Friday January 21, 2000
See today’s LifeSiteNews stories- ONTARIO NURSING HOME ACCUSED OF INVOLUNTARY PASSIVE EUTHANASIA
- HUNGARIAN PRIEST AND PRO-LIFE GROUP FINED FOR DEFENCE OF LIFE
- BEIJING +5 PREP COM PROMISES TO PROMOTE ABORTION
- LAWSUIT AGAINST ABORTUARY FOR DENYING BREAST CANCER LINK MOVES FORWARD
- CAMPAIGN TO OUST VATICAN FROM U.N. GAINS SUPPORT
- LIFESITE NEWSBYTES
ONTARIO NURSING HOME ACCUSED OF INVOLUNTARY PASSIVE EUTHANASIA
WINDSOR, ON, Jan 21 (LSN.ca) – The latest newsletter of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Ontario reports that the family of Florence LaDouceur has filed a lawsuit against the Villa Maria nursing home for attempting to starve and dehydrate their mother (Florence) who was 93 years old at the time. Mrs. LaDouceur lived at Villa Maria between October 26, 1998 and March 14, 1999. She did not have a terminal condition, she was capable of eating and drinking with normal assistance, and her daughter who had legal power of attorney for her personal care was not consulted in the decision to stop providing her with normal food and fluids.
Mrs. LaDoucer’s family removed her from the nursing home on March 14, bringing her, in a near death state, to Hotel Dieu/Grace Hospital where she was fed, re-hydrated and treated for pneumonia. After a week she was discharged from the hospital and moved into her home where she almost made a complete recovery.
Florence LaDouceur died last Friday but her family is continuing the lawsuit in her memory and to protect the lives of other vulnerable people dependent on institutional care. It was launched by the family in order to try to establish a legal precedent that it is wrong to injure or kill people through starvation or de-hydration and to redress the damages that had been done to Florence.
HUNGARIAN PRIEST AND PRO-LIFE GROUP FINED FOR DEFENCE OF LIFE
BUDAPEST, Jan 21 (LSN.ca) – A Budapest municipal court ruled Tuesday that a Hungarian pro-life group and a priest are required to pay over $35,000 (CDN) to a teenage girl whose baby they attempted to save from abortion by taking her to court. Agence France Press reported yesterday that the Alfa Federation family protection organization and an unnamed priest (no denomination provided) were fined because they took a 13-year-old to court in the southern town of Baja trying to stop her from killing her baby.
The Baja court ruled in 1998 that the girl, Katalin, could not have an abortion since “the right of the fetus to be born and live overrides its mother’s right to self-determination.” The Health and the Justice Ministries later intervened to allow the abortion. The Budapest municipal court ruled that “the Alfa Federation and the Baja parson had no grounds or need to intervene into the private life of (Katalin) and thus have infringed the law.” The judgment cannot be appealed.
For more see the AFP report at:
https://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=127104
BEIJING +5 PREP COM PROMISES TO PROMOTE ABORTION
GENEVA, Switzerland, Jan 21 (LSN.ca) – The Economic Commission for Europe Regional Preparatory Meeting on the 2000 Review of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, began yesterday and ends today in Geneva. One of the workshops leading up to the prepcom focused on abortion, even though the subject was not one of the stated themes of the conference.
The workshop, held Monday and entitled “Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the ECE Region”, attracted some 40+ NGO delegates to the ECE Beijing+5 NGO preparatory meeting. The panelists, including Françoise Laurant from the French Family Planning Association (MFPF), Maria de Bruyn from Ipas (USA), Anne-Marie Rey from the Union Suisse pour Décriminaliser l’avortement, and Alice Frade from the Portuguese Family Planning Association, tried to work their abortion advocacy into the themes of the conference involving women and economics and women and violence.
“The links between these focal areas and sexual and reproductive health and rights need to be emphasized,” said a UN report on the workshop. “For example, women who must flee their homelands due to war or conflict are at risk of sexual violence, which may result in unwanted pregnancy and the need for safe and accessible abortion services. Additionally, without the ability to control if, when and how many children to have, women cannot fully participate in national and global economies and political decision-making.”
The panelists, workshop organizers, and workshop participants submitted four recommendations to the Caucuses and the NGO organizing committee. These recommendations call for addressing “sexual and reproductive health in the Beijing+5 review process and urging countries to act on the Beijing Platform for Action”
The workshop was organized by: Coordination Française pour le Lobby Européen des Femmes (CLEF), Union Suisse pour Décriminaliser l’avortement (USPDA) and International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network. The General Assembly Special Session Women 2000 will take place on June 5-9, 2000 at United Nations headquarters in New York.
LAWSUIT AGAINST ABORTUARY FOR DENYING BREAST CANCER LINK MOVES FORWARD
FARGO, ND, Jan 21 (LSN.ca) – On Wednesday, Cass County District Court Judge Michael McGuire rejected the desperate plea of an abortion mill to dismiss a false advertising lawsuit against it. The abortuary argued that the plaintiff did not have standing to sue because she did not allege that she personally was misled or harmed by the brochure information in question which denied a scientific link between abortion and breast cancer, American Life League reported yesterday. The judge observed, however, that the relevant statute explicitly allows any person to sue for injunctive relief against false advertising on behalf of the general public.
As LifeSite reported last month the case was launched by Fargo resident Amy Jo Mattson, who is being represented by attorney John Kindley, author of a widely-read article in the Wisconsin Law Review on informed consent and the abortion/breast cancer link. The case is supported by a local physician, a Fargo crisis pregnancy center, and the Fargo Catholic diocese.
For LifeSite’s coverage of the case see:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/dec/99121605.html
CAMPAIGN TO OUST VATICAN FROM U.N. GAINS SUPPORT
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 21 (LSN.ca) – The campaign launched by the radical pro-abortion group Catholics for a Free Choice to oust the Vatican from the United Nations has gained the support of 400 organizations, according to a report from the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-fam). C-fam attributes the campaign’s success to “extensive international media coverage, a sophisticated web-site, and advertising in the New York Times.” The groups are now calling for the UN to downgrade the status of the Vatican from Permanent Observer to NGO (non- governmental organization).
C-fam reports that the initiative called “See Change” (https://www.seechange.org) began with 70 organizations, including International Planned Parenthood Federation, one of the most powerful UN NGOs and the largest abortion provider in the world. The coalition has grown to include three major strands: pro-abortion groups, those in favor of population control, and groups hostile to religion. Participants include the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, Equality Now, Marie Stopes International, the National Abortion Federation, the Feminist Majority, the Sierra Club, Population Concern, Center for Research on Population and Security, the American Humanist Association, and Atheists United.
For the complete report from C-fam see:
https://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=45762
For related LifeSite coverage see: ROCKEFELLER’S PHONY “CATHOLIC” GROUP TRIES TO BOOT VATICAN FROM UN https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/march/99032604.html PLAN TO OUST VATICAN FROM UN ENCOUNTERS OPPOSITION https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/april/99041902.html KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS DEFEND VATICAN AGAINST CFFC https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/april/99042304.html
LIFESITE NEWSBYTES
The January 15 edition of The Economist reports that the UN population monitors and Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office, predict that there will be too few working-age Europeans to support the continent’s elderly population in the future. The full statistical report is due in March.
The cover story in the current issue of World Magazine is a heartwarming boost for pro-lifers, describing the amazing pro-life successes of the small town of Lancaster Pennsylvania, which has fought off the opening of an abortuary in the town. https://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/01-22-00/cover_7.asp
The Coalition for Justice in Educational Funding announced the results of an Environics poll, taken in December, which tested public opinion on the extension of educational funding to all religious denominations. The poll asked 1000 Ontarians whether, “[g]iven that Ontario is constitutionally obliged to continue funding Catholic schools, do you agree or disagree that Ontario tax dollars should be used to fund all religiously-based independent schools, as long as the schools meet provincial educational standards?” Fifty-four percent of the respondents agreed with the proposition and forty-three percent disagreed. https://www.newswire.ca/releases/January2000/17/c0509.html
Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the body that regulates fertility treatments, told the BBC that it is only a matter of time before a ban on the use of frozen eggs is lifted. https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_611000/611798…
World magazine reports that the success of Crisis Pregnancy Centers in the United States has resulted in a desperate smear campaign against them by abortion advocates. https://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/01-22-00/cover_5.asp
A measure to ban homosexual marriage is on the California ballot for March 7. Proposition 22 asks voters to approve or reject this statement: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” https://www.freep.com/news/nw/gay19_20000119.htm