Don't Fund UNFPA, Lawmakers Urge, After Woman Escapes Forced Abortion

Don’t Fund UNFPA, Lawmakers Urge, After Woman Escapes Forced Abortion

 

The Chinese government reportedly has backed down amid international outrage, reversing a decision to force a Uighur woman who is six months pregnant to abort her child under Beijing’s notorious population control policies.

 

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that Arzigul Tursun had been released from enforced hospitalization in China’s far northwestern Xinjiang region and allowed to return home to continue her pregnancy.

 

“I am all right and I am home now,” Tursun told RFA’s Uighur service. It also quoted a local population control official as saying her health was not good enough to go through with the abortion.

 

The episode has directed a spotlight on China’s coercive “one child” program at a time when the U.S. policy of defunding the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) because of its work in China is set to change.

 

UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) logoThe U.N. agency has lost around $240 million since President Bush in 2002 invoked legislation that denies funding for any organization supporting or participating in forced abortion or involuntary sterilization programs.

 

But during the election campaign President-elect Obama promised to restore federal funding to the UNFPA, a pledge also contained in Democratic Party’s 2008 platform.

 

News of Arzigul Tursun’s plight prompted two Republican lawmakers, Chris Smith of New Jersey and Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, to take up the matter with Chinese officials and with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

 

The congressmen, who are members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, on Tuesday welcomed the news of Tursun’s release.

 

“The decision to spare Arzigul and her child from the tragedy of forced abortion is, we hope, a sign that more women in China will be saved from this grave human rights abuse,” Smith and Pitts said in a statement.

 

Reacting to the population control official’s comment about Tursun’s health, they said, “We know that abortion threatens women’s physical and mental health, and we further recognize that abortion always destroys the life of a child. There are always two victims in every abortion, and we are relieved that this abortion did not take place.”

 

They urged the U.S. government to continue withholding funding from the UNFPA until it stops providing support to China’s population control program.

 

Smith and Pitts also said they would follow Tursun’s case closely “to help ensure that she and her family do not suffer any direct or subtle forms of retribution for her courage in fighting to save her child.”

 

‘Knowingly funding forced abortions’

 

Uighurs (Uyghurs) are Turkic-speaking Muslims living in an area called East Turkistan which enjoyed brief periods of independence in the 1930s and 40s but fell under communist Chinese rule in 1949.

 

Beijing calls the region Xinjiang. It is rich in resources and accounts for one-sixth of the territory of the People’s Republic of China. As a result of official resettlement policies ethnic Han Chinese who accounted for less than 10 percent of the Xinjiang population in 1950 now make up more than 40 percent. (Uighurs comprise 45 percent, with Kazakhs and other minorities making up the rest.)

 

According to RFA and the Uyghur Human Rights Project, officials reportedly tried earlier to compel Tursun to abort her baby but she refused and fled her village. After threats against her relatives she was taken into custody on Nov. 11 and booked into a hospital in the city of Gulja, also known as Yining. The authorities reportedly forced a relative to sign an authorization for an abortion, scheduled for Nov. 13.

 

But she fled again and was sheltering at a relative’s house when police tracked her down on Monday. Her father, Hasan Tursunjan, said police arrived in 20-30 cars at the house, behaving abusively, accusing the family of having links to “separatists in America.”

 

They took Tursun to a larger hospital, where she had been expected to have the abortion at any time – until news broke of her release.

 

Earlier, the highest-ranking Muslim cleric in Europe, Bosnia-Herzegovina grand mufti Reis Ceric, also urged Chinese President Hu Jintao to intervene.

 

Under China’s rigorous population control policy most urban couples are permitted to have only one child. Exceptions are made for ethnic minorities and rural dwellers, and in some circumstances couples may have a second child if their firstborn is a girl.

 

Members of the Uighur ethnic minority are allowed three children if they are rural dwellers and two if they live in cities. Tursun has a rural registration but her husband is registered as an urban dweller. The child they are expecting is their third.

 

Compliance is enforced through financial incentives and punitive fines, but despite official denials researchers have also reported cases of forced abortion, compulsory sterilization and other abuses by family planning commission officials, as they strive to meet quotas set by central authorities.

 

The UNFPA denies that its work in China supports coercive population control practices, saying that it is instead “designed to demonstrate that voluntarism and informed choice are key to successful family planning programs,” with an aim of reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

 

Smith is skeptical of such claims.

 

“To forcibly abort a woman while the world watches in full knowledge of what is going on would make a mockery of [Beijing’s] claim that the central government disapproves of the practice, and of the U.N. Population Fund pretense that it has moderated the Chinese population planners’ cruelty,” he said in an earlier statement.

 

Commenting on the case, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said that if Obama restores funding to the UNFPA, “America will no longer be an innocent bystander of tragedies like this one. Instead, the U.S. will be knowingly funding forced abortions like Arzigul’s with millions of taxpayer dollars.”

 

Supporters of the UNFPA say the Bush administration policies have endangered women around the world, depriving them of important health services provided by the U.N. body.

 

Beijing Population and Family Planning Commission regularly highlights the “success” of its three-decade old family planning program, which it says has prevented the births of around 400 million babies.

 

Apart from the coercion and rights violations, however, demographers note that the policy has also led to a rapidly ageing population, as well as a seriously unbalanced gender ratio in a society where boys are preferred for both traditional and economic reasons.

 

Although legislation was enacted in 2002 to outlaw the abuse of ultrasound scans to determine gender – and facilitate sex-selective abortions – the practice is believed to continue.

 

The gender ratio in China is almost 120 boys for every 100 girls, compared to the international norm of 103-107 boys for every 100 girls. 

 

Contact: Patrick Goodenough

Source: CNSNews.com

Source URL: http://www.cnsnews.com

Publish Date: November 19, 2008

Link to this article:

http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081119_5.htm

 

NEWS SHORTS FOR WEDNESDAY

Dutch Officials Tout no Reports of Infant Euthanasia in 2007 Despite Legality

 

Anti-Euthanasia experts believe unwanted children are instead killed by dehydration

 

Dutch officials have told the Associated Press that there have been no reports of infant euthanasia in the Netherlands in 2007, the first year after the country officially sanctioned the practice. However, drawing on data from previous years, anti-euthanasia advocates say they suspect that some Dutch infants may have been intentionally killed by dehydration last year, a procedure that is not technically labeled "euthanasia."

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111807.html

 

 

Testimony Continues in Tiller Criminal Hearing

 

 Lawyers for Wichita abortion provider George Tiller spent the morning trying to show that former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline and his associates misrepresented information to a judge that kicked off a five-year investigation. Dan Monnat, who represents Tiller, spent most of the morning questioning former investigator Tom Williams, who filed affidavits that led to a secret investigation into Tiller's Wichita clinic and another run by Planned Parenthood in Overland.

http://www.kansas.com/news/updates/story/601556.html

 

 

1000 Brazilian Women To Be Denounced For Abortions

 

Nearly 1000 women and their partners are to be publicly denounced for having abortions in a Brazil clinic, as women's groups slammed the move as an inquisition. Prosecutor Paulo Cesar dos Passos said that 150 women in western Campo Grande have so far been reported to authorities for ending their pregnancies, and he expects the number to reach 1000. "We're also processing their lovers and husbands who paid, accepted or encouraged the procedure," he said, adding the names of some 10,000 women who went to the Campo Grande clinic from 2000 onward have been made public. Abortion is illegal in Brazil, except in cases of rape or when pregnancy puts a mother's life at risk. But penalties for lawbreakers only range from one to three years in jail.

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21498,24674446-5005361,00.html?from=public_rss

 

 

Many Groups Police Spied Upon In Md. Were Nonviolent (Including Pro-Life Groups)

 

Maryland State Police labeled members of a Montgomery County environmental group as terrorists and extremists days after they held a nonviolent protest at an appearance by then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. at a Bethesda high school. A review by The Washington Post of those and other files given in recent days to many of the 53 Maryland activists who were wrongly labeled as terrorists in state and federal databases shows an intelligence operation eager to collect information on the protest plans of a broad swath of nonviolent groups from 2005 to at least early 2007. Those groups included not only death penalty and Iraq war protesters who were spied on by undercover troopers in a 2005-06 surveillance operation exposed in July, but also those who opposed abortion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/18/AR2008111803487.html

 

Pro-Abortion Religious Groups Call to Repeal the Hyde Amendment

Pro-Abortion Religious Groups Call to Repeal the Hyde Amendment
 
"Especially abhorrent is RCRC's advocacy of government funding for unrestricted abortions. This mindset illustrates how RCRC and its member denominational agencies are morally vapid and divorced from traditional Christian and Jewish teachings." -- Mark Tooley, UMAction Director
 
President-Elect Barack Obama should quickly enact a series of pro-abortion laws, including federal funding of abortions, according to a new letter sent to him by a group of liberal religious organizations.
 
The letter, signed by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) and several RCRC member Jewish and Mainline Protestant bodies, including the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, calls for Obama to support the Freedom of Choice Act, which would remove all restrictions on abortions passed by state legislatures. Catholics for Free Choice, another RCRC member, also signed on.
 
The religious groups likewise call to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion services, and the Mexico City Policy, first established by President Ronald Reagan, which prevents government funding of overseas organizations that provide abortions.
 
IRD UMAction Director Mark Tooley commented:
 
"RCRC has long lobbied for unrestricted abortion on demand, with its member denominations acting as a religious veneer for its extreme abortion rights ideology.
 
"Many churchgoers in RCRC member denominations would be horrified to learn how RCRC is exploiting their church’s name to promote unlimited abortion on demand.
 
"Especially abhorrent is RCRC's advocacy of government funding for unrestricted abortions. This mindset illustrates how RCRC and its member denominational agencies are morally vapid and divorced from traditional Christian and Jewish teachings.
 
"Many on the Evangelical and Catholic Left promoted Obama's candidacy, promising his administration would work to reduce the number of abortions in America. Such advocates should now work to counteract RCRC's squalid campaign."
 
Contact: Jeff Walton
Source: The Institute on Religion and Democracy
Source URL: http://www.theird.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=183&srcid=-2
Publish Date: November 18, 2008
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081118_1.htm

Pro-life groups gear up for Obama administration

Pro-life groups gear up for Obama administration
 
Pro-life groups are looking forward to a busy four years while Barack Obama is in office.
 
Students for Life of America (SFLA) is one of the organizations mapping out a new pro-life strategy for the upcoming Obama administration, which is likely to push abortion to the extreme. However, SFLA spokeswoman and executive director Kristan Hawkins is hopeful.
 
"I think it's going to actually help our movement right now. I think it's going to help unite everybody and bring people back to the fold, get people reinvigorated," she contends. "I feel like the past eight years, everybody thought, '[Since] we have a pro-life president, we don't have to do that much. He's looking out for us; don't worry about it.' I think it's going to get people back into the fold, being vigilant, watching what's happening in Washington."
 
Hawkins notes that one of the first actions of the Obama administration is expected to be reintroduction of the Freedom of Choice Act. "That basically would constitutionally guarantee the right to abortion, and it would override any laws or state court rulings that place restrictions on abortions," she points out. "It would wipe [out] the partial-birth abortion ban, parental notification acts, women's right-to-know acts, limitations for state funding of Medicaid funding going towards abortion."
 
In addition, various organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the National Education Association put many millions of dollars into the Obama campaign, and Hawkins believes they are going to expect to get that money back.
 
Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
Source URL: http://www.onenewsnow.com
Publish Date: November 16, 2008
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081118_2.htm

Witch Hunt Falls Flat as Kline Easily Refutes Tiller's Outrageous Claims

Witch Hunt Falls Flat as Kline Easily Refutes Tiller's Outrageous Claims
 
Tiller's motion to suppress evidence against him is a desperate last-ditch effort to avoid trial.
 
Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline took the stand today to answer questions about his investigation of late-term abortionist George R. Tiller while Kline served as the Kansas Attorney General.
 
Kline was subpoenaed by attorneys representing Tiller in a motion to suppress the evidence against their client. Tiller faces 19 counts of illegal post-viability abortions, which were done without the signature of an unaffiliated second physician.
 
Kline answered all questions from Tiller's attorney, Dan Monnat, with grace and humor, which was often lost on the dour Monnat. The questioning attempted to force Kline to admit than an opinion he issued as Attorney General concerning the mandatory child abuse reporting law was used as a tool to launch a selective political investigation of Tiller.
 
However, Kline told the court that the opinion was just that, an opinion and not an investigatory tool. He explained that he had reason to believe that Tiller was violating the laws of Kansas and that he based that belief on information that did not merely include a quote in the Kansas City Star, as Tiller's attorneys tried to infer.
 
Kline's testimony was interrupted due to a scheduling conflict. Kline has been asked to resume his testimony on Friday at 1:30 PM.
 
In the afternoon, Tom Williams, an investigator for Kline for the past five years, took the stand to answer questions about his investigation of child sex abuse in Kansas, which ultimately led to an investigation of Tiller.
 
Monnat tried to persuade Williams to confess that he lied to obtain information from state agencies. However, Williams explained that to divulge everything he knew to people he was questioning would have endangered the investigation. Williams categorically denied lying to obtain information.
 
Monnat and Prosecutor Barry Disney lit the courtroom with occasional fireworks in heated exchanges concerning Monnat's plodding and often improper questioning.
 
Monnat seemed unwilling or unable to control himself to act within the rules, continually asking leading questions which he had been warned not to do through out the day.
 
"Monnat was trying swat a fly with a sledgehammer - and missed badly," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "There is no doubt that Tiller's attorneys have a warped view of reality, taking widely accepted investigatory techniques and finding in them some vast, sinister conspiracy. This hearing has devolved into little more than a witch hunt."
 
During the entire day pro-life missionary Ronald Brock testified outside of the courthouse with his motor home calling for Tiller to be brought to trial. If Tiller's motion fails, he is scheduled to be tried for his crimes on March 16, 2009.
 
The hearing will resume Tuesday morning at 9:00 AM when Tom Williams will resume his testimony.
 
Click here to view photos
 
Contact: Troy Newman, Cheryl Sullenger
Source: Operation Rescue
Source URL: http://www.operationrescue.org
Publish Date: November 17, 2008
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081118_3.htm

Substance sickens pro-lifers

Substance sickens pro-lifers
 
Operation Rescue is concerned about the lack of investigation of an alleged chemical attack against pro-life warriors at a Wichita, Kansas, abortion clinic.
 
Operation Rescue's headquarters is next door to the abortion clinic where the incident happened. Spokesperson Cheryl Sullinger was there.
 
"There was a chemical substance spread on the driveway near where pro-lifers pray at George Tiller's abortion clinic, and it made two women very, very sick," she explains. "They were vomiting; one had to be treated at the emergency room -- she had swelling of the eyes."
 
Doctors said the reaction came from exposure to a foreign substance and was not related to any viral or bacterial infection. Sullinger says two aspects greatly concern her.
 
"We think that this kind of attack against pro-lifers is shocking and it's cowardly," says Sullinger. "And the fact that the authorities don't seem to be interested in stopping this kind of thing really is troubling to us."
 
That alone, she suggests, encourages repeat performances. Operation Rescue has reported death threats recently, as well as vandalism at the property.
 
Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
Source URL: http://www.onenewsnow.com
Publish Date: November 16, 2008
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081118_4.htm

Fear of suffering the 'motor' of promoters of euthanasia, writer explains

Fear of suffering the 'motor' of promoters of euthanasia, writer explains
 
In a recent article published by the L’Osservatore Romano entitled, “For an examination of conscience,” reporter Lucetta Scaraffia explained that fear of suffering in today’s world is the “motor” that drives the promoters of euthanasia. In response, Catholics should lay out principles that reasonably address the questioning that emerges from such fears, she said.
 
Scaraffia’s comments came in response to the case of Eluana Englaro, a 37 year-old Italian woman condemned to undergo euthanasia by the Italian Supreme Court, which has ruled in favor of her father’s request to have her food and hydration withdrawn to cause her death.
 
She charged that the court was showing mercy, “not for the suffering of Eluana—who doctors swear can no longer feel a thing and will not realize she is going to die of hunger and thirst!—but rather for that of her father. As if the father, with the death of his daughter, will no longer suffer. And this is the paradox to which nobody has found a reason to object.”
 
“The fear of suffering constitutes the motor that drives all of the bad decisions about end-of-life interventions: those who promote euthanasia by pushing for a future without suffering know it,” Scaraffia warned, underscoring that the meaning of suffering, “which only Christianity knows how to confront,” is the reason why “everything must be done to stop this kind of situation for happening again.”
 
Catholic tradition, she noted, “offers clear and precise guidance on how to make a decision in these complex circumstances: the value of human life from the moment of conception to natural death, no matter in what conditions it is lived, even if the cases to be confronted are constantly changing, making them more complicated and unprecedented.”
 
Source: Catholic News Agency
Source URL: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com
Publish Date: November 17, 2008
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081118_5.htm

The Dangerous Masquerade of the Feminist Majority Foundation

The Dangerous Masquerade of the Feminist Majority Foundation
 
"The Feminist Majority Foundation claims to be 'dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health and non-violence,'" said Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, "but actions speak louder than words. Eleanor Smeal, the group's president, and her colleagues do not care if women die of breast cancer or have premature births because of their abortions.
 
"If Smeal et al. had the slightest concern for women's health, they would never have initiated a despicable attack on crisis pregnancy centers that serve pregnant mothers, in part, by warning them about the grave health risks associated with abortion.
 
"Telling women the truth about the abortion-breast cancer link is as bad for business as telling consumers about the risks of smoking.  Whether it's Big Abortion or Big Tobacco, making money is more important to them than protecting consumer health.
 
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. If, as standard medical texts say, delaying a first full term pregnancy, childlessness, little or no breastfeeding and small family size put women at much greater risk for the disease, then the young woman who has an abortion has a greater risk than does the one who has a baby. The woman who aborts forfeits the protective effect of childbearing.
 
"Get a conscience," Malec said to Smeal, "and stop playing politics with women's health."
 
A fact sheet discussing the three ways that abortion increases breast cancer risk is available here:
http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/download/TALKING_POINTS.pdf
 
Contact: Karen Malec
Source: Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
Source URL: http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com
Publish Date: November 18, 2008
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081118_6.htm

NEWS SHORTS FOR TUESDAY

 _______________________________________________________
NEWS SHORTS FOR TUESDAY
 
Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of The Illinois Federation for Right to Life. They are presented only for your information.
 
Restricting Freedoms and Choices
 
As the financial sector continues its tailspin despite efforts to bail out Wall Street, among the few gainers in recent stock trading have been those companies looking for a new "shot in the arm" with government funding from the next administration. With its strident rhetoric toward reestablishing the so called "pro-choice" agenda, the incoming administration has threatened a whole host of policies that would not only reduce restrictions on abortion, but would actually force people who wish to avoid participating in the procedure to support it. 
http://www.covenantnews.com/newswire/archives/048817.html
 
 
Abortion Protesters Defy 'Censorship'
 
Abortion protesters at the University of Calgary say they'll risk being arrested and fined, but insist they must speak for the unborn. In spite of warnings from university officials, who banned full public displays of graphic anti-abortion materials, campus anti-abortionists will protest on Nov. 26 and 27. They will carry billboards that equate abortion to the Second World War Holocaust.
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2008/11/18/7448581-sun.html
 
 
Planned Health-Worker Opt-Out Rule Attacked
 
Critics object to a proposal to protect health-care providers who won't perform or assist in certain services, such as abortion.
 
A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health-care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job-discrimination laws. The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health-care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their "religious beliefs or moral convictions." It also would prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors' offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to "assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity" financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008403758_abortion18.html?syndication=rss
 
 
Chinese Woman Must Abort Her Child or Lose Her Home
 
A Muslim Uyghur woman who is more than six months pregnant remains under guard in a hospital in China's northwestern Xinjiang region awaiting a forced abortion by population control authorities who don't want her to have a third child. Arzigul Tursun fled from her village and went into hiding to avoid the abortion but was subsequently found and taken to the Municipal Watergate Hospital in Yining.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111709.html
 
 
Lawmakers Rethink Age Limits on Child Dumping Law
 
Nebraska legislators opened a public hearing Monday on adding an age limit to a child dumping law that has allowed nearly three dozen children - some close to adulthood - to be ABANDONED at hospitals. Lawmakers are in a special session called by Gov. Dave Heineman, who has proposed allowing parents and guardians to drop off only infants no older than 3 days at hospitals without fear of prosecution for the abandonment. Some legislators want a higher limit; Sen. Chris Langemeier of Schuyler said Monday it should be 30 days. Another amendment to Heineman's bill would cap the age at 1 year. Yet another would set a limit of 15 years, but that bill was not expected to reach the full Legislature because it includes provisions on new crisis services that go beyond the scope of the special session.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081117/D94GV5F00.html
 
 
Mandatory Organ Donation Plan
 
Gordon Brown has refused to rule out a change in the law that may see everyone considered as a potential organ donor, despite the recommendations of his advisers. The opt-out system of organ donation should not be introduced as it could undermine patients’ confidence in medical care, the UK Organ Donation Taskforce said. The system of “presumed consent”, as used in Spain and other countries, was unlikely to boost donation rates, as The Times revealed on Friday.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article5171918.ece

NEWS SHORTS FOR FRIDAY

NEWS SHORTS FOR FRIDAY   Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of The Illinois Federation for Right to Life. They are presented only for your information.   After Successful Results, Gardasil Could Be Marketed to Boys Too   Study: HPV Vaccine Prevents Genital Warts in Males   For the first time, an expensive vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancer in women has proven successful at preventing a disease in men, according to a new study.   The disease? It's genital warts, a sexually-transmitted problem that is embarrassing and uncomfortable but not life-threatening.   Still, the results are expected to bolster a likely bid by the vaccine's manufacturer - Merck & Co. Inc. - to begin marketing the vaccine to boys, experts said. Merck plans to ask the government for that approval later this year. http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=39312     Parents Rush to Abandoned Children Before Neb. Places Age Limit on Child Dumping Law   The mother was running out of more than patience when she abandoned her 18-year-old daughter at a hospital over the weekend under Nebraska's safe-haven (child dumping) law. She was also running out of time: She knew that state lawmakers would soon meet in a special session to amend the law so that "child dumping" would apply to newborns only. "Where am I going to get help if they change the law?" said the mother, who lives in Lincoln and asked to not be identified by name to protect her adopted child. To the state's surprise and embarrassment, more than half of the 33 children legally abandoned under the safe-haven law since it took effect in mid-July have been teenagers. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081114/D94EEA1G0.html     Admiral Opens Pregnancy Counseling Center   After earning several honors and awards during an extensive career in the U.S. Navy, retired Rear Admiral Al Kelln can soon add a new accomplishment to his list: opening a pregnancy counseling center. To many, it seemed an unusual choice for the man who has worked in several positions in Naval headquarters, founded the Naval Submarine League and provided his submarine and intelligence expertise to Washington, D.C., clients. "I really don't like anyone telling me 'no' or 'it can't be done,'" he said. "There isn't anything that can't be done if you pray and believe." http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2008/11/14/tomball_magnolia_potpourri/news/po_as_admiral_preg_center_11_12.txt     International Planned Parenthood Pushes 'Sexual Rights' at UN   The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has issued a new document that declares that governments are obligated to guarantee a sweeping definition of "sexual rights," including abortion, "sexual freedom" and "comprehensive sexuality education," as an integral component of human rights. The IPPF declaration defines sexual rights as "an evolving concept that encompasses sexual activity, gender identities, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction." IPPF differentiates "sexual rights" from "reproductive rights," a term that it equates with abortion, specifying that "sexual rights encompass more than entitlements related to health" and that "many expressions of sexuality are non-reproductive." http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=30542     Priest: No Communion for Obama Supporters   A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil." The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote. "Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081113/D94EBKDO0.html     Merck Now Pushing HPV Vaccine for Men   A vaccine designed to protect women and girls from cervical cancer caused by a wart virus may protect men, too, maker Merck and Co reported on Thursday. The Gardasil vaccine was 90 percent effective in preventing lesions, mostly sexually transmitted warts, caused by the virus in men, Anna Giuliano of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, and colleagues found. It was about 45 percent effective in preventing infection with the four strains of HPV that it targets.http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AC2KQ20081113

Australian Proposal to Pay Mothers Late Abortion Cost

Australian Committee Proposal to Pay Mothers Late Abortion Cost for Disabled Babies Compared to Nazis   The Australian Parliamentary Group on Population and Development has been slammed by Queensland Senator Ron Boswell for holding to Nazi-style eugenic ideology on the abortion of disabled children.   "This revisiting of eugenics principles is repugnant to a society that prides itself on the contribution of all," Boswell said.   The pro-abortion group had made a submission, signed by 41 Australian MPs, to the parliamentary committee that is examining the issue of abortion in Australia. The group said paying women a Medicare rebate for second-trimester abortions would save the government about $180,000 a year, due to the high costs of caring for handicapped babies who are allowed to be born.   Removing the abortion rebate, the group said, would place "emotional, physical, mental, and financial stress on families, denying women and couples the right to decide if they are equipped to raise a child with disabilities."   According to Christian Today, so far 7 of the MPs whose names were affixed to the submission have disowned its statements about abortion and handicapped children.   Boswell heavily criticised the submission, saying that its "underlying premise" is based on eugenic principles that governments should prefer to kill the disabled rather than support them. He said it holds that "some lives are worth less than others because they will cost too much to support."   "This is the kind of thinking that was typical of the Hitler regime. They set themselves up as judge of who deserved to live and who deserves to die."   In the period leading up to the Second World War, the Nazi government of Germany began to implement its eugenics policies, meant to "cleanse" the German people of undesirable "racial traits." This meant in practice the killing of those children, and later, adults, considered by the state to be genetically defective. Thousands of children and adults who suffered from mental and physical disabilities were starved and gassed to death and killed by lethal injection.   More recently, the utilitarian eugenics movement has gained popularity in scientific circles that propose to eliminate undesirable traits by killing those unborn babies, and, increasingly, newborns, who are found to be genetically deficient. Utilitarian philosophers and bioethicists like Princeton University's Peter Singer, openly advocate for the killing of disabled children in the womb and as newborns.   Currently the abortion rate for babies with Down syndrome is estimated to be as high as 95% in many Western countries, indicating that modern utilitarian eugenics is already being implemented on a widespread scale.   Contact: Hilary White Source: LifeSiteNews.com Source URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com Publish Date: November 13, 2008 Link to this article: http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081114_6.htm

El Salvador Rejects Anti-Family, Pro-Abortion Youth Convention

El Salvador Rejects Anti-Family, Pro-Abortion Youth Convention   The President of El Salvador, Elias Antonio Saca, affirmed at an Ibero-American leaders' summit late last month that his country would not sign the Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Youth (ICRY) , as it violated El Salvador's Constitution. His decision was applauded by Latin American social conservatives who have been wary of articles in the Convention that they say promote homosexuality and abortion.   The ICRY is backed by Spain's socialist president, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and has the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Proponents tout the treaty as enhancing the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of young people between the ages of 15 and 24.   Critics focus on provisions like Article 25, which labels "sexual and reproductive health" a "right" and calls for "confidentiality" with respect to this right. "Sexual and reproductive health" is used by United Nations (UN) committees and UN agencies to promote abortion. They also point out that Article 23 mandates a "right to sexual education" that includes "full acceptance" of the youth's "identity," a term another article defines as including "sexual orientation." Given that the ICRY encompasses minors within the scope of "youth," critics view the Convention as undermining parental rights and the family unit.   While President Saca's constitutional objections concern provisions of the Convention that would allow youths to evade military service and forbid capital punishment of adults under the age of 24, the Salvadorian Constitution also states that the family is the fundamental base of society and entitled to protection by the State, language similar to that used in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.   Although El Salvador rejected the ICRY, the nations participating in the 18th Annual Iberoamerican Summit also issued a non-binding "Declaration of San Salvador" and a corresponding Program of Action that critics find ambiguous and therefore troubling. The Declaration calls for education in "sexual and reproductive health," and, though it does not mention "sexual orientation," calls for an open-ended "Ibero-American Year Against All Forms of Discrimination."   Critics also point out that neither the Declaration nor the Program of Action were circulated publicly in draft form prior to their release, despite calls that governments do so to allow for greater citizen input.   Julia Cardenal, a Salvadorian pro-life and pro-family activist, asked if the summit documents were "such a good thing for youth, why was everything done so secretly?" While she credits the Declaration for stating that sexual education should be conducted in conformity with the "moral values and internal legislation of each country," she told the C-Fam Friday Fax that the Declaration would have been stronger had such language been incorporated elsewhere in the document as well.    The ICRY went into effect in March of this year, when Costa Rica became the fifth country to ratify it. In addition to El Salvador, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia have refused to sign the ICRY, and Peru's legislature debated and rejected ratification. Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua have also balked at ratifying the Convention.       Contact: Piero A. Tozzi, Neydy Casillas Padrón Source: C-FAM  LifeSiteNews.com Source URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com Publish Date: November 13, 2008 Link to this article: http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081114_5.htm

Girl refused heart transplant - Could be used to promote euthanasia

Case of British girl who refused heart transplant could be used to promote euthanasia   Dr. Luis Raez, expert in bioethics and professor at the Hematology and Oncology Clinic at the University of Miami's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, has warned that the case of Hannah Jones, a 13 year-old British girl who decided not to undergo a heart transplant, sets a precedent that is "very dangerous and could be used legally to promote euthanasia."   The Case   According to the British press, Hannah's chances of surviving the operation are minimal. A battle with leukemia left her heart extremely weak and it is currently functioning at only 10 percent of normal capacity.  She has already undergone several surgeries.   Hannah explained that her treatments have exhausted her and that taking medicines constantly has been very difficult. "I don't like to be like this but I live with it," she said.  For these and other reasons she decided to refuse the transplant, without which doctors have said she has only six months to live.   In response to her refusal, administrators at the Herefordshire Primary Care Trust in Hereford, England decided to seek temporary custody of the child in order to "force" her to undergo the surgery.  However, after several court hearings and a report from a child protection officer, the hospital withdrew its legal action.   According to the BBC, Hannah convinced the officer that her decision was the result of thoughtful and mature reflection.  "I don't know exactly what Hannah said but it must have been powerful enough to convince some very high-up people that she was right. It is an incredible thing for a young person who has been through such a lot to have the bravery to stand up for her rights. We're so very proud of our little girl," her father Andrew Jones told The Independent.   Together with Hannah's mother Kristy, Andrew supports the decision of their daughter.  "Obviously we want to have Hannah with us as long as possible, but we are not going to force her to do something that she doesn't want to do at this time," he told The Daily Mail.   Anti-life Manipulation   Alicia Latorre, president of the Spanish Federation of Pro-life Associations, said the reporting on Hannah has been fraught with "deceitful language. The sensationalist media tells us that Hannah Jones, the British 13 year-old girl who does not want a heart transplant has won the battle to 'die with dignity'."   She noted that the term "death with dignity" is one of the euphemisms used by the culture of death.  "Human beings have dignity from the moment of conception and it is the obligation of everyone to facilitate that everyone can be born and enjoy conditions of life in accordance with that dignity," she said.   Dr. Raez pointed out that "the Catholic Church has always been clear that extraordinary means should not be forced upon someone in order to artificially prolong life, but these means are defined according to the person and the circumstances.  For example, a heart transplant in an elderly patient (over the age of 85) is probably an extraordinary and unnecessary procedure, but in this case it is a girl who is only 13 years old. Certainly there are doubts as to whether her life expectancy would be another 70 years but only God knows how long it would be."   Raez noted that "heart surgery is a procedure performed every day in all countries of the world, and thus it is not always necessarily an extraordinary procedure."    Another aspect of the case, he said, "is the precedent, since British and European law influences greatly this kind of legislation.  In English-speaking countries, this case creates a very dangerous precedent that could be used to legally promote euthanasia if children are allowed to express their opinions without having adequate knowledge of the issue, especially when they are sick."    Raez went on to state that perhaps "due to her young age and the suffering she has endured because of her long illness, she is losing the hope to live."  Therefore, he said, "the parents, who are legally responsible for making decisions for her are without hope and faith and no longer wish to keep fighting."  "The dignity of the human person is extremely valuable even when one is suffering or dying, because the love of God for us never diminishes even when we go through the worst of circumstances," he asserted.   Dr. Luis Raez is certified by the American Board in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.  He currently works on research for new cancer treatments and has published numerous articles on medical ethics and euthanasia, stem-cells and human embryos.   Source: Catholic News Agency Source URL: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com Publish Date: November 13, 2008 Link to this article: http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081114_4.htm

Obama to resume funding of U.N. forced abortions

Rep. Maloney: Obama to resume funding of U.N. program implicated in forced abortions   Supporters of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) are confident that President-elect Barack Obama will reverse the Bush administration's 2002 decision to stop the $40 million it received in U.S. funding. The policy was instated because of UNFPA's support for China's one-child policy, which includes coercive abortion practices.   Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D – N.Y.) said the funding will be approved by the Democratic majority Congress. Her comments came while speaking Wednesday at a press conference at the National Press Club where the 2008 U.N. report on world population was released.   "You know the president will have to do nothing," said Maloney. "He will just have to let the will of Congress go through. One of the changes is that UNFPA will be funded," CNSNews.com reports.   The Bush administration in 2002 had stopped funding the organization, citing the Kemp-Kasten Amendment which prohibits funds from being available to organizations or programs determined to be supporting or participating in coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization programs.   In July of 2008, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte announced that for the sixth year in a row, the government had determined that "UNFPA provides support for and participates in the management of the Chinese government's program of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization."   Rep. Maloney reported that she discusses UNFPA funding controversies in her book "Rumors of Our Progress are Greatly Exaggerated." She said the UNFPA was founded "with American leadership" and "was supported strongly by George Bush's father."   The new UN report, "Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender and Human Rights," calls for "cultural sensitivity" to "mitigate and overcome cultural resistance to couples and individuals using modern contraception." It claims to prepare for the empowerment of women with control over their fertility.   Nevertheless, Rep. Maloney claimed the U.S. will no longer "impose our own ideology" under the UNFPA funding changes.   She said Obama "has already said his administration will change the way we do business in Washington and that improving the role of women around the world is going to be one of his prominent priorities.   "I am thrilled with this report, and I am really thrilled at the new direction of our government," Maloney said, according to CNSNews.com.   Source: Catholic News Agency Source URL: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com Publish Date: November 13, 2008 Link to this article: http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081114_3.htm

Doctors, Hospitals Stand Against Assisted-Suicide Law

Doctors, Hospitals Stand Against Washington's Assisted-Suicide Law   Doctors and hospitals in Washington state are standing strong for life after voters legalized physician-assisted suicide last week.   Hospice of Spokane has said its mission is to care and support its patients, not help them kill themselves.   Spokane's Sacred Heart Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals in the Northwest, also opposes assisted suicide.   "This position is grounded in our basic values of respect for the sacredness of life, compassionate care of dying and vulnerable persons, and respect for the integrity of medical, nursing and allied health professions," according to a statement on the hospital's Web site.   "We do not believe health care providers should ever be put in a position of aiding a patient in taking his or her own life. … We will continue to advocate for increased support and resources for hospice and palliative care programs, at the Medical Center and in our community, that provide compassionate, pain-relieving comfort and care for those who are at the end of life."   Wesley J. Smith, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, said no doctor can be forced to help others kill themselves.   "A powerful message could be sent if physicians around the state — if hospitals, nursing homes, hospices — refuse publicly to participate in assisted suicide, and put plaques and certificates up on their walls and lobbies saying, 'This is an assisted-suicide free zone,' " he told OneNewsNow.com.   Contact: Jennifer Mesko Source: CitizenLink Source URL: http://www.citizenlink.org Publish Date: November 13, 2008 Link to this article: http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081114_2.htm