Articles for Month: June 2004

PUERTO RICO, June 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Abortion groups are commandeering regional international meetings in an attempt to create an international right to abortion and do an end-run around democracy, reports Concerned Women for America (CWA). The abortion groups’ tactics have become apparent at a meeting underway this week in Puerto Rico. The meeting is the latest in a series of small international meetings co-opted by the United Nations Population Fund and its radical abortion rights allies for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The Cairo Program of Action emerged from the Cairo conference on population […]

NEW YORK, June 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Avery Dulles, the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University, has pointed out the difference in Catholicism between abortion and issues such as the death penalty and wars. In an interview with Zenit news service, Cardinal Dulles explained, “The Church recognizes that there are occasions when war and the death penalty are justified, even though such measures are undesirable and should be kept to the necessary minimum . . . Catholics who fully accept the doctrine of the Church can sometimes disagree about whether a given war or […]

June 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A team of scientists has published the results of a series of embryo cell transplants in Parkinson’s patients. The outcome of the research is being touted by Reuters as a breakthrough, but careful examination of the article reveals ambiguous results. Dr. Paul H. Gordon of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center led a team of scientists in a test that involved two sets of Parkinson’s patients. One set received a sham surgery as a control group and the other received implantation of embryonic cells. The article is ambiguous about the nature of the cells used. […]

TORONTO, June 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – It is estimated that 27 percent of homosexual and bisexual men in Ontario who have AIDS are unaware they are infected, according to a survey of active homosexual men in Ontario. The Ontario Men’s Survey was conducted by the University of Toronto and included over 5000 participants who identified themselves as “gay” or “bisexual”.  “This survey offers an unprecedented snapshot of the Ontario gay/bisexual community and an updated baseline on the HIV status, the social lives and the sexual and health behaviours of its members,” said Ted Myers, director of the HIV Social, Behavioural […]

LOS ANGELES, June 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a remixed version of pop artist Usher’s new song called Confessions (remix), Hip-Hop artist Joe Budden suggests violent action against a mother when she is unwilling to abort her child. Confessions (remix) includes lyrics such as:  …Pray that she abort that,  If she’s talkin’ ‘bout keepin’ it,  One hit to the stomach,  She’s leakin’ it… Commenting on the lyrics, Day Gardner, director of Black Americans for Life, an outreach of the National Right to Life Committee, said, “These lyrics are demeaning and outright violent toward both women and unborn children.  It is […]

VANCOUVER, June 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In what could be seen as a positive step towards the reversal of recent court rulings involving ‘Access to Abortion Services’ or ‘bubble-zone’ acts of provincial parliaments, the Honourable Mr. Justice Hall of the B.C. Court of Appeal has granted leave to appeal in the 1998 conviction of Pro-Lifers Gordon Watson and Donald Spratt based on the constitutionality of B.C.‘s Access to Abortion Services Act.  This will allow the two Pro-Life defendants to make an appeal based on section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and […]

HOBART, TASMANIA June 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) Veteran Australian Senator, Brian Harradine has decided not to recontest his Australian Senate seat in the next election (next year). After thirty years in the Senate, Harradine says that he “would like to spend more time with my family. I would also like to concentrate on some writing, speaking engagements and bushwalking.”  As the longest serving Parliamentarian and longest serving independent senator since Federation, Harradine has been a champion of pro-life and pro-family issues in Australian politics, as well as a champion for the interests of the Tasmanian community.  On the occasion of Harradine’s […]

LONDON, June 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The social affairs director of a major Catholic agency, Caritas-social action, has signed a letter to legislators in Britain promoting a total ban on physical discipline by parents. Claiming that it is the mind of the Catholic Church, Sarah Lindsell has signed a letter by a lobby group called “Children are Unbeatable” that calls physical correction by parents “assault.” The letter was addressed to UK Education Secretary Charles Clarke on the Children’s Bill that was introduced in the House of Lords on 3rd March 2004. The letter demands that the bill include a provision […]

BOSTON, June 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The First Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to issue an order stopping same-sex marriages in Massachusetts. The lawsuit was brought by Liberty Counsel on behalf of Robert Largess, a Massachusetts citizen, and eleven Massachusetts legislators. On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its opinion in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. The Court stayed its decision for 180 days to allow the Massachusetts Legislature time to respond to the decision. The Legislature responded by passing an amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman […]

PALM BEACH, June 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ending a six month legal battle over Christmas displays, the Town of Palm Beach, Florida this week paid $50,000 in attorney fees to the Thomas More Law Center pursuant to a previously entered federal court Consent Judgment. The Town also acknowledged and publicly apologized for its failure to respond to multiple offers by two of its residents, Maureen Donnell and Fern Tailer deNarvaez, to donate Christian Nativity scenes for display alongside two town-sponsored Jewish Menorahs during the Christmas holiday season. Donnell commented, “We won everything that we wanted. All religions will be treated […]