(This update courtesy of LifeSite Daily News.)
SCOTLAND'S HEROICALLY PRO-LIFE CARDINAL WINNING DIES
GLASGOW, June 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Scotland's Cardinal Thomas Winning, 76, died suddenly yesterday from a heart attack. Only the second Scottish Cardinal since the Protestant Reformation, Cardinal Winning was a stalwart defender of the teachings of the faith, and heroically outspoken on matters of life and family. Although he was much loved by the faithful, anti-life and anti-family forces held him out as enemy number one.
Earlier this year Cardinal Winning slammed plans to sell the abortifacient morning-after pill in the country without a doctors prescription. He said the government was promoting “early chemically-induced abortion” and sexually transmitted disease. Last August he commented on stem cell research saying, “Obtaining stem cells from a human embryo is morally wrong, because it involves the destruction of a human life. Human life is inviolably sacred, both before and after any arbitrary 14-day deadline.”
Last July, Winning commented on abortion and the medical profession saying, “No profession has been more deeply corrupted by the culture of death than the medical profession over the past century. And nothing has more deeply corrupted it than the practice of abortion and the attendant attitude that human life which is weak and vulnerable is disposable.” Also last year, the Cardinal fought courageously against a law allowing the teaching of homosexuality in schools, noting children were being subjected to “explicit and perverted material”. “It pains me to use the word perverted when discussing the homosexual act but that it what it is,” said the Cardinal.
For his clarity and courage the Cardinal received condemnation both from politicians and pop-stars. George Galloway, a leading Labor MP from Glasgow likened the Cardinal, leader of Scotland's 750,000 Catholics, to a “raving bigot” after the cardinal's opposition to the promotion of homosexuality in schools. Elton John made a public attack on the Cardinal, writing in the June 6 issue of The Spectator, “his ignorance, is totally representative of why people are turning away from the Church … I am astonished to be told by Cardinal Winning that my sexuality is not good for me.”
LOUISIANA SENATE PASSES HOUSE BILL RESTRICTING ABORTION AFTER VIABILITY
BATON ROUGE, June 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The Louisiana Senate voted 34-4 Friday to approve Bill HB 1909 that would require ultrasound testing for women planning to have an abortion after 20 weeks' gestation so a doctor can determine whether the child could survive outside the womb. The mother
intending to abort would be offered the option of viewing her child via ultrasound. Moreover, if the child is determined viable, the legislation calls for the physician to “utilize the available method or technique of abortion most likely to preserve the life and health of the unborn child.” A second doctor would be required to be present in case the child survives the procedure.
The legislation also states that any infant born alive after a failed abortion should be given “reasonable and immediate medical care.” The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that the bill now moves to the desk of Governor Mike Foster for signature.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
UN AIDS MEETING BOGGED DOWN OVER ABORTION AND HOMOSEXUALITY
UNITED NATIONS, June 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The UN AIDS conference to be held from June 25-27 is headed for a rough ride as delegations from the West object to mentioning the fact that AIDS is spread largely through homosexuality among men, and feminist groups attempt to insert language advocating abortion.
Reuters reports that Egypt has proposed that factors leading to the spread of AIDS include “homosexuality among men, prostitution and other forms of irresponsible sexual behavior.” But Western groups reacted angrily to calling homosexuality “irresponsible sexual behavior.” AP reports that “during one heated exchange, Norway did the diplomatically unthinkable when it verbally threatened to rethink foreign aid for Egypt if it continued to oppose the original phrasing.” The original phrasing listed groups vulnerable to the virus as including “men who have sex with men.”
Feminists are also insisting that the document retain language encouraging “reproductive health services” (which are understood by many delegations to include abortion) which is objected to by conservative nations including the United States.
JEWISH ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE TO MONITOR PRO-LIFE WEBSITES
NEW YORK, June 19, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The U.S. Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has once again demonstrated its transformation into a leftist activist group rather than a defender of the rights of Jews. AP reports that on Monday ADL launched a Web site to monitor “extremist” and “hate” groups, which is to serve as a database for law enforcement officials. While the group claims it is only seeking to identify “anti-abortion groups that advocate violence,” the group's pro-abortion advocacy and attempt to associate the shooting of abortionists with peaceful pro-life groups such as Human Life International contradicts their reassurances.
An ADL press release from October 30, 1998 identified Human Life International among “anti-abortion extremists” and derided any pro-life group comparing the slaughter of the unborn to the Nazi Holocaust.
Far from defending the rights of all Jews, the ADL attacks conservative Jews such as Dr. Laura Schlessinger for their conservative views. In fact, Carl Pearlston, a member of the ADL for 25 years wrote recently in the Jewish World Review that he was booted off the ADL's Executive Committee and Regional Board for not towing the ADL's leftist agenda. Pearlston laments that the ADL was “turning Judaism on its head.” He said the for the ADL “fighting 'hate' became a euphemism for an attack on sexual morality, the traditional family, and the Jewish view that children deserve a loving father and mother, not two fathers or two mothers.”
The ADL aggressive pro-abortion stand was confirmed when in a June 28, 2000, press release they cheered the Supreme Court decision barring a partial-birth abortion ban in Nebraska and admitted that the ADL had “filed an amicus curiae, or 'friend of the court' brief, which said the Nebraska law unconstitutionally interfered in matters of individual choice.”
UN CHILD RIGHTS DOCUMENT STILL NOT FINALIZED – ANOTHER MEETING TO BE HELD
UNITED NATIONS, June 18, 2001 (LSN.ca)- The controversy that was expected by some groups on Friday at the closing session of the UN prepcom on the Rights of the Child did not happen.
The contentious issue of defining the word “services” in response to a gaff by a Canadian delegate who said that it includes “abortion”, was somewhat resolved in a small committee. The committee of interested nations, moderated by neutral Lichtenstein, agreed on a definition of services as meaning “basic services”. Although abortion was not explicitly excluded, the new paragraph at least mitigates the danger of the previous lack of any qualification of “services”. Some delegations, such as the European Union, which agreed to the new paragraph, are likely to argue that abortion is a “basic service” for them because of the abortion on demand situation in most European countries.
Although negotiations continued until 2 a.m. Saturday morning, many key issues are still unresolved. An intersessional (additional negotiating session) will be scheduled to deal with the unresolved issues.
INTERNATIONAL GAY ASSOCIATON DEMANDS THAT UN CENSOR MEDIA
DUBLIN, Ireland (LSN.ca) – Homosexual activists are asking the U.N. to include in the upcoming World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), treaty provisions which would ban broadcasts critical of homosexuality, include “sex life,” transgenderism and other sexual categories as minority traits on a par with race or ethnicity, and strike down anti-sodomy laws.
The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) has been lobbying in Geneva, Switzerland, at a Preparatory Commission to the upcoming World Conference, to be held in Durban, South Africa, from August 31 to September 7. The Association does not enjoy any official UN status at the preparatory meetings due to its past association with NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, a group that advocates sex between men and boys.
The ILGA urges nations to eradicate the broadcasting of products with content discriminatory to homosexuals. This has already occurred in Canada, where the Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission has forbidden licensed stations to broadcast any portion of programs portraying homosexuality in a negative light. The Dr. Laura Show, Jerry Falwell's Old Time Gospel Hour, and Focus on the Family all have been warned not to include material dealing with homosexuality.
UN-SUPPORTED BOOK ON “DIVERSE” FAMILY TYPES LAUNCHED
NEW YORK (LSN.ca) - Families As We Are, a book on the evolving role of family structure and relationships including polygamous, patriarchal, matriarchal, or same-sex couples, was launched yesterday in New York in the presence of a host of UN dignitaries.
Henrych J. Sokalski, former UN Coordinator for the International Year of the Family, called the book an “essential text…if we are to understand the multiple forces that shape and influence family life in the coming decades.” Author Perdita Huston says her work offers a voice to families from around the world to tell their stories, and she wonders how public policies should be revised to meet the needs of future generations that speak in her book.
NURSE TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS ABOUT LIVE-BIRTH ABORTION
WASHINGTON, DC (LSN.ca) – An Illinois nurse that reported hospital personnel deliberately leaving babies to die is to testify this month at a congressional hearing on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.
Nurse Jill Stanek's public disclosure that Christ Hospital staff would induce labor and then leave premature babies that survived to die from lack of attention or medical care, prompted an investigation by the Illinois Attorney General. Federal legislation to give legal protection to babies born alive passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. House of Representatives last year, and numerous states have introduced similar legislation.
After revealing the infanticide, Stanek was subjected to harassment from superiors and put on probation. She is being supported in her stand by the Illinois chapter of Concerned Women for America, the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
June 23-24, 2001
U.S. BISHOPS BAN STERILIZATIONS AT CATHOLIC AND AFFILIATED HOSPITALS
WASHINGTON, June 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) – On Friday the National Conference of Catholic Bishops released the fourth edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. The new directives, according to Bishop Joseph A. Galante of Texas, “leaves no wiggle room” for Catholic and Catholic-affiliated hospitals to thwart the teachings of the Church pertaining to abortion. Abortion proponents are outraged with the news.
The LA Times reported that “in the past, non-Catholic hospitals affiliated with the church have been able to get around the church's prohibitions against abortion and sterilization by creating a legally separate entity within the hospital.” Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati, who headed the committee that drafted new directives, told reporters “If the practices are not in accord with the ethical directive, I expect those practices will change,” noting that “the whole gambit of Catholic respect for life” was at stake.
The directives ban abortion, abortifacients, contraceptives, sterilization and in vitro fertilization. Moreover the directives note, “Catholic health care institutions need to be concerned about the danger of scandal in any association with abortion providers.”
