Bits and Pieces

After earlier asserting that infertility is not an illness, Quebec Premier Jean Charest said if his Liberal government is re-elected, it will pay for in-vitro fertilization treatments. Under his plan to bring IVF under public funding, the first two rounds of treatment would be fully covered and after that, couples could count on a 50 per cent tax credit. A cycle of IVF treatments costs approximately $5,000, plus $4,000 for drugs used in the process. The estimated total cost of the program would be $35 million and Charest guesses an additional 1,500 IVF-aided babies will be born … On Nov. 20, National Child Day, Conservative MPMaurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin) announced he will re-introduce a private member’s bill to “require a presumption of equal, shared parenting in child custody decisions.”He said that implementing equal parenting would fulfill recommendations from the 1998 Canadian Special Joint House-Senate Committee on Child Custody and Access in its report, “For the Sake of the Children”… Ontario Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton) introduced a private member’s bill, the Children’s Bill of Safety and Protection Rights Act, which includes a measure that would prohibit advertising containing sexualized images of children under 16 … The RCMP will not pursue charges against the Canadian Human Rights Commission over allegations that its investigators hacked into a woman’s wireless connection in order to conceal their identities while looking into an allegation of hate speech. The RCMP said further investigation is impossible due to jurisdictional issues (the technical data is from a U.S.-based website).

United States

In November, President George W. Bush appointed pro-life Princeton professor Robert George to the UN World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology … Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said of Barack Obama’s victory: “We expect to see real change.”Dr. Alveda King, neice of Martin Luther King, said “the election of Obama gives a face to abortion.”She derided Obama’s support of abortion, which disproportionately kills black children and harms black women … Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of theUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in an open letter: “If the election is misinterpreted ideologically as a referendum on abortion, the unity desired by president-elect Obama … will be impossible to achieve. Abortion kills not only unborn children, it destroys constitutional order and the common good, which is assured only when the life of every human being is legally protected”… NARAL Pro-Choice America says there are now 42 “anti-choice”members of the U.S. Senate (down six), 39 “pro-choice”(up four) and 19 “mixed choice”(up two), indicating a possible pro-life majority in the Senate on some issues. In the House of Representatives, there are 204 “anti-choice”Congressmen (down 16), 185 “pro-choice”(up 20) and 46 “mixed choice”(down four) … Dr. James Dobson and his Focus on the Family radio broadcast have been inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. Hugh Hewitt, in presenting the award to Dobson, said: “We know that radio can entertain and inform. Dr. James Dobson has proven that it can also be a means to impact and elevate lives.”

International

Dr. Stephen Karanja, a Nairobi obstetrician, gynecologist and head of the Catholic Doctors’ Association of Kenya, says Obama’s victory could mean an attack on African families and children. In an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, Karanja said, “We in Kenya know him (Obama) as a person who is anti-family … A person who would support abortion.”He worried about Obama supporting foreign aid programs that increase abortion access in the developing world. U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R, NJ) has warned that the Obama administration will vastly increase foreign aid support for abortion and contraception in Africa, Latin America and southeast Asia … Jeffrey O’Malley, director of the United Nation’s Development Program HIV/AIDS Group, told the India delegation that legalizing sodomy would “achieve better results regarding protection against AIDS”and that it would enable increased coverage of HIV services for “men who have sex with men.”Earlier this year, P. P. Malhotra, India’s solicitor-general, said he doubted legalizing sodomy would contribute to the fight against AIDS: “Homosexuality is a social vice and the state has the power to contain it … If it is allowed then (the) evil of AIDS and HIV would further spread and harm the people. It would lead to a big health hazard and degrade moral values of society”… U.K. Scout Association guidelines have established directives for scout leaders to teach young scouts about sexually transmitted diseases and contraceptives in a new sexual health initiative that is receiving mixed reviews. Scout leaders will now be required to hand out “emergency condoms”if they think a boy is sexually active … The British Fertility Society warns there is a sperm shortage and blames a 2005 ban on anonymous sperm donation. The British Medical Journal reports that 4,000 British women use donor sperm in fertility treatments, but there are only 307 registered sperm donors.