Canada
Liberal MP Pat O’Brien on his government’s attempt to redefine marriage: “At the moment, we have a bit of an uphill fight, but we aren’t giving up and we are going to wage that fight. And I think the side who wants this to pass might be a little over-confident” … Harold Ball, the mayor of Deer Lake, Nfld., resigns his position as a marriage commissioner, rather than be compelled to perform same-sex “marriages” … Focus on the Family Canada names Terence Rolston president and CEO of the organization. He served as the executive vice-president under Dr. Darrel Reid, who left Focus last August … St. Catharines, Ont. businessman Andy McNabb is seeking investors to create a network of 11 Christian talk and music radio stations across Canada, including a plan to raise money on the Toronto Stock Exchange as McNabb Broadcasting.
U.S.A.
Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman names JoAnn Davidson, a board member of Republicans for Choice, the RNC co-chair. A week later, he invites pro-life leaders to an RNC reception, “Honoring Those Who March for the Right to Life,” on Jan. 24 … The Planned Parenthood Federation of America Annual Report reveals that despite private donations falling for the second straight year, the abortion outfit increased its profit. It also revealed that abortion accounts for more than a third of Planned Parenthood’s income … Arthur Dewey, U.S. assistant secretary of state, tells the House of International Relations Committee that the Bush administration will not distribute $34 million to the United Nations Population Fund. He also cites a U.S. State Department investigation that found “the large fees and penalties for out-of-plan births assessed in implementing China’s (one-child) regulations are tantamount to coercion that leads to abortion” … A survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health finds that stem cell research funding is not a priority for most Americans, ranking 12th out of 12 suggested priorities. The poll does not differentiate between embryonic and adult stem cells … Three states – New Jersey, New York and Nebraska – move closer to considering human experimental cloning and embryonic stem cell research … On Jan. 10, Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S., his niece, Dr. Alveda King, voiced concerns about the effects of abortion on the black American community. “I join the voices of thousands across America who can no longer sit idly by and allow this horrible spirit of murder to cut us down. If the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is to live, our babies must live” … Four men were charged with hate crimes after vandalizing a pro-life monument in California. Most of 3,000 crosses, one for each abortion carried out every day in the U.S., were torn down and thrown onto a road … The Florida Supreme Court quashes a motion filed by abortion advocates seeking to overturn a constitutional amendment Florida residents approved in November, requiring abortion facilities to inform parents when a teenager is considering an abortion. … Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) endorses legislation requiring abortionists first obtain parental consent before committing abortions on teenage girls. Current law requires that parents be merely notified … Concerned Women for America urges Congress to inform women seeking abortions that the unborn child feel pain as a result of an abortion procedure. They request that it pass an Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act.
World
The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare approves human cloning experiments being conducted at Seoul National University … Professor Adriana Iliescu, a 66-year-old Romanian woman, becomes the oldest woman in the world to give birth, after she undergoes nine years of hormone treatment. She claims that her career had prevented her from having a family earlier … The European Parliament endorses the proposed European Constitution, 500-137. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in the United Kingdom warns that “new and expanded rights enshrined in the proposed constitution could lead to EU member-states being forced to allow access to abortion or euthanasia” … Former British police officer Brian Blackburn pleads guilty to manslaughter after slitting the wrists of his terminally ill wife, Margaret. He is given a nine-month suspended sentence … The Andhra Pradesh Court in India refuses a terminally ill man’s request for euthanasia by omission. The court rejects the request after concluding it would constitute euthanasia, which is against Indian law … Among 22 organizations granted official NGO status at the United Nations is the pro-abortion National Abortion Federation and pro-life Feminists for Life of America. The NAF helped launch lawsuits that blocked implementation of the partial-birth abortion ban Congress passed in 2003. Meanwhile, Germany and Cuba object to Feminists for Life being granted NGO status.