworn in Tuesday.  Phillipe Kirsch, the Canadian ambassador who chaired the meetings to establish the ICC was not only selected as a judge but also as current president of the ICC.  While royalty, presidents and other leaders attended the inaugural event, the United States did not send a representative.  Not only has the United States withdrawn the signature former President Bill Clinton gave to the Rome statute of the court, it has secured deals with at least 20 countries granting […]

EDMONTON, March 11, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Health Minister Anne McLellan paid a visit to a Catholic junior high school in Edmonton yesterday.  The Minister gave a talk and fielded questions from the 250 students at St. Thomas More junior high.  McLellan, who is outspokenly pro-abortion and pro-homosexual responded to a question on abortion from one of the students.  The Edmonton Journal reports that McLellan “urged the students to be respectful of others’ opinions on the matter, calling it ‘a debate in which people get very angry with each other and say very, very hurtful things to each other.’ The Minister […]

HAMILTON, March 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Hamilton police would like to have self-confessed abortionist-shooter James Kopp extradited, once his U.S. trial is completed, for trial in Canada for the attempted murder of Ancaster gynecologist Hugh Short. Short was wounded when a sniper’s bullet maimed his elbow for life, .  “We have an obligation to the victim here,” says Deputy Chief Brian Mullan of the Hamilton police, “Justice must be served.” But the process could be complicated, Mullan admits, requiring approval of both the United States and France. As prime suspect in two other Canadian shootings in Vancouver and Winnipeg, Kopp […]

ANN ARBOR, March 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new University of Michigan study adds evidence to the theory that TV violence viewed as children leads to aggressive adult behavior when the children grow up, including spousal abuse and other crimes—no matter how they behaved during childhood. What is new in the study is that girls are affected as much as boys.  Participants were interviewed at ages 6 to 9 in the late 1970s and again in their early 20s.  The 329 adults were recently contacted in order to gauge the long-term effects. The findings are presented in the March issue […]

STOCKHOLM, March 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh announced Friday that her country would be encouraging its foreign embassies to conduct homosexual ‘registered partnerships’ which carry all the same privileges as normal marriage.  “It is very important for Sweden for civil servants who officiate at weddings to be authorized also to officiate at the registration of partnerships,” she said.  The embassies are already authorized in various countries to marry men and women if one member of the couple is Swedish. “Once we have established that a country accepts partnership registration, we will begin to authorize our civil […]

TORONTO, March 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – LifeSite has learned that Eternal Word Television Network is available on Cogeco Cable, as well as Rogers Cable.  Thus the only major Canadian cable company not providing EWTN is Shaw Cable.  As LifeSite reported Friday, Bell ExpressVu satellite has added EWTN but the other Canadians satellite company Star Choice (owned by Shaw) does not yet carry EWTN. While details are as yet sketchy with the satellite coverage, both Rogers and Cogeco cable offer EWTN a la carte for a minimal monthly payment and cable subscribers with a digital box can access EWTN on both […]

AYLMER, Ontario, March 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A judge has ruled that children’s aid workers were justified in apprehending seven children aged 6 to 14 from their home in a case that shocked parents in Canada.  Two years ago the children were forcibly apprehended by police and social workers while the children screamed in horror begging to be left with their parents.  The children were removed on the suspicion that the parents were using spanking as a form of discipline, which nonetheless remains legal under Canadian law.  Madam Justice Eleanor Schnall ruled last week that “The fact that the parents […]

AUSTRALIAN MPS TO BE ALLOWED CONSCIENCE VOTE ON STEM CELL LEGISLATION https://www.abc.net.au/science/news/scitech/SciTechRepublish_800405.htm   EUROPEAN COMMISSION GEARED TO KEEPING BIOTECH RESEARCH IN EU https://www.euractiv.com/cgi-bin/cgint.exe/?targ=1&204&OIDN=1504862&-home=home   ANNE MCLELLAN DROPS OUT OF RACE FOR CANADIAN LIBERAL LEADERSHIP https://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2003/03/06/37272-cp.html   CALIFORNIA APPEALS COURT RULES LESBIAN CAN SUE CHRISTIAN DOC FOR REFUSING IVF https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/03/04/state2110EST0169.DTL

TORONTO, March 7, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) has been added to the Bell ExpresVu satellite television service.  On Wednesday, the satellite service announced that it expanded its service by 76 channels, one of which was EWTN, which will now be accessible by Bell ExpressVu’s 1.3 million customers. In addition to its Catholic religious focus, EWTN covers major pro-life events and frequently addresses the life and family issues in its programming. EWTN provided extensive, very positive coverage of the recent March for Life in Washington, D.C. This was available both nationally across the U.S. and internationally. This […]

TORONTO, March 6, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – March 3 to 9 is Pharmacy Awareness Week, an event sponsored by the Canadian Pharmacists AssOciation. It is a week when people are asked to learn about the services that a pharmacist can provide, especially “Drug Information”. The theme for this year’s Pharmacy Awareness Week is: “Your Health… Your Medications…Talk to Your Pharmacist” Pharmacists for Life is urging pro-life consumers to “talk to your pharmacist” about the emerging problem of pharmaceutical “abortion” using the so called Morning After Pill or “Emergency Contraception”. Pharmacists should know that people are aware that these drugs can cause […]

False information being spread that Vatican has done a U-turn on excommunications

MADRID, March 7, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Feminist groups in Spain and Nicaragua have launched an offensive against the Catholic Church over the Church’s offer to assist a 9 year-old rape victim to keep her child rather than undergo an abortion.  After medical authorities ruled that the child’s health would be equally at risk with an abortion as with giving birth, the Church warned that anyone who participated in the girl’s abortion would be ipso facto excommunicated.  Feminist groups in Spain have collected over 25,000 names of their collaborators who they say “have participated and contributed actively in making the abortion […]

WASHINGTON, D.C.—On Wednesday, the House International Relations Committee unanimously passed a resolution to affirm the goals of International Women’s Day, which is commemorated annually on March 8th.  Started by communists, International Women’s Day will be celebrated at the UN on Friday with a conference featuring a UN official who has praised China’s devastating family planning practices. The Family Research Council (FRC) has called on Congress not to put the U.S. stamp of approval on a movement that does nothing to put an end to brutal coercive abortion and forced sterilization practices around the world. “Wrapped up in a nice sounding […]

STOCKHOLM, March 7, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Swedish government announced Thursday that it would increase its funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) from $2.2 million (USD) last year to $2.4 million (USD) this year.  In making the announcement, the Migration and Aid Minister took aim at the Bush administration which denied funds to UNFPA over the group’s support for China’s coercive abortion regime. Migration and Aid minister Jan O. Karlsson said, “We cannot accept that UNFPA’s important work to improve women’s rights and reproductive health is undermined because some countries find it hard to accept UNFPA’s activities.”  See […]

WALT DISNEY COMPANY AND AMERICAN EXPRESS NO LONGER ON BOYCOTT LIST In its February 2003 report Life Decisions International reports that The Walt Disney Company and American Express are no longer funding Planned Parenthood and have therefore been removed from the LDI boycott list.  QUEBEC SUICIDE RATE MUCH HIGHER THAN REST OF CANADA The Catholic Register reports that “in 1998-99 Quebec’s suicide rate was 21.3 per 100,000 people compared to an overall average of 14 per 100,000 for the rest of Canada.” It also reports that “Quebec also has one of the highest divorse rates in Canada, despite the fact […]

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Republicans are divided over how best to ensure that President Bush’s $15 billion global AIDS initiative fully implements the revived pro-life Mexico City policy, the Reagan-era screening policy that stopped foreign aid dollars from being channelled into the abortion industry in developing countries.  Some Bush allies, led by Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, want the White House to explicitly attach the Mexico City policy to the AIDS law before passing it, citing the fact that it was suspended during Bill Clinton’s abortion-friendly interregnum.  But other Republicans pro-lifers, including Rep. Henry J. Hyde of […]

LONDON, March 6, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Sir Paul Nurse, a Nobel Prize-winning British scientist, warned fellow scientists this week that advances in genetic research herald “genetic discrimination” within 20 years. By that time, he predicts, the entire genetic code of every newborn baby could be recorded and used for or against the person for the rest of his life. “We need to be extremely careful how this technology is used to shape our society,” he said. Individual genome sequences, which reveal each individual's susceptibility to particular diseases, could be recorded on every citizen's health or identity cards, Nurse told a […]

State Department Coaches Pro-Abortion NGOs, Says Senate Staffer

WASHINGTON March 6, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com)—In response to President Bush’s appeal to ban an “abhorrent procedure that offends human dignity,” the U.S. Senate is slated to begin debate on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act the week of March 10. The legislation (S. 3), sponsored by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), would ban an abortion method in which a living baby is mostly delivered alive before being killed.  The bill has been a major pro-life priority since 1995.  It was twice vetoed by President Clinton.  The partial-birth abortion method is used thousands of times annually, usually in the fifth and sixth months and […]

NEW DELHI, March 6, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Hindustan Times reports that trials on drugs which cause abortions through the second trimester of pregnancy are underway at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences.  The paper notes that the abortifacient “morning after pill” preceded the effort to introduce the abortion pill.  Suneeta Mittal, Principal Investigator and head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at AIIMS said that the abortion pill would help with the 6.7 million registered cases of induced abortion in the country on an average in a year. The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Sushma Swaraj, will […]

SALEM, March 6, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Thirty-eight persons used legal physician-assisted suicide to kill themselves in 2002, compared with 21 who did so in 2001, according to the fifth annual report of Oregon’s experience with the Death With Dignity Act. The report, released yesterday by the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS), contains demographics and characteristics of those who took lethal prescriptions last year. It also examines Oregon’s experience since 1998, when the Death with Dignity Act went into effect. Findings are published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. In 2002, 58 prescriptions were written for lethal medication and, […]

Official Canadian Catholic social justice body once again abuses trust of Catholic donors

ANNAPOLIS, March 6, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As Maryland’s House of Delegates prepares to review legislation to tighten up the state parental notification law, pro-life Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele made a show of support for the annual March for Life Rally in front of the State House in Annapolis. The move was a public break from pro-choice Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., although both are Republicans.  Steele smiled, waved and gave a thumbs up to 300 pro-lifers attending a peaceful vigil. A spokesman for the governor played down Steele’s brief gesture of support. “This has been the lieutenant governor’s deeply […]

ALBERTA PROPOSED LEGISLATION – PICK UP A PROSTITUTE, LOSE YOUR CAR https://cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/04/prostitute_car030304

BOSTON, March 5, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts is hearing a case that could make state the first to legalize homosexual marriage. A lower court ruling said the elected Legislature, not the courts, should decide. Lawyers are now arguing whether homosexual marriage is analogous to interracial unions and whether opening the door would lead to legalized polygamy.  Historically, courts in Hawaii and Alaska have approved homosexual marriage. But the state legislatures later passed constitutional amendments limiting marriage to couples of the opposite sex. The Massachusetts case will take months to decide.  For newswire coverage:  https://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030304/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage_2

MIAMI, March 5, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A federal appeals court is reviewing the constitutionality of Florida’s ban on homosexual adoption – a law that currently protects the country’s 3,400 foster children from both homosexual individuals and live-in homosexual partners seeking to formally adopt children.  The lawsuit was filed by four homosexual individuals who already have charge over some foster children. Children First lawyer Christina Zawisza says the state does not practice its own stated belief that two-parent heterosexual families are better for children—because 40% of state child placements are in single-parent homes.  “It has to be contrasted with not having […]

OTTAWA, March 5, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canadian Alliance Justice Critic Vic Toews commented on reports that convicted Winnipeg pedophile Bryan Larsen will receive just two years in prison for molesting two young girls and possessing over 208,000 images of child pornography:  “This sentence makes a mockery of our justice system—it’s a slap on the wrist for the criminal, and it’s a slap in the face to the child victims whose lives will never be the same again.  How many more will be victimized before the Liberals institute mandatory prison terms for those who abuse and exploit our children”, said Toews.

NEW YORK, March 5, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A survey published in the March issue of Catholic World Report demonstrates that Catholics who enter college as relatively pro-life are relatively pro-abortion by the time they graduate. The study is more evidence that the large number of nominally Catholic colleges are failing to transmit Catholic teachings, especially moral teachings.  As freshmen, 38% of Catholic students at Catholic colleges, and under 49% of Catholic students at nonsectarian colleges, said abortion should be legal, while as seniors, 52% of those at Catholic colleges and 66% at nonsectarian colleges said abortion should be legal.  “We […]

Population Control Movement Faces "Peril" Says IPPF Leader

PARENTAL CONSENT LAW GOES INTO EFFECT IN ARIZONA https://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=1161743&nav=14RTELg8   DOCTOR RETAINS LICENSE DESPITE PAYING THUGS TO BEAT UP LOVER SO SHE WOULD ABORT https://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=268761&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y   STATE COURT BLOCKS INDIANA INFORMED CONSENT WAITING PERIOD LEGISLATION https://www.indystar.com/print/articles/2/026692-5872-098.html   CANADIAN MP INTRODUCES BILL ON THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER M-364 – February 12, 2003 – Mr. Hill (Prince George-Peace River) – On or after Wednesday, February 26, 2003 – That, in the opinion of this House, the government should recognize the first Sunday preceding Thanksgiving as a national day of prayer followed by a week of prayer of thanksgiving for all the benefits God […]

MANAGUA, March 4, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Nicaragua’s attorney general announced yesterday that no one will face charges in the abortion of a four-month unborn baby last month, because abortion is legal under special circumstances, including alleged risk to the health of the mother, in the once-Catholic country.  Maria del Carmen Solorzano said the abortion didn’t break any laws because “it was carried out to save the girl’s life”—even though doctors said the danger of the nine-year-old having an abortion and carrying the child to term were equal. A government medical commission said it was not clear the abortion was medically […]

Dead fetus later found inside 'except for one arm and one leg'

WASHINGTON, March 4, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A report presented yesterday to the National Cancer Institutes’ Board of Scientific Advisors and Board of Scientific Counselors suggests that there is no association between abortion and breast cancer risk. The scientists, some of whom had earlier did find associations between abortion and breast cancer, claimed that their own findings were fundamentally flawed as a result of an alleged phenomenon called “recall bias” or “report bias.” However, bias in the new report was evidenced as the scientists also claimed that a full term pregnancy reduces risk of breast cancer. Karen Malec, the president of […]

NEW YORK, March 4, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In his March-April newsletter, Fr. Frank Pavone, the head of Priests for Life suggests several methods to incorporate preaching on pro-life into the upcoming season of Lent. The season, which traditionally includes penitential practices could include, says Fr. Pavone, “Volunteering at pregnancy resource centers …mak(ing) such centers better known in the community” or establishing a fund to support one.  Fr. Pavone also notes that “To stand up in any way for the unborn child can be a penitential act, since it often brings unwarranted criticism, even from fellow worshipers who should be doing […]

BUFFALO, March 4, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – More than 100 prospective jurors for the trial of admitted abortionist shooter James Charles Kopp have answered questions on their stand on abortion.  Jurors were asked to select one of nine statements on abortion which most closely reflect their stand.  The answers ranged from “I am personally, morally, or religiously opposed to abortion and believe the practice is murder and should be outlawed under every circumstance” to “abortion is a right guaranteed by law.” Meanwhile, while the defence attorney is suggesting the question of abortion will play a large part in the case, the […]

LIFESITE, March 4, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The February 2003 Interim newspaper includes a feature section exposé on Planned Parenthood by writer/researcher Tony Gosgnach . In three articles Gosgnach details incidents of misdemeanor and malfeasance by this deadly organization that portrays itself as just being concerned about the welfare of women while making multimillion dollar profits off of those same women.  In addition to the widespread covering up sexual exploitation of young girls, as recently rexposed by Life Dynamics, Gosgnach reveals the commitment of unasked-for abortions; a mistaken sterilization; the performance of pornographic and profane plays in schools; illegal use of […]

HOLLYWOOD, March 4, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Warner Brothers network offering set to hit TV screens this summer ridicules homeschoolers.  The Turner Television production called “The O’Keefes” centres around “loving but eccentric parents who’ve home schooled their three children to protect them from the loud and libidinal world.” An online description of the upcoming program says that “Despite a ban on all things pop culture, teenagers Danny and Lauren and younger brother Mark are growing increasingly curious about what lies beyond the walls of their school/dining room. They can speak six languages, but are unable to converse with kids their […]

WASHINGTON, March 4, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been caught for having awarded $170 million in contracts to Population Services International Inc. (PSI), a non-profit company founded in 1971 by Philip D. Harvey, one of America’s largest pornography merchants and founder of a $70 million-a-year mail-order porn business in North Carolina known as “Adam & Eve.”  Andrew S. Natsios, USAID’s administrator, has “ordered an immediate review of the PSI contract.” Mr. Natsios was not aware of Harvey’s “business activities outside of PSI,” according to a USAID spokeswoman. Harvey’s company sells X-rated videos and pictures, […]

VATICAN CITY, March 4, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Vatican has released the text of a communique by a joint commission of Catholic and Jewish leaders.  High ranking officials of the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel signed the document dated February 26.  Following are selections on the topics of the sanctity of human life and family values from the statement:  “The Sanctity of Human Life. Human life is of unique and highest value in our world. Any attempt to destroy human life must be rejected, and every common effort should […]

Result of international pressure, especially by United Nations Population Fund

EDMONTON, March 4, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Christine Holowaychuk is suing her ob-gyn Dr. Daniel Hodges and Capital Health for the “wrongful life” of her disabled daughter claiming she would have killed the child by abortion had she known of a chromosomal abnormality.  Justice Eric Macklin rejected a delay in the case to determine whether such a claim exists in Canadian law,  saying that proceeding would determine a “neat question of law”. Strangely, the case is being pursued in the name of the child who is thus suing the doctor for not being killed before birth.  Jordan Kyra Holowaychuk, was born […]

NEW HAMPSHIRE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE REPORT DECLARES DIOCESE WAS ‘WILLFULLY BLIND” IN CASE OF 8 SEX ABUSING CLERGY When priests admitted molesting children, bishops and other priests sometimes did nothing to ensure that the molester could not abuse again. Reported today in Catholic World News https://www.cwnews.com/news/getstory.cfm?RecNum=20041

Theme of 2003 event is "Life is the only Choice"

CANTERBURY, England, March 3, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. Rowan Williams, the self-styled “hairy lefty,” was finally enthroned last week as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury since St. Augustine, who arrived in England from Rome in 596-97.  Last year, Williams told media that strengthening the number of homosexual priests in the church is not on his agenda. But Williams has publicly supported homosexuals in the church and has admitted ordaining a practicing homosexual. Some traditionalists, mostly from the Evangelical Christian wing of the Anglican church, protested outside the cathedral wearing black armbands. Most evangelicals, who represent the most dynamic and growing […]

Explicit guarantee of abortion rights

But Estrada nomination still blocked by Democrats

VANCOUVER, March 3, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Rt. Rev. Terrence Buckle, the Anglican Bishop of Yukon, has offered alternative Episcopal oversight to eight New Westminster (B.C.) parishes which are opposed to their Bishop and Diocesan Synod’s decision to allow same-sex blessings in churches.  In a statement, Bishop Buckle notes that his offer is a matter of urgency since several international Anglican Primates are prepared to step in themselves to address the matter.  However, the Primates all agree that a Canadian solution is the ideal way forward.  A statement from several International Primates says that the allowance of same-sex blessings is […]

OTTAWA, March 3, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The House of Commons Justice Committee will be holding hearings across Canada on the Minister of Justice’s discussion paper on Marriage and the Legal Recognition of Same-sex Unions.  The discussion paper and the hearings follow two recent court decisions ordering Parliament to change the definition of marriage to include “same-sex” or homosexual couples in order to comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  The committee will hold hearings in Vancouver, BC (April 1),  Edmonton, Alta (April 2),  Moose Jaw, Sask (April 3),  Steinbach, Manitoba (April 4),  Halifax, NS (April 7),  Sussex, NB (April […]

FRANKFURT, March 3, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Conservative Members of the European Parliament (MEP) urged the EU’s constitutional convention this weekend not to delay completing the text for the EU’s constitution based on international events unrelated to the decision. Left-wing MEPs are trying to delay the document, citing the Iraq crisis.  “The work pace should be increased, so that we are ready by the end of June,” said Elmar Brok, a German MEP. Brok said the conservatives are supporting a French-German proposal that the EU should create the office of a new, high-profile EU president with a five-year term.  Debate has […]

"One nation under God" allegedly violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “George W. Bush rises ahead of the dawn most days, when the loudest sound outside the White House is the dull, distant roar of F-16s patrolling the skies. Even before he brings his wife, Laura a morning cup of coffee he goes off to a quiet place to read alone.” So begins a long feature in Newsweek about the president’s religious leanings and how this affects work and life at the White House.  “Every president invokes God and asks his blessing,” Newsweek notes. G.K. Chesterton called America a “nation with the soul of a […]

OTTAWA, March 3, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Debate over Bill C-13, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, continued in the Canadian House of Commons last Thursday but was not taken up again Friday.  The MPs are on break until March 17.  At this time, the bill is set for debate again on March 19.