Sender: plnews@prolife.netcentral.net To: "The Prolife News Mailing List" From: frezza@ee.pitt.edu Reply-To: "The Prolife News Mailing List" Date: Mon, 12 Sep 1994 09:58:09 -0400 Organization: NetCentral, Inc. Subject: 'ProLife News v4n14' X-MailServer: Waffle File Server (WFS), Release 3.1.1 X-Article: 10 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Life Communications - Volume 4, No. 14 September, 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This newsletter is intended to provide articles and news information to those interested in Pro-Life issues. All submissions should be sent to the editor, Steve . ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD - Cairo, Egypt) The United Nations released a report in August, just three weeks before the population conference in Cairo, advocating further attempts to make abortion more available worldwide as a way to stem the supposed population explosion. The strong advocacy of abortion perhaps reveals what might occur in Cairo, where proposals about abortion and population control have received strong criticism from many sources. The ostensible goal of the U.N. conference is to draw up non-binding guidelines for stabilizing world population at 7.27 billion people by the year 2015. In April, however, this non-binding resolution was given some very sharp teeth: At the New York pre-conference held in April, it was decided that countries opposing the mandate risk losing World Bank privileges and economic aid grants (including grants for disaster aid) if they refuse to adopt the proposed _Program for Action_ in Cairo (_PRI Review_, "World Bank safe Motherhood Initiative," vol. 2, no.3, May/June 1992). This is blatant economic coercion. The UN conference document, if passed by a two-thirds majority plus one, could be legally binding for many governments without their ratification. *Who is Leading the ICPD* (In case you were wondering if there were any neutral parties) The 1994 ICPD chairman is Dr. Fred T. Sai, president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and former head of Planned Parenthood, Ghana. Professor Sai proposed a three-tiered approach to the Safe Motherhood Initiative at the UN World Bank/Family Care International's meeting at the World Bank (March 9-11, 1992). In the article, he states that " ... family planning and abortion are ... important first-tier components" (_The Lancet_, "Safe Motherhood Initiative: Getting Our Priorities Straight," vol. 339: Feb.22, 1992, pp.478-479). Sai has been instrumental in getting pro-abortion organizations around the world to change their demands for "legal" abortion to demands for "safe" abortion, in order to make these demands more palatable. Dr. Sai was responsible for the suspension of protocol at the Third Preparatory Committee (PrepCom III) meeting in New York. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were allowed in the General Assembly room to observe proceedings. They were permitted to heckle pro-family speakers such as Msgr. Diarmuid Martin, the Vatican observer, and Humberto Belli, Nicaraguan minister of education. In addition, Sai personally cut off speakers and ridiculed them from the podium. He was responsible for the screening of NGOs, limiting them primarily to radical feminist and pro-abortion groups. Of the 500 NGOs Sai allowed to participate at PrepCom III, only 20 were pro-life. The secretary general of the Cairo conference is Dr. Nafis Sadik, executive director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities and former director of the Pakistan Central Family Planning Council. She has been involved in governmental family planning, on a national or international level, since 1964. In a 1991 article in which she suggests strategies for curtailing population growth rates, Dr. Sadik discusses why government must become involved in family planning: "Political support from the highest levels in the state is essential in making family planning both widely available and widely used. Political backing helps to legitimize family planning, to desensitize it, and to place it in the forum of public debate." She notes that political backing helps counteract the "hostility" of "traditional" leaders and comments that "family planning is loaded with emotional, social, and sometimes religious values." It is Dr. Sadik's belief that " ... reliable supplies [of contraceptives] and a good system of referral in problem cases and good counseling can make a big difference to [birth] continuation rates." "Currently," Sadik admits, "the most popular method worldwide [of contraception] is sterilization." In July Sadik indicated that the Cairo conference would _not_ support any proposal encouraging abortion. She also said the groups attending the Cairo conference would come up with some consensus on a 20-year plan to control world population. Yet abortion language is what the developed nations are fighting for, and many of the underdeveloped nations are fighting against. *The U.S. Role* Clinton appointed former Colorado Senator Tim Wirth to be Undersecretary of State, a senior position with authority over (among other things) all population- control programs. In a speech to a U.N. population meeting on May 11, 1993, Wirth said, "A government which is violating basic human rights should not hide behind the defense of sovereignty. . . Our position is to support reproductive choice, including access to safe abortion." On Jan. 11, 1994, Wirth said the U.S. "goal is to help provide comprehensive family-planning services to 'every woman in the world who wants them' by the year 2000." [_Washington Times_, Jan. 12, 1994] Yet it is the Vatican and "Islamic Fundamentalists who are being vilified in the U.S.Press for opposing the abortion and 'reproductive rights' language included in the draft UN Program of Action. Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador and, to a lesser extent, Argentina and Venezuela, back Vatican positions on outlawing abortion under any circumstances and circumscribing family planning to married couples. President Clinton said Washington would support pro-choice on abortion throughout the world. At a a National Academy of Sciences dinner held at the end of June, he stated "Our goal is to make these programs available to every citizen of the world by early in the next century." Clinton also claims that his administration does not support abortion as a method of family planning and opposes any coercive termination of pregnancies. Yet it was the Clinton Administration that killed the Bush Administration regulation making it possible for Chinese women fleeing the Chinese government's [UN-Funded] compulsory abortion policy to obtain political asylum in the United States. Furthermore, the Administration has been energetic in deporting, or seeking to deport, even those Chinese citizens who have presented overwhelming evidence that they will be subjected to compulsory abortions or sterilization. This stance may well be backed up by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) who charged that the State Department recently cabled every U.S. embassy and mission abroad urging that they lobby their host governments to support "stronger language on the importance of access to abortion" in the draft program for Cairo. The cables called abortion on demand a "priority" issue for the United States and a "fundamental right." To further complicate the real U.S. position, Vice President Al Gore stressed in an Aug. 25 speech that each nation has a right to regulate abortion - and once he arrived in Cairo sought to amend earlier U.S. statements that he said may have been interpreted as advocating an international right to abortion. Pro-Abortion sources have denounced the administration for 'backing down.' The Vatican continued to lead the fight against abortion language, and the U.S. kept the pressure on to retain it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) News from Around the Globe: THE NETHERLANDS *Supreme Court Approves Mercy Killing* The Netherlands Supreme Court found that psychiatrist Boudewijn Chabot was "guilty of giving a fatal dose of sleeping pills to a severely depressed woman who was otherwise healthy," as reported in the _New York Times_. But note: the Dutch Court stated that Chabot should *not* face criminal penalty. Chabot's attorney claims that the ruling establishes the principle that someone who is suffering mentally should be able to receive mercy killing. "This is a classical example of the slippery slope,'' said Karl Gunning, head of the Dutch Doctors' Union. ``We have always predicted that once you start looking at killing as a means to solve problems then you'll find more and more problems where killing can be the solution." Currently, about 2,700 cases of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are reported annually in the Netherlands, about 2.1 percent of all deaths. Anti-euthanasia activists say those figures are low. POLAND *Walesa Veto Sticks* Polish liberal electronic daily "Donosy" reports in its Friday, September 2 edition that the Sejm (Polish Parlament) failed to overrule the president Walesa's veto of the proposed liberalized version of the strict anti-abortion law. The Sejm failed in its effort by 40 votes, which constitutes a margin even greater than when the law was originally introduced. This liberalized version of the anti-abortion law was proposed soon after the parlamentary election last year in which the post-communist and liberal forces gained a majority. President Walesa vetoed the abortion legislation and has consistently refused to sign any liberalized abortion bill. According to the present polish anti-abortion law, an abortion is permitted only in extreme circumstances, such as in the cases of life or health- threatening situations as well as rape. The proposed law would have made abortion possible also in "difficult social situations". PEOPLES' REPUBLIC OF CHINA *Not-So-Subtle Effects of Population Control* After decades of coercive population control, reported _The New York Times_ on August 16th, China is experiencing a dearth of marriageable women. Unmarried men over 30 outnumber unmarried women 10 to 1, and for most men, there is no prospect of finding a marriageable woman. According to the _Times_, Chinese government officials, sociologists, and journalists are openly voicing their concern that the rise in the number of permanent bachelors will cause an increase in rape, prostitution, and--among men- -suicide. Another fear is kidnapping, as city women are captured by bounty hunters and taken to rural areas where "rural farmers [are] desperate for brides." India, reported the _Times_, is facing a similar problem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) American Shorts *The Southern Baptists* have declared they will fight any health care reform plan that includes abortion coverage. And have 15.4-million-member church will send out 80,000 fliers to 40 churches in key congressional districts urging members to write congressman who are undecided on the issue In a related action, the delegates also criticized the president -- a fellow Southern Baptist -- for taking steps to make the French abortion pill RU-486 available here. The drug could be licensed for sale in the United States within two years. *Colorado* is one of the next states to face the Clinton directives: Pro-Life briefs are being filed in the 10th Circuit for Colorado state legislators who oppose the Clinton administration directive ordering states to fund more abortions. [ This is the same directive that caused Louisiana to change its state laws or loose $4 billion in August.] The federal district court earlier ruled that state Medicaid funds must provide expanded abortion coverage. One Colorado newspaper editorialist put it this way: "Colorado voters have indicated - twice - they do not want their taxes paying for abortions except to save a mother's life....The irony in this is all is that Medicaid regulations provide latitude to the states in a host of areas....Surely Coloradans should have at least equal right to exercise some discretion concerning the most controversial medical 'practice' of all." *Barbara Bush*, in her recently released autobiography, spelled out her pro- abortion stance after years of declining to comment on the issue. Former President George Bush, although supporting abortion early in his career, changed his stance when he ran as Vice- President in the Reagan-Bush 1980 Presidential campaign. During his years as President, George Bush adamantly supported the right-to-life cause while his wife, Barbara declined comment. *Two pro-life victories*: courts in Ohio and North Dakota upheld women's right- to-know laws with 24-hour reflection periods. Americans United for Life(AUL) assisted in the successful defense of these life-affirming laws, which are now in effect and should help reduce the number of abortions in these states. Elsewhere, a Michigan judge dismissed a case against the state's parental-consent law, which was based on an AUL model statue. Abortion advocates have not yet appealed the decision. The law has been in effect since April 1993. *Norplant* was again in the news, as yet another class-action suit has been brought against its manufacturer. The claims are that the manufacturers have been negligent in informing doctors and patients about the severity and prevalence of the side-effects of Norplant use. The suit, filed in Pittsburgh, also claims that they have been negligent in providing adequate training for the removal of the abortifacient implants. *Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders* claimed awhile back that legal abortion lowered the infant mortality rate in the USA significantly. (Apparently, the Surgeon General believes that killing babies is a good way to keep them from dying). Of course, this was common practice in East Germany, that is before the Unification. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) U.S. Healthcare Debates - NRLC Call to Action National Right to Life is calling on pro-life citizens to write letters to their elected U.S. Senators concerning the "Mainstream Coalition" health- care bill. Douglas Johnson, Director of the NRLC Legislative Office, after consulting with Congressional pro-life leaders, feels this Mainstream Coalition bill is the leading contendor and has a greater chance of passing. The MC bill, as with the Clinton bill, has sweeping pro-abortion mandates and the benefit packages cover abortion on demand. According to Johnson, passage of the bill would amount to the "biggest expansion of abortion services since Roe v Wade." In addition, the bill is similar to Clinton's in that: o Everyone who wants to by ANY health insurance would be required to buy a basic benefits package that would include coverage of abortion on demand. o Low income persons would be given vouchers for obtaining abortions. o The bill mandates more abortion facilities in "underserved" areas. In addition to abortion, the bill, like Clinton's, has extensive rationing and two provisions which are supportive of active euthanasia. It would strike down state involuntary euthanasia laws, begin a study on when medical services should be withheld for gravely or terminally ill patients, and strike down laws on "durable powers of attorney" which experts predict could result in making assisted suicide legal in all states if one state allows it. NRLC encourages both calls and letters to your two Senators. They advise separate letters, with one letter covering rationing, and the second addressing abortion and euthanasia. Please take action today to protect the right-to-life. - Steve Ertelt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Announcements *First College Coalition Meeting at M.I.T.'S Barbecue - SAT. SEPT. 24* The first New England College Coalition meeting of the 1994-95 year will be held in conjunction with the M.I.T. group's barbecue for new students which will be held Saturday, September 24 at 1:00 p.m. at McCormick Hall (on Amherst St. off Massachusetts Ave., one block from the intersection of Massachusetts Ave. and Memorial Dr.). The primary purpose of the College Coalition is to provide a means for pro-life students from across New England to meet each other, exchange ideas, and join together in projects. For more information contact Katarina Rutkus at M.I.T. (617-225-8698 or ) or Bruce Hall at MCFL (617- 242-4199 or ). *Pro-Life/Family Conference Weekend 30th Sept - Sat., 1st Oct, 1994* sponsored by Human Life International's _Pro-Life/Family Institute_ and the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Speakers include Fr. Paul Marx, Fr. Matthew Habiger, Dr. Patrick Lee, Jean Guilfoyle, Fr. Michael Scanlan, and James Sedlak of STOPP. $19 for individuals, $29 for couples, students are free. For more information contact Human Life International, 7845 Airpark Road, Suite E, Gaithersburg MD 20879 or call (301) 670-7884. *Respect Life Walk for Mothers and Children - Sun., Oct. 2* The largest gathering of pro-lifers in Massachusetts, and probably New England, is the Respect Life Walk for Mothers and Children. The 1994 Walk will be held on Respect Life Sunday, October 2 at 1:00 p.m. on the Boston Common. Twenty to thirty thousands pro- lifers are expected to show up to raise money for the College Coalition, the Ivy League Coalition for Life, and 47 other beneficiary organizations most of which are crisis pregnancy centers, counseling services, and shelters. There will be speeches and music beginning at 1:00 p.m. with the Walk stepping off at 2:00 p.m. There is no other event that is so inspiring and helpful. For a brochure or more information call MCFL at 617-242-4199. *Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Federation for Life Fall Convention - Oct. 7-9, 1994* To be held at Lehigh University in Allentown, PA. Features pro-life speakers, college student workshops, campus reports, a pro-life dance, and much more. For more information please write to: Intercollegiate Federation for Life, P.O. Box 10664 State College, PA 16850 or call (814) 867-6263. ------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------- 6) New On-Line Resources: There have been a few recent additions to our archives: "The Cairo Conference: The Real Story" Presents a number of different aspects on the International Conference on Population Development (ICPD) held in Cario, Egypt in September, 1994. Includes a background, excerpts from the proposed `Program of Action', comments from different sides, and a call to action. [ Ask for "CairoConference.94" ] "Abortion Risks and Complications" A brief summary of the complications and risks of surgical abortion. Very well-documented. [Ask for"RisksComplications"] "1994 U.S. Senate Phone and FAX Numbers" A listing containing the office phone numbers for all, and FAX numbers for many of the Senators, dated June, 1994. FAX transmissions are an effective way to get letters directly to the Senators office. [Ask for "94SenateList"] "1994 U.S. House of Representatives Phone and FAX Numbers" A listing containing the office phone numbers for all, and FAX numbers for many of the Represenatatives of the 50 states. FAX transmissions are an effective way to get letters directly to the Represenative's office. [ Ask for "94HouseList" ] "FRC Monthly Support Newsletter" Points out serious flaws in Clinton healthcare package, illustrating points with a moving letter from a California couple who struggled with a life-and-death decision relating to the premature birth of their daughter. Outlines the five basic principles of the FRC health and ethics policy department. [ Ask for "ClintonCare.frc" ] "U.S. Abortion Rates 1988-1992, by State" Lists the abortion rates per 1,000 U.S. women in 1988 and 1992 by state, and the percentage change. From the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute. [ Ask for "USAbortRates.92" ] "Molecular Genetic Analysis of Fetal Tissue" Technical discussion of the different techniques available for detecting and diagnosing genetic diseases from Fetal Tissue. [ Ask for "SciForLife.Jan94" ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote of the Month: "There is an irrational and irreconcilable contradiction between the energies expended by the current adminisistration to combat violations of human rights on domestic and international fronts in some instances, and the same administration's vigorous efforts to fund all abortions in the United States through a national health care program, and its insistence that full access to abortion be an integral part of any policy regarding population control to be considered by the United Nations in Cairo this September." - Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua commenting on the U.S. Position on Abortion. Spoken at the "Defending the Faith Conference", Steubenville, OH, June 25, 1994. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Credits: | | 1 - Taken from many sources. Especial thanks to Steve Ertelt, Eric Ewanco, | | Sean Smith, Phil Sevilla and Chris Stamper. | | 2 - Many thanks to Tadeusz Strzemecki for the Polish reports. To receive | | polish versions of Donosy, contact . The PRC | | information is quoted from _The Wanderer_, August 25, 1994. Many thanks | | to _The Prolife-Infonet Mailing List_ . | | 3 - Sources include _LifeLines_, newsletter of the N.E. PA Pro-Life | | Federation, the _Pittsburgh Post Gazette_, and the Americans United for | | Life Newsletter. Many thanks to Steve Ertelt and Felicia Ciaudelli. | | QOM - Many thanks to reader Phil Sevilla. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Anyone desiring information on specific prolife groups, literature, or help with problems is encouraged to contact the editor. For those on the web, there is a preliminary WWW page at Sender: plnews@prolife.netcentral.net To: "The Prolife News Mailing List" From: frezza@ee.pitt.edu Reply-To: "The Prolife News Mailing List" Date: Mon, 12 Sep 1994 09:58:09 -0400 Organization: NetCentral, Inc. Subject: 'ProLife News v4n14' X-MailServer: Waffle File Server (WFS), Release 3.1.1 X-Article: 10