LifeSite Daily News for Thursday January 29, 2004

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Poll Shows Majority of Americans Believe Abortion Makes Women’s Lives Worse

WASHINGTON, DC, January 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new national poll indicates that the majority of Americans believe abortion makes women’s lives worse. According to the poll, only 16 percent believe abortion generally makes women’s lives better. Even among those who describe themselves as “pro-choice,” less than 30 percent believe abortion generally improves women’s lives.

In addition, the poll results, contained in a new pamphlet from the Elliot Institute, reveal that 67 percent of pro-choice women stated they would be “more likely to vote for a candidate who calls for government support for grief counseling programs to assist women who experience emotional problems after an abortion.”

David C. Reardon, Ph.D., director of the Elliot Institute, believes the poll results reflect a reality that has long been misunderstood by politicians on both sides of the abortion debate. “At least one of every four women voters has had an abortion, and most of these women consider it to be an ugly, painful memory,” he said. “Most have many regrets about their abortions, even if they believe it to have been their ‘only choice.’ This is why they don’t support the radical agenda of pro-abortion special interest groups. They’ve been there, done that, and hated it.”

The pamphlet, “Reversing the Gender Gap” also contains polling data which suggests that pro-life efforts to address the problem of coerced abortions will produce significant political gains for pro-life candidates. “Between 30 and 60 percent of women who have had abortions felt pressured by others to submit to an abortion,” Reardon said. “Candidates need to boldly and consistently articulate their desire to ‘prevent unwanted, unnecessary, and unsafe abortions’ and to ‘promote healing for those who already suffer from past abortions.’ These two themes will strongly resonate with the real needs and concerns of post-abortive women.”

America’s ‘Pastor to the Unborn’ Warns of God’s Wrath on Canada

Urges Prayer and Fasting Outside Abortion Clinics

WASHINGTON, DC, January 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After speaking at the March for Life convention, Pastor Ed Martin, the founder and director of Rescue America, met with LifeSiteNews.com for an interview last week in Washington, DC. Martin, a Pentecostal minister, has for some 22 years made daily prayer vigils and done sidewalk counseling in front of abortion clinics. In a message for Canada, which he sees as heading into an abyss, Rev. Martin said, “you need to start doing spiritual battle, pray and fast” for an end to abortion.

Rev. Martin has traveled throughout America and the world teaching sidewalk counseling and inter denominational prayer services. His motto has been “Rescuing America’s Future Through Prayer and Direct Action.” His rescue missions have saved the lives of countless children but have also led to his being banned from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Canada. He has been sued 17 times by the abortion industry for RICO, FACE, and the Hobbs Act along with various local injunctions.

Pastor Ed, as he is known, told LifeSiteNews.com he sometimes gets in trouble with his Protestant brothers and sisters for telling Catholics to “devoutly pray the Rosary in front of clinics.” He says Christians of all denominations must pray and fast outside clinics.

After demonstrating a keen understanding of the Canadian situation with regard to abortion, Rev. Martin warned, “God will destroy a country doing what Canada is doing.” He stressed, “I fear for your children and grandchildren — I will pray for you.”

Pro-Life Report Cards on U.S. States Show Louisiana, Texas and Pennsylvania Most Pro-Life

CHICAGO, January 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Louisiana is first, Vermont is worst, while Texas is the most improved in state efforts to protect women and unborn children. Americans United for Life (AUL), recently released its inaugural 2004 State Report Cards, ranking states based upon 24 health-related and life-affirming criteria.

States were credited for initiatives designed to protect women, their health, and their unborn children. Louisiana’s top score of 36 (out of a possible 42) indicates that elected officials in each state can do more to safeguard women and the unborn. “The states are critical players in the cause for life, “said Denise M. Burke, AUL staff counsel and project coordinator. “The states are where more women are protected, where more life-affirming laws are passed and where more lives are saved.”

More than one third of all possible points were awarded in three primary categories:
· Informed consent (with a mandatory reflection period and a warning about the link between abortion and breast cancer) – six points
· Protection for unborn children from criminal assaults – five points
· Health and safety regulations for abortion clinics – four points

Additionally, AUL assigned a letter grade reflecting the strength and productivity of each state’s 2003 legislative session. States that passed two or more protective laws received an A. Nine states (Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia) received top grades for their efforts last year.

“While 2003 was a strong session for legislation that protects women and unborn children in states like Texas, Missouri, and Minnesota, the sad reality is that 32 states scored below 25, failing to adopt and enforce many basic, common-sense legal protections for women and unborn children,” said Burke. “In a year when national and international events raised awareness for the need to safeguard innocent life from violence, too many governors and state legislatures failed to follow through with any meaningful action.”

Actions and positions by a state’s governor, attorney general, and its highest court also affected the final tabulation. Five states (Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Maine and North Dakota) lost points for state supreme court rulings harmful to women and unborn children.

“Statewide elections for governor and attorney general have a tremendous impact on how vigorously states will defend the protective laws that legislatures pass,” said Burke. “Too often, judges thwart the will of the people, invalidating laws such as informed consent and parental notice laws, which have significant and widespread public support. Governors and attorneys general have to be prepared to vigorously defend these laws against the legal challenges that will inevitably be filed by many abortion advocacy groups.”

The complete 2004 AUL State Report Cards are available at https://www.AUL.org . https://www.unitedforlife.org/report_cards/report_card_intro.htm

Pope Warns Parents of Grave Responsibility to Protect Children from Harmful Media

VATICAN CITY, January 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In his message for the May 23 World Communications Day, which was released last week, Pope John Paul II warned that the media “have the capacity to do grave harm to families.” The Pope said the theme chosen for the Day is “The Media and the Family: A Risk and a Richness” invites, “sober reflection on the use which families make of the media and, in turn, on the way that families and family concerns are treated by the media.”

The Pope reminded both media communicators and consumers that “all communication has a moral dimension. He stated that media has the “power either to reinforce or override traditional values like religion, culture, and family.” It has “the capacity to do grave harm to families by presenting an inadequate or even deformed outlook on life, on the family, on religion and on morality,” he said. “The stakes are high, since every attack on the fundamental value of the family is an attack on the true good of humanity.”

Explaining both the good and the bad of media, the Pope said:

“On the one hand, marriage and family life are frequently depicted in a sensitive manner, realistic but also sympathetic, that celebrates virtues like love, fidelity, forgiveness, and generous self-giving for others. This is true also of media presentations which recognize the failures and disappointments inevitably experienced by married couples and families – tensions, conflicts, setbacks, evil choices and hurtful deeds – yet at the same time make an effort to separate right from wrong, to distinguish true love from its counterfeits, and to show the irreplaceable importance of the family as the fundamental unit of society.

“On the other hand, the family and family life are all too often inadequately portrayed in the media. Infidelity, sexual activity outside of marriage, and the absence of a moral and spiritual vision of the marriage covenant are depicted uncritically, while positive support is at times given to divorce, contraception, abortion and homosexuality. Such portrayals, by promoting causes inimical to marriage and the family, are detrimental to the common good of society.”

The Pope stressed, “Parents also need to regulate the use of media in the home. This would include planning and scheduling media use, strictly limiting the time children devote to media, making entertainment a family experience, putting some media entirely off limits and periodically excluding all of them for the sake of other family activities. Above all, parents should give good example to children by their own thoughtful and selective use of media.”

Finally he encouraged families to be “outspoken in telling producers, advertisers, and public authorities what they like and dislike.”

See the full address on media:
https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/communications/documents…

Parents Overwhelmingly Prefer Their Kids Be Taught Abstinence

New poll also shows mums and dads strongly oppose condom-based sex education

COLORADO SPRINGS, January 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The vast majority of American parents want their children’s sex education classes to emphasize abstinence until marriage, according to a new poll released today. The survey, conducted by Zogby International for Focus on the Family, also found that parents strongly oppose the values and messages of comprehensive sex education, a training model that assumes teens will become sexually active and, therefore, must be given easy access to condoms.

The survey of 1,008 parents of children under 17 found that sixty-eight percent of parents want schools to teach teens that individuals who remain abstinent until marriage have the best chances of marital stability and happiness. Ninety-one percent want their children to be taught that sex should be linked to the type of love and commitment found in marriage. More than 56 percent said that information about contraception should either not be taught as a subject or taught in a class separate from abstinence, such as a health or biology class.

Dr. Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, commented on the findings saying, “It is gratifying to learn that parents agree with the President that the primary message we should give our children when it comes to sexual behavior is abstinence until marriage.”

However, a recent Heritage Foundation report found that $4.50 was spent on comprehensive sex education for every $1 spent on abstinence education. Abstinence programs were shunned by the former administration, but have received funding under the Bush administration.

Linda Klepacki, manager of the abstinence department at Focus on the Family said, “This poll illustrates that the people most concerned about the health and emotional well-being of America’s children — their mums and dads — recognize that abstinence is the only surefire way to protect their kids.”

Full poll results can be found at:
https://whatparentsthink.com/pdfs/zogby_2004.pdf

Adoption Ban for Same-Sex Couples Upheld by U.S. Appeals Court

MIAMI, January 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday upheld the Florida law that bans homosexuals from adopting children. The three-judge panel affirmed a U.S. district judge’s 2001 ruling in favour of Florida’s 1977 law. Florida is the only state that prohibits homosexual adoption.

In the court’s unanimous decision, Judge Stanley Birch argued that the court is not in a position to overrule the state Legislature, writing that “‘We exercise great caution when asked to take sides in an ongoing public policy debate. Any argument that the Florida Legislature was misguided in its decision is one of legislative policy, not constitutional law,” he wrote.

U.S. President George W. Bush, in a news release, said that “I am pleased by the ruling of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals today. The decision validates Florida’s conclusion that it is in the best interest of adopted children, many of whom come from troubled and unstable backgrounds, to be placed in a home anchored both by a father and a mother,” he said.

In a press release today, Focus on the Family Chairman Dr. James C. Dobson applauded the decision of the Florida court. Dobson said that “We are pleased that all three judges on this panel have ruled in favour of children. This decision confirms what we have known for decades – that children need a mother and a father. The importance of both mothers and fathers in the healthy development of children cannot be overstated,” Dobson said. “Forty years of social science research confirms what has been understood throughout human history — children fare better physically, emotionally and academically when raised by their two biological parents. And to intentionally deny children the possibility of being raised by a mother and a father is cruel.”

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with an earlier federal ruling that threw out a lawsuit filed by four gay men who said the ban violated their constitutional rights because they were not allowed to adopt.

Read the Miami Herald coverage at: https://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/7822527.htm

Also see the Focus on the Family reaction at: https://www.family.org/

Mexican Bishops Warn Morning After Pill Causes Abortion and Brings Excommunication

MEXICO CITY, January 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Mexican bishops have expressed an unequivocal denunciation of the Mexican government’s decision last week to legalize and distribute the chemical-abortion morning-after pill.

In a series of statements released this week, bishops there are expressing their outrage with statements such as “The pill is a method of abortion comparable to murder,” and “women who use the pill are effectively excommunicating themselves from the church.”

In a statement from the Mexican Bishops Conference Family Committee, Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar said that “Contraception and abortion are both products of an anti-life mentality, which comes from the culture of death.”

Because the morning-after pill prevents implantation of a newly formed embryo, Church leaders argued that this is clearly abortion and not contraception. “Stopping an egg from attaching to the womb is clearly abortion. It kills a newly conceived human being, the most innocent of lives,” Bishop Aguilar said in his statement.

In a re-iteration of millennial teaching on the subject, Church officials reminded the faithful that abortion is a mortal sin, and that “people who practice it will spiritually excommunicate themselves. This (excommunication) is not the opinion of a bishop or even the opinion of the pope. It is the law of the church,” Cardinal Norberto Rivera told local media.

The morning-after pill is slated to be available through government-run “family planning clinics.”

Read the Huston Chronicle coverage at:
https://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2375891

Read the Mexican bishops document (in Spanish):
https://www.cem.org.mx/comision/familia/230104.htm

LifeSite NewsBytes

Minnesota Legislature Consider Constitutional Amendment to Protect Marriage
https://news.mpr.org/features/2004/01/28_scheckt_gmarriage/

Kentucky only one step away from passage of fetal-homicide bill
https://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/01/28ky/met-front-fetal01280-5061….

Pope Praises Large Families in 2004 Lenten Message
https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/lent/documents/hf_jp-ii_…

Mel Gibson agrees to change ‘Passion’ film to combat anti-Semitism
https://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36829

Kentucky Governor Urges Lawmakers to “Preserve the Sanctity of Life”
https://www.fox41.com/news/news_detail.asp?id=12639§ion=2
[please cut & paste address into address bar]

Virginia House Passes Bill to Make Stricter Rules at Abortuaries
https://washingtontimes.com/metro/20040128-103735-5002r.htm

Washington DC School vouchers to start by fall
https://www.washtimes.com/national/20040129-122047-3274r.htm

Professor Informs UK Politicians of Abortion Breast Cancer Link
https://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2464386

Second hand smoke and Urban Pollution Combo Harms Developing Unborn
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/27/health/27SMOK.html

Unborn Baby Parts Found in Closed Jerusalem Hospital
https://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/388196.html

Colorado Bill to Force Hospitals to Dole out Abortifacients Moves Forward
https://article.wn.com/link/WNAT12EEDFDD0BB2D91AA2069756887BCA3D?source=templateg…

UK Woman Wins Right to Appeal Decision to Kill Her Frozen Embryonic Children
https://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=110954&command;=dis…

Abortion trial wraps up in Portugal verdict expected Feb 17
https://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid;=1507&ncid;=1507&e;=11&u;=/afp/20040…

Embargo of US Funding for UNFPA Continues

WASHINGTON, January 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com/c-fam.org) – The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute reported today in its Friday fax that the US Congress has voted to permanently reallocate $56 million in funding previously earmarked for the United Nations Population Fund. The money represents the amount withheld from UNFPA for the past two years because of the UNFPA’s known participation in coercive abortions in China.

Under the U.S. Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Appropriations Act, any organization which participates in coercive abortion precludes them from any financial support.

UNFPA and its closest ally, International Planned Parenthood Federation, are still claiming victory, because the budget still allocates 34 million new dollars for the agency. But the money is available only with the condition that the UNFPA certify that it no longer participates in coercive abortions policies, which is the same course of action Congress has taken for the past two years.

In a conversation with C-FAM, a congressional staff member said that “since UNFPA’s actions in China have not changed, we fully expect the administration to take the same
action it has taken for the past two years regarding UNFPA.”

C-FAM urges Americans to email the President at and say “No funding for UNFPA. No money for coerced abortions.” He will listen.

https://www.c-fam.org/

The New Eugenics: Latest Advance in Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis Extolled

NEW YORK, January 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New York hospital is boasting of a medical first – a successful genetic screen which allowed for the survival and birth of two healthy children whose father is a known carrier of the gene linked to a form of eye cancer, retinoblastoma.

The Newsday article on the subject failed to mention the fact that 22 of the pair’s siblings were discarded in order to achieve this end.

With Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, only those children with the desired genetic trait being selected for — of the dozen created using IVF — are implanted into the womb of the woman. PGD thus involves the intentional killing of any genetically undesirable children.

Margaret Somerville, a professor at McGill’s Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, condemns this “new genetics” as the “new eugenics.” Read the LifeSiteNews.com related coverage of her address at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/oct/02101003.html

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