U.S. Digest

Forbes pushes abortion ban
Operation Save America a quiet success
Guard says pro-lifers well-behaved
Teen birth rates falling
Barbara Willke retires
Pro-abortionists fear losing ‘choice’
Aborted baby lived for three hours
Dr. Laura slams abortion
Forbes pushes abortion ban

Republican presidential hopeful Steve Forbes is continuing to court the pro-life vote among his party’s members, urging Americans in a recent speech to lay the groundwork for banning abortion by turning public opinion against it. While Forbes added that he favours a constitutional human life amendment that would outlaw abortion, he acknowledged that many people do not yet agree with our ultimate goal.” Forbes made the comments in an address to the California Republican Assembly.

Forbes step-by-step approach to the elimination of abortion was denounced by fellow candidate Gary Bauer, who bemoaned such “incrementalism” and said the outlawing of abortion would be his top priority. “I’m certainly going to remind all of my rivals for the nomination that the next president doesn’t have to talk about incrementalism,” said Bauer. “The next president is likely to be able to appoint two Supreme Court justices.”

Meanwhile, Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, expressed concern about leading Republican candidates Elizabeth Dole and George W. Bush. “They are trying to obscure their position on ‘the right to choose’ and we can’t let them get away with that,” she said. “They all have to be held to protecting a women’s ‘right to choose.'”

Operation Save America a quiet success

The week-long Operation Save America in Buffalo came to a quiet close, with no arrests and no challenges to court-imposed bans on demonstrations outside certain abortuaries. Nonetheless, organizers said the event accomplished its goal of trying to steer people back to their moral roots by attacking not only abortion, but child pornography, teen sex, homosexuality and the absence of God in public education.

Organizers were so encouraged, one of the campaign’s sponsors, Operation Rescue, decided to change its name to Operation Save America. “We do want to save this country, not just the unborn,” said spokesperson Eileen Schopf. “We want to show our love for this country and our desire to return to the moral grounds this country was founded on.”

The Buffalo event was marked by protests at abortuaries, hospitals, bookstores and schools. A spokesperson for state Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer said the restraining orders against protests outside abortuaries did their job. Meanwhile, Glenn Murray, an attorney for the family of Barnett Slepian, who was slain last October, said the late abortionist’s wife thought “it’s despicable that in the aftermath of her husband’s murder, (protesters) would plan a rally trying to exploit his death and eliminate access to abortion.”

Guard says pro-lifers well-behaved

A guard injured during the murderous 1994 assault by John Salvi at a Brookline, Mass. abortuary recently told lawmakers considering an 8-metre bubble zone around abortuaries that he came to regard pro-life protesters as well-behaved people who were working within their rights in trying to persuade women not to go through with their abortions.

Richard Seron told a Massachusetts criminal justice committee hearing that he stood “toe-to-toe” with members of Operation Rescue and “never found their behaviour objectionable in any way.” He said the people most likely to become aggressive were the men who escorted pregnant women into the abortuary. He recalled an occasion where he had to disarm two men of a club and a sharp, impaling object.

The committee also received submissions opposing the proposed bubble zone from the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, which called such measures “a chilling assault on the First Amendment, intended to curb the free speech of the pro-life movement.” C.J. Doyle, the league’s executive director, said proponents of the bubble zone “must not be allowed to exploit incidents like the Salvi tragedy as a kind of Reichstag fire and use them to restrict the civil liberties of their opponents.”

Teen birth rates falling

The U.S. teen pregnancy rate declined four per cent from 1996 to 1997, and was down by 17 per cent from the peak in 1990. Pro-contraceptive organizations – including the Planned Parenthood-affiliated Alan Guttmacher Institute – were quick to seize credit for the improved numbers, claiming that 80 per cent of the decrease was due to “more effective contraceptive practice” – and only 20 per cent was because of decreased sexual activity.

The release of the statistics coincided with May being National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month. The Planned Parenthood types appear to have taught their charges well, as youths including 18-year-old Lisa Dulaney of Amelia, Oh. spouted the party line that teens ought to “be careful,” and, “If you’re going to do it, use birth control.” Dulaney, the mother of a 19-month-old son, was described as an athlete who had had sex without birth control.

The abortion rate for teens is said to have dropped 33 per cent since 1988. Still, there were a stunning 880,170 teen pregnancies in 1996 – or one for every 10 teenaged females.

Barbara Willke retires

Barbara Willke, a founder of Cincinatti, Oh. Right to Life and perhaps best known for her co-authorship of the pro-life resource book, Abortion: Questions and Answers, has retired – and is to be replaced by two men. Willke led the first meeting of Cincinatti Right to Life in 1970 and has since served as the organization’s volunteer chair, executive director, newsletter co-editor, chief financial officer, fundraiser, lobbyist, political activist, delegate to Ohio Right to Life, pregnancy counsellor – and overall “den mother.”

She additionally helped found the spinoff organization Warren County Right to Life and, with her husband, was a co-founder of Birthright. Perhaps one of the best testaments to her work is the fact that Cincinatti has more pregnancy help centres for a population of its size than any other city in the world. Willke accomplished all this while serving as a wife and mother to six children.

She will not be disappearing from the scene completely, however. Willke will remain active in local projects and by continuing to serve as newsletter editor.

Pro-abortionists fear losing ‘choice’

The president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League is warning that if the next U.S. president supports the right to life, the so-called right to abortion could fall. Kate Michelman told a San Francisco gathering to celebrate the 30th anniversary of NARAL that, “If we get an ‘anti-choice’ president in the year 2000, we will see the overthrow of Roe vs. Wade.” She noted it would take just two Supreme Court justices being replaced by pro-life supporters, to have that happen.

Justice John Paul Stevens, a 78-year-old pro-abortionist, could leave the court within the next few years, as might Sandra Day O’Connor, 69, who has a history of health problems and who has sided with abortion proponents. The retirement possibilities make the 2000 presidential elections all the more important for pro-life advocates. The Supreme Court, in its last major decision on abortion (Casey vs. Planned Parenthood, 1992), reinforced an alleged right to abortion, but allowed states to impose some restrictions.

Aborted baby lived for three hours

In another abortion horror story – this time out of Cincinatti, Oh. – a 5 1/2 month-old preborn girl was born alive during the first part of what was to be a three-day partial-birth abortion process in a hospital. The girl, named Baby Hope by hospital staff, lived for three hours as an emergency room technician rocked her and sang to her. Doctors on site said the girl’s lungs were not developed enough to support life or permit them to respirate her.

Connie Boyles, a registered nurse who held Baby Hope during her time of life, said hospital staff have had to undergo hours of counselling to deal with the trauma of the incident. “Staff who cared for her on the night of her birth have experienced a myriad of emotions from sadness and grief, to peace – peace that she was comforted, held close and even sang to until she took her last breath. This emotional trauma inflicted on our department is deeper and will last longer than the physical frailties we deal with on a daily basis.”

In unbelievable, yet telling, statements following Baby Hope’s death, abortion advocates charged pro-lifers with exaggerating the emotional circumstances of the case to engender sympathy and support. “It’s just a way to further restrict abortions as much as possible,” said Morris Hudgins, a “minister” at Northern Hills Fellowship near Cincinatti, and a member of the Religious Coalition for Choice.

Dr. Laura slams abortion

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the leading radio therapist known affectionately to her legions of fans as “Dr. Laura,” says legalized abortion has killed more women than it has saved. “Since abortion was legalized in 1973, close to 40 million human beings have been terminated early in their journey toward a potential holy, creative, loving, rewarding life,” Schlessinger, an Orthodox Jew, said recently in her syndicated newspaper column. “And, as many women have told me through letters, faxes, and calls to my radio program, there is lingering horror, guilt and regret that haunts their later, more mature attempts to be happy and fulfilled in love, children and family.”