Abortion Failure
Vancouver – (FNIF) Another woman is suing her doctor for abortion failure.
Cynthia Mostad is suing Dr. Kennard Robertson for not killing her unborn child, and wants compensation for the “great expense” and “supreme mental anguish” that have resulted.
Her boy, Caylen, will soon celebrate his first birthday. Much of the Mostad case is being built on a previous case which awarded Elizabeth Cherry, now seven, one million dollars in damages because she was severely injured in a 1983 botched abortion.
Calgary doctor Peter Neiman says cases such as these only highlight the senselessness of abortion. “As a Paediatrician, I’m amazed that we work 24 hours around the clock full steam ahead to save the life of premature babies born at 22, 23, or 24 weeks gestation and yet people are allowed to kill babies after that as long as the baby’s in the womb.”
H.U.R.T.S
Victoria – (FNIF) An organization working with young people has launched a new program to help troubled teens.
Horizons Unbound Rehabilitation and Training Society (HURTS) seeks to treat young offenders by taking them to sea. According to counselor Drew Brooks, a big reason kids land in jail is because they’re seeking the wrong kind of thrill. Several troubled teens will spend four months on board the ship Western Horizon, where they will learn life skills, receive counseling and get work experience.
HURTS founder, Dr. Phillip Ney (a prominent pro-life doctor), says the program works because young people must participate. “When the ship is at sea the young person can’t run away. That doesn’t mean to say they are compelled to stay aboard. We can’t compel them, but it does mean to say that their changes in motivation of wanting to be part of the program can be dealt with long before the ship touches base.”
Common Law Relationships
Ottawa – (FNIF) Statistics Canada says new studies show the number of common-law relationships is climbing dramatically.
Spokesman Doug Norris says researchers are still analyzing the findings, but family-patterns appear to be changing “fairly rapidly.”
Family counselor Dr. Austin Stouffer says living together leads many couples to view matrimony as a consumer product that can be replaced if it breaks down. “As soon as it doesn’t work, the easy answer is to simply throw it out and get something new. We do that with everything else, we do it with our cars, we do it with our Styrofoam cups.”
Sociologist Dr. Lyle Larson says commitment is the key for making marriage permanent. “Those who cohabit before they marry and then end up marrying eventually are more likely to divorce than those who did not cohabit.”
The statistics should be released early next year.
Catholic Women’s League
Halifax – 550 members of the Catholic Women’s League met for their annual convention in Halifax, August 16-22, 1991. They passed seven resolutions including one’s on euthanasia, the elderly, and protection of life from conception to natural death.
Having accomplished this task, they also listened to their main guest speaker, Mary Collins, Federal Minister for the Status of Women, speak on violence against women.
Apparently, it did not occur to them that this speaker was not qualified to speak on the subject. She is a committed, pro-abortion feminist, and as such, is part of the problem, not the solution.
Archbishop on Rights
Basic human rights are above the law and cannot be changed by political compromise said Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic during a homily at the 60th annual celebration of the Red Mass in Toronto.
Before a congregation of judges, lawyers, police officers and other public officials in St. Michael’s Cathedral, Archbishop Ambrozic referred to the 70-year Soviet dictatorship (now miraculously coming to an end) as a “drought of the law.”
In the USSR, fundamental human rights were bestowed or withdrawn at the whim of an atheistic and totalitarian state, but he added, closer to home, legally sanctioned abortion and euthanasia are symptoms of the same godlessness.
Can the rule of law which attempts to protect the weak and strong alike survive long without religious sanction, he asked.
Nova Scotia Appeals
To the satisfaction of Nova Scotia’s pro-life forces, the provincial government has applied to the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn Henry Morgentaler’s recent acquittal on charges of executing abortions in his Halifax ‘clinic.’
Canada’s notorious abortionist had been indicted on 14 violations of the province’s Medical Services Act which prohibits abortion outside hospitals. But last October, Provincial Court Judge Joe Kennedy, found that the Act, passed by the legislature in 1989 to bar free-standing abortion ‘clinics,’ was illegal because it encroached on the federal power to enact laws respecting abortion.
The Nova Scotia government will prosecute the case on the basis of jurisdiction. “We will be arguing that the Medical Services Act is within provincial jurisdiction and is not legislation in relation to the criminal law,” stated John Pearson, director of public prosecutions for the province.
“All Nova Scotians should be glad that the government is trying to protect the public health care system in this province,” Cynthia Haughn, executive director of Campaign Life Coalition/Nova Scotia told The Interim, but Kathy Coffin, national vice-president of the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL), offered the view that the government “should have the good grace to recognize defeat when they see it and leave it alone.”
Abuse ED
Vancouver – (FNIF) Parents had better watch out for “wolves in sheep clothing,” according to a mother of four.
Kari Simpson says sexual abuse prevention programs are resulting in hundreds of provincial child abuse arrest based on false information.
Mrs. Simpson has almost single-handedly brought about proposed changes to BC’s child protection legislation.
Among the examples Simpson cites: “A father arrested for changing his daughter’s diapers and vengeful teenagers claiming phony sex-abuse charges to get back at a teacher, neighbour, or even a parent.
Children themselves living in fear and mistrust after participating in these programs.
Since Simpson’s revelations have been made public the provincial government has begun a review of the programs.
See also The Interim articles on the same subject by Alan Garneau.
Sexual Re-Education
Vancouver – (FNIF) A few school program in British Columbia teaches that homosexuality is normal. Too close for comfort was produced under the supervision of the Vancouver Health Department and funded by Health and Welfare Canada.
Endorsed by the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, the program is creating little controversy. But magazine editor and family issues correspondent Virginia Byfield warns the move is a growing trend by educators to abandon children to a homosexual agenda in the classroom.
A recent national survey she points out, found that only two per cent of students considered themselves ‘gay.’ “Homosexuality is aggressively promoted in schools and what is likely to be the effect on the other 98 per cent? Confusion? Conversion? No one knows and the educational theorists don’t seem to care. They are entirely ready to sacrifice the 98 per cent to the two per cent.
