A compendium of life- and family-related news from south of the border
Baby parts being sold for profit
Pro-abortion groups tied to scandal
Forbes sees end of abortion on demand
Committee okays rights for the unborn
Earlier abortions hailed
Tabs kept on pro-life movement
Rock for Life attacks Lilith Fair
Baby parts being sold for profit
Texas-based Life Decisions International has issued a video quoting a pro-life “spy” within the abortion movement who says baby parts culled from partial-birth abortions are being sold for profit across North America. The woman is reported to be working for a company that purchases organs and other fetal tissue from abortuaries.
“The victims were up to and over 30 weeks’ gestation,” the woman said. “We were looking for eyes, livers, brains, thymuses (lymphoid tissue), cardiac blood, cord blood, blood from the liver, even blood from the limbs.” She added that babies born alive were killed in her presence by abortionists “again and again,” and recounted how some were drowned, beaten to death and had their necks broken.
The woman’s accounts are being confirmed by Eric Hannah, who owned 26 abortuaries across the U.S. and was a homosexual lover of an abortionist, before converting to Christianity last year. He recounts many of the same abuses.
Pro-abortion groups tied to scandal
The Washington Times newspaper is reporting that public television and radio broadcasters have traded membership lists not only with the Democratic Party, but also two pro-abortion groups – the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Zero Population Growth.The Times says the presidents of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio may be asked to testify before a House commerce committee regarding the situations.
KQED-TV in San Francisco traded lists with PP and ZPG in 1998, and again with ZPG this year. WETA-TV in Washington and WNYC and WNET in New York have also traded lists with PP, according to records, while several other PBS stations have traded donor lists with the American Civil Liberties Union, which frequently files lawsuits against pro-life legislation.
U.S. abortions up in 1996
Abortions in the U.S. totalled 1,221,585 in 1996 (the latest year for which statistics are available), marking the first time since 1990 that they have increased over the year before, says the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta. California had the highest rate in the nation, with 39 abortions for every 1,000 women, while Wyoming had the lowest, with two abortions per 1,000 women. California has led the nation in abortion rates since 1984.
New York had the second-highest abortion rate, followed by Florida, Delaware and Rhode Island, in that order. The CDC said the national abortion rate remained relatively steady at 20 per 1,000 women. It added that state-to-state differences could be accounted for by the age and racial makeup of the female population, socio-economic factors and “contraceptive use.” Most of the women who had abortions in 1996 were white and unmarried.
Forbes sees end of abortion on demand
Republican presidential nominee Steve Forbes is predicting the infamous Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, which legalized abortion throughout all 50 states, will shortly collapse. The decision “has not withstood the test of time well,” said Forbes, adding that only pro-life judges should be appointed to the bench. He added that judicial appointments made under his government would be based on a potential judge’s adherence to the Constitution, “including the belief in the sanctity of life.”
Forbes is one of the most openly pro-life candidates seeking the Republican nomination. One of his press releases notes that his abortion stance “has made him a favorite of many conservatives in this presidential campaign.” The release adds that, “Some say it’s time to begin uniting behind Forbes because he has the resources to compete effectively against well-financed candidates like Texas Governor George W. Bush.”
Committee okays rights for the unborn
A House of Representatives subcommittee has approved a bill that would recognize an unborn child as a person who can be a victim of crime. The National Right to Life Committee, which helped draft the legislation, says it is the first such measure proposed at the federal level in the U.S. Under the bill, anyone who intentionally or unintentionally injures or kills an unborn child, while committing a federal crime such as kidnapping or robbery, would be charged with an additional federal offence. Eleven states have enacted similar laws.
Supporters said the bill was long overdue. “What this bill seeks to do is face up to the reality that an unborn child is not a nothing,” said Representative Henry Hyde. “That’s a tiny member of the human family.” The Family Research Council said the bill “rightfully provides unborn children with a federal standard of protection from violent crime” and “will move us forward in the fight to protect all life.”
The bill will now move to the full committee stage for further consideration.
Earlier abortions hailed
Pro-abortionists are jumping on the bandwagon of a technique they claim to be an “important development” in their relentless quest to discover new and earlier ways of aborting unborn children. Manual vacuum aspiration, as it is called, uses a hand-held vacuum syringe instead of an electric vacuum machine. It is being described as “an ideal early surgery,” when used in combination with early pregnancy tests and modern ultrasound.
“Women love the fact they can get this over with and move on,” said Jerry Edwards, a doctor with the Planned Parenthood “clinic” in Houston, Tx. “For the woman emotionally, it’s a lot easier to know they are getting rid of something that, at most, is the size of a pea, rather than something formed with arms and legs and a beating heart.”
Nonetheless, Edwards admits he has found “zero interest” in the early-surgery procedure among doctors who don’t already perform abortions. And Laura Echevarria, a spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee, said the fact that abortions take place earlier in a pregnancy with the method don’t detract from the fact that the target is “still a human being … It’s a baby.”
Pro-lifers assail ‘killer pills’
The American Life League says the Food and Drug Administration is lying, and Planned Parenthood is poised to reap the profits, as another so-called emergency contraception pill hits the market. The manufacturers of Plan B (TM), as it is called, are claiming that the pill causes less vomiting, abdominal pain, bleeding, dizziness and other negative side effects. “But like Preven, a previously approved pill, Plan B does not work by merely preventing ovulation, it can also end the life of an already-existing, embryonic child,” said ALL president Judie Brown. She accused Planned Parenthood of “another deadly marketing scheme,” since the notorious, pro-abortion organization made equity investments in Plan B and is one of the few avenues through which Plan B will initially be available.
The Family Research Council said apart from questions of whether the pill has less serious side effects is the issue of “whether it respects human life.” An FRC spokesperson said Planned Parenthood types and “emergency contraception” supporters want the American public to believe that the pill does not induce an abortion, when in fact it in some cases blocks implantation of an already-fertilized egg, “which is nothing short of ending a pregnancy.”
Tabs kept on pro-life movement
Just in case they thought it was safe to stand for human life, American pro-life leaders and organizations got a rude awakening recently with news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice may be keeping a computer database on them. The organization Judicial Watch was concerned enough about the issue to file a Freedom of Information Act request and, when nothing was forthcoming, a lawsuit against the FBI and the Justice Department.
Despite the lack of forwarded documentation, the FBI admitted that there were many documents of interest to Judicial Watch. “The material responsive to your request is too voluminous to be processed by the resources of this office,” said the FBI. The American Life League, the National Right to Life Committee, Dr. Wanda Franz, Judith Brown and Randall Terry are some of the subjects thought to be contained in the database. “The Clinton administration has used and continues to use the FBI as a political weapon against its perceived adversaries,” said Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch’s chairman and general counsel.
Rock for Life attacks Lilith Fair
Although Lilith Fair has been touted as “a celebration of women in music, women’s issues and views,” it has become obvious that the concert series really doesn’t represent all women, says the Rock for Life organization. “Access to non-profit areas at all Lilith Fair concerts has been denied to pro-life women’s groups, including Feminists for Life and Rock for Life, both of which applied for booths at Lilith Fair,” said the organization’s founder, Bryan Kemper. “Lilith Fair is supposed to represent women and their views, but they’re keeping the real message censored.”