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