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
