Politics
Thursday April 26, 2001
E-mail
Print- PRO-ABORTS APOLOGIZE FOR SLANDERING PRO-LIFERS
- US SUPREME COURT RULES WOMAN CAN BE STARVED TO DEATH OVER PARENTS' OBJECTIONS
- FR. VAN HEE, PRO-LIFE PRIEST WITH MISSION TO POLITICIANS, HAS EYE OPERATION
- SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT IN FRANCE FORCING PRO-ABORTION LAW ON POLYNESIAN COLONY
- HOUSE PASSES UNBORN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE ACT
- US NEWS ROUNDUP
PRO-ABORTS APOLOGIZE FOR SLANDERING PRO-LIFERS
ALL TODAY'S HEADLINES
VANCOUVER, Apr 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) - The British Columbia Pro-Choice Action Network (PCAN), one of Canada's most vociferous pro-abortion groups, has publicly apologized for slandering pro-lifers. In a small retraction published in the Vancouver Sun last September (so tiny it escaped the attention of most pro-lifers at the time) the PCAN apologized to the Genocide Awareness Project and the Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform for having slandered them in an article published the previous February.
The retraction reads: "On Feb. 24, 2000, The Vancouver Sun published an opinion piece written by Judy Hecht and Joyce Arthur of the Pro-Choice Action Network. In that opinion piece, Hecht and Arthur stated that members of the Genocide Awareness Project yelled racial epithets through bullhorns at university demonstrations. The Pro-Choice Action Network retracts that allegation and offers its sincere apologies to the Genocide Awareness Project and the Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform for any harm the allegation may have caused them."
Given that pro-lifers are now taking seriously their rights not to be slandered, pro-abortion groups and leaders are being forced to consider their accusations carefully. LifeSite reported in February, that John Hof, president of Campaign Life Coalition British Columbia, received an "out of court" settlement of $25,000 from NDP Minister of Labour, Hon. Joan Smallwood. The agreement stems from remarks made in the media by Ms. Smallwood about Mr. Hof, spuriously linking him to an attack against an abortionist.
For more on Hof's settlement from LifeSite see:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/feb/010208s).html
Back to Top | Send Letter to Editor
US SUPREME COURT RULES WOMAN CAN BE STARVED TO DEATH OVER PARENTS' OBJECTIONS
ST PETERSBURG, Apr 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Terri Schiavo, 37, has been forced to receive food through a feeding tube for the past eleven years after her heart stopped and she was deprived of oxygen for five minutes. Although unable to move, Terri can breathe on her own and her parents attest that she moans, smiles and cries and opens and closes her eyes in response to their care. However, some doctors say that her actions are only reflexes.
Her parents have been fighting a desperate legal battle for eight years with her husband over his decision to have her nutrition and hydration withdrawn. That will cause her to starve to death since she is unable to swallow. The battle ended Tuesday after the US Supreme Court rejected their appeal, thus forcing the hospital to discontinue Terri's twice daily feeding sessions after her Tuesday morning liquid breakfast. Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, stands to inherit a $700,000 payment from a 1993 malpractice suit stemming from Terri's predicament. Michael has also been engaged to another woman for several years.
Being Catholics, Teri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, had requested the assistance of their local bishop in the battle for the life of their daughter. However, Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida refused to intervene. The diocese released a statement Tuesday, saying that classic Roman Catholic theology suggests the removal of nutrition can be justified if a person's disease leads to death, sooner rather than later. However, that statement flies in the face of Catholic teaching on the matter.
Archbishop Justin Rigali of St. Louis last year released a statement on principles for health care decisions concerning assisted nutrition and hydration and related issues. Drawing on the Oct. 2, 1998 Ad Limina Address to the Bishops of California, Nevada and Hawaii by Pope John Paul II, the bishop noted that there "should be a presumption in favor of providing nutrition and hydration to all patients." In the statement released June 30, the bishop wrote, "As Catholics, we believe a person has a moral obligation to use ordinary or proportionate means of preserving his or her life." In the letter he quoted the 1992 statement by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities called, "Nutrition and Hydration: Moral and Pastoral Reflections," and stressed that "we reject any omission of nutrition and hydration intended to cause a patient's death."
Clearly in the Terri's case, the removal of nutrition and hydration will cause her death. In fact, doctors testified that with food and water, she could have lived decades longer but in the same so-called 'vegetative' state. A request by the parents to allow Terri a few more days of life so that out of town relatives could visit was refused by Michael.
Knowing that Terri's fate is now in the hands of the Almighty, Bob Schindler has asked for prayers for his daughter. "Everybody pray for Terri. She is the focal point right now," he said. Rev. Raymond Vega, 77, a retired missionary priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was one of the group of pro-lifers praying for Terri outside her nursing home. "Every man of the cloth knows this is murder," he said.
For LifeSite's coverage of Archbishop Rigali's statement see:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/july/0007172 .html
See the coverage in the St Petersburg Times at: http://www.sptimes.com/News/042501/TampaBay/Ethical_storm_swirls_.shtml
Back to Top | Send Letter to Editor
FR. VAN HEE, PRO-LIFE PRIEST WITH MISSION TO POLITICIANS, HAS EYE OPERATION
OTTAWA, Apr 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Fr. Tony Van Hee, a pro-life Catholic priest who since September 1989 has quietly and peacefully picketed, prayed and fasted outside the Canadian parliament buildings in Ottawa, has been absent from the Hill for the last week due to an eye operation. Conservative MP Elsie Wayne asked Campaign Life Coalition about the missing Fr. Van Hee - "The Conscience of Parliament Hill".
Fr. Van Hee spoke with LifeSite today to say that he is doing very well after an eye operation last Friday to correct a detached retina. Although also fighting off a cold and possible eye infection, Fr. is in good spirits and said he may be back on the Hill as early as Monday. LifeSite asks that the pro-live movement keep this great soldier in God's pro-life army in your prayers.
For articles related to Fr. Van Hee from LifeSite see:
http://www.lifesite.net/interim/2000/feb/04editorial.html
http://www.lifesite.net/interim/1999/jan/05happyvanhee.html
Back to Top | Send Letter to Editor
SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT IN FRANCE FORCING PRO-ABORTION LAW ON POLYNESIAN COLONY
PAPEETE, Apr 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) - The Socialist government in France has passed a law increasing the legal limit for abortions from 10 weeks to 12 weeks. However, a clause in the bill, forces French Polynesia to publicly fund abortions, as has been done in France for some 25 years. Agence France Presse reports that the colony's strong religious tradition has prevented the law's extension thus far and Polynesia is rejecting the clause.
Gaston Flosse, president of the French overseas territory that includes Tahiti and other islands, said Wednesday his government was prepared to take the issue to the constitutional court in Paris if legislation adopted by the national assembly was not amended by the French Senate. The Senate will debate the Polynesian amendment on May 9 and the new legislation is due to be given final approval in June.
(Agence France Presse English Thu 26 Apr 2001 International News)
(with files from Pro-Life E-News)
Back to Top | Send Letter to Editor
HOUSE PASSES UNBORN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE ACT
WASHINGTON, Apr 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) - The US House passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act today in a vote of 252-172. Despite vehement opposition by pro-abortion forces, including Planned Parenthood, NOW and NARAL, 53 Democrats, more than one-fourth of the party's members in the House, joined Republicans in voting for the bill.
On Wednesday, President George Bush endorsed the bill in a White House statement, which said the President "supports protection for unborn children and therefore supports House passage of H.R. 503. The legislation would make it a separate federal offense to cause death or bodily injury to a child, who is in utero, in the course of committing any one of 68 Federal offenses." Bush also indicated he was "strongly opposed" to a pro-abortion alternative to the bill which claims there is only one victim when a mother is assaulted and an unborn child is killed or injured. Republicans successfully fought off an amendment to the bill that would have stiffened penalties for assaulting a pregnant woman but not made harming the unborn child a separate crime.
During the debate, pro-abortion Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich noted the significance of the legislation saying, "This would be the first time in the federal legal system that we would begin to recognize a fertilized egg, a zygote, an embryo or a fetus. That's what the bill is trying to do . . . No sneaking around today, fellas. We're going to have to put it all on the table."
For coverage of the debate see:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?22577 See AP coverage of the vote at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010426/aponline163637_000.htm
Back to Top | Send Letter to Editor
US NEWS ROUNDUP
Speaking to reporters after 100 days as President yesterday, George Bush said his administration's priorities on abortion should be on policies that "can actually pass Congress such as banning partial- birth abortion." He continued, "I think it is unrealistic to assume that America is going to ban abortions at this point in our history because people got to understand the preciousness of life before the politics change." He added that abortion would not be used as a litmus test for appointing Supreme Court justices.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010425/aponline084434_000.htm
Tennessee voters may be able to vote to include the following in the state Constitution in 2006: "There is no fundamental right to an abortion in this state".
http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/01/04/04453486.shtml?Element_ID=4453486
Catholic News Service reports that about 100 supporters of the pro-life cause from the Jewish and Christian communities gathered in New York for an April 24 conference on "exploring how Jews and Christians can work together to sanctify human life." It was sponsored by the Institute for Religious Values, an agency based in Purcellville, Va., and Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich., which opened last year with financing from the pizza fortune of Thomas S. Monaghan. With ordained and lay speakers from both the Jewish and Catholic communities, the conference explored the similarities and differences in the two faiths' approaches to abortion, partial-birth abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, as well as the overall topic of the sanctity of life.
Back to Top | Send Letter to Editor
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.