"Facts of Life" Email:  December 6, 2002

Facts of Life

December 6, 2002 

The American Medical Association is expected to take up a resolution proposed by the California Medical Association at their semi-annual meeting in Louisiana this weekend to reverse their support for Attorney General Ashcroft's position that federally controlled substances cannot be used for physician-assisted suicide. In all prior public statements, official positions and in court briefs the AMA has strongly opposed euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. However the California Medical Association recently filed a brief against Attorney General Ashcroft's position in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. 

The Vatican tells the United Nations that so-called therapeutic cloning is worse than reproductive cloning. Archbishop Renato Martino, the outgoing Vatican representative to the U. N., spoke about both, but while he also condemned reproductive cloning, the archbishop noted that therapeutic cloning is "an even more serious offence against human dignity and the right to life, since it involves human beings (embryos) who are created in order to be destroyed. He said that therapeutic cloning "must be" prohibited because it is an "exploitation of human beings, sought by certain scientific and industrial circles and pushed forward by underlying economic interests." Find this testimony of November 19 at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/documents/rc_seg-st_doc_20011119_martino-vi-comm_en.html 
At the same time, the U.N. General Assembly approved a committee recommendation to delay consideration of the cloning treaty until next October. 

Campaign finance reform (McCain-Feingold) failed its first court test in a challenge by Hawaii Right to Life Committee. A special election to fill the seat of the recently deceased U.S. Representative Patsy Mink precipitated an early challenge to restrictions on running issue advocacy ads giving the positions of candidates (and mentioning their names!!!) on pro-life issues in broadcast ads in the 60 days before an election. U. S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. of the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction on November 26th, saying that Hawaii Right to Life is a not-for-profit ideological corporation and therefore has a First Amendment right to be exempt from any regulation of its political speech, including "electioneering communications." as it is referenced in the statute. 

Planned Parenthood in Coachella received a $500,000 grant on November 26th from the California Endowment, a private statewide health foundation. It was given to Promotores Pro Salud, a local health outreach program of Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside County. Among other things, the money is expected to be used to start a teen theater group called Raalidades (Realities), and to sponsor a weekly "teen day" at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Coachella. http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories/local/1038277886.shtml 

A three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the most overturned U.S. circuit, refused asylum on December 5 for a Chinese couple who told how they fled China to escape threats of forced sterilization and abortion. The woman claimed that she was subjected to a forced pregnancy exam, told she would never be allowed to have children, and after they married despite being too young to do so under Chinese law (20 for females and 22 for males) they learned that there were warrants for their arrest. So they escaped China. Judge J. Clifford Wallace wrote that "we cannot say that the record compels us to conclude that her treatment was an 'extreme form of cruel and inhuman treatment,' or that she would likely face such treatment on her return." Judge Richard Paez dissented. An immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals had earlier said that they were not eligible for asylum. Their attorney will recommend an appeal to the entire 9th Circuit. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/12/06/state0319EST0010.DTL

The last U.S. Senate race will be decided on Saturday, December 7 in Louisiana. Suzie Terrell, a pro-life Republican is challenging pro-abortion incumbent Mary Landrieu. In articles in two Catholic newspapers, which will reach Louisiana voters this week, Landrieu has lied about her record on abortion in questions posed regarding federal funding for abortion, which she has consistently supported, and protection for unborn children, which she explicitly opposed in supporting the Harkin amendment (October 21, 1999), a strong affirmation of Roe v. Wade. "Senator Landrieu has consistently voted for federal funding of abortion on demand for both teenagers and adults, but she now tells Catholic voters that she will support the Hyde Amendment, the main law that prohibits funding of abortions," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). "This is breathtakingly brazen deception."
Regarding the controvercy of her position on abortion in a state usually perceived as pro-life, Mary Landrieu herself was quoted in the New York Times (November 9, 1996) as saying, "My own grandfather did not vote for me."

The 30th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade is January 22, 2003-- Prayer Breakfast and Rally for Life planned. Plan to join us in remembering the more than 40 million unborn children killed by abortion since 1973, and their wounded mothers. The annual Prayer Breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and Rally for Life at noon will be in Sacramentothe Rally on the west steps of the Capitol building. There will also be workshops before and after the Rally, and the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento and Catholics for Life will sponsor a pro-life Mass at 10:30 a.m. Please consider organizing a bus or busses from your area to help us to let the world know that we have not forgotten. 
If you have other pro-life events planned in your local areas in commemoration of this 30th anniversary, please send us that information so that we can compile it to send to our list. Hopefully most of your events will be planned so as not to conflict with the possibility of pro-life people being at the State Capitol, or in our nation's Capitol for the March for Life on this important anniversary. 

California ProLife Council (CPLC) (www.californiaprolife.org.) is the largest statewide organization in California solely dedicated to pro-life issues. CPLC is a non-sectarian, non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization of pro-life groups and individuals in California dedicated to protecting and fostering the most basic value of our societyrespect for LIFE itself. We seek to educate our community in regard to abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide, to identify and organize the pro-life population of the state into an effective team, and to restore respect for human life to public policy. California ProLife Council is the California affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee, Inc. (www.nrlc.org).