The Utah Senate approved a bill January 23, 1991, outlawing abortion ‘except incases of rape, incest, effects to the child incompatible with sustained survival, and danger to the mother’s life.” Penalties for illegal abortions range from one to fifteen years in prison. Despite the fatal flaws in this legislation, it is expected that the legislation will be challenged in the courts. (Wanderer, [...]
Nearly three quarters of all Americans believe that religious leaders have a right to express their views against abortion to elected officials. The poll was conducted by the Worthlin group. It found that 69 per cent of the 1000 people surveyed agreed with the statement: “A Church that believes it is morally wrong to have an abortion has the right to advocate [...]
Amnesty International (AI) should push for the release of persons jailed for barring access to abortion ‘clinics’, claims pro-life activist Vickie Bellaire of Kitchener, Ontario. “If anyone can be called a prisoner of conscience, it is certainly someone who risks arrest and imprisonment for the prevention of what they know in their hearts and minds is the destruction of human life,” Ms. [...]
Toronto NDP municipal councilor Jack Layton wants to be Toronto’s mayor. Much to the surprise of Mr. Layton, his followers and reporters, his formal announcement at Toronto’s City Hall on February 13 was met by immediate opposition. Several people, including some carrying placards, heckled Layton. Jack Layton is “completely unacceptable” as a candidate for mayor, said Paul Dodds, legal counsel for Campaign [...]
Charlottetown. ON January 11, the front page of the Charlottetown Guardian featured a large, full-colour picture of three persons: a man in a military uniform, an infant, and a young woman. The accompanying caption explained that he was returning to his fiancée from military duty in the Persian Gulf and meeting his young son for the first time. Chided A local Roman [...]
The following story appeared in the Markham, Ontario Weekender of December 223, 1990. Starting in Grade 7, Catholic students in York Region are taught about condoms and foam. “The promotion of condoms and foam as a birth control method and as prevention to HIV infection was addressed at last week’s education committee meeting of the York Region Catholic Separate School Board. “Divisional [...]
In her Toronto Star column of December 14, 1990 pro-abortion, anti-life columnist Doris Anderson seized with delight on one of the recent scandals in the Catholic Church in Canada. The atrocities against boys at Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland, she declared with complete conviction, are the direct result of centuries of misguided teaching in the Catholic Church. The Church’s efforts to promote [...]
Despite the serious objections of concerned teachers, abortion defender Sheila Copps opened the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) late January ‘Poverty Hurts’ conference in Toronto. Another pro-abortionist, ex-NDP MPP, Richard Johnson was to have closed the conference, but in the end did not appear. Ms. Copps, the third place finisher in last year’s Liberal leadership race, is party leader Jean Chretien’s [...]
On November 27, 1990, the Policy Committee of the Durham Separate School Board (DSSB) revoked an earlier motion of the full board making family life and religion programs compulsory for all students. For more than a year, some parents in the region lying to the east of Toronto had fought a losing battle with the DSSB over a long-standing rule that no [...]
Father Tony Van Hee, a 55-year-old Jesuit priest from the Guelph Spirituality Centre, heaved a sigh of relief when the proposed abortion law, Bill C-43 was defeated in the Senate on January 31, 1991. Vigil Father Van Hee has kept a prayer and fasting vigil on Parliament Hill for the last year-and-a-half (since September 1989) except for a break of three months [...]
The French pharmaceutical giant Roussel-Uclaf produces RU-486, a steroid whose sole purpose is to bring about an abortion. It does so by destroying the lining of the uterus, thereby dislodging the already attached fetus (baby) who dies and is then expelled. In the summer of 1990, the French government sold its 40 per cent share of Roussel-Uclaf to Rhone-Poulenc, a leading French [...]
I was one of those who represented Campaign Life Coalition before the Senate Committee on the question of Bill C-43. I was very honoured to be chosen. While the senators were courteous and attentive, we did not feel any optimism regarding the outcome of the meeting. Our position was one of “total non-compromise” on a bill which, had it passed, would have [...]
Quebec birth rate rises Despite expectations that the Quebec government’s policy of paying cash bonuses for newborn babies would not work, the number of babies born in the province increased for the second year running. The bonuses range from $500 for a first child to $6,000 for three or more children. Parents are also given special provincial income tax deductions. As a [...]
The year 1990 brought many ‘signs of hope’ to the pro-life movement said the executive secretary of the American Bishops’ Pro-Life Activities Secretariat, Father John Gouldrick. He noted the following successes in the United States: • An August poll found that most Americans believe human life begins long before birth and that the unborn child deserves protection; • Media bias against the [...]
Czechoslovakia In the second week of January, the Czechoslovak federal assembly passed a new human rights law which included a ‘right to life’ clause. Members of the assembly, especially those representing Christian-oriented parties called for this clause to be extended to cover life from the moment of conception, in other words, they wanted an end to legal abortion, in line with the [...]