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NEW STUDY LINKS SUICIDE AND ABORTION

SPRINGFIELD, Ill, Apr 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) - A new study presented at the March 27-31 World Congress on Women's Health in Berlin showed a link between suicide and abortion. The study by Dr. David Reardon et al. found that women who had abortions had an above average suicide rate while those who gave birth had a much lower, below average suicide rate.

The study looked at the medical records and death certificates of more than 173,000 low-income women from California and compared women who received Medicare funds for deliveries and those who had state-funded abortions. From this sample of women, the average annual suicide rate per 100,000 in the sample was 3.0 for women who delivered babies and 7.8 for women who had abortions. The national average suicide rate is 5.2 for women ages 15-44.

Dr. Reardon told LifeSite he expects the study to be published in a medical journal in a few months after peer review.

(with files from Catholic News Service)

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GIBBONS SENTENCED TO FOUR MONTHS ON LATEST CONVICTIONS

TORONTO, April 17, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Veteran pro-life demonstrator and counsellor Linda Gibbons has been sentenced to four months in jail and two years' probation, in addition to two months already served in custody, on her latest convictions relating to charges stemming from pro-life activities inside bubble zones at Toronto abortuaries. Gibbons was arrested and charged with obstructing police and breaching terms of probation on Feb. 13 after walking and praying while holding a placard outside the Scott Clinic abortuary on Gerrard Street East.

Gibbons, as usual, remained mute throughout the court proceedings, not even nodding acknowledgement when questioned by the judge. New York-based lawyer John Broderick entered a not guilty plea on her behalf, but accepted the facts of the case as laid out by the Crown. Broderick then made an eloquent appeal during the sentencing hearing, noting that many people of conscience peacefully broke laws during their struggles against such evils as slavery and racism. Several of Gibbons's acquaintances and friends then took the stand to testify as character witnesses.

In his ruling, the judge noted that Gibbons was "going to have to suffer the consequences" of demonstrating illegally at abortuaries when she was free to make her views known legally through other means. He imposed six-month concurrent terms on each of the two charges, including time served, and ordered her to stay at least 100 metres away from three Toronto abortuaries during a two-year probation term.

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TORONTO AD AGENCY REJECTS PROVOCATIVE TRANSIT SHELTER ADS

TORONTO, ON, April 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Mediacom, the ad agency responsible for ads on Toronto bus shelters, has responded to public complaints about its increasingly risqué ads by rejecting a steamy ad for Perusco Jeans.

The Perusco Jeans ad features a man with a woman whose jeans are very low on her exposed waist. The National Post reports that Mediacom rejected the ad "to ensure (its) municipal advertising contracts are not jeopardized." The company has experienced "significant controversy" over similar ads posted in shelters since December 2000, says the Post.

Mediacom President Brian McLean told LifeSite that this is "not a new policy" and that the company is simply responding, as it always has, to community reaction to its ad postings. He stated that public response to bus shelter ads is especially noted because those ads are at street level and "in your face" to passers by. McLean admitted that there is more of an explicit edge to advertising today because of intense competition for ad attention.

Many Toronto bus shelters currently feature an ad for The Shoe Company that shows a rear view of a naked woman wearing shoes and holding only a towel across her behind while supposedly exposing herself to the man facing her. The Mediacom President told LifeSite that this ad was not rejected because "nothing is being revealed in that one".

Toronto city councilor and TTC commissioner David Miller told the National Post that his office has not received any complaints about bus shelter ads.

LifeSite's previous story on the issue:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/feb/0102284 .html

The National Post story
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010418/536627.html

Toronto Transit commissioner David Miller can be contacted at:
or 416-392-4072 or 416-516-1440

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CANADA FUNDS ABORTION PUSH IN SOUTH AMERICA THROUGH PLANNED PARENTHOOD

OTTAWA, Apr 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Canada is giving almost one million taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood, the world's foremost abortion-promoting group.

Maria Minna, Canada's Minister for International Cooperation, announced yesterday a $982,000 grant to Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada for "Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health (read abortion) in the Americas." The project targets "adolescents and youth in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador and Jamaica."

Given the pro-life ideals of El Salvador, the Canadian donation may be seen as an unwanted intrusion into Salvadoran internal politics. In El Salvador abortion is illegal in all circumstances. Moreover, the right to life of unborn children is enshrined in the constitution. In 1999 the constitution was altered to specifically recognize the "human person as a human being from the instant of conception."

See the funding announcement at:
http://w3.acdi-cida.gc.ca/cida_ind.nsf/852562900065549a85256250006cbb1a/024a9434...

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PAT ROBERTSON "CLARIFICATION" NO CLARIFICATION AT ALL

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA, Apr 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Following heaps of criticism from conservatives, Pat Robertson has issued a clarification on his CNN statements in support of the Chinese family planning program. However, his clarification was disappointingly weak. Robertson emphasized his politically correct opposition to sex-selective and forced abortions but at least also mentioned his "lifelong opposition to voluntary and forced abortion as a means of population control." Most disturbing, he repeats his defence of the Chinese program, "The Chinese Government has by law restricted the birth rate to one child per family. Given their situation, intelligent family planning reflects an obvious necessity."

Furthermore, the clarification failed to address his suggestion that the US should not "interfere with what they're (the Chinese) doing internally in this regard." Given China's well known serious human rights abuses on this matter there have been frequent demands for the removal of normal trade relations with China.

Amnesty International has repeatedly provided evidence of the torture and coercive methods used by China in enforcing their "family planning policy". In its latest human rights report issued in February 2001, Amnesty reports that the tortures continue unabated despite the denials by Chinese officials to the United Nations. In addition to forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations, there have been numerous news accounts of confiscation of property, physical torture and beatings, and other severe treatment of women and men who refuse to "voluntarily" obtain abortions or become sterilized. The Amnesty report begins with the following chilling quote: "Zhou Jianxiong, a 30 year-old agricultural worker from Chunhua township in Hunan province, died under torture on 15 May 1998. Detained on 13 May, he was tortured by officials from the township birth control office to make him reveal the whereabouts of his wife, suspected of being pregnant without permission. Zhou was hung upside down, repeatedly whipped and beaten with wooden clubs, burned with cigarette butts, branded with soldering irons, and had his genitals ripped off."

See the Amnesty report on China's policy at:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/feb/0102145 .html

See Robertson's "Clarification":

Robertson Clarifies His Position On Abortion
http://www.patrobertson.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/1,1183,PTID3826|CHID102165|CIID358886,00.html

To express your concerns to Pat Robertson:
Pat Robertson, Christian Coalition of America, 499 So.Capitol Street SW,
Suite 615, Washington, DC 20003, Phone: (202) 479-6900,
Fax: (202) 479-4260,

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AFRICAN BISHOPS USE EASTER MESSAGE TO PROMOTE LIFE

KAMPALA, Uganda, Apr 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) - African newspapers are reporting that Ugandan Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga and Gambian Bishop Michael J. Cleary used their Easter messages to promote the right to life of the unborn. Cardinal Nsubuga in his Easter Sunday sermon condemned the abortifacient morning after pill recently introduced in Uganda. The New Vision newspaper quoted the Cardinal as denouncing the Ministry of Health for giving women a pill "which gives them the liberty to terminate human life in its most defenceless form".

The Independent newspaper in Banjul Gambia carried the Easter message of Bishop Cleary in which he called the Resurrection, "God's great uprising: his uprising against death." The bishop said, "Let us be ready to share God's great uprising against death. Let us choose life not death! In an encyclical letter, the Pope condemns the culture of death in the world today. He condemns abortion because we regard the unborn child as a human person. He condemns euthanasia, putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick or dying persons . . . Today there exists a great multitude of weak and defenseless human beings, unborn children in particular, whose fundamental right to life is being trampled upon. Therefore, let us vigorously reaffirm the value of human life and its inviolability. Let us appeal to each and every person, in the name of God, to respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life. Only in this way will we find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness."

See the news reports from AllAfrica at:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200104160019.html
http://allafrica.com/stories/200104170136.html

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LIFESITE NEWSBYTES

The Manitoba government has introduced a baby bonus for mothers of unborn babies. CP reports that low income pregnant mothers will be eligible for up to $81.41 per month.
http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSTopNews/baby_apr17-cp.html

An official Vietnamese paper reported Tuesday an "alarming" number of abortions in 2000. 679,000 were officially carried out in the country, 50.3 per cent of the number of babies born in 2000. The rate has however declined from previous years when they were over a million abortions.
http://www.timesofindia.com/180401/18hlth14.htm

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US NEWS ROUNDUP

As reported in LifeSite April 5, Michigan prosecutors have charged abortionist Jose Higuera with felonious abortion following an abortion on a 28 week pregnant woman in good health. Michigan and 39 other states prohibit late-term abortions except to preserve the health or life of the mother. Two lower court rulings had previously struck down the charges against Higuera. However, in a 2-1 decision in February, the state Court of Appeals reinstated the charges. Higuera could face 4 years in jail if convicted.
http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500474078-500727372-504115911-
0,00.html?group=healthscience

A survey of thirty popular United States universities has found that only one offers the abortion pill RU-486 (marketed as Mifeprix) in its health clinics despite the legality of the drug. In response to a survey by American Life League, colleges and universities cited the controversy over the pill, the medical complications and hassles as reasons why they refused to carry the deadly drug. Only Yale University was found to offer RU-486. For a list of the Colleges and Universities responding see:
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=SCIENCE&STORYID=APIS7BE59980

For coverage from AP see:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001-04-17-pill.htm

Douglas R. Scott, president of Life Decisions International (LDI), has challenged several pro-life groups to stop doing business with corporations that fund Planned Parenthood, the world's leading abortion advocacy organization. "We urge the National Right to Life Committee Inc., Steve Ertelt's 'Women & Children First,' and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute to stop accepting donations via the American Express card," Scott said. "These groups know that American Express has been a boycott target for more than a decade due to its financial support of Planned Parenthood. An excuse offered for being associated with American Express is just as invalid as an excuse for being associated with Planned Parenthood itself." American Life League, Pro-Life Action League, Human Life International, and many others do not accept American Express primarily - if not solely - due to its support of Planned Parenthood.

Famed filmmaker and director Steven Spielberg has come out as a pro-homosexual activist as he has quit the advisory board of the Boy Scouts of America claiming they are guilty of "discrimination" for refusing to allow practicing homosexuals to be Scout leaders.
http://www.peoplenews.com/news/0,3301,4737,00.html

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