Pro-life legislation introduced CANBERRA, Australia - A bill that has the capacity to largely ban some abortions has been introduced in the legislative assembly of the Australian Capital Territory. The bill, presented by an independent member, proposes to ban all abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy, unless the mother is at grave physical risk, and all abortions in the first trimester, [...]
Computers and the Net Yes, there is a huge amount of pornography on the Internet. Still, after almost three years on line I've hardly encountered any. Porn isn't a problem for users who follow certain guidelines. Also, there are practical ways to change the Net and make life difficult for porn pushers. The past few decades' explosion in porn available in all [...]
After last year's abolition of constitutionally-guaranteed religious education rights, Québec's new language-based school boards are now in place. Elections for commissioners were held last June, and the results were everything traditionalists feared. Previously, school boards were set up along confessional lines: Catholic and Protestant, the latter usually tending to be more secular, although in fact secularism was a problem in both systems. [...]
Little shocks Université de Montréal criminologist Marc LeBlanc anymore, but the latest statistics on youth crime, which indicate that Québec adolescents are becoming more violent than ever before, were enough to give him pause. In a 1990 report on an ongoing study of youth violence, Professor LeBlanc concluded that the rate of violent youth crime in Québec had stabilized. In 1997, he [...]
Following on our August feature article on Rock for Life, a network of pro-life rock bands, The Interimoffers the thoughts of a devout young Roman Catholic who has decided listening to secular rock music is incompatible with her call to Christian discipleship. So, you've given your life to Christ. You've started to like going to mass. You're saying the Rosary more than [...]
In August, The Interim ran a review of a booklet by Randy Alcorn, a U.S. Protestant evangelist, on the abortifacient function of many so-called contraceptives. Alcorn's concerns reflect those of an increasing number of pro-life Protestants, showing that contraception isn't just a "Catholic issue." In the following article, regular Interim contributor Tim Bloedow offers arguments against contraception itself - not just the abortion-causing [...]
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing pro-life pharmacists at present is the development and promotion of various medications - many of them being billed as "contraceptives" - which, in fact, end human lives shortly after they begin. Intensive research is currently underway on over 200 abortifacient agents, apart from the so-called morning-after pill and a combination of the drugs methotrexate and misoprostol. MAPs [...]
A bill that would have made it a crime to avoid parental involvement laws by taking a minor to another state for an abortion has stalled in the U.S. Senate, and its Republican sponsor says the issue is probably dead for this year. A 54-45 procedural vote handed U.S. pro-life advocates their second defeat at the federal level in less than a [...]
A one-man board of inquiry appointed under the New Brunswick Human Rights Act has ruled that Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside discriminated against gays and lesbians by refusing to proclaim a "gay pride weekend" in his city. "It's a question of balancing rights, but the balance has been found to clearly favour the (gay and lesbian) complainants," said commissioner Brian Bruce, a law [...]
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada will pick a new leader this fall, but the candidates hold out little hope for pro-life, pro-family Canadians. Seeking the leadership are former prime minister Joe Clark, backroom advisor Hugh Segal, former Manitoba cabinet minister Brian Pallister, Québec lawyer Michael Fortier, and Saskatchewan farmer and free-trade opponent David Orchard. If the Oct. 24 vote fails to [...]
A severely brain-damaged woman confined to a Montréal-area psychiatric institution is pregnant, and her mother, the police, and the public curator want answers. The 34-year-old woman, known as "L" in news reports, has been hospitalized since an accident when she was 12. She cannot speak, and is unable to consent to sex. L was made a ward of the public curator when [...]
Official says permanent measure being planned The hope that Ontario's Progressive Conservative government will throw out the "temporary" injunction against pro-life witnessing was all but quashed last month. An inquiry with the Ministry of the Attorney-General revealed that the government is now committed to seeing the injunction made permanent. Ministry spokesman Brendan Crawley told The Interim he doesn't know when the decision [...]
On Sept. 2, police in 12 countries simultaneously arrested almost 50 people. The sting, dubbed Operation Cathedral, was described by authorities as "the most extensive child pornography sting in history." Begun by the British National Crime Squad six months ago, it uncovered a database with more than 100,000 pornographic photographs. Police have seized "boxes of pornography, various software materials, and hardware," 8mm [...]
Doctor pressed parents to allow organ donation Every parent's worst nightmare came true for Don and Margaret Romaniuk of Lethbridge, Alta., on Feb. 13, 1998. The RCMP called at 2:30 in the morning to notify them that their daughter, Julia, had been in a car accident. "Is she OK?" Mr. Romaniuk asked. "No, she is in serious condition..." came the reply, which [...]
Erin Pizzey, the founder of the world's first battered women's shelter, told a recent Toronto workshop on domestic violence that "men and women (are) equally able to be perpetrators of domestic violence." In 1971, Pizzey opened Chiswick Women's Aid in London, England. "Of the first 100 women coming into the refuge, 62 were as violent or more violent than the partners they [...]