PNCI E-News 2007
Introduction to Parliamentary Network E-News
The Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI) is a non-profit, non-partisan global project committed to networking members of democratically-elected legislatures in efforts to advance respect for the inherent value, worth, and inviolable dignity of every human being from the first moment of existence. To advance this goal, PNCI will periodically issue a Parliamentary Network E-News designed to provide lawmakers, and those who work with them, news from various sources on the international threat to pro-life laws and current legislative and judicial actions on critical life issues challenging parliamentarians around the world.
Parliamentary Network E-News
PNCI Advisory
UN Report Warns of Ageing Populations in all Regions of the World
Elected officials and policy makers in countries considering the legalization of abortion are advised to take warning from the newly published UN report World Economic and Social Survey 2007—Development in an Ageing World and continue to protect the future of their country- their unborn children. This economic and social report presents the challenges in the twenty-first century as a result of worldwide population ageing that will occur more rapidly in developing countries in future decades that it did in developed countries brought about by increasing life expectancy and reduced lifetime fertility. Lifetime fertility in many developing countries is now less than 2 children per woman and is thus below the level required for population replacement over the long run.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon comments in the report, “The prospect of a smaller labour force having to support an increasingly larger older population poses a major challenge. Smaller families and persistent poverty may affect the provision of care and income security at old age, particularly in developing countries, where the family is the main caretaker of older persons.”
International Pressure to Change Pro-Life
Laws
EU-
British MEP Slams EU Report Promoting Abortion
A British Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Nirj Deva blasted a recent European Union report on the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) for including the promotion of abortion through use of the terms “access to reproductive health” and “reproductive and sexual rights” which are often interpreted to include abortion. Mr. Deva urged MEPs to vote against the controversial language explaining: “It is clear that certain UN-backed and EU-backed non-governmental organizations which are heavily promoting abortion in the third world are more interested in culling people than in reducing the relatively far smaller figure of deaths through unsafe and illegal abortions." Source: C-Fam
African
Bishops Urge Nations Not to Ratify
Speaking
at the Kenya Catholic HIV/Aids Conference, Catholic Archbishop John Njue expressed the Catholic Church in
EU
and UN Threaten Aid to
The European Union and
the United Nations have continued to exert heavy
pressure on
Ipas in
Since
the legalization of abortion in the first trimester in
It
has been revealed that a coalition of numerous organizations known as the
Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance (RHRA) is seeking to advance legal
abortion in
In
its latest round of meetings, CEDAW members questioned several countries’
abortion laws during discussions of contraception and maternal mortality.
Delegates from
Amnesty
International Supports Abortion
Despite
great opposition from many of its members, Amnesty International (AI) has
adopted a policy supporting the decriminalization of abortion. The group, which
only released this policy publicly after it was revealed by pro-life sources,
claims they are not supporting abortion as a human right. Political and church
leaders around the world have denounced Amnesty’s decision, and members are
revoking memberships. Source: LifeSite
Legislative Actions
UK-
40th Anniversary of Abortion Act Sets Stage for Renewed Abortion
Debate
Members
of the British Parliament are preparing for renewed debate on abortion when
legislation regulating human embryo research and fertility treatment is
considered this fall. The government sponsored Human Tissue and Embryos Bill will
open the
The
Mozambique Ministry of
Health is pushing for the legalization of abortion under new legislation
officially introduced earlier this year. If the law is changed, it will allow
for the expansion of legal abortion, and for foreign donors to fund them. Dr
Eunice Brookman-Amissah, the Ipas
vice president for
As promised, President George W. Bush vetoed legislation passed by the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives and Senate overturning his restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research. President Bush has also promised to veto legislation that reverses a policy known as the “Mexico City Policy,” which prohibits funding from going to groups that promote or perform abortion overseas. While the House of Representatives recently passed a foreign assistance spending bill that removed these pro-life provisions, it does not have the support of at least two-thirds of the Members to sustain the promised presidential veto. Source: LifeNews
All
news articles will include links to original source. While PNCI cannot
verify the information contained in the news articles is accurate, the sources
used are reputable and trustworthy.
To
subscribe or unsubscribe to this email list, please email: info@pncius.org.
The Parliamentary Network
for Critical Issues (PNCI) is a non-profit, non-partisan global project
committed to networking members of democratically-elected legislatures in
efforts to advance respect for the inherent value, worth, and inviolable
dignity of every human being from the first moment of existence. To advance
this goal, PNCI periodically issues the Parliamentary Network E-News to provide
lawmakers, and those who work with them, news from various sources on the
international threat to pro-life laws and current legislative and judicial
actions on critical life issues challenging parliamentarians around the world.
PARLIAMENTARY NETWORK
E-NEWS
International
Pressure to Change Pro-Life Laws
Carlos Polo of the Population
Research Institute warns that this strategy is being used by the abortion lobby
throughout
Following the legalization of abortion in
The African Union’s Maputo Protocol, the first international
treat that recognizes a right to abortion, was condemned by Archbishop Robert
Sarah, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, at a
recent
Legislative
Actions
Effective this month, controversial provisions of
However, Marie
Stopes representative, Paul Cornelissen, CE of the Marie Stopes
Clinic SA, said that the new legislation was necessary as children did not have
access to information and education about issues such as contraception and
abortion. The entirety of the new law, which is expected to be passed by
Parliament early next year, seeks to bring
Attention remains focused on the
US: Pro-life Congressman Concerned
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued recalls on several imported Chinese products for contamination, however, it has yet to warn the public about the possible tainting of the chemical abortion pill RU-486, which is exclusively manufactured in China. U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, Co-Chairman of the bipartisan House Pro-Life Caucus, recently sent a letter to the FDA requesting it investigates Danco, a Cayman Islands company that was established solely for the purpose of selling its only product, RU-486, in the United States, and its connection to Hua Lin Pharmaceuticals, the Chinese manufacturer. "As the serious problem with tainted products coming out of China becomes more clearly evident and the deadly effect of RU-486 on women's lives also becomes more increasingly evident, I ask that you take a serious and comprehensive look at the companies involved in the marketing and manufacture of RU-486," stated Rep. Smith in the July 3 letter.
Lending further evidence to the credibility of this concern,
the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) has now ordered Hua Lin Pharmaceuticals to suspend selling Methotrexate, a cancer drug which is also used in abortion
clinics for chemical abortions, for possible contamination. There have been a
documented six deaths of women in
Executive
Actions
In a giant step towards providing real solutions to maternal mortality, Kenya Health Minister Charity Ngilu has removed all fees from public health centers for delivery fees. This move, the first phase of ongoing health care reforms, is estimated to significantly help the 1.2 million women who are pregnant each year. “Delivery under the care of a trained health worker is one of the key interventions for reducing maternal and newborn deaths,” Mrs. Ngilu said. It is estimated that one in 200 women die each year due to pregnancy and childbirth complications.
Implementation of
Spain Prime
Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has announced
that every Spanish family with a new baby will receive €2500 ($3980). In his
State of the Union Address, Zapatero explained, “To keep progressing,
Dr. Tabare
Vazquez, the first left wing president elected in
Judicial
Actions
This month,
All news articles include links to original source.
PNCI cannot verify that the information contained in the news articles is
accurate.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this email list, please
email: info@pncius.org.
The Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI) is a
non-profit, non-partisan global project committed to networking members of
democratically-elected legislatures in efforts to advance respect for the
inherent value, worth, and inviolable dignity of every human being from the
first moment of existence. To advance this goal, PNCI periodically issues the
Parliamentary Network E-News to provide lawmakers, and those who work with
them, news from various sources on the international threat to pro-life laws
and current legislative and judicial actions on critical life issues
challenging parliamentarians around the world.
PARLIAMENTARY NETWORK
E-NEWS
PNCI SPECIAL
ALERT
PNCI alerts pro-life parliamentarians worldwide to the
following:
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is urging
parliamentarians who are members of its “Partnering with Parliamentarians” program
on population, development and reproductive health to attend the Women
Deliver conference set for
Over 2,000 world leaders in
finance, health and development will gather and organizers of Women Deliver
are funding delegations from 30 selected nations including:
The conference is organized by 40 NGOs, including US-based Ipas, which advocates for nurses and mid wives (mid level providers) to be trained and legally authorized to provide abortion services: “We recognize midwives’ increasingly important contribution to women’s health, and we call on policymakers worldwide to remove legal and policy restrictions that impede these dedicated professionals from contributing their utmost to this fundamental cause.”
PNCI believes the inclusion and focus on the violence of abortion as
an acceptable solution to maternal mortality questions the true intent of the
conference and urges pro-life advocates worldwide to be on the alert for the
proposed laws and policies that may originate in this conference. Source:
UNFPA
International
Pressure to Change Pro-Life Laws
Amnesty Affirms Pro-Abortion Policy
Amnesty International (AI) has elected to join the ranks of
abortion advocates by abandoning its “abortion neutral” position in favor of a
policy that seeks universal access to abortion at a meeting of delegates from
75 countries in
This
decision caused 31 year AI member, Bishop Michael Evans of the Diocese of East
Anglia,
Despite aggressive efforts, a recent Time article
featured the pro-life resistance abortion advocates have encountered in
promoting abortion throughout
The emergence of leftist parties has failed to translate
into liberalized abortion policies, due in part to an emphasis on economic
reform, the influence of the Catholic Church, and distrust for the
“imperialism” of Western feminism.
Legislative
News
PNCI applauds this effective example of parliamentarians
working with pro-life NGOs to contact members of Parliament seeking support for
pro-life position on key legislation.
The
Following a court mandated period for public participation,
Conversely, pro-abortion groups are pushing to further
expand abortion access during discussions of the Choice on Termination of
Pregnancy Amendment Act. In response to
the Court’s request for public participation, Health Systems Trust, a
healthcare NGO in
PNCI notes how the actions of
one parliamentarian can sometimes result in widespread news coverage.
A leftist congresswoman has asked the Spanish government to
“normalize abortion as a public health benefit” in response to radical feminist
claims that there are “numerous obstacles” present in Spanish law that inhibit
access to abortion. (Abortion is allowed in
Executive
News
US: Former Governor Bush Urges “Don’t Separate Faith and
Politics”
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush
highlighted the importance of faith in political leadership at a Catholic
conference this summer saying: "I don't think you can separate your
personal faith from your public actions, and I don't think you need to. I think
transparent, openly expressing your faith is a good
thing.” Speaking at Regnum Christi’s
Youth and Family Conference in
Issues
All news articles include links to original source.
PNCI cannot verify that the information contained in the news articles is
accurate.
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email: info@pncius.org.
PARLIAMENTARY NETWORK E-NEWS
PNCI Special Alert
Attempts
to Integrate Abortion into HIV/AIDS Treatment
Efforts to integrate sexual and reproductive health and include abortion as part of HIV/AIDS treatment is illustrated by an African health care organization in South Africa, Health Systems Trust (HST), that is pressuring health authorities to give all pregnant HIV positive women information on abortion.
While
abortion is legal and widely available in
Abortion advocates such as HST are pursuing the integration of sexual and reproductive rights that includes access to abortion, to HIV/AIDS programs. A conference of over 500 strategic players from over 40 countries in Africa met last October at an international conference in Ethiopia entitled: Linking Reproductive Health, Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Programs in Africa, whose sponsors included UNFPA, Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Packard foundation, the African Union, UNAIDS, World Health Organization and USAID.
The conference
stated that while most governments have policies encouraging integration of sexual
and reproductive rights with HIV/AIDS challenges such as laws restricting
abortion remain an obstacle. One of the conference’s recommendations was the
need to present policy makers with: “Information on integration regarding
controversial issues, such as youth sexual and reproductive health and rights
and abortion.”
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International Pressure to Change
Pro-Life Laws
Abortion advocates will hold a conference in
Among the speakers at the conference are lawmakers and policy advisors from around the globe such as: Christine McCafferty, MP, UK, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health, Dr. Fred Sai, Ghana, advisor to President and former president of International Planned Parenthood Federation, Dr. Arnoldo Benito Toruño, Nicaragua, advisor to the Ministry of Health, and Dr. Malcolm Potts, U.S., professor of population at the University of California at Berkeley and founder of two US-based organizations advancing abortion—Ipas and Family Health International.
(It is interesting to note that both Ipas and Family Health International, along with IntraHealth and Population Services International—the world's second-biggest provider of contraceptives after Planned Parenthood International— all originated from the same source, the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina. Another organization established there is Adam and Eve, an adult entertainment business selling explicit sexual materials through the mail.)
IPPF’s Annual Report Reveals its Strategy to Promote Abortion throughout Latin America
International Planned Parenthood (IPPF) recently released its annual report on the Western Hemisphere (available in English and Spanish) highlighting claims of millions of illegal abortions performed each year in countries with pro-life or abortion restrictive laws. In the report, IPPF reveals its strategy for promoting abortion in these countries, namely through counseling for post-abortive women, HIV programs, and promotion of contraceptives and the morning-after pill. They hope to incrementally open the door to liberalized abortion policies through these smaller initiatives. Further, the numbers of illegal abortions IPPF cites are questionable estimates as most countries do not keep records on abortion statistics. Source: LifeNews
Legislative News
Nicaraguan
Congress Renews Abortion Ban
Dominican
Cardinal Urges Lawmakers to Resist International Push for Abortion
Cardinal
Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez called on lawmakers in the
Argentine
Congress Considers Legislation to Establish Abortion as “Right”
The
Argentine Congress recently held hearings on proposed legislation that would
offer further protection to “non-punishable” abortions, and establish abortion
in the cases of the life or health of the mother and rape as a “right.” Under the
current penal code, abortion in these instances is not legal, but is not
punishable. This legislation, which would amend the existing penal code,
violates
As the European Union prepares to mark World Day against the Death Penalty on October 10th, Polish delegates have brought attention to the need to remember other violations of the “right to life”- abortion and euthanasia. Krzysztof Bosak, a Polish member of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly said, “I think it is hypocritical on the part of the EU to promote abortion, destructive lifestyles and euthanasia and at the same time to pretend to care about the right to life in only one case - death penalty… Maybe it is time to establish a European Day of Life to protect also the weakest and most innocent - children before birth, especially those diagnosed with a disability… But also to protect the disabled who are already born, the sick and the elderly - to save them from the tragedy of death on demand, or euthanasia." Source: LifeSiteNews
Executive News
US-President
Bush Denies Funds to UNFPA While
President
Bush, for the sixth year, will withhold US funds
from UNFPA due to its support of
Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ) led pro-life debate in the US Congress charging that UNFPA has been "the chief apologist and cheerleader for China's coercive one-child-per-couple policy" since the program began in 1979. “Despite numerous credible forced abortion reports from impeccable sources…above all, from the women victims themselves, high officials at UNFPA always dismiss and explain it all away. UNFPA has funded, provided crucial technical support, and, most importantly, provided cover for massive crimes of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization," Smith said.
Meanwhile,
the Spanish
government’s contribution to the UN Population Fund was criticized by the
president of the Spanish pro-life group, Fundacion Vida, Conchita
Gonzalez-Aller.
Gonzalez-Aller said her organization “laments
this contribution of $7 million dollars to an entity opposed to the human right
to life. One of the components of this right is the freedom of each woman
to decide how many children she should have, without being coerced by institutions
that impose undesired family planning methods, or having to resort to
abortion."
Following
a June conference where officials from ten African nations expressed support
for legal abortion in their countries, Vice President Gilbert Bukenya stated that he does not support legalizing abortion
in
Pope
Clarifies There is No “Right” to Abortion
Speaking
in Austria, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged European nations to bolster
birth rates with more child-friendly policies and rejected the notion that
abortion is a “human right.” The Pope explained, “It was in
Judicial News
The
Mexico Supreme Court began gathering evidence for its review of the law passed
by the legislative assembly of
A
lawsuit seeking to change
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Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues
Phone: 703-433-2767 Fax: 703-433-2768
The Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI) is committed to networking members of
democratically-elected legislatures in efforts to advance respect for the
inherent value, worth, and inviolable dignity of every human being from the
first moment of existence. PNCI issues the Parliamentary Network E-News to
provide lawmakers, and those who work with them, news from various sources on
the international threat to pro-life laws and current legislative and judicial
actions on critical life issues challenging parliamentarians around the world.
All news articles include links to original source.
PNCI cannot verify that the information contained in the news articles is
accurate.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this email list, please
email: info@pncius.org.
PARLIAMENTARY NETWORK E-NEWS
PNCI Special Alert
Efforts
to promote legalized abortion to governments worldwide were renewed and
energized by two recent conferences in
The Global Safe Abortion Conference, organized by abortion advocates Marie Stopes International and Ipas, was attended by representatives of over 60 countries.
According
to Ipas: “Presentations and discussions at the Global Safe Abortion Conference
addressed access to safe abortion through the lenses of public health, human
rights, gender equity and cost-effectiveness. Attendees examined strategies for
promoting reform of restrictive laws, policies and practices concerning
abortion, the promise of medical-abortion technologies, and ways to make safe
abortion services, along with contraceptive counseling and methods…regardless
of legal context.”
The conference opened with an analysis of global abortion advances: “Country after country is
legalising…
The Women Deliver conference,
organized by various NGOs and UN agencies claimed it would focus on ways to
reduce maternal deaths, but rather focused on ways to advance legal abortion as
part of reproductive health. A new International Initiative on Maternal
Mortality and Human Rights was launched to hold governments accountable for
policy changes that increase access to abortion. (C-Fam)
Speakers were direct in the inclusion of abortion as part of reproductive health. Dr. Francisco Songare, Director of the UN’s Partnership for Maternal and Newborn Health, was clear of this linkage in his speech to the conference when he urged that the focus in reducing maternal mortality “must be sexual and reproductive health – abortion – and without taboos!” (C-Fam)
A
letter of complaint from pro-life NGOs was sent to the UN charging that the
conference was more about promoting abortion than caring for the real needs of
women “…the conference agenda was so preoccupied with promoting the ideology
and practice of abortion that the genuine healthcare needs of women and
children were virtually ignored in the plenary sessions and overwhelmed in the
panel discussions.” A copy of the letter
is available in both English
and Spanish.
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International Pressure to Change
Pro-Life Laws
Amnesty
Promotes Legal Abortion in the
Amnesty
International (AI) has begun to implement its controversial decision to promote
abortion as a “human right” by urging the
Abortion
Groups Promote Agenda, Not Women’s Health in
The
countries and citizens of
Legislative News
Members
of Northern Ireland’s Assembly have decided to scrap
guidelines issued by its Health Department which would have
essentially brought “abortion on demand” to
Philippine
lawmakers have introduced new legislation, House Bill 3773, the Integrated
Reproductive Health and Population Reduction Bill, that
promotes a national reproductive health policy, which includes the legalization
of abortion disguised as a “solution” to development concerns. The Catholic
Bishops Conference (CBCP) of the
Uruguay-Abortion
Vote Highlights Importance of Legislative Strategy
Legislation to legalize abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy failed to pass the Uruguayan legislature this month when the vote resulted in a tie. Members of the ruling Broad Front coalition support the bill and are exploring different strategies to get the legislation passed into law without the approval of the President, who has promised to veto the legislation. Hoping to take advantage of a “surprise vote,” media reports revealed another strategy to hold the vote when key Senators would be absent from parliament. The legislation is expected to be up for a vote again, though it is yet to be determined when.
Documents
recently released reveal that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was aware of and covered up the health and safety violations
of the Chinese manufacturer of the abortion drug RU-486. This past summer, Congressman
Issues
Conscience
Protection
Conscientious
Objection Laws Protect Medical Professionals’ Rights
The rights of medical professionals to refrain from participating in abortions and the dispensing of abortion-inducing medications such as misoprostol have recently received international attention. Lawmakers can use their positions to protect and advance laws and policies that protect the rights of physicians and pharmacists to refuse to participate in abortion-related activities.
Following the legalization of abortion in the first trimester this past summer, Portugal’s Health Minister Antonio Correia de Campos has ordered the Portuguese Medical Association to revise its code of ethics and remove prohibitions on abortions. The order has met with great criticism from physicians and legal experts, and the Portuguese Bar Association denounced the move as “arrogant and overbearing.” The code states that "doctors must maintain respect for human life from its beginning", and "the practice of abortion constitutes a grave ethical failure".
Similarly,
the government of
Chile has levied million-dollar fines on three pharmacy chains for refusing
to sell the abortion pill known in the country as "Post Day."
Meanwhile,
a recent ruling by
a U.S. court in the state of Illinois affirmed the rights of pharmacists to
opt out of distributing the morning after pill.. The
court upheld the right of pharmacists to object to dispensing the drug under
the Health Care Right of Conscience Act.
The ruling followed the 2005 edict issued by
Sex
Selection Abortion
Joining
the ranks of
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Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues
Phone: 703-433-2767 Fax: 703-433-2768
The Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI) is committed to networking members of
democratically-elected legislatures in efforts to advance respect for the
inherent value, worth, and inviolable dignity of every human being from the
first moment of existence. PNCI issues the Parliamentary Network E-News to
provide lawmakers, and those who work with them, news from various sources on
the international threat to pro-life laws and current legislative and judicial
actions on critical life issues challenging parliamentarians around the world.
All news articles include links to original source.
PNCI cannot verify that the information contained in the news articles is
accurate.
To subscribe or
unsubscribe to this email list, please email: info@pncius.org.
PARLIAMENTARY NETWORK E-NEWS
In Memoriam
PNCI
mourns the passing of long time pro-life advocate and PNCI advisor U.S.
Congressman Henry Hyde. An articulate orator, Rep. Hyde committed his 32 years
in Congress to various human rights causes especially the right to life of the
unborn child before retiring last year. Just a few weeks ago President Bush
honored Mr. Hyde with the highest
One
of Hyde’s greatest accomplishments, the Hyde Amendment, stopped
Rep.
May the following quote by Henry Hyde during a House floor debate on abortion be a source of inspiration to all.
“This is not a debate about religious doctrine or even about public policy options. It is a debate about our understanding of human dignity, what it means to be a member of the human family, even though tiny, powerless and unwanted.
“We are knee-deep in a culture of death...Look, in this advanced democracy, in the year 2000, is it our crowning achievement that we have learned to treat people as things? Our moment in history is marked by a mortal conflict between a culture of life and a culture of death. God put us in the world to do noble things, to love and to cherish our fellow human beings, not to destroy them. Today we must choose sides.”
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International Pressure to Change
Pro-Life Laws
First
Meeting of Worldwide Front of Pro-Life Parliamentarians
Pro-Life
Parliamentarians gathered in
International Medical Conference Exposes Serious Consequences of Abortion A medical conference was held in
Talks
focused on topics that included: “Trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and
Abortion”, “Research on Post-Abortion Mental Health”, “Abortion and Breast
Cancer”, and “Post-Abortion Premature Birth Risk”. One
At a
recent meeting of the EU Council of Ministers
An
Irish spokeswoman said, “The EU has established positions on sexual and
reproductive health and rights matters,” referring to an agreement not to fund
abortion overseas. “The maintenance of these positions has been confirmed by
all EU states.”
It is believed that such language will curtain EU funding for programs to implement the Maputo Plan that pertain to abortion. Source: Life News
Legislative News
Over
70% of delegates to the 13th National Conference of Health rejected
a radical health proposal which sought to recognize abortion as “a public
health problem” to be solved through legalization of abortion. Clovis Boufleur of the Ministry for Children expressed a clear
pro-life view shared by a majority of Brazilian people that “Abortion does not
resolve the health problem in
Legislation has been introduced in the House of Commons that recognizes the unborn child as a victim of crime if he or she is killed or injured during an assault against the mother. The sponsor of the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, Ken Epp, explains, “This is all about protecting the choice of a woman to give birth to her child.” Mr. Epp explains the need for the legislation further, “How do you tell these grieving families that the child they loved and lost never even existed in the eyes of the law?” An October poll found 75% support among women for legislation that makes the injury or death of an unborn child during an attack on the mother a separate crime. Source: LifeSite
Nicaragua-
Third Attempt to Reverse Pro-Life Law Fails
South
Africa- House Rejects Bill Allowing Abortion by Nurses and Midwives
A
bill to allow nurses and midwives to perform abortion failed in
Legislators
in the region of
Uruguay-
Senate Legalizes Abortion Up to 12 Weeks
The
Senate in
Abortion supporter, Senator Monica Xavier, explained that measure deliberately linked abortion to “aspects related to sexuality and reproduction” thus preventing a “black and white debate”. President Tabare Vasquez has repeatedly promised he will veto the legislation. Source: Life News
Executive News
Holy See:
Pope Benedict Tells Catholics to Defend Life, Assist Women, and Resist
International Abortion Pressure
Pope Benedict
XVI met with bishops from
The Pope stated
that Catholic communities “must offer support to those women who find it
difficult to accept a child, above all when they are isolated from their
families and friends.” Pope Benedict
also warned the bishops of
“While
this understanding of Christian family life finds a deep resonance in
Issues
The
End of the Stem-Cell Wars—A Victory for the Pro-Life Movement
A remarkable new discovery in the use of ethical reprogramming of stem cells has enabled scientists to create the functional equivalent of embryonic stem cells directly from adult skin cells. It is widely believed that this discovery makes the destruction of embryos for research obsolete.
The
discovery was announced by both scientists in the
Princeton’s ethicist Robert George who served on President Bush’s Council on Bioethics declared about this discovery, “From the beginning we have been arguing that we must do everything we can to advance the cause of stem cell science but without sacrificing our respect for nascent human life and the principle of the inherent and equal dignity of each and every member of the human family. This latest news just goes to show that it really is possible.”
Commenting on the recent discovery, Father Thomas Berg of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person stated, “The science of pluripotent stem cell research can move forward toward therapies and cures in a manner that is free of any ethical concerns.” Source: Weekly Standard
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Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues
Phone: 703-433-2767 Fax: 703-433-2768
The Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI) is committed to networking members of
democratically-elected legislatures in efforts to advance respect for the
inherent value, worth, and inviolable dignity of every human being from the
first moment of existence. PNCI issues the Parliamentary Network E-News to
provide lawmakers, and those who work with them, news from various sources on
the international threat to pro-life laws and current legislative and judicial
actions on critical life issues challenging parliamentarians around the world.
All news articles include links to original source.
PNCI cannot verify that the information contained in the news articles is
accurate.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this email list, please
email: info@pncius.org.