SPUC victory in Northern Ireland abortion case

Belfast, 30 November 2009 - The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has commented on today's judgment by the Belfast high court on the application for a judicial review of government abortion guidance, sought by SPUC. Link to SPUC Director's BLOG

Lord Justice Girvan ruled in favour of SPUC's challenge on two grounds. SPUC argued that because abortion remains illegal in Northern Ireland, it was wrong to expect medical providers to give non-directive counselling to women who might be considering abortion. SPUC also argued that the government's guidance was wrong regarding non-participation in abortion (conscientious objection). The judge ruled in favour of SPUC on these points. The judge awarded costs against the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.

Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland commented: "We are very pleased that the court has highlighted some of the problems with the health department's abortion guidance. We hope that the department will now take seriously many of the concerns which were largely disregarded when the guidelines were being drafted.

"Abortion is not health care. In Northern Ireland it is a criminal offence. It is simply extraordinary that a government department should have issued guidance on criminal legislation and not have once mentioned the victim of the crime. In illegal abortion the primary victim is the unborn child and any new guidance that the department brings forward needs to take fully into account the duty of care and the legal protection owed to the child before birth.

"Abortion doesn't only kill children it also hurts women. There is a huge amount of evidence that abortion can damage the physical and mental health of women. If the department is serious about providing aftercare for women hurt by abortion then health officials cannot continue to ignore the evidence of post-abortion trauma. More needs to be done to warn women of the consequences of abortion but there has to be more help for women facing a crisis pregnancy as well.

"The law in Northern Ireland protects both women and children and new guidance must reflect that", concluded Mr Gibson.

Euthanasia bill defeated in France

At a time when many governments are endeavouring to legalise euthanasia – sometimes by the back door – it is very heartening to learn that a bill to legalise euthanasia in France has been rejected by a strong majority of 326 to 202 votes in that country’s National Assembly. Life Site News reports that the proposed bill, presented by a member of the Socialist Party, describes euthanasia as ‘medical assistance to die with dignity’. The language contained in the bill has been strongly criticised by groups fighting the legalisation of euthanasia, who say that it could lead to patients suffering from mental illnesses, such as depression, being at risk of medically approved suicide.

Dublin Vigil

Undaunted by the high winds and the persistent rain, at least 150 people – old and young (mostly young) and children and babies – braved the elements to take part in the Candlelight Vigil for Baby C, on Sunday, 22 November.

As happened on the occasion of the Rally for Life last July the rain actually stopped for the duration of the vigil – up to 5 o’clock.
The participants lined the two sides (and beyond) beneath the colonnade of the General Post Office in Dublin, holding flickering candles and large colour placards showing, for instance, an unborn child with the message: ‘She’s a child – not a choice’.

It being Sunday afternoon there was a constant flow of people walking past, through the rows of placards and candles. It was quite an impressive sight – nobody could miss it!

Mons. Phillip Reilly in London

The Helpers of God’s Precious Infants have announced that the founder of the organisation, Monsignor Phillip J. Reilly, will be in England on 4 and 5 December next.
On Friday, 4 December, Monsignor Reilly will give a talk on: Reasons for Hope in this Epic Struggle for Life, at 7.30 pm, at St. James Church Hall, Spanish Place,
22 George Street, London W1U 3QY.

On Saturday, 5 December, a Helpers’ Vigil will take place from Ealing Abbey to Mattock Lane. Details are as follows:

9.15 am – Mass at Ealing Abbey (Charlbury Grove, W5 2DY)
9.55 am – Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
10.05 am – Prayerful and peaceful procession to Marie Stopes abortion centre,
Mattock Lane, Ealing
11.45 am – Return procession to Ealing Abbey, with prayers and hymns
12.15 pm – Break for tea and get-together – please bring packed lunch!

Further information on directions and locations is available from:
The Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, P.O. Box 26601, London N14 7WH
Phone: (London) 020 8 252 3109. E-mail: info@hgpi.co.uk. Web: www.hgpi.co.uk

Women's Group opposes CEDAW

The World Union of Catholic Women's Organisations has written to the President of the United Nations to oppose the Convention on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. President Karen Hurley urged the UN to "take concrete actions to protect women and children, innocent victims of violence" but warned:

"CEDAW is being misused as a tool to promote violence [against] women and girls, mothers and babies, in the form of legal access to abortion on demand to put pressure on countries worldwide to legalize and fund abortion, promote contraception, medically assisted reproduction for same sex unions and other immoral acts in defiance of God's natural law."

Response to the Irish Law Reform Commission’s report on Advance Care Directives

The Irish Government in September 2008 published an outline for a mental capacity bill and this was followed earlier this year by the law reform commission report on advance care directives.

An analysis of the Law reform Commission proposals carried out by the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute warns about the dangers of advance care directives as evidenced in other jurisdictions. We include below some of their comments.

Advance care directives are an ethically flawed and potentially dangerous response to the problem of patient fears regarding end of life treatment and care.

• Advance care directives rely on an exaggerated view of patient autonomy, encouraging patients to make life and death decisions outside of a healthcare setting.

• This means that patients are encouraged to make decisions:
o without the benefit of medical advice,
o without assessment of their capacity to make such decisions,
o without protection from the influence or coercion of third parties,
o and without subjective experience of pain and other symptoms that future medical treatment might address.

Advance care directives are therefore in contravention of the principle of informed consent.

The bottom line is that:
• The principles and practice of good medical decision-making in the best interests of the patient are the best response to advance care directives, and to the original problem of patient fears about end-of-life treatment.
• The draft bill should be opposed.
• If it cannot be defeated, the draft bill should be amended in significant ways

The full executive summary and complete report can be viewed on the European Life Network website

Irish Medical Council Ethical guidelines

The Irish Medical Council, which is the regulatory body for doctors in Ireland, has recently published the 7th Edition of its Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics for Registered Medical Practitioners. This Guide covers many areas of medical practice, including ‘Assisted human reproduction’, ‘Abortion’, ‘End of life care’, ‘Conscientious objection’, etc.

The Life Institute (Ireland) says that the new guidelines, referring to the X-case judgment, reflect neither the correct current legal position, nor the views of the majority of Irish doctors, and that a political agenda is being pushed through the Medical Council by political appointees. Deirdre Madden, who was appointed to the Council by Mary Harney (Minister for Health and Children), was instrumental in pushing for embryonic stem cell research in University College Cork recently. Although she is not a medical doctor (she is a law lecturer), she was the Chair of the Ethics Working Group which was responsible for drawing up the new guidelines.

Among other concerns about some of the content of the guidelines, the Life Institute draws attention to the clause stating that: ‘In exceptional circumstances, a patient under 16 might seek to make a healthcare decision on their own without the knowledge or consent of their parents.’ The Life Institute asks if this might refer to the giving of the morning-after pill to young girls without their parents’ consent?

One of the clauses under the ‘End of life care’ states: ‘You must not participate in the deliberate killing of a patient by active means.’ This sounds reassuring, but in the light of recent recommendation issued by the Law Reform Commission here, and the ongoing consultations in relation to the ‘End of Life in Ireland’ forum, it is advisable to stay alert at all times!

Under ‘Assisted human reproduction’ it is stated: ‘If you offer donor programmes to patients, you must consider the biological difficulties involved and pay particular attention to the source of the donated material. Such donations should be altruistic and non-commercial. You should keep accurate records for future reference.’
The ‘donated material’ ? Apart altogether from the wrongfulness of IVF, where is the respect for human dignity – is a child to be regarded as a commodity?

The President of the Medical Council, in his address at the annual dinner of the Council in 2007, said: ‘From my earliest days as a medical student in Cork, through every day of my subsequent training, it was ingrained into me that medicine starts and centres on the doctor-patient relationship. To every medical practitioner amongst us here, it is a basic axiom that the good of our patient is our moral compass. The glue in this relationship is trust. It has underpinned medicine and found expression since the Hippocratic Oath of the fourth century BC. ’

To my knowledge, that is the only reference to the Hippocratic Oath that appears on the Medical Council website.

Voices for Women

I came across this website, which appears to be one of the very few women's sites prepared to call abortionists to account for injuring and killing women. It contains a page dedicated to Dr Hodari, listing the many cases of malpractice of which he and his employees stand accused.

Eduardo Verastegui's story

h/t Love Undefiled

Monaco conference on responsible stem cell research

The second international congress on responsible stem cell research, “Adult somatic stem cells: new perspectives will be held in Monaco next week, November 26-28 under the High Patronage of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco.

The conference, which has been organised by the Pontifical Academy for Life in association with the Bioethical consultative Committee of Monaco, the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations and the Jerome Lejeune Foundation, will be opened by HE Msgr Bernard Barsi Archbishop of Monaco and Msgr Salvatore Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life following a welcome address by HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco.

The conference which will feature a number of international experts will consider the ongoing scientific development of existing and new sources of adult stem cells and their uses in clinical applications.

HSH Prince Albert in a written statement for the event says, “The Principality of Monaco has always paid close attention to scientific progress that contributes to the good of mankind while being ethically responsible. In this, the progress of research into adult stem cells and from the umbilical cord which, are the focus of the international community’s attention, presents a major scientific milestone and is subject of a high level conference to be held in Monaco on November 26th, 2009 in my presence.

This conference, which follows up on the one organised by the Pontifical Academy for Life in Rome in September 2006, will review what has been learned along with the prospects and therapeutic applications of the last three years’ work. We are honoured by the renown of Professor Eliane Gluckman, President of the Scientific Committee for this conference and the eminent researchers who surround her, and I would like to express my gratitude to them. I sincerely thank the initiators and four key organizers of this international conference which brings together scientific rigour in harmony with a respect for ethics.

Please accept all my best wishes and support for the resounding success of this event which the Principality hosts with interest and pride.

Excellent response to VES

Alison Davis, co-ordinator of the disability rights group No Less Human, has an excellent article in Mature Times, responding to VES director Sarah Wootton's case for assisted suicide. She tells her own story about how she made repeated suicide attempts before choosing to live and the implications an assisted dying law would have for people like her who are severely disabled, mentally capable and feel a strong desire to die at some stage of their lives.

Ms Wootton apparently sees only two possible groups of people; those who want to die and those who don't. But life isn't that straightforward in reality, and people not infrequently change their minds. I am not the only vulnerable person who once wanted to die, and is now glad that the law prevented them from being assisted in bringing it about.

"Teach abortion and contraception in an anti-discriminatory way"

James Preece is, not unjustifiably, spitting feathers at the latest British Government attempt to brainwash schoolchildren. The push for more and more explicit sex education in schools has been going on for years but the Government is now very close to making sex education compulsory for 15-year-olds upwards and forcing schools to teach children about abortion and contraception, including alerting them to the presence of referral agencies.

One of the recommendations from the Teenage Pregnancy Advisory Group, accepted by the Government, demands:

State clearly that all schools including faith schools must teach all aspects of SRE within the context of relationships in an anti-discriminatory way; contraception, abortion and homosexuality are all legal in this country and therefore all children and young people should be able to learn the correct facts.

The only point of agreement I have with this statement is that children and young people should be able to learn the correct facts about abortion, not the sickening euphemisms abortion agencies (like the ones so beloved of the British Government) use to hide the truth from them. So if they really mean what they say can we assume that British schools will be teaching children that abortion stops a beating heart and that life begins at conception. Will they be told frankly what the procedure involves and be given detailed, up-to-date information about Post Abortion Trauma....

Groups like TPAG which are unashamedly pro-abortion, pro-contraception etc continually hide behind the lie that they hold a neutral position and are merely interested in disseminating information, but the glaring reality is that it is impossible to talk neutrally about human sexuality. Simply talking about it as though subjects such as contraception and abortion are morally neutral is to adopt an ideological position. I would have rather that the pro-sex ed types in Westminster would at least be honest enough to admit that they are engaging in an ideological battle to win over a generation to their warped way of thinking and that they are deliberately trampling on the rights and duties of parents in order to achieve their ends.

Darwin and Politics

The Bones has an enticing review of a new book The Political Gene, which looks at the influence of Darwinism on politics. Its claims about the resurgence of eugenics are frightening but ring horribly true for anyone who is involved in pro-life campaigning. He quotes one particularly powerful passage in the book:

'When Eric Harris arrived at Columbine High School on the morning of April 20, 1999, he was wearing a “Natural Selection” T-shirt. Before Finnish student Pekka-Eric Auvinen murdered eight people at his high school in November 2007, he wrote that “­stupid, weak-minded people are reproducing…faster than the ­intelligent, strong-minded” ones. “Death and killing is not a ­tragedy,” he went on, “it happens in nature all the time.”

Auvinen’s YouTube handle was “NaturalSelector89” and both boys, says Dennis Sewell, were “amateur social Darwinists”: they used evolutionary theory to justify their atrocities. In this polemical mini-history of the political abuses of Darwinism, Sewell shows how they were part of a miserably long tradition, taking in everything from forced sterilisation to mass murder. It is a disturbing and provocative book.

Sewell admits that Darwin himself was a man inclined to gentleness and modesty, but early enthusiasts for his theory could be a little redder in claw. In Britain, Darwin’s friend Herbert Spencer — who coined the term “survival of the fittest” — argued vociferously against state aid for the indigent. If people “are sufficiently complete to live, they do live”, he wrote; if not, “they die, and it is best they should die”. Or, as Darwin himself observed, “excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed”.

Fabians, socialists and all kinds of nefarious interventionists eagerly signed up to the cause. HG Wells complained that “we cannot make the social life and the world peace we are determined to make, with the ill-bred, ill-trained swarms of inferior citizens”. In America, campaigners paid homeless men to walk around wearing sandwich boards with the legend “I am a ­burden to myself and the state. Should I be allowed to propagate?”'

A Prescription for Elder Abuse

The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation newsletter reports (11 November 2009) that: ‘A bill to legalize assisted suicide in New Hampshire lost key backing yesterday from a legislative committee when both supporters and opponents joined forces to reject it.

‘The House Judiciary Committee voted 14-3 against the bill that would let terminally ill patients over age 18 obtain lethal prescriptions, with safeguards to prevent abuses.

‘Supporters of assisted suicide said the bill was flawed and teamed up with opponents to vote against recommending the measure to the full House. The committee has been working on the bill since September.

‘The House votes on the recommendation in January [2010]. If the chamber accepts the committee recommendation, legislative rules make it nearly impossible for the issue to be brought up again next year.

‘Representative Nancy Elliott, a committee member who opposes assisted suicide, said she was pleased with the panel’s decision. “It’s not the function of government to encourage suicide in the young or the old,” she said. “It’s a prescription for elder abuse.”

Spanish bishop speaks out on abortion

A Spanish bishop, Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, of Madrid, has stated that Spanish Catholic legislators who vote in favour of a current bill to liberalise abortion in Spain would automatically – by so doing – place themselves in an objective state of sin, which would mean that they could not receive Holy Communion. Further, he said, the Code of Canon Law provides for excommunication of those who actively cooperate in the practice of abortion. Not only Catholic politicians, but also all Catholics who support the legalisation of abortion incur excommunication.

On the other hand, however, Bishop Martinez Camino stressed that the Church wants to reach out to women who have had an abortion or who may be persuaded to do so. He said that the Church ‘is not merciless towards those who fall into sin’, and he encourages those women who have had an abortion to seek the Sacrament of Confession – ‘because God wants to offer them a solution and deep peace.’

It is good to see a European bishop speaking out for the Truth. Would that others might follow his example.

‘Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life’, (issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2002), makes for very interesting reading in this regard.

Vigil for Baby C

Please come and take part in a Candlelight Commemoration for ‘Baby C’, on Sunday 22 November, at the GPO (General Post Office) in Dublin’s O’Connell Street. The commemoration will start at 3.30 pm.

Readers will remember how, in November 1997, the Eastern Health Board (now the Health Service Executive) sought an Order from the Courts to bring a young girl who had been raped to the UK, in order to have her 14-week-old unborn baby killed. It was decided to appeal the decision in the High Court. On 28 November 1997, the High Court Judge refused to allow the appeal, and the mother and her unborn baby were to be brought to the UK by the Eastern Health Board for an abortion. The parents of the young girl were not allowed to see or speak to their daughter without EHB supervision. Despite the apparent success of an application of Habeas Corpus on behalf of the unborn child, made to the High Court on 3 December 1997 (the EHB having been informed, on 2 December, that the Habeas Corpus application would be made on the following morning), the Eastern Health Board announced at lunchtime on 3 December that they had already brought the young mother to the UK. In the early days of December 1997 the unborn baby was killed, and her young mother was deeply traumatised. Years later, she said that at the time when she was brought to the UK by the Eastern Health Board staff she didn’t know what an abortion was, and that she still mourns the death of her baby.

My blog of 16 June 2009 gives an account of the young mother’s distress today – twelve years after the Eastern Health Board was responsible for the killing of her unborn baby.

Angel in the Waters

I was recommended this children's book recently, published by the Sophia Institute Press. Angel in the Waters is the perfect introduction to the life of the unborn child, describing the journey from conception to birth and beyond from the perspective of an unborn child, who is accompanied on the journey by an angel.

Not at all graphic, preachy or sentimental, it would make a good present for a young child who is awaiting the arrival of a brother or sister.

Stop making excuses, Mr Kennedy

Thanks to The Hermeneutic of Continuity for this post, quoting a letter from Bishop Tobin to Congressman Kennedy, pointing out candidly that supporting abortion is "unacceptable" and "scandalous" and that it DOES diminish his communion with the Church.

As a Catholic I am sick and tired of listening to the whining voices of supposedly Catholic politicians, who cave in on issues like abortion for the sake of votes, then bleat that they're good Catholics too, they seem to seek out liberal churchmen in order to bolster their views and attack orthodox members of the hierarchy who have the temerity to proclaim the Truth.

Amazing interview

h/t Fr Boyle

Civil Partherships

In a recent news item, Gloria TV makes reference to Pope Benedict’s admonition in regard to proposals for the legalisation of homosexual and lesbian unions and the equating of such unions in law to marriage – giving them the same rights and benefits, etc. The Pope said that clear and emphatic opposition to such proposals is the duty of all people.

In my blog of 24 October 2009 I drew readers’ attention to the proposals contained in the ‘Civil Partnership Bill’ which is soon to be debated in the Dail (the Irish Parliament). I make no apology in emphasising once again for Irish readers the importance of contacting all your local TDs (in writing or by email, etc.) pointing out, politely, how this Bill would undermine marriage, family and society in Ireland, and your objection to its being presented in the Dáil.

All TD’s (Members of Parliament ) in Dail Eireann (The Irish Parliament) be contacted and you can find out who your local TD's are via this link:

http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=0&HouseNum=30&disp=const

The contact details for the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern are as
follows: Constituency Office: Dermot Ahern TD, 28 Francis Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth (042-9329023) Dáil Office: Dermot Ahern TD, Dáil Éireann, Leinster House,Kildare Street,Dublin 2 (01 618 3000) dermot@dermotahern.ie

"Am I killing? Yes, I am. I know that."

So said a late-term abortionist during a recent video interview. Dr Curtis Boyd is not just an abortionist, though, he is also a Baptist minister who claims to pray during abortions that "the spirit of this pregnancy be returned to God with love and understanding" and genuinely seems to believe that this absolves him from any responsibility.


I wonder - would a serial killer who prayed that the person's soul would be 'returned to God with love and understanding' every time he murdered someone, be warmly accepted in Dr Boyd's congregation?

Saragossa conference declares abortion to be 'Mega Genocide'

The World Congress of pro-life movements which met in saragossa in Spain last week has issued a declaration proclaiming that the estimated 800,000,000 deaths resulting from abortion consists not just of genocide but of mega genocide. The full text of the declaration is set out in below. This is a preliminary translation by the conference organisers and needs some attention which I feel sure will be attended to in due course


Declaration of Saragossa

The representatives of national and international organizations, advocates of life, the family and the dignity of the human person, coming from different parts of the world, assembled in Saragossa from November 6 until November 8, 2009, in the IV Prolife World Congress, in continuity with those held in Madrid (2003), Lima (2005) and Mexico (2007), we address to:

All governments, legislators, judges, doctors and midwifes; political and religious leaders; intellectuals, educators and social communicators; Organizations of the Civil Society; parents and families; and to all persons of good will, as caretakers of the promotion of the Human rights.

CONVINCED THAT:

1. It is verified by science that human life begins with the fertilization of the oocyte. In this first human cell (zygote), one finds not only the whole genetic program of the development of the new human being, but also the aptitude to develop and progress by itself, like it is shown experimentally in extracorporeal fertilization.

2. It is said that the worst thing that might happen to a mother is the death of her child. It is worst to accept the voluntarily killing of her baby. Even if some may deny this at the moment the abortion is performed, to decide the death one’s own baby provokes a feeling of fault that it is impossible to erase.

3. Six million "legal" deaths in the Nazi concentration camps, constitute the international crime of genocide. It has been seen as the most flagrant violation of human rights recorded in history.

4. Nevertheless, the more than eight hundred million deaths, provoked, up to the moment, by means of "legal" abortions, in the countries of the world that have authorized it, constitute a crime against humanity that, for its number and extension, we propose is named from now as mega-genocide.

5. In addition to being "legalized" in many States, the mega-genocide is encouraged - sometimes in a direct way and sometimes using euphemisms-, by the United Nations Organization (UNO) and its agencies; the multilateral organisms of credit; certain international organisms, as the International Federation of Family Planning (IPPF), IPAS, the Rockefeller, Ford, Bill and Melinda Gates, Soros and other Foundations, the current president of the United States of America and the bureaucracy of the European Union; between other groups of global power.

6. On the other hand, diverse contraceptives capable of killing human beings in his first days of life – for example, preventing them from nesting in the maternal womb-, like intrauterine devices, the after morning pill, contraceptive pills of systemic use, injectable or subdermal implants, operate "invisibly" and increase the number of victims of the mega-genocide. Also, in the latter years, abortion is promoted, by the use of the drug misoprostol, especially in the countries where abortion is illegal, all this with the connivance of the health authorities. Finally, diverse practices of artificial fertilization, where according to the most trustworthy statistics, only 4 % of the embryos are born, provoke a number of hardly determinable number of victims.

7. A society that tolerates with indifference the mega-genocide of abortion – be it surgical or chemical, looses the most elementary sign of humanity, and sooner or later it will be inclined to damage in a violent way some other human rights of its citizens.

TO ALL WE DEMAND THAT THEY SHOULD PUT UNDER AN OBLIGATION TO:

1. Always promote rational solutions, respectful of life, for human needs, such as:
• To propitiate qualified access and attention in pregnancy, childbearing, after birth and the newborn baby.
• To articulate with civil society institutions that attend to the pregnant women in situation of conflict, to help to overcome her difficulties and problems and, in this way, to ensure the pleasure of maternity.
• To promote and to finance programs that encourage chastity before marriage, and fidelity inside it.
• To execute programs to strengthen the family based in heterosexual marriage, and the education of youth in the virtues, and in the authentic meaning of femininity and masculinity.
• Pregnancy is not an illness; therefore birth control, should never be understood as a sanitary policy.

2. To enforce the respect of life, from the conception / fertilization , up to natural death. To recognize the juridical personality of any human being, from the initial moment of his existence; and always to act consequently.

3. To penalize abortion, euthanasia, eugenic practices and the manipulation of human life.

4. In the assumptions in which abortion is not punishable in some countries and while this legislation is not reformed, it can never be considered to be a “ right “ of anybody, nor to be included within the sanitary system. No doctor or personnel of health can be forced, under any circumstances, to killing a human being. In any case, the practice of an abortion – although it may not be punishable-, will always imply a break form the most elementary bases of professional ethics.

5. To remove the juridical recognition of any entity who – direct or indirectly-, promotes the mega-genocide.

WE COMMIT OURSELVES:

1. To promote all the organizations of civil society, whose purpose is:
▪ To extend the awareness and attention to the post-abortion syndrome.
▪ To create centres for helping women.
▪ To promote centres for family formation and orientation.
▪ The diffusion of the education of natural methods of recognition of human fertility.
▪ The diffusion of a humanist approach of sexuality, based on an education in virtues and for love.
▪ To promote adoption as worthy option for mothers in situation of unexpected pregnancy and for newborn children with absent parents.

2. To watch in a permanent way the grade of observance of the right to life. To denounce publicly to whom violates this fundamental right, especially if they are civil or political servants in electoral campaign.

3. To articulate activities with the “ World Action of Parliamentarians for the Life and Family ”, constituted in Santiago of Chile, gathering the Declaration of Lima of our II Prolife World Congress.

4. To promote the cancellation of the capital punishment for abortion, in the ambience of the UNO and the regional organisms. To promote an International Convention to foresee the protection of the life of every human being, from the moment of conception up to natural death.

5. To create and to promote political parties that foster human life from his beginning to the natural end.

6. To revoke democratically those civil servants, who take part in a direct or indirect way in the mega-genocide of abortion, eugenics or euthanasia; and to make them answer in court for such acts.

7. To ask compensation for the women victims of the mega-genocide of abortion, so that they obtain a just indemnity for her damages, against the State and other organizations and persons guilty of his sufferings.

The participants of this Congress, who adhere to this Declaration, come from the following Nations:
Argentina,
Austria,
Canada,
Czech Republic,
Chile,
Colombia,
Costa Rica,
Croatia,
Cuba,
Denmark,
Ecuador,
El Salvador,
France,
Germany,
Great Britain,
Holland,
India,
Iran,
Ireland,
Italy,
México,
Nicaragua,
Norway,
Peru,
Poland,
Slovakia,
South Africa,
Spain,
Sweden,
USA,
and Venezuela.

Saragossa, November 8, 2.009.

A Billion Dollar Business

The current global economic downturn does not appear to have affected PPFA Planned Parenthood of America (which is part of IPPF the largest abortion provider in the world).

The November 1, 2009 issue of The Non Profit Times ranked the top 100 non-profits (Charities) as per their 2008 income. PPFA is Number 16 out of almost 1.2 million non profits with an income of over 1 Billion dollars in 2008 ($1,023,300,000) – This is perhaps the first year it crossed the billion dollar threshold.

So where did all their money come from? There are four basic sources of income:

Program services amounted to $374,700,000 or 36.6%, Government support amounted to $349,600,000 or 34.2%, Public support amounted to $241,200,000 or 23.6%, Investment income amounted to $37, 800,000, 3.7% and other $20,000,000, 1.9%

The program services refer to the revenue received for whatever “services” such as abortion, the organization may have provided to its clients. It is particularly worth noting – given the current debate over abortion coverage in Congress’s health care proposals – that PPFA received $350 million from the US government in 2008 alone! Nearly one-fourth of revenues came from contributions from individuals and corporations. Also noteworthy is the nearly $38 million earned on investments in a year when the funds of most charities, pensions, individuals, and others scored significant losses.

So how was the money spent and how much? For 2008, PPFA spent a total of $949,300,00, as follows:

Program services $787,800,000, 83.0%, Administration $115,400,000, 12.1% Fundraising$46,100,000, 4.9%

Despite this expenditure however, as of 2008 PPFA had total assets of over $1.2 billion dollars.


My thanks to Vincenzina Santoro Chief United Nations Representative – American Family Association of New York, for her article on Planned Parenthood of America PPFA. I both quote and extrapolate from that article and have also looked at the PPFA financial statements for 2008.

Fiasco at 'Human Rights' meeting

We reported last week in advance of a pro-abortion meeting at University College Galway. We now have a report from Liam Gibson who attended the meeting on behalf of the society for the protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)

Liam Reports;

Roughly 100 people turned-up, mostly of student age as you would expect but there were members of staff and graduates as well. Each of the he speakers made their presentation without interruption and received polite applause. Once the floor was opened for questions, however, it was clear that a substantial section (if not most) of those attending the meeting were pro-life. One after another, members of the audience denounced the speakers and also the human rights centre for organising such a biased event whilst pretending to be neutral. The chairman allowed people a bit of time to complain but since they weren't asking questions he moved on to the next person only to hear another pro-life argument. Out of about 10 members of the audience to speak only two were not solidly pro-life. One was actually one of the organisers and another person asked a largely irrelevant question which appeared to little to do with abortion or human rights.

When the chairman called an end to the questions, Prof Eamon O'Dwyer who had tried to speak, interrupted him. At first the chairman refused to allow him to say anything and became clearly irritable when Prof O'Dwyer persisted. Once given the opportunity Prof O'Dwer began by explaining that he had been member of NUI for 33 years and had been part of the university’s governing body. He said that such a 'charade' would not have taken place during his time. He spoke about the 1983 referendum which acknowledged the right to life of children before birth, of Ireland's maternal mortality record (recognised by the World Health Organisation as the best in the world) and spoke of his experience working as a doctor in Africa.

The speakers were not impressive, and showed little command of the material. They made points which would have easily been refuted had the event been organised as a debate. Even Christina Zampas, was not impressive despite the reputation of the CRR. The Irish speakers were disorganised and their presentations were little more than a long rambling complaint about how little progress they were able to make.

Only the African speaker would have made any impression on a general audience. She had previously worked for IPPF and recited the same old slogans and highly speculative figures about deaths due to self-induced
abortions. Since she believed she was speaking to a friendly audience
she spoke candidly about using WHO guidelines, the Maputo protocols
and the Millennium Development Goal number 5 (on maternal mortality)
to widen the scope of abortion in Africa. Predictably she referred to
illegal abortions as "unsafe," implying that legalising abortion makes
it safe. One member of the audience pointed out that the two things
where not the same, adding the abortion is never safe for the baby.

I was able to ask the speaker from the north why after years of trying they had failed to make any progress and had lost the battle for public support. I think the IFPA were probably asking the same question after the meeting. They were clearly frustrated by the lack of support they found at their own event.

A fuller report can be viewed on John Smeaton's Blog

How to lower maternal mortality rates

A paper published in The Lancet has confirmed what pro-lifers have been saying for years - maternal mortality rates can be significantly reduced through entirely ethical means. Experts have pointed out that providing cheap drugs to prevent haemorrhage and infection would cut deaths in childbirth by at least a third in developing countries, since blood loss and sepsis remain the leading causes of maternal death.

I spoke on this subject at the UN last year and noticed that it was discussed in a talk on feminism by a colleague at National Conference in September. Hopefully, studies like this will encourage aid agencies to put all their resources into the provision of vital medical care rather than allowing themselves to be hampered by the abortion lobby's twisted ideology.

Abortion against the mother's will

This is the second case I have come across recently of a woman being poisoned by a man trying to abort her baby without her consent. Fortunately, in spite of having her food spiked with RU-486, both the mother and the baby survived, though the baby was premature and low birth weight.

Cases where a man actively poisons a woman to try to cause an abortion are mercifully rare, but stories like this raise a much broader question about the number of women who are pushed into abortions by husbands and boyfriends who bully or emotionally blackmail them into accepting a decision. The Abortion Changes You website contains hundreds of stories written by women who have had abortions and so many of them speak of boyfriends demanding that they go through with an abortion or threatening to walk out if they refuse. The quotations are endless:

"he told me that I had to choose whose life meant more, his or the baby’s."
"His first reaction was, 'Get rid of it'."
"He said he wasn't ready to be a father."
"The boyfriend had other ideas and wanted me 'to get rid of it.'"

I wonder if it ever occurs to women who support abortion in the name of women's rights, that the people who benefit most from abortion are selfish men who won't take responsibility for their own actions?

The Irish Centre for Human Rights

The Irish Centre for Human Rights at University College Galway, in association with the Irish Family Planning Association (which is an associate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation), is hosting a conference on Thursday, 5 November. The subject of the conference is ‘Global and Local Perspectives on Abortion’, but it excludes the majority local pro-life perspective and only features pro-abortion speakers.

Dr. Séan Ó Domhnaill, director of the Life Institute, has written to the conference organisers requesting that a pro-life speaker be included in the list of those who will be addressing the gathering. ‘Perhaps you could, even at this late stage, show your openness to a real commitment to human rights by including a speaker who believes that all human life should be afforded protection’, he asked.

Dr. Ó Domhnaill has also queried whether the Centre, or the conference, is receiving tax-payer funding.

Benedict XVI and the family

Although well over a year has passed since Pope Benedict declared the following in his Message for the World Day of Peace in 2008, his words are well worth repeating:

The family, since it has the duty of educating its members, is the subject of specific rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which represents a landmark of juridic civilization of truly universal value, states that “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State”. … The denial or even the restriction of the rights of the family, by obscuring the truth about man, threatens the very foundations of peace. Consequently, whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community, national and international, since he weakens what is in effect the primary agency of peace. This point merits special reflection: everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of a new life, everything that obstructs its right to be primarily responsible for the education of its children, constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace.

Unborn babies and anti-ageing creams

Did you ever wonder how all those ‘anti-ageing’ creams can really ‘plump up’ your skin? (Do the lines – if, indeed, there are any – on your skin appear again once you stop using these magical creams?) For many years there have been questions about the origin and ingredients of anti-ageing creams, and how it is that they can actually reduce the presence of lines and wrinkles. We are constantly being prevailed upon to buy and use these creams - ‘because you’re worth it!’ But are we worth it?

Well, we now have some information that would hopefully dissuade people from buying the creams that make such claims. Children of God for Life have recently announced that a bio-pharmaceutical company called Neocutis is using aborted foetal cell lines to produce several of their ‘anti-aging’ skin creams. Some of the products manufactured by Neocutis are: Bio-Gel, Journee, Bio-Serum, Bio Restorative Skin Cream, and Lumiere.

A promise of free publicity has been made by Children of God for Life to cosmetic companies that do not use unethical ingredients in their products.

1000 Crosses for Life

An ecumenical prayer procession: '1000 Crosses for Life', will take place in London on Saturday, 14 November. Starting at Westminster Cathedral at 1.30pm, the march will include a mourning ceremony a Westminster Bridge, to commemorate the more than 500 unborn babies aborted each day in England, Scotland and Wales. The event will end at Westminster Abbey at about 4pm.

'1000 Crosses for Life' is an European, ecumenical initiative of 'European Voice of the Unborn Children: Protect Our Life' and partners, with 'Human Life International UK', Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) and Helpers of God's Precious Infants UK'

For more information contact: Joe Clovis (0208) 690 8314, Email: europrolifeuk@gmail.com