Canada

Supporters of John Tory cited his moderation and electability as reasons to choose the former Rogers CEO over the more conservative former Mike Harris-era cabinet ministers Jim Flaherty and Frank Klees as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party. In the first post-leadership convention poll, Liberals regained the lead … Former Alberta Report publisher Link Byfield, a vocal opponent of abortion, the gay-rights agenda and judicial activism, has thrown his hat into the ring as a candidate for the Senate. Alberta is expected to hold a province-wide election for two Senate positions this fall and premier Ralph Klein has asked the prime minister to appoint the winners to the open Senate seats from that province … Stephen Lewis was among the “Greatest Canadians” chosen by the CBC in a two-hour special examining the “contributions” of each so-called great Canadian. Lewis was quoted as decrying the death of countless Africans, but there was no mention of his advocacy of abortion, which included being the first politician to introduce abortion legislation in Canada and thus being, along with Pierre Trudeau, one of the fathers of abortion in Canada. Trudeau and population-control advocate David Suzuki were also among the CBC’s “Greatest Canadians.”


United States

Three specialists in third-trimester abortions – Martin Haskell, George Tiller, and Warren Hern – have contributed at least $7,000 among themselves to Democratic Senator John Kerry‘s presidential campaign … Kerry told Fox News earlier this year: “I’m against partial-birth abortion, as are many people.” However, he has voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion three times … Kerry has a 100 per cent pro-abortion voting record, according to NARALJeffrey Bell and Frank Cannon, writing in The Weekly Standard, say that polling data indicates moral issues are determinative issues for nearly one in five voters and that they prove vital to the re-election efforts of President George W. Bush: “The most recent Time poll (taken September 21-23) has George W. Bush winning socially driven voters by a lopsided 70 to 18 percent. If not for these voters, according to the poll, Bush would be trailing John Kerry by 5 points instead of leading by 4.” … Bush has refused to sign onto a United Nations document that reaffirms support for population-control schemes endorsing abortion. The statement referred to statements in a 1994 UN document coming out of the Cairo conference on population, which called on government to provide “universal access to ‘reproductive health information and services,’ (and) uphold fundamental human rights, including sexual and reproductive rights” … In both the second and third presidential debates, Bush and Kerry clashed over abortion, gay “marriage” and stem cell research. Kerry said he would only appoint judges to top federal courts who would uphold Roe v. Wade. Kerry declared that as a Catholic, he is pro-life, but he could not force “an article of faith” on the rest of the country. He later contradicted himself and said that he was “pro-choice.” Bush called for a rejuvenation of the culture of life where every child “is protected in law” … New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi said the state will recognize same-sex “marriages” performed in Canada for the purpose of determining public employee pension benefits. The decision supports a dictate earlier this year by state Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer, who said full benefits must be extended to the partner of any homosexual public employee if the couple has been “married” in Canada.


International

The Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV, a British government advisory board, suggested that family doctors, nurses and family planning consultants be able to commit both surgical and chemical abortions. At present, registered doctors must perform or supervise abortions, and surgical abortions are provided only in hospitals and licensed clinics. It also suggested that the value added (sales) tax on the “morning-after” pill be eliminated … According to the Guernsey Press and Star, Ann Martin, director of nursing at the Les Bourgs Hospice, found that in eight years of working at the hospice, only a few people asked to end their own lives: “More often than not, it’s the relatives who ask (for the patient to be euthanized)” … In a letter to the London Times, Alison Davis, a severely disabled British woman who now works with SPUC’s No Less Human division, said that if euthanasia had been available 19 years ago, she would have been robbed of the best years of her life … The French government has set up regulations governing, and thus permitting, human embryo research… ReNeuron, a British company, says it can mass-produce fetal cells and wants to offer a treatment to stroke patients that is derived from an aborted child’s brain.