New pro-abortion UN human rights chief

TURTLE BAY – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named abortion advocate Navanethem “Navi” Pillay of South Africa as the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. The New York Times reported that the United States privately raised concerns about Pillay’s nomination to the top human rights post because of her strong support for abortion. Pillay is a founding member of the international non-governmental organization Equality Now, a group that has spearheaded campaigns for abortion access in Poland and Nepal. Pillay remains on the board of the organization, which receives major funding from pro-abortion foundations, including George Soros’s Open Society Institute and the Ford Foundation. Pro-lifers are worried that the head of the UN’s human rights agency will adopt the same positions on social issues as her predecessors, Canada’s Louise Arbour and Ireland’s Mary Robinson, both of whom endorsed abortion as a “human right.”

Eugenic abortions rise in France

PARIS – France’s Biomedical Agency (Agence Biomedicin), released its 2006 figures on “procreation and human genetic activities,” which showed that the number of requests for “interruption of pregnancy for medical reasons” has increased, driven mostly by an increase in abortions after 12 weeks. Post 12-week abortions performed in France are only permitted for specific “medical reasons” and increased by 10 per cent in 2006, with a reported 6,787 cases. Only 2.7 per cent were committed to preserve the health of the mother, while 75 per cent were done on babies with evidence of Down syndrome or some kind of “deformity” or “abnormality.”

No mental harm after abortion: APA

BOSTON – The American Psychological Association has concluded that there is no connection between abortion and subsequent psychological problems in women. When a woman has a negative psychological consequence, says the report, it is likely only to be in cases where a “wanted” child was aborted for eugenic reasons. The APA report, which followed a year-long review by a special task force to “reconsider” peer-reviewed studies published over the past 18 years, said that in cases of abortion of an unwanted child, “the relative risk of mental health problems is no greater if they have a single elective first-trimester abortion than if they deliver that pregnancy.” The 90-page report suggests there are psychological consequences only in cases of abortion where the child is “wanted.” Consistent Life has criticized the APA for its bogus report, noting a conflict of interest in that the association has supported “abortion as being a civil right to women” since 1969. Such a political position “casts a pall on their work regarding abortion and mental health.” Furthermore, three members of the six-person task force are committed to legal abortion and one member, Brenda Major, has authored flawed research on the psychological consequences of abortion, which found no evidence of post-abortion syndrome despite literally losing half the sample they studied. Rather than heed copious research that points to the psychological harm caused by abortion, the report says mental disturbances are caused by “stigma, need for secrecy and low or anticipated social support for the abortion decision” as well as “a prior history of mental health problems.”

Last South Dakota abortuary closes

SIOUX FALLS – On July 21, the Planned Parenthood office in the South Dakota capital, the last private abortion facility to operate in the state, closed its doors. Abortionists from other states had been flying into Sioux Falls to carry out abortions, but after a law went into effect on July 18 mandating medical staff inform women of the humanity of the child and that the procedure could affect their mental health, they stopped coming. The law was pushed by lawyer Harold Cassidy and state pro-life leaders Dr. Alan and Leslee Unruh and opposed by some pro-lifers. But after the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for the law’s enactment, Operation Rescue president Troy Newman said: “The closing of this clinic is historic in that South Dakota is, for the time being, the first abortion-free state.” He added: “It didn’t take the overturning of Roe v. Wade and it didn’t take a new president or a new Supreme Court. It took the courageous determination of pro-life heroes like Mr. Cassidy and the Unruhs, who saw an opportunity to save lives and pressed on until their dream became victory.”

Gays oppose Dobson hall of fame nomination

CHICAGO – The National Radio Hall of Fame rejected the pleas of gay rights activists, who called upon the organization to disqualify Dr. James Dobson from the list of nominees for the hall. Wayne Besen, a homosexual activist, organized a campaign against Dobson, whom he called “an extremist who has built his empire on the backs of gays and lesbians” and “a bigot who distorts scientific research.” Dobson and his organization Focus on the Family have been leaders in the social conservative movement since the 1970s, in part because of his radio broadcast of family oriented programming that began in 1977 and now reaches 220 million people in 164 countries. Bruce DuMont, chairman of the National Radio Hall of Fame, said that nominations are based on an individual’s contribution to radio and not the person’s political views.