 |
          
  |
|
|
|
Jeff
Jacoby provides some insightful commentary on the disturbing
trend toward sex-selection abortion around the world and here in the United
States. This is yet another reminder of
the prevalence of the culture of death in our world. Excerpt from Boston Globe article:
THE UNFETTERED "right to choose"
is a progressive value, we are instructed by the abortion lobby - one
indispensable to the empowerment of women. But a new study in PNAS (the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) prompts an awkward question:
How exactly are American women empowered when abortion is deployed to prevent
the existence of American girls?
…
But nothing can excuse such abortions in
the United States - nothing except the theology of "choice," which
elevates the right to an abortion above all other considerations. You don't
have to be a feminist to know that being a girl is not a birth defect, or to be
horrified by a practice that lethally reinforces the most benighted forms of
sexual discrimination. For what kind of feminist would it be who could
contemplate the use of abortion to eliminate ever-greater numbers of girls, and
not cry out in horror?
Ken
Connor reminds us that the scourge
of slavery continues in our world today, even in the United States. Part of the reason for this continued trade
is the expansion and mainstreaming of pornography and sexually oriented business
which fuels the demand for so-called “sex workers” including slaves. Excerpt:
Unfortunately, slavery is still a
widespread practice all over the world, including the US. The Civil War may
have removed the public sanction of slavery, but it is still a common
underground practice. Journalist Benjamin Skinner undertook four years of
undercover investigation into "human trafficking" (a euphemism for
slavery) in order to increase awareness of this international injustice. His
research and experiences are chronicled in his recent book, "A Crime So
Monstrous." Skinner posed as a customer at underground brothels in several
countries in order to get a better picture of the realities of the slave trade.
Operation
Rescue has created a
helpful timeline of events to help people understand the outrageous
abortion scandals involving late-term abortionist George Tiller and Planned
Parenthood of Kansas. This is an
important case for the pro-life movement and we are grateful for this helpful
resource.
Our friends at the Committee for Justice provide an interesting and exciting account of the recent showdown in the Senate Judiciary Committee over the sorry lack of progress on giving hearings or fair up-or-down votes to President Bush’s judicial nominees.
We applaud the committee members who spoke up on the issue and encourage them to keep up the pressure until all of the President’s pending appellate court nominations have had hearings and floor votes. Appointing well-qualified, originalist judges to the federal bench (especially when many courts are experiencing vacancy crises) is too important an issue to do anything less.
Please call Chairman Leahy and both your state’s senators and urge them to do their constitutional duty and hold hearing for and vote on the Presidents judicial nominees.
The
House of Representatives has approved
a version of PEPFAR anti-AIDS funding that is much improved from the original
version which would have mandated abortion funding, drastically cut back
abstinence and faithfulness education, and weakened anti-prostitution
provisions. Though significant
improvements have been made to the bill, not all conservatives support the
measure because of fiscal concerns over massive spending increases and concerns
that there is insufficient accountability over how funds are spent. The bill will now go to the U.S. Senate.
The
Arizona
Republic reports. Despite being held
up in the legislature, Arizona marriage proponents are examining their options
and planning to move ahead with a constitutional amendment to protect the
traditional definition of marriage.
On
April 1 Senator Specter addressed the need to make progress on President Bush’s
judicial nominations. We applaud Sen.
Specter for his speech, and urge the Senate to fulfill its constitutional duty
to provide “advice and consent” to the President on the important matter of
judicial nominations. Excerpt of Sen.
Specter’s speech:
We have a situation where there has not
been one confirmation of a Federal judge this year. Since September 25th of
last year, there has only been one hearing for a circuit judge, and that was on
February 21, in the midst of a recess. There have only been two hearings that
included district court judges, the one on February 12 and one other. Six
nominees have been heard; four are on the agenda for this week's executive
business meeting.
The comparison between what has happened
with President Bush and President Clinton shows a decisive imbalance which
requires prompt action by the Senate on the confirmation of President Bush's
judges.
To
see a graphic illustrating the historical imbalance Sen. Specter referred to click here.
There
is disturbing news coming out of Britain as the Telegraph
(UK) reports. Using a process
similar to SCNT, scientists put human DNA into unfertilized cow eggs in order
to obtain mostly-human embryos for stem cell research. Tampering with human life in this way is
degrading, and the scientists’ assurances that the hybrid embryos will be destroyed
(killed) within 14 days does not provide any comfort to pro-lifers.
These
developments highlight why the Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act should be
passed in the United States Senate as soon as possible.
LifeNews and Times
Online (UK) also report.
Graphic source: Telegraph
The Wall Street Journal reports that Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is planning to lead a strategy to shut down the Senate unless President Bush’s many appellate court nominations are given hearings and fair up-or-down votes (which is the Senate’s constitutional duty). In light of the extreme importance of appointing well-qualified, originalist judges to the federal bench, we applaud his leadership in forcing the Senate to do its job when it comes to judges. Excerpt from WSJ article:
The Democratic Senate has confirmed a mere six nominees with no plans in sight to move the remaining 11 forward. Judicial nominees rarely are confirmed in the final months of a President's second term, so the clock is running out. Democrats figure they'll retake the White House in November, and they don't mind leaving the courts short-handed for another year or two as they stall for liberal nominees.
Mr. Specter says he has recommended that Republicans "go full steam ahead" until Democrats agree to hold confirmation votes.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) recently gave a speech in the Senate on the importance of making progress on judges. He also published an opinion piece in the National Review on the same topic. Excerpt:
The Constitution gives to the president authority to nominate and appoint federal judges. The Senate provides advice about whether the president should appoint his judicial nominees by giving or withholding consent through up or down votes. That is what the Constitution assigns us to do. That is what Americans expect the Senate to do. That is what the Senate is failing to do.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has also urged action on judges.
It’s time our friends on the other side stop blaming others for their own failures to act on judicial nominations. If they don’t, Republicans will be forced to consider other options.
Improving the makeup of the federal bench and making sure there are enough judges to promote justice in America is one of the most important issues in our country. We applaud the efforts by Senators McConnell, Specter, and Hatch to make progress on this front.
Contact Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and urge him to get to work on judicial nominations. Also, contact both your senators and urge them to push for progress on judicial nominations.
LifeNews reports. Excerpt:
A leading pro-life member of Congress plans
an amendment to a bill on health care for Native Americans that's similar to
the language of an amendment the Senate approved last month. Rep. Joe Pitts
wants to make sure the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (H.R. 1328) isn't
used to fund abortions with public money.
AdvanceUSA
thanks Congressman Pitts for proposing this important pro-life amendment, and
urges the rest of the Energy and Commerce Committee to support it. CitizenLink also
reports.
You
can look up members of the committee here, and
find your representative’s contact
information here (look them up by name or zip code).
Graphic source: CitizenkLink
CitizenLink reports
on this troubling development.
AdvanceUSA has also been informed of likely moves to undermine marriage
by offering special rights and benefits to same-sex couples, and will be watching
federal legislation that relates to this issue closely.
Should
broadcasters be allowed to air patently indecent or obscene content at any time
of day (including when children are likely to be in the audience)? Kristen Fyfe gives a helpful explanation of
the case and provides examples of current and future abuses by broadcasters.
Excerpt:
As it stands the
Supreme Court is due to consider broadcast indecency in the 2008-2009
term. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled last year in Fox v. FCC that “fleeting” expletives should not be fined by
the FCC. The FCC appealed the ruling to
the Supreme Court, which has not examined the indecency issue since it ruled in
the Pacifica case in 1973. For more on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the
fleeting expletives case, click
here.
Until the Supreme
Court acts to clarify broadcast decency issues, it appears the networks are
going to do everything in their power to thumb their collective noses at the
FCC and in effect, the American public.
All in the name of “entertainment.”
Isn’t that hilarious?
Ken
Connor has a thought provoking piece on the need
to protect disabled children from abortion by making sure mothers have
accurate information about disabilities.
Excerpt:
Most parents receive the news that they are
"expecting" with joy and excitement. For some, however, the good news
turns sour when they learn that their unborn or newly born child has Down
syndrome or is afflicted with some other disability like cystic fibrosis. What
parents are told about their child's future and how they are told it often
influences whether that child is born at all. That's why Senators Sam Brownback
and Ted Kennedy have co-sponsored the "Prenatally and Postnatally
Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act".
Barack
Obama referred to being “punished with a baby” when confronted with a pro-life
Democrat in Pennsylvania recently. Obama
also disparaged abstinence education at the event. Politico
has the details.
By
Daniel Herbster
When
I first read recent
media reports about research which seemed to indicate mice with Parkinson’s
disease were successfully treated using a form of cloning called somatic cell
nuclear transfer (SCNT), I was skeptical.
But even if the media reports of success were correct, it still would
not make SCNT ethical for use in humans because it would amount to cloning and
killing human beings (embryos). I wanted
get an expert opinion on the actual science behind the reports so I contacted
Dr. David Prentice whom I’ve had the privilege to hear speak and meet on
several occasions.
Reinforced
my concerns with the unethical nature of the research if it were ever tried in
humans, Dr. Prentice told me…
…the whole idea of
so-called "therapeutic cloning" is unethical on several levels. It requires creating and destroying an
embryo, a young life. It also requires a
tremendous number of eggs to make just one dish of cells, so it risks women's
health, making them factories for raw parts for the experiments.
Dr.
Prentice also mentioned three crucial points the reports neglected to point
out.
- 1 out of every 6 mice showed
"graft overgrowth". In
other words, the implanted embryonic stem cells grew too well.
- They only let the animals go for 11
weeks, so we don't know if they would have gone on to form tumors, or if
the treatment has any lasting effect.
- The technique is also already
outdated. The paper was originally
submitted in Feb 2007, long before most of the results with iPS cells
[induced pluripotent stem cells].
So the science has already passed this by, with easier, ethical,
and successful procedures.
Thank
you Dr. Prentice for sharing your expertise with us. Find out more about Dr. Prentice’s work at FRC.org and at DoNoHarm.
Dr. David Prentice
Graphic source: FRC
Click here for more
information on human cloning, and click here for more
information on embryonic stem cell research.
Planned
Parenthood has released its annual
report for 2008. The following
points are a few important and outrageous facts AdvanceUSA has been alerted to:
- An increase in the number of
provided abortions from 264,943 in 2005 to 289,650 in 2006.
- A doubling of “excess of
revenue over expenses” funds from $55.7 million in 2005 to $112 million in
2006.
- Acknowledge receipt of over
$336 million in [local, state, and federal] government grants and
contracts.
With
all the recent controversies regarding potential illegal activity by Planned
Parenthood centers across the country, why is Planned Parenthood getting our
tax dollars?
To
sign the Family Research Council’s petition to withhold federal Title X funding
from Planned Parenthood click
here.
Janice
Shaw Crouse, Ph.D., has a helpful column today about the
importance and effectiveness of abstinence education and explains why
radical leftist organizations and politicians are so determined to eliminate it
completely. Congress should increase
abstinence education funding, not cut it.
Read Crouse’s
article for more details. Excerpts:
It is incomprehensible that leaders of
organizations working with teens would oppose abstinence. The increase in abstinence programs has been
effective in reversing trends that some believed were irreversible. It is clear from my analysis of official data
that abstinence education is behind the current decreases in teen births, teen
abortion and the number of teens engaged in sexual activity.
While the left claims that abstinence
education is a too-simplistic “just say no” campaign, the programs teach teens
how to say “no” and give them the skills and character development needed for
them to be able to say “no” effectively.
And many teens need to learn that sexually active girls regret their
early sexual activity — nearly two-thirds (63 percent) state that they wish
they had waited to have sex.
…
Many teens don’t know the facts, and the
comprehensive sex education programs do not inform them. A Maryland teenager, Stephen, was part of a
conversation with friends who claimed that “everyone is doing it.” Stephen told them that, statistically, teens
today are less sexually active. They
were surprised; they had not heard that important fact in their so-called
“full-coverage” sex education program.
Stephen summed up our view when he asked,
“Don’t you think our sex ed programs should tell us that more and more teens
are choosing to stay abstinent and how they are doing it?”
The
Columbia Missourian reports. Let’s
hope the Appeals Court upholds Judge Joyce’s
ruling allowing Missourians to see an
accurate summary of the proposed human cloning ban on their 2008 ballot.
Cures
Without Cloning is waiting until the court makes its decision before beginning its
signature gathering campaign to get the cloning ban amendment on the
ballot. If you live in Missouri click here to find out how you
can be a trained signature gatherer.
For
more information on human cloning click here or visit MO Cures Without Cloning.
Some
hopeful news is
coming out of California for advocates of parental rights, specifically the
right to homeschool. The California
appeals court which recently ruled that parents do not have a right to
homeschool their children has decided to reconsider its decision. Our friends at the Alliance Defense Fund played
a pivotal role in this decision by filing a petition
to reconsider the case, which was accepted.
The Pacific
Justice Institute also reports on the decision. Excerpt:
This means the Rachel L. decision, which has sparked a nationwide uproar, will not
go into effect as it is currently written. The Second District Court of Appeal
has instead decided to re-hear the case, with a new round of briefings due in
late April. It would likely take the court several additional months to
schedule oral argument and issue another decision.
Today's announcement by the court that it will re-hear the case reinforces
PJI's position that homeschooling families should continue their current
programs without fear of governmental interference.
The
Home School Legal Defense fund also issued a statement. Excerpt:
Home School Legal Defense Association will
seek permission to file such an amicus brief and will coordinate efforts with a
number of organizations interesting in filing briefs to support the right of
parents to homeschool their children in California.
"This is a great first step,"
said Michael Farris, chairman of HSLDA. "We are very glad that this case will
be reheard and that this opinion has been vacated, but there is no guarantee as
to what the ultimate outcome will be.
This case remains our top priority," he added.
|
|
| | |