Off the Wire

Family Practice News reports that the California Academy of family physicians.  Has voted to recommend that all family physicians be trained in abortion techniques and “the importance to access to this medical service.” The group plans to offer a similar resolution at the American Academy of Family Physicians meeting later this year.

A California abortionist accused of murdering a patient in a botched abortion has fled the U.S. Local pro-life groups have criticized District Attorney General Paul Pfingst for allowing abortionist Sureesh Gradotra to exit the U.S. without any legal obstruction.

Legislators in Texas, Victoria (Australia) and Japan are all preparing measures which would legalize abortion.

Warsaw (Poland’s) chief doctor, Anne Greziak, has ordered that all in-vitro fertilization clinics be closed down and the freezing of embrios stop.  Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, commenting on the ruling, said, “A child is the fruit of love, not hi-tech”.

Dolored O’Riordan of the popular Irish musical group the Cranberries, breaks the mold of most musicians.  “Every time a woman has an abortion, it just crushes her self-esteem , smaller, and smaller, and smaller,” said O’Riordan in an interview with Rolling Stone.

Russian statistics show that the country, which is experiencing a sharply declining population base, still has an extraordinarily high abortion rate: 2.4 per every live birth.

A recent Dutch study concludes that 80% of Dutch GPs who have performed euthanasia are so distressed about it they would never repeat it. Because most Dutch prefer to die at home, it is the GPs who bear the brunt of performing euthanasia.

Because of a perceived threat of violence, some landlords in the U.S. are changing their leases agreements, barring any abortion-related activity from taking place on their premises. Abortionists have complained about this to local authorities but have been told the action is totally legal.

Downside to Welfare Reform

American Life League is opposing one aspect of the Republican Party’s welfare reform package. A statement from the organization took pains to point out that it does not oppose the principle of welfare reform but does oppose this particular item. ALL takes particular issue with the idea of a “family cap” which would stop funds to families on welfare who had another child.  The Republicans say it is no longer the stare’s job to subsidize irresponsible behavior. ALL claims that the family cap will have no effect on stopping poor women from becoming pregnant but will increase the abortion rate among those women once they do become pregnant: “It does not make sense for the government, which has been providing contraception to teenagers for the past two decades, to turn around now and express shock when there is extramarital sexual activity, and to refuse to support mothers who choose to give birth to children out of wedlock.” The pro-life group has hinted that the plan has eugenic undertones – more babies from the rich, less from the poor.

Feminists no Fans of Chirac

There is a great deal of grumbling among radical French feminists, who fear that France’s new president, Jaques Chirac, will not be as sympathetic to their demands as past administrations. Most of the fears derive from the possible appointment of a woman member of Parliament to head the Ministry for the Family. In a statement which can only be described as fear mongering , Collettte Gallard of the French national Family Planning Movement says that is this woman is nominated “then it would be very clear that all the pressure will be exercised on women to…start making more babies.”  The MP in question previously sponsored a bill which would give mothers monthly wages upon the birth of their first child while they took time off work to raise the child. She is also largely responsible for the closure of four government-run birth control centers in Paris.  Like most other countries in Europe, France experiences a low population and high abortion rate.

Chinese Eating their Young

For years, the Chinese government, in an effort to control their population, have imposed strict guidelines which allow women to not have more than one child.  Because many Chinese women have ignored these guidelines, the government has taken to forcing women to abort. Human Rights groups and foreign governments have always turned a blind eye to this human rights abuse and Bill Clinton’s administration continues to pump in $50 million to the United Nations Population Fund which “participates” in administering the Chinese policy. Finally, Amnesty International (AI), a human rights group with some clout, has begun telling the world of Chinese atrocities. AI USA has reports that women in China, especially Catholics, have been beaten, fined, jailed and tortured for not observing the one-child limit. The group also reported that some were even hung upside down and given electric shocks to force them to conform to policy. To add a macabre note to this already horrifying scenario, the Eastern Express, a Hong Kong daily, reports that aborted fetuses are being sold and eaten as health food in some areas of China. When will the world wake up to the Chinese outrage?