"Facts of Life" Email: May 20, 2003

Facts of Life

May 20, 2003

The family of California murder victims Laci and Conner Peterson are urging congressional passage of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, saying the bill "is very close to our hearts."  In a letter to the prime sponsors of the bill, Congresswoman Melissa Hart (R-Pa.) and Senator Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), the family requested that the bill be referred to as "Laci and Conner's Law in their memory."  (The letter can be viewed at www.nrlc.org.)  http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/05/07/laci.bill/  In a national FOX News/Opinion Dynamics poll of registerd voters, 84% favored two homicide prosecutions in the Peterson murder case, agreeing with the premise that there were two murder victims in this case. The National Right to Life Committee website contains the most extensive collection of documents on the unborn victims issue available anywhere on the internet.  You can find it at: http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/index.html.  While you're there, visit the Legislative Action Center, and write to Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein to ask them to support Laci and Conner's Law (S. 1019).  The Unborn Victims of Violence Act has twice passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Patricia Ireland, former President of the National Organization of Women for 10 years, and now the new CEO of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) was unable to admit whether or not she is a Christian as Bill O'Reilly of FOX News Network pressed her on the question.  Deal Hudson, editor of "Crisis Magazine" noted, "It's not Your Mother's YWCA . . .The YWCA has been running away from its Christian heritage for years."  Expect more on the political scene from this organization on issues from A-Z as Ms. Ireland, an openly bi-sexual, pro-abortion advocate announced that:  "The relocation of our national headquarters to Washington, D.C. allows us to have a stronger and more effective voice for change. New initiatives on the grassroots level and in the nation's capital will target policies that adversely impact women and girls, and people of color -- especially those on the economic margins of our society."

The CA Medical Board decided on April 24 to revoke the license of Phillip B. Pierre-Louis, an abortionist who nearly killed a 17-year-old girl, puncturing her uterus and removing 3-5 feet of her intestines during the abortion.  The teenager was in intensive care for 9 days and hospitalized for 12 in 1997.  The Medical Board has been unable to locate Pierre-Louis, a 1979 graduate of Howard University's College of Medicine, who had a number of addresses in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.  He was charged with gross negligence, incompetence, unprofessional conduct and failure to maintain adequate medical records on this incident, given 4 years of probation and fined $5,000.  The revocation will be effective on May 27. http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~12588~1374093,00.html

An Illinois doctor who performs abortions at the Hope Clinic in Granite City could have his medical license suspended or revoked for performing an abortion on a woman who wasn't pregnant.  The Illinois Department of Professional Regulation has filed a complaint against Dr. Yogendra Shah.  A hearing on the complaint will be held in June before an administrative law judge.  This is a scandalous practice that has re-surfaced over the years and was first exposed by the "Chicago Sun Times," in an expose more than two decades ago.  A reporter went to an abortion clinic with a sample of male urine and an appointment was set for an abortion.  When she arrived for the appointment she brought along the Chicago police.  This is one of the cruelest of all hoaxes by the abortion industry, causing women to go through life thinking they have aborted their own babies, when they may not even have been pregnant.   http://www.belleville.com/mld/newsdemocrat/5765702.htm

A Daly City Planned Parenthood will close at the end of May, after nearly two decades of operation, due to financial problems for Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, which unfortunately operates eight other San Francisco Bay Area facilites which will pick up the slack.   An anonymous employee, nevertheless predicted that Planned Parenthood would likely lose 70 percent of its clients in that area due to the closure. 

On May 6 a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on an appeal from Oregon Federal District Court Judge Robert Jones' April 17, 2002 opinion overturning Attorney General John Ashcroft's directive that federally controlled drugs may not be used to assist suicide.  A decision is expected this summer.  At least 129 people have committed suicide in Oregon since their physician-assisted suicide law took effect in 1998.   Ashcroft's position (announced November 6, 2001) is the same as the interpretation of the Controlled Substances Act issued on November 5, 1997 by the then-Drug Enforcement Administrator Thomas Constantine when he announced that assisting suicide is not "a legitimate medical purpose[.] . . . prescribing a controlled substance with the intent of assisting a suicide" violates federal law. Clinton Administration Attorney General Janet Reno had partially overruled Constantine's decision, requiring the action by Attorney General Ashcroft to re-instate it.  http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-suicide8may08,1,1516879.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Da%5Fsection

Participants in the 10th annual Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner sponsored by the National Right to Life Committee at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on April 29 expressed optimism about the battle against abortion.  Benjamin J. Stein, a movie and television personality who was one of the honorees, talked about how college groups he speaks to respond much more positively to his pro-life views than they used to.  "I believe the tide is turning in our favor," he said.  He also gave credit to President Bush and the Republican Party. "Without the Republican Party being on our side, this would be a lost cause."  Awards also went to Margaret Colin, currently appearing in the Broadway production of "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg," and to Jennifer O'Neill, known for her roles in "Summer of '42" and many other movies.  O'Neill, too, expressed optimism about the pro-life movement's progress and the chances for banning partial-birth abortion. David N. O'Steen, NRLC's Executive Director told Catholic News Service he was "very encouraged" by a number of signs of progress in the pro-life movement, including polls that show continuing strength in public support for protecting human life.  http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/20030430.htm

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 society—respect 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).