The Newcastle area of New Brunswick has the distinction of having one of the world’s most comprehensive programmes of parental screening for spina bifida. According to one source at the Miramichi Hospital, a blood test, called the Maternal Serum Alpha-Fetoprotein Test (MSAFP) is “routine” for all prenatals. In 1983 this test was used in 695 maternity-related cases in New [...]
When I return from an eight hour flight (from Paris and Rome this time) I do not usually laugh until my metabolism has readjusted itself with the aid of eight hours rest. But I nearly did (laugh) on Sunday (December 2nd). I had plugged in the kettle just to welcome myself back when my eye fell on a photo of [...]
Two years ago I wrote my first column. It was for the first issue of The Interim and was on “pro-life feminism,” a constant theme of many subsequent columns. When I wrote that first column, I thought I’d soon run out of things to say on the abortion issue and I’m sure that some of you who persist in the [...]
The ever-widening chasm between doctors who respect life and those who believe they have the right to decide who should live and who should die is perhaps nowhere more clearly shown than in their attitudes towards the child with spina bifida. Thirty years ago, a baby born with spina bifida had a miniscule chance of living beyond a few months. [...]
The recent opening of the Morgentaler abortuary and the seeming inability of the Canadian judicial and legal systems to deal with him and the atrocities of abortions being committed all throughout this nation is forcing the evangelical community to re-examine its position with regards to a Christian’s obligation to promote social justice. As an evangelical myself, I would [...]
To its third annual seminar held in Toronto on February 2, Canadians for Decency attracted a crowd of over 300. The topic was “Obscenity, Violence and the Future of Society”; the speakers for the most part took for granted the existence of shocking conditions in our society, and went on to discuss fundamental reasons for their existence and possible [...]
By Corrine Fischer, 16 years old, St. John’s College, Brantford, Ontario, Winner 16-18 yr. group In the February issue of The Interim the last two paragraphs of Ms. Fischer’s essay were inadvertently removed. It is reprinted in full below with apologies to Ms. Fischer. “It’s dramatic. It’s emotional. I don’t say I kill. I terminate. I end. I interfere. I [...]
Dr. David Armstrong, scientific director of the test-tube clinic at the University of Western Ontario, does not appear to know how rapidly life develops. In an interview with Rose Dimanno of the Toronto Star on February 12, Dr. Armstrong defended his recommendation that human embryos be mass-produced and kept up to 28 days for experiments because, he said “up to [...]
Some people get angry at the very idea of drawing a comparison between Joseph Mengele and Henry Morgentaler. Harvey Schachter, associate editor of the Kingston Whig-Standard is on of those persons. He wrote an extra-long, 1300-word, editorial the day after Morgentaler’s visit to the Queen’s University on February 6. Entitled “The lessons of Morgentaler,” the editorial really focuses on only [...]
The Mexican government recently announced that it will no longer allow Playboy magazine to be distributed and printed in Mexico. The move was taken after an investigation undertaken by Allianza Nacional para la Defensa de la Moral Familiar, an organization which works for the preservation of family morals. Allianza Nacional indicated that the magazine had brought great harm to Mexican Society [...]
The cover article of the American Newsweek magazine (January 14, 1985) points out a number of features which were more less known: -nearly 40 per cent of all Americans are not certain whether their current position on abortion is correct. -that only 21 per cent favour abortion on demand. -that 50 per cent would support banning abortions except for rape, incest, [...]
For the first time since the legalization of abortion in 1973, a U.S. President is lending his prestige and authority to seek legal rights for the unborn. President Ronald Reagan was the first president to address the now-annual demonstration in Washington on January 22, the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion. Reagan’s comments delighted the 71,000 strong pro-life [...]
The following statement was released by Dr. Joseph Stantan on Oct. 12, 1984, at a press conference in Washington, D.C. It was signed by 65 physicians, including two past presidents of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the former co-founder of NARAL. The continuing debate on abortion has generated an atmosphere in which the biological facts may be ignored or [...]
On Monday, February 11, 1985, calls went out to religious leaders and others in Toronto to help intensify the picketing at the Morgentaler abortuary for each afternoon from Feb-ruary 18 to 25. Picketing, carried out for two weeks in December, but interrupted for a two-week Christmas break when the abortuary was closed, and resumed in early January, has been organized by [...]
Perhaps one of the more curious stories to emerge in the past two months concerning the confrontation between pro-lifers and those who operate the Toronto Morgentaler abortuary is that of Carol Vanderburg, a part-time graduate student at the University of Toronto. Carol has earned three degrees from the U. of T. (she is working on a fourth) and for some [...]