Articles for Month: October 2009

By Kathleen Gilbert MADISON, Wisconsin, October 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A law set for consideration in the Wisconsin state legislature aims to replace the abstinence-only curriculum used in the state's public schools with one that educates students on the use of condoms and contraceptives. The Healthy Youth Act (AB-458 and SB-324), introduced by Democrat state Rep. Tamara Grigsby and Sen. Lena Taylor last month, aims to establish a contraceptive-promoting state curriculum for all schools that have a Human Growth and Development Program.  The curriculum is billed as giving “age-appropriate, medically accurate information” on how to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually […]

By Piero A. Tozzi, J.D. NEW YORK, NY, October 29, 2009 (C-FAM) – A host of nations lined up this week to criticize a special report on “gender-based human rights abuses in counterterrorism measures” for pushing a notion of gender as a fluid social construct and advancing a United Nations (UN) “gay rights” document known as the Yogyakarta Principles, rather than focusing on the assigned task of examining the abuse of women caught up in the global “war on terror.” Dubbed an “interactive discussion” with UN Special Rapporteur Martin Scheinin, criticism from the Organization of Islamic Countries and the African […]

Less Than 10%, Maybe Even Less Than 1% of Vaccine Side Effects Reported

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “Through the grace and mercy of God – and the faithful prayers of more than 200,000 volunteers standing vigil outside abortion facilities – an incredible miracle has taken place,” said David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life, in a letter to supporters today. “Starting with the first-ever 40 Days for Life campaign in Bryan/College Station, Texas in 2004, and continuing through the international 40 Days for Life effort that is under way this fall, we now have confirmed reports of at least 2,000 babies whose lives have been saved from the tragedy […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski WASHINGTON, October 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Representatives of the Archdiocese of Washington spoke in support of natural marriage and religious freedom at a hearing examining proposed same-sex “marriage” legislation in the District of Columbia. In testimony before the D.C. City Council's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary on October 26, the archdiocese stated its opposition to proposed legislation that would redefine marriage and infringe upon religious liberty. On October 6, D.C. Council member David A. Catania, one of two open homosexuals on the council, introduced the same-sex “marriage” bill, with nine of the thirteen council […]

By Hilary White October 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Researchers announced a scientific breakthrough yesterday in which the progenitor cells to human ova and sperm have been created out of embryonic stem cells. Pro-life commentators have responded to the news by highlighting the massive ethical pitfalls involved in the technology: not only does the process result in the death of embryos, but it potentially leaves both men and women, as well as natural sexual relations, out of the human reproductive picture. The report, published in the journal Nature by Stanford University researchers, says that the primary aims of the researchers were […]

Dear Readers, The problems and needed massive reform of the U.S. bishops' social justice arm are astonishingly similar to those of the Canadian bishops' Development and Peace organization that we have been reporting. The new coalition, begun by advocacy organizations HLI, ALL and BVM, appears to have done an outstanding job of launching this initiative, summarizing the problems and proposing excellent solutions. Bravo for them. Check out the various pages on their website. Please read my Special Report Commentary today. Part 2 will come tomorrow. Although only a few groups are named in the report as examples, the arguments apply to […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski CORUNNA, Michigan, October 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Harlan James Drake, who is accused of murdering pro-life activist Jim Pouillon in September, was deemed competent to stand trial for the killing by 66th District Court Judge Terrance P. Dignan on Tuesday. Earlier this month Judge Dignan ruled that Drake was incompetent to stand trial, after an evaluation by the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti, and ordered treatment to render him competent. Drake's lawyer said the order was partially based on Drake's attempted suicide on the day following his arrest. On September 12, Drake gashed his arm […]

By Hilary White October 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an Op Ed in the New York Times, leading US feminist Maureen Dowd has expressed her surprise that recent research continues to find that women, who may have been economically “emancipated” by the feminist revolution, are more unhappy now, forty years later, than men. Calling it a “paradox” that women may have thrown off the aprons, Dowd wrote, “But the more women have achieved, the more they seem aggrieved. Did the feminist revolution end up benefiting men more than women?” Dowd, a journalist and regular columnist for the New York Times, is […]

By James Tillman SEATTLE, WA, October 29 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Representatives of the Google offices in Seattle and Kirkland Washington have sent a letter to the editor of the Seattle-Post Intelligencer supporting Referendum 71, which would grant the same legal rights to same-sex “partners” as to married couples in Washington.  The letter, signed by the engineering and site directors of each office, says that although Google does not “not generally take positions on social, legal or political issues that arise beyond our normal, day-to-day business,” there are nevertheless “issues that are so important and so clear cut that we feel compelled to lend […]