Abortion, legal or illegal, apart from killing babies, cannot be considered safe for women

The killing of unborn babies has been sanitized by the abortion industry and its supporters by telling us that it is a legitimate 'Choice' and that if it not legalized women will die, They claim that legalizing abortion makes it safe but nothing could be further from the truth.

Legalized abortion is widely touted by them as being beneficial to women, but a wealth of medical and psychological evidence suggests otherwise.

Women face numerous risks with abortion, legal or illegal, and those risks are substantially greater in the developing world, yet some in the international community for ideological reasons have focused their resources primarily on legalizing abortion at the expense of women’s lives and health.

The claim is, that making abortion legal makes it safe, but medical research shows this to be false, the evidence is overwhelming, abortion is dangerous for women. It is by its very nature a violent and damaging procedure. Documented complications include hemorrhage, infection, cervical damage, uterine perforation, pelvic disease and retained fetal or placental tissue.

Large record-based studies from Finland[1], Denmark[2] and the United States[3] found that maternal mortality rates were significantly higher after abortion compared to childbirth. Long-term risks of abortion, including subsequent preterm birth, infertility, cancer, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and placenta previa, can substantially impede future reproductive success.

Abortion is also associated with increased risk of negative psycho-social consequences. For example, a 2011 meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Psychiatry[4] found an 81 percent increased risk of mental health problems. Anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug use and suicidal behaviors have been found to increase following abortion, along with damage to key relationships.

In the developing world, these dangers increase where basic maternal health care is unavailable. The incidence of maternal mortality is mainly determined by the quality of maternal health care. Legalization does not improve outcomes, but only increases the number of women subjected to the risks of abortion.

Abortion needlessly puts women at serious risk, both physically and psychologically and rather than legalize or promote it, governments should protect the equal dignity and basic rights of all human beings, including women and their unborn children.

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[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9292639

[2] http://www.medscimonit.com/abstract/index/idArt/883338

[3] http://aborto.cc/documentos/DeathsAssociatedWithAbortion.pdf

[4] http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/199/3/180.full

WHO report shows substantial reduction in Maternal Mortality Rates

According to a  new report “Maternal Mortality 1990-2015”, issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in conjunction with UNICEF, UNFPA,  the World Bank Group and the United Nations Population Division, maternal deaths dropped sharply in past 25 years.
WHO estimates that the global maternal mortality ratio (MMR–maternal deaths per 100,000 live births) dropped 43% between 1990 and 2015, from an estimated level of about 532,000 in 1990 to a new lower and also estimated level of 303,000 in 2015. This shows an MMR reduction of 169, from a level 385 in 1990 to 216 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
The report acknowledges that accurate measurement of maternal mortality levels is still a significant challenge.

COMMENT
The drop in the MMR estimates is most likely attributable to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). MDG. 5A sought to reduce maternal mortality by 75% between 1990 and 2015. It is evident from the report that this target was not met, in that only nine countries managed to reduce their MMR level to the 75% target, although the report makes it clear that significant progress was made towards achieving it.

Despite this progress however the latest MMR estimate contained in the 2015 report is 303,000. The majority of these (99%) occurred in developing regions, 66% of which occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

The MDG 15 year programme was replaced in September 2015 by a new programme known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and the post 2015 agenda which now aims to reduce the global MMR to 70 by 2030. This is certainly possible but only if the focus is placed on the measures that actually save lives.

Most maternal deaths can be prevented with adequate nutrition, basic health care, and good obstetric care throughout pregnancy, at delivery and postpartum.
The decline in maternal mortality rates in the developed world coincided “with the development of obstetric techniques and improvement in the general health status of women” (from 1935 to the 1950s), according to the World Health Organization (WHO)[i]  This took place well before the widespread legalization of abortion.

To reduce maternal mortality, we must strive to give women in the developing world access to the same standard of care that has been available to women in the developed world for decades—care that results in a healthy outcome for both mother and baby.

It is also clear from the new report that pro-abortion demands that abortion should be legalized in order to reduce maternal mortality are absurd. Contrary to the claims of organizations advocating so called safe legal abortion, no direct relationship exists between the legal status of abortion and maternal mortality rates. Indeed, abortion can be legal but unsafe for women. It is of course always unsafe for the unfortunate baby. Ireland, Poland, Malta, Chile, Kuwait, Libya, and the United Arab Emirates ban most or all abortions and have very low MMR's.

The main outstanding issue in respect of the SDG’s and the post 2015 agenda is the agreement of indicators which will be used as bench marks for the implementation of the SDG’s. A preliminary report on the indicators was issued by the sustainable development solutions network in June 2015 and some model indicators have recently been proposed. Careful monitoring of this process is essential as there are already significant problems with the report and the model indicators but in addition there have been a number of submissions by pro-abortion agencies and NGO’s in an attempt to further radicalise the indicators.

[i] World Health Organization, Maternal Mortality: A Global Factbook (Geneva: World Health Organization, 1991). 


Ireland's maternity hospitals dangerously understaffed

One of the results of the collapse in Ireland’s economy in 2008 has been a drastic reduction in hospital patient care due to a moratorium on recruitment and nowhere is it more evident that in maternity hospitals. Unless immediate steps are taken to rectify the situation Ireland's proud record of having one of the lowest levels of maternal mortality in the world will come to a tragic end.

According to a survey carried out by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation INMO mothers and babies are being put at risk in Ireland’s maternity units which are at breaking point as they struggle with a severe lack of midwives.

Worryingly the survey found that no maternity unit has the recommended safe ratio of midwives to births – and Portlaoise hospital, where four babies died over a six year period, is the worst hit.

According to an article in the Irish Independent on March 7^th;

The moratorium on recruitment has led to a shortage of 621 midwives across the country, despite a predicted birth rate of nearly 69,000 this year.

The figures emerged in a survey by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), which described the shortage in several of the 19 hospitals as "critical".

The survey measured staffing levels against the internationally recommended ratio of one midwife to 29.5 births.

INMO president Claire Mahon warned: "It is quite clear that cuts in midwifery staffing has a direct consequence upon the standard of midwifery care available to mothers and babies."

It found the ratio in Irish hospitals varied from 1:39 in Holles St in Dublin to 1:55 in Portlaoise, which needs an additional 33 midwives. The overall national ratio is one midwife to 40 births.

Other units which are under strain include University Hospital Galway, where Savita Halappanavar died in 2012. It has a ratio of 1:41 births and needs another 32 midwives.

The maternity unit in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, which has been at the centre of major controversy in the last decade, has a ratio of 1:37 births.

"This level of understaffing is very disturbing in view of previous serious incidents which were the subject of external investigation along with pledges to implement a range of recommendations," said the report.

The ratio in Limerick Regional Hospital is 1:32 births and it is even higher in Cork University Hospital at 1:37. The Rotunda in Dublin has 188 midwives, but the ratio to births is 1:48. The report pointed out that the Coombe Maternity Hospital in Dublin, which has supplied staff to Portlaoise in the last week after the Midlands unit was deemed unsafe, is itself coping with a ratio of 1:40.

It points out that in Northern Ireland, where there were 25,269 births in 2012, there are 1,040 midwives, with a ratio of 1:24.

Back to the Basics: The Main Message on Life and Family at the United Nations

New York, Thursday, September 19^th: Alliance Defending Freedom and Incluyendo Mexico joined forces, at the United Nations to highlight alternative approaches to achieve key Millennium Development Goals. The main message, presented by the speakers, Alan Sears President, CEO, and General Counsel of Alliance defending Freedom, Dr. Elard Koch from Chile, Mark Regnerus of the Austin Institute and Guatemala’s First Lady Rosa Leal de Perez, was: Let’s get back to basics to improve education, maternal health, infant mortality, and poverty rates.

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that each person has inherent dignity and possesses fundamental universal rights,” said Alliance Defending Freedom President, CEO, and General Counsel Alan Sears. “If we remember and live by this, then the United Nations can truly live out its mission and achieve its Millennium Development Goals of peace and unity among nations.”

The event titled, “Life and Family: A Real Approach to the Millennium Development Goals” focused on four of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. They can be attained if basic human rights—on which the United Nations was founded—are protected. In sum, strengthening family bonds and respecting life can positively affect these four goals: education, maternal health, infant mortality, and poverty rates.

First Lady of Guatemala, Rosa Leal de Perez, gave the opening remarks and emphasized Guatemala’s commitment to support strengthening the family and protecting sanctity of life.

Director of the MELISA Institute, Dr. Elard Koch, provided solid scientific evidence based on several studies in Chile and Mexico that prove the correlation between higher education and improved maternal health. He also dispelled the erroneous assertion that infant mortality rate drops when abortion is legalized. In fact, throughout different countries, abortion increases up to 10 percent when abortion is legal.

Similarly, Professor of the Austin Institute, Mark Regnerus, discussed the importance of focusing on the family to improve education levels. “We tend to underestimate how much people benefit educationally, economically, and socially from living in stable families,” he concluded.

“Our call to action today is to move toward a brighter future and achieve the MDGs by ‘getting back to the basics,” added Sears. “As we do, we will rediscover and mirror the founding purposes of the United Nations and the enactment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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For more information, including media resources and full playback of the event, please visit: http://www.AllianceDefendingFreedom.org/MDGs

For media requests, please contact: Sylvia Franco Garcia, 

Sylvia@inclusionstrategygroup.com and 305-915-4945.

Pro-life doctors banned from presenting at medical women’s conference in South Korea

Three pro life doctors from the US who were invited to speak at the Medical Women's International Association (MWIA) conference in Seoul, on August 1^st, on the complications of abortion, found on arrival that despite having had advance approval the international leadership cancelled the session because they did not want the pro-life message to be shared at the conference.

Here is the first-hand account of the incivility and bullying endured by  the three AAPLOG women doctors at the hands of MWIA officials in Seoul, Korea. 

The presentations, which were described by MWIA as “unscientific” and “political”, can be accessed at http://www.aaplog.org/news/banned-at-mwia/

The following account appears on the AAPLOG website was written by the 3 women doctors involved: 

Dear friends,

Three women physicians, Donna Harrison, Mary Davenport and Martha Shuping, were invited months ago to give lectures on complications of abortion for the MWIA, the Medical Women’s International Association. Donna Harrison’s presentation demonstrated that nations with laws protective of mothers and unborn babies have excellent maternal mortality statistics. Mary Davenport had a talk about abortion as a risk factor for preterm birth, a cause of some of the 15 million preterm births internationally each year. Preterm birth is the biggest cause of neonatal death. Martha Shuping had a presentation that included two case reports of women who suffered severe psychological harm from abortion, even though they had obvious risk factors that were not discussed in the informed consent process. These risk factors were actually quoted from an abortion provider textbook endorsed by the National Abortion Federation! This was valuable information for physicians to hear, especially those from developing nations who are under tremendous pressure to legalize abortion due to the false belief that legalized abortion is a panacea for maternal mortality.

However, our presentations were cancelled at the last minute. This was not a total shock to us, because many physicians and scientists have long been hampered in attempts to inform the scientific community and patient about risks of abortion. Very important information has been suppressed and even lied about. With the cancellation of our talks, our host Anna Choi, head of group of 680 Korean obgyn physicians who stopped doing abortions, had decided to set up a radio and newspaper interview for us during the time that we were supposed to present.

When we got to the “radio” interview that Anna had set up, it was actually a television interview, and the newspaper reporter was there also.

They put the three of us up front like a “panel” discussion, and the reporters started asking us questions about our presentation, allowing us an opportunity to talk about what we came to present. About 20 minutes into the interview, the Secretary General of MIWA, a Canadian woman, burst into the room (I kid you not. …and all of this is on camera), and came up to the table and said “What presentation is this? Donna Harrison said “it’s not a presentation”. So she snarled “Why are you being interviewed? At that point, the answers were left to Anna, our host. Anna said that this was a requested interview by the press.

The SecGen then said “Who gave you permission to interview these people?” And the reporters said “We are the press, we don’t need anyone’s permission. We have freedom of the press” And the Sec Gen snarled at Anna and said “Did you arrange this? Did you talk to the organizing committee?” And Anna said “I am on the organizing committee. I don’t need to talk to anyone.” And the Sec Gen stood in front of the camera, and refused to move, and said “The interview is over.” Then the reporters said “You can’t do this. We have the freedom of the press. You are interfering with the freedom of the press.” But the Sec Gen would not move and said “The interview is over.”

We exited to the hall, and a Belgian and German woman were waiting. They started to make fun of the Korean translator, and to snap pictures in her face. And she said “You can’t do this. This is my country. I will call the police.” And they actually grabbed at her, and then one of the Korean reporters put a huge camera in the Belgian woman’s face and started taking photos of her. A fist fight almost ensured between the women, but another of the Koreans stepped in and kept any contact from happening.. And all of this was on camera. And then our Korean hosts ushered us down the hall, and down the elevator, along with the reporters and camera crew, and we resumed the interview in the commons area downstairs by the trash cans and the bathroom. We were able to complete the entire interview, and instead of our audience being a few women doctors from the conference, we now have an audience of probably a few thousand.

It was an incredible display of arrogance on the part of the Canadian, US and European physicians at the MWIA., who initiated preventing us from speaking It will be interesting to see what press picks this up. I just wish it would go viral, it’s such a glaring example of exactly what we were saying about suppression of information.

Reported death of woman, following 2012 London abortion, introduced in final week of Ireland's abortion debate

The pro-abortion forces and the liberal media in Ireland know something about timing and use it to deadly effect. We saw for example the barefaced exploitation of the Savita Halappanavar case which was used very effectively to begin the process of the introduction of abortion in Ireland and now we see what seems to be the ‘coup de grace', timed to coincide with the final debates in the Senate before it is voted into law. The Media are reporting on the sad case of a woman, a foreign national living in Dublin, who died from ‘extensive internal blood loss’ following an abortion in a Marie Stopes clinic in London in January 2012.

Whilst the reports are carefully worded the obvious conclusion that abortion is dangerous for women as well as being deadly for babies is not even considered and neither is the question of why this report was not presented in January 2012 but saved for the week in which the final vote is to be taken in the Senate. 

Judging by the headline of the article in which a non-national living and studying in Ireland is morphed into 'A woman FROM Ireland' one can be forgiven for cynically concluding that this story is already in the process of becoming yet another 'cause celebre' for the pro-choice movement.

The carefully crafted story rather than focusing on the real issues implies that the problem arose from the fact that the woman could not obtain an abortion in Ireland.

Interestingly an article by John Waters appears this week in the Irish Catholic Newspaper in which he says of Ireland's pro-abortion media;

For one thing, the ‘debates’ are almost invariably hosted by ‘liberal’ journalists, and, for another, the skewed dynamics of the ‘debates’ ensure that these are really dramas in which traditionalist forces are pitted against liberals in a manner that ensures only the liberal argument can win.

The Independent reports as follows (see this link)

THE woman who travelled to the UK from Dublin for an abortion died from a heart attack caused by “extensive internal blood loss” hours after having the procedure.

Police in the UK are investigating the death of the mum-of-one who travelled from Dublin to London for an abortion.

Today, the Irish Independent can reveal that a post-mortem conducted on the woman concluded that she died from a heart attack, caused by extensive internal blood loss.

The London Metropolitan Police confirmed today that they were investigating the woman’s death, which occurred in Slough, on January 21, 2012, and a file will be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The 32-year-old married woman was understood to be a foreign national living in Dublin.

A spokesperson for the London Metropolitan Police confirmed that detectives from Homicide and Serious Crime Command are investigating the circumstances surrounding her “unexplained” death which occurred around midnight on Saturday, 21st, 2012, in Slough.

Medical personnel were called but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

“Next of kin are aware and an inquest is scheduled to open in due course,” a spokesperson said.

“A post mortem which took place on 23 January at Wexham Hospital concluded that the cause of death was a heart attack caused by extensive internal blood loss.

“We continue to investigate the death and are liaising with the Crown Prosecution Service currently,” the spokesperson added.

A report in today’s Irish Times said the woman sought an abortion at a maternity hospital in Dublin.

However, the mother-of-one was told that it was not possible to obtain one in this jurisdiction.

It is understood she had a condition which raised the chances of a miscarriage – however, it was not believed to be a life-threatening condition.

The woman travelled to a Marie Stopes clinic in London.

However, she died in a taxi just hours after the procedure.

Speaking anonymously, the woman’s husband said she had a child in Ireland in 2010 but the pregnancy was a painful experience. It was also complicated by fibroids. Treatment for such a condition could have caused infertility, the man.

The man said they worried what would happen if she fell pregnant again.

He said his wife was approximately 20 weeks pregnant when she travelled to London for an abortion.

He told the newspaper she would have underwent the procedure sooner, but they spent some time exploring all their options.

It also took some time for the couple, who were on student visas at the time, to save the sum required for such a procedure.

Thousands of Irish women travel each year to England and Wales for an abortion.

Latest figures show that almost 4,000 women travelled to the UK last year for an abortion.

This is also reported in the Irish Times under the following heading

UK inquiry as woman from Ireland dies after abortion

London Metropolitan Police are investigating circumstances surrounding death of 32-year-old.

Skilled Attendance at Birth and Maternal Mortality – what the data show

My Colleague Vincenzina Santoro who is  Chief United Nations Representative for the American Family Association of New York who has researched the most recently published figures on the issue of maternal mortality writes as follows:

While maternal mortality is rare in developed countries, in poorer parts of the world many women sadly die in childbirth. When the United Nations established the eight Millennium Development Goals in 2000, one goal (MDG 5) called for the reduction by three-quarters of maternal deaths globally between 1990 and 2015 – the year all MDGs are supposed to be achieved. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used the phrase “no woman should have to pay with her life in giving life”[1] to bring home the point.

Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel emphasize that many, if not most, maternal deaths occur because there are no trained medical personnel available before, during or after childbirth.

UN Women, the new gender entity, recently published data for skilled assistance at delivery and maternal mortality ratios to indicate where – and where not – progress has been made. Data correlate significantly between the two, as shown in the tables that follow.[2]

According to this source, “Skilled assistance at delivery refers to live births attended by trained health personnel such as a doctor, nurse/midwife or community health worker.” Maternal mortality is measured as ratio of deaths per 100,000 live births (MMR). The latter data compare 1990 with 2008 but, given the difficulty in data gathering, the percentage of births receiving skilled assistance is shown as an average for 2000-2008. This makes it impossible to see if there has been an increase over time for the latter.

As shown in the table below, globally the MMR declined by one-third between 1990 and 2008 from 397 to 264 deaths, while skilled assistance was available for two-thirds of births. Not surprisingly, the MMR was generally higher where skilled assistance at delivery was lowest and vice versa. Regional data show a drop in the MMR everywhere except in the developed countries where the very low MMR has risen slightly.

In Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where skilled assistance is below 50%, the MMR remained in triple digits. Only Sub-Saharan Africa, where skilled assistance at delivery ranged from 6% in Ethiopia to 91% in South Africa, registered a below-average decline in maternal deaths. The Middle East and North Africa registered the largest regional decline in MMR.

                                      Maternal Mortality Ratios - MMR    % Skilled Assistance at Delivery

Region                                         (mortality per 100,000 live births)            (2000-2008 average)

                                                1990            2008            % change

Developed regions                          11              14            27%                                  99%

C & E Europe & Central Asia        63              31            -51                                    97

East Asia and Pacific                    198              88            -56                                    90

Latin Amer. & Caribbean             144              85            -41                                    90

Middle East & North Africa         210              91            -57                                    79

Southern Asia                               592            275            -54                                    44

Sub-Saharan Africa                      867            646            -25                                    47

World[3]                                      397            264            -34                                    67

The MMR improved in 143 of the 171 countries for which data were available, or 84% of all reporting countries. In 1990 there were 16 countries with a MMR of 1,000 or more but by 2008 the number had come down to four: Afghanistan with a ratio of 1,400 followed by Chad and Somalia at 1,200 then by Guinea Bissau at 1,000. Both Afghanistan and Chad had skilled assistance at delivery of only 14%.

As indicated below, there were 15 countries that had a MMR of 500 or higher in 2008, all but two located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since 1990, some made progress but others did not. Only Laos stands out for halving its MMR.

                        Maternal Mortality Ratios – MMR              % Skilled Assistance at Delivery

Country            (mortality per 100,000 live births)                        (2000-2008 average)

                                    1990                        2008

Afghanistan                        1,700                        1,400                                                14%

Chad                                   1,300                        1,200                                                14

Somalia                              1,000                        1,200                                                33

Guinea-Bissau                    1,200                        1,000                                                39

Liberia                                1,100                           990                                                46

Burundi                              1,200                           970                                                34

Nigeria                                1,000                          840                                                39

Mali                                    1,200                           830                                                49

Niger                                  1,400                           820                                                33

Tanzania                                880                           790                                                43

Sudan                                    830                           750                                                49

Guinea                                1,200                           680                                                46

Angola                                1,000                           610                                                47

Laos                                    1,200                           580                                                20

Rwanda                               1,000                          540                                                52

The countries with the lowest MMR in 2008 were Greece with two and Ireland with three. There were six countries with a ratio of five: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, and Sweden.

Curiously, three of the most developed countries saw the ratio rise: the United States from 12 to 24, the United Kingdom from 10 to 12 and Switzerland from 8 to 10.

Other countries of interest: in Russia, known for having the world’s highest abortion rate, the MMR has declined from 74 to 39 with 100% skilled assistance at delivery. China’s MMR came down from 110 to 38 with 98% skilled assistance at delivery.

In conclusion, the one-third reduction in worldwide MMR in 18 years is notable, but the three-fourths decline targeted by 2015 appears illusory. Nonetheless, on a country-by-country basis, individual success may be within reach for at least a few countries. In the period under review, four countries already have cut the MMR by three-fourths: Estonia (from 48 to 12), Bhutan (from 940 to 200), Iran (from 150 to 30), and Maldives (from 510 to 37).

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[1] http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34630&Cr=maternal&Cr1

[2] The data were complied from http://progress.unwomen.org/pdfs/EN-Report-Progress.pdf

[3] Data are weighted averages by population.

SPUC one day conference on Maternal Mortality

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has announced the holding of a conference on Maternal Mortality to be held in London on March 20th 2012. The Conference titled  : "Abortion or Maternal Health: What should we be funding in developing countries?"will be held in Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, London W1

Millennium Development Goal 5 pledged to cut global maternal mortality by 75% by 2015, but with that deadline looming hard questions need to be asked about why this goal will not be reached and what changes need to be made to reduce the unacceptably high rates of maternal death in developing countries. This one-day conference will bring together medical experts who work to provide live-saving health care to pregnant women in developing countries and legal specialists with expertise in the legislative context within which aid strategies are promoted.  Maternal mortality is, in the words of SPUC's Fiorella Nash, the Trojan Horse of the Abortion Lobby. By raising this highly-charged subject, the abortion industry seeks to garner more public support for itself and gain an ever increasing share of international aid, all in the name of humanitarian concern. Yet, as this briefing makes clear, talk of maternal mortality from the abortion industry has less to do with genuine help for women than with an agenda which is in fact acutely damaging to women and the unborn.

In conjunction with the announcement of the conference SPUC has issued a briefing package on Maternal Mortality challenging the pro-abortion mantras that constantly demand more and more access to what they call "safe legal abortion", while at the same time ignoring the fact that more abortion means more maternal mortality regardless of whether it is legal or illegal.

Marie Stopes report concedes lack of availability of abortion in Ireland does not endanger women's lives

Family & Life report Oct.20, that Marie Stopes own figures prove that lack of availability of abortion in Ireland does not endanger women's lives

In its annual report, British abortion provider Marie Stopes International (MSI) admits that its activities in Ireland will prevent no maternal deaths nor will they prevent any “unsafe” abortions taking place. The information is contained in an annex to the organisation’s Global Impact Report 2010. The 70-page glossy publication is intended to appeal to its main funders and supporters, such as the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and the UK Department for International Development.

MSI gets few individual donations, so it has designed its annual report to appeal to big funders who are familiar with what it does. The group operates in forty countries and claims that its activities prevent 13,640 maternal deaths internationally and 1.34 million “unsafe” abortions (mainly in developing countries). In addition to grants from large donors, MSI activities in developing countries are subsidised by profits from its abortion clinics. The group admits to sterilising over half a million women in 2010.

Ireland has long been recognised as having the lowest level of maternal mortality in the world and it is significant that other western countries including the UK and the US have higher levels of maternal mortality. It has been suggested that the higher level of maternal mortality in those countries relates to the availability of so called "safe legal abortion". Unfortunately this cannot be confirmed because these statistics are not presently separated out from the general maternal mortality figures in those countries but clearly this should be done.  

SPUC annual conference

The SPUC annual conference which took place last weekend provided an excellent insight into the current state of the pro-life movement both in the UK and internationally. 

The presentations included an insightful talk by Fiorella Nash on maternal mortality, an in-depth look at sex education in schools by Antonia Tully and a particularly noteworthy address by Bobby Schindler in which he spoke of his family's battle to keep his sister, Terri Schiavo, alive after a court ruled that her nutrition and hydration be withdrawn. Other aspects of the conference included a wonderful presentation by SPUC youth members, the launching of the new SPUC talk for schools, a variety of workshops and the awarding of a pro-life award to Peter Saunders of Christian Medical Fellowship who gave a presentation on "How the pro-euthanasia lobby works".

We concentrate today on Bobby Schlindler's address but will return to some of the other topics in future BLOGS

Bobby told the conference his sister's death was the "Roe v Wade of the euthanasia movement in the United States." Bobby talked of his family's battle to keep Terri alive after a court ruled that her food and hydration be withdrawn back in 2000..

Bobby told the meeting that in the first 2 years following her collapse Terri's medical records showed that her rehabilitation treatment was effective and she was starting to speak. "We were very hopeful about these tiny steps," he recalled.

Things took a turn for the worse after a medical malpractice lawsuit in 1992 in which Terri was awarded $1.5m for her treatment and her husband Michael was awarded $600,000. According to Bobby it was after this ruling and receiving the monies that things changed for Terri: the relationship between Terri's husband Michael and the Schindler family broke down and all communications stopped in 1993.

Shortly after this the family learned Michael had requested nurses not to provide Terri with antiobiotics for an infection. When they refused he moved her to another facility with the same request. Those nurses also refused. By 1998 he had engaged a pro-euthanasia attorney and the family received a letter stating that they would seek to have Terri's food and fluids removed and that Terri had wanted this. In 1999 legislation was changed in the state to define food and fluids as medical treatment.

Terri's case went to trial in 2000 and the judge ruled in favour of Michael Schiavo despite the serious questions about her living will or that Michael was set to inherit the money from her death. Bobby said:

"I'm still to this day amazed at the publicity Terri's case received specifically because it was already happening every day. Before the case Terri was very much alive, but the media protrayed her as someone whose quality of life was so poor that this action was in her best interests. Even medics were surprised at how responsive she was despite being neglected for so long. My sister wasn't brain dead. They call this an end of life issue but it isn't. Terri was very much alive. It became an end of life discussion when she wasn't at the end of her life."

According to Bobby what happened to Terri is now ordinary practice across America. It has even been argued that the definition of articifical feeding should be expanded to include more than a feeding tube but also spoon-feeding and that even bringing a tray to patients as diet must receive medical approval. Bobby told the conference he estimates hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people are now directly affected by the sort of thing that happened to Terri, and that's not even looking at terminal sedation cases or other ways of putting people to death. Bobby said:

"We now decide who lives and who dies on a quality of life judgement."

He also said some vulnerable people are now being described as 'non-persons' by many academics in the States. He added:

"The biggest thing we're up against is apathy, people don't care until it happens to someone they know."

He also said the pro-euthanasia lobby is now very powerful and has the backing of a media willing to distort the truth and a growing insensitivity towards people like my Terri, compounded by the language people use to refer to the vulnerable. Language like 'vegetable' should be abolished from our vocabulary, he said, as it serves no purpose but it's entrenched in our mentality and is validated by our mainstream media.

Bobby ended by recalling the experience of his family as they watched over Terri in her final weeks. He said:

"Our family had to watch Terri die of dehydration, watch her deteriorate."

When people ask what she looked like at that time he says he can only compare her to victims of Auschwitz. Her appearance, he said, was horrific. She had blood pouring in her eyes in the last days. It was disturbing to watch and not a peaceful way to die. And for Bobby the most heart wrenching thing was watching my parents.
To compound the family's grief George Philos, Michael's attorney, gave a press conference after Terri's death and said she'd never looked so beautiful as in the last week of her death.

Since Terri's death her family has formed the Life and Hope Network to help other families in the same situation in the US and around the world.

Archbishop Tomasi: diverting funds for abortion and contraception "totally unacceptable"

Vatican Radio reports that;

The Holy See has condemned as totally unacceptable any attempts to divert funding for genuine health care in favour of programmes that provide or facilitate contraceptives and abortion. The Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Specialized Agencies in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi made the remark yesterday in a statement he delivered to the 18th Session of the Human Rights Council. Archbishop Tomasi’s statement outlined the position of the Holy See regarding the need for a human rights-based approach to eliminate preventable maternal mortality. The Permanent Observer noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) has demonstrated that women in Africa die primarily from five major causes: hypertensive diseases, obstructed labour, haemorrhage, sepsis and infection, and HIV-related diseases.

He went on to say that the interventions known to address such medical crises include training and employment of skilled birth attendants, provision of antibiotics and uterotonic medications, and improvement of blood banking. He said the Delegation of the Holy See finds totally unacceptable any attempts to divert much-needed financial resources from those effective and life-saving interventions to increased programmes of contraception and abortion, which aim at limiting procreation of new life or at destroying the life of a child. Archbishop Tomasi concluded saying, “the Holy See Delegation expresses the firm hope that the international community will succeed in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality by promoting effective interventions that are based on deep and abiding values as well as on scientific and medical knowledge and that are respectful of the sacredness of life from conception to natural death"