Toronto. Since August 19 Ontario’s health minister has received 59,000 pieces of mail complaining about the threatened elimination of individual Ontario hospital boards. Frances Lankin, Minister of Health, wants to place all hospitals, including those privately owned, under elected boards. Catholics have swamped the office of the Minister with letters of protest. Layne Verbeek, communications spokesman for the Minister of Health, used [...]
At a well-attended dinner meeting of the Human Life Research Institute, held at Massey College in Toronto on September 12, Dr. John Scott spoke on a most timely topic – palliative care. He is associated with the Elizabeth Bruyere Health Centre in Ottawa, and after eighteen years at bedsides of people approaching death, he has a great deal of insight into their [...]
The Interim has published several articles on RU-486. Versions of this article have appeared in the Ottawa Citizen and the Vancouver Sun. We print it here because of the issue’s importance. “Dumping chemicals into women’s bodies – specifically into their reproductive systems - has generated billions of dollars in profits for multinational pharmaceutical companies. In the second half of the 20th century [...]
Early in 1992, citing “unreasonable accommodations,” the University of Florida dismissed pharmacist Michael Katsonis for refusing to dispense the “oral” contraceptive Ovral for use as a “morning after” abortifacient. Dr. Katsonis is a member of the U.S.-based Pharmacists for Life, but aside from a formal protest lodged by the president of the Florida chapter, no other professional pharmacy organization has come to [...]
When Joanne Dieleman talks about saving babies from the clutches of abortionists, it’s not idle chitchat. In a remarkable booklet, author Joanne, long time pro-life activist and rescuer, mother of eight children and 249 foster children and grandmother of eight, tells how to save babies from instant death while their mothers – often unwittingly – march their children into a death camp. [...]
Part I appeared in the July issue. It provided a brief history of how abortion legislation has changed during this century. Part II focuses on some of the important organizations which promote the anti-life, anti-family philosophy and concludes with a reflection on Ireland. Who are the people who promote abortion and why? The best-known promoter of abortion around the world is the [...]
Church and society Pope John Paul II, when he is not traveling, receives an unending stream of visitors, in groups or singly, dignitaries of every kind and every profession, local curial officials, bishops on their once-every-five-years visit, laity and clergy from every corner of the world. The Holy Father listens to their speeches or addresses and then almost always responds in kind. [...]
The following are pronouncements issued by American Catholic bishops against politicians who speak on the abortion issue from both sides of their mouths. They are of interest to Canadians who face the same kind of politicians. “Values Void” St. Paul, Minn. In a July 9, 1992, column of the diocesan newspaper The Catholic Bulletin, Archbishop John Roach of St. Paul-Minneapolis admonished two [...]
Organizers of the upcoming Lift up Life Conference in P.E.I. are hoping that the positive mood generated from Toronto’s Save the Planet’s People conference will carry up the St. Lawrence and into the Maritimes. The list of speakers for the October 16, 17, 18 meet is extremely impressive and serves as an early indication that the conference will be as successful as [...]
Marjorie Reed, 50, is a Toledo housewife. She has a husband, Robert, who sells cars and a son, Jamie, 16, who is in high school. In a quieter, saner time she would grow old gracefully, caring for her home, her family attending to her needs. But in 1992, in America, the times are not quiet or sane. For her commitment to saving [...]
Four pro-life leaders, including the president of two national organizations, Alliance for Life and Campaign Life Coalition, have rejected the opinion of R.C. Archbishop Marcel Gervais that the pro-life movement has become “tragically divisive and angry.” (See Interim, June 1992, pp 18, 19 for the text of Archbishop’s May 3 address.) Archbishop Gervais is the President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic [...]
One of the world’s leading medical journals, The Lancet (September 21, 1991), has reported on the effects of the abortion pill RU 486 on the children of two women. The pill did not cause an abortion in either case: one woman carried an apparently normal child to term; the second mother, following an ultrasound test which showed the child was seriously malformed, [...]
In July, Ontario Health Minister Frances Lankin appealed to the federal government to hasten approval of Etienne Baulieu’s abortion pill, RU 486. Apparently, as far as she is concerned, the drug is perfectly fine. But is it? As previously noted in The Interim, an international enquiry commission with headquarters in Paris drew attention in a 1990 report to some of the hazards [...]
Paul Jilesen sleeps cradled in his father’s arms blissfully unaware of the national stir his young life has created. He and his family are used to the media glare by now – the three-month-old has been in the spotlight almost from the moment of his conception. Paul is a normal bouncing baby boy but at 20 weeks, while still in his mother’s [...]
The Houston convention of the Republican Party in August gave notice to the American people, however imperfectly, that family values should be treasured and that the pro-abortion pro-homosexuality anti-family syndrome is to be countered. Credit for this achievement must go to Republican presidential contender Pat Buchanan and U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle. They outflanked the opposition of anti-lifers within the Republican ranks. They [...]