U.S. Briefs

UNFPA funding prohibited

WASHINGTON D.C. – The House of Representatives voted 216-211 in favour of a pro-life amendment prohibiting government funding of the United Nation’s Population Fund. The UNFPA has been accused of involvement in, and tolerance of, forced abortion and sterilization in China. Rep. Chris Smith (R, N.J.) told the House that “since 1979, the UN Population Fund has been the chief apologist for China’s coercive one-child-per-couple policy … the women of China are being oppressed with great impunity by their government.”

‘Religious’ coalition honours pro-aborts

WASHINGTON D.C. – The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice honoured eight members of the House Bipartisan Pro-Choice caucus who opposed the ban on partial-birth abortion earlier this year. Coalition president Rev. Carlton W. Veazey said, “In the extreme ‘anti-choice’ political climate of the past two years, we congratulate legislators of both parties who defend abortion rights on grounds of religious freedom and freedom of conscience.” Rep. James Greenwood (R – Pa.) said he respects diverse religious views on abortion “up to the moment they try to put their faith into laws.” Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Oh.) said, “Young women are brutalized by not having the right to choose.” The multi-faith coalition includes members of the Episcopal, Presbyterian and Methodist churches, the United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalism, and Reform and Conservative Judaism. Each denomination officially supports legal abortion.

Pro-life judicial nominee opposed

WASHINGTON D.C. – Senate Democrats blocked a vote on President George W. Bush’s nominee to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Alabama Attorney-General Bill Pryor. Pryor, a Roman Catholic and former head of Arkansas Right to Life, has been opposed by Democrats because of his opposition to abortion and special rights for homosexuals. The Family Research Council said that the opposition to Pryor’s nomination, especially from New York Senator Charles Schumer, is “little more than anti-Catholic bigotry.” A Winston Group poll that queried 1,000 registered voters found that 81 per cent of respondents thought a judicial nominee should not be disqualified from service on the federal bench if he is a practising Catholic who adheres to his church’s teaching on abortion, compared to 10 per cent who did. Democrats are also filibustering two appointments, Miguel Estrada for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and Priscilla Owen, for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Owen is considered too pro-life for the courts by some Democratic senators.

‘Roe’ to appeal

SAN ANTONIO – Norma McCorvey, “Jane Roe” in the Roe v. Wade case, will appeal a federal district court’s decision not to hear her case to revisit the landmark 1973 decision declaring a constitutional right to abortion. McCorvey, who joined the ranks of pro-lifers a decade ago, filed the “motion for relief from judgment” asking a U.S. District Court to reopen Roe v. Wade. On June 19, two days after McCorvey filed her suit, U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey denied the motion on grounds that it was not reasonably timely because it was filed three decades after the initial decision. McCorvey and her lawyer, Allan Parker of the Justice Foundation, produced 5,473 pages of evidence citing changes in factual conditions and law since 1973, including over 1,000 sworn affidavits from women who have had abortions. Also among the changes is new scientific knowledge about the humanity of the child. Parker said the case will probably go all the way to the Supreme Court. He said, “We believe that the evidence will show that application of the Roe v. Wade case is no longer just.”

Baptists fix historical error

PHOENIX – At its annual meeting, the Southern Baptist Convention rescinded a 1974 resolution supporting abortion in cases where the mother’s health was threatened or in cases of fetal defect. Nearly three decades later, delegates righted the wrong and passed a resolution to “lament and renounce statements and actions by previous conventions and previous denominational leadership that offered support to the abortion culture.” Richard Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said, “It’s never too late to say you’re sorry. We needed to express our sorrow and our grief over the fact that for a time our convention was officially, through its resolution process, on the wrong side of this issue.” The resolution defending exceptions for abortion was not superseded by an early 1980s resolution opposing “abortion on demand” until now. Land said the 2003 resolution recognizes that Roe v. Wade unleashed an “act of injustice against innocent unborn children as well as against vulnerable women in crisis pregnancy situations.”

Family sues over abortion death

LOS ANGELES – A lawsuit was filed against an abortuary and Dr. Mark Maltzer by the family of a woman who bled to death at a Planned Parenthood facility. The Department of Health Services found that the abortuary did not follow proper medical procedures during the abortion and did not report the death within the required 24-hour period. According to the state’s report, Diana Lopez, 25, was 18 weeks pregnant and that during the course of the abortion, her cervix was punctured and she began to bleed profusely. The staff were unable to control the bleeding, and an emergency hysterectomy was performed at a hospital. The coroner’s report states that she died from trauma from the procedure. Maltzer continues doing abortions at 12 abortuaries in the Los Angeles area while he is under investigation by the Medical Board of California. The lawsuit also alleges that he “worked so quickly, recklessly and negligently pulling out sharp body parts of Diana Lopez’s 19- to 20-week-old unborn infant that severe, irreparable damage was done.” He denies all allegations against him. Ed Szymkowiak, national director of STOPP International, a division of the American Life League, said, “It’s amazing, in light of this latest revelation and their lack of openness about the medical standards of their clinics, that Planned Parenthood continues to claim with a straight face that they are even remotely interested in a woman’s health and well-being.”