Canada
Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth (Kitchener Centre) announced on Nov. 20 that he will introduce a new motion in Canada’s Parliament to promote respect for all human beings before the law. A media advisory stated the motion will “focus on legal recognition of the equal worth and dignity of every human being.” In 2012, by a 91-203 vote, the House of Commons defeated M-312, Woodworth’s motion calling for a parliamentary committee to examine the scientific and medical evidence regarding the humanity of the child in the womb and the legal and human rights implications for their findings. Woodworth said he wants to continue the discussion began by M-312 and that his new motion “underlines the reason why it is important for Canadians to refuse to accept any law which designates as non-human anyone we know to be human.” Without seeing the motion, NDP MP Niki Ashton (Churchill) complained about Woodworth’s “double-speak” saying “this is about reopening the abortion debate” … Quebec’s National Assembly is expected to vote on Bill 52 this month or next. The bill would effectively decriminalize euthanasia under the guise of “medical aid in dying” as the province would violate the federal Criminal Code by not prosecuting cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition warns, “Bill 52 will give Québec doctors the right to lethally inject their patients when they are experiencing physical or psychological suffering.” Former Quebec health minister Yves Luduc said Bill 52 will affect all Canadians because it will lead to euthanasia tourism: “We are certainly going to have people from other provinces who will come here, who will stay for a certain time, more than three months – precisely, to have medical aid in dying” … In response to Liberal MPP Joe Dickson (Ajax-Pickering) tabling a defund abortion petition at Queen’s Park, Health Minister Deb Matthews defended Ontario’s funding of abortion by claiming that provinces are required to do so: “For a province to qualify for federal transfer payments for health services, it must comply with all of the criteria established under the Canada Health Act (which) requires provincial governments to insure medically necessary physician and hospital services.” She then stated, “Ontario insures medically necessary abortion services in compliance with the Canada Health Act.” Faye Sonier, legal counsel at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, says the Canada Health Act does not require provincial health plans to cover abortion.
United States
Planned Parenthood Federation of America released its facility and service numbers for 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, and it states that there are “more than 700” centres, ostensibly down from the 750 centres it claimed in 2011. Also, the number of “affiliate centres” fell from 73 to 69. It reported carrying out 327,166 abortions, a decline of 2 per cent compared to the previous year. It reported serving 3.7 million clients for contraception services, an increase of 8.7 per cent. PPFA and its political allies usually defend abortion funding by claiming restricting taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood would risk its breast cancer screening services; the number of cancer screenings declined 14.22 per cent. Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, said the figures demonstrate Planned Parenthood is “being rejected by the American public.” PPFA’s annual report also stated that the organization received $540.6 million in taxpayer funding … The Federal Times reports that the Obama administration may extend taxpayer funding of “gender reassignment” surgery through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), Medicare, and Medicaid. Since 1981, federal law has banned tax dollars from being used for sex change operations … The Nonhuman Rights Project has filed petitions in New York for four chimpanzees to be recognized as legal persons. Wesley Smith wrote in The Weekly Standard that the animal rights movement “aims to destroy human exceptionalism … and bring about a world in which human duties to animals are as rigorous as those we owe each other” … The American Society for Reproductive Medicine is physicians treating healthy women under 35 for IVF treatment to only have one embryo implanted at a time after the development of more advanced maturation and genetic screening techniques. 46 per cent of American IVF babies are multiple births according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
International
The Japanese government is holding the birth control pill responsible for the deaths of 11 women and over 360 reports of serious health problems since 2008.
In response to the condemnation by the government’s drug safety administration, the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology issued an urgent warning to women taking the estrogen-progestin birth control pill that it has been linked to “increased reports of deaths … in recent years” due to deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot that forms in a vein which can become fatal when it migrates to other parts of the body