Vote Life, Canada!: Top Ten News Stories August 19-25, 2007

Here are Vote Life, Canada’s Top Ten picks from the news stories of the last week. Use the information and insight in these items to bolster your defense of unborn children.

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UPDATED: Video here of Saturday's protest at new Planned Parenthood facility in Aurora, IL

Amnesty International endorses abortion
Washington Times—A leading British bishop has resigned his membership in Amnesty International and an Australian Jesuit college said it will no longer work with the leading human rights group after the organization last week officially endorsed a new policy supporting a woman's right to an abortion in certain cases.

Related stories

Pro-life group calls for Canadian bishops to do more about Amnesty ...
Vote Life, Canada! is upset that the Canadian bishops did not do more to persuade Amnesty International to not adopt its pro-abortion policy. ...

World Congress of Families Global Coordinator Larry Jacobs sharply criticizes Amnesty’s duplicity

Comments on AI's abortion decision from around the web

Abortion Law in Victoria, Australia under review
The Victorian State Premier, John Brumby, has announced that the State Government will seek legal advice in reforming the existing state law on abortion as Christians once again reaffirmed their position to oppose any legislation that allows for the decriminalisation of abortion.

Related stories

North Queensland Register and The Australian report on the news.

Robert Ward, the Australian Christian Lobby's Victorian chief of staff says Protect the Unborn Children

Julian Burnside offers the typical “libertarian,” feminist viewpoint for making it easier to “terminate” unborn human beings.

Denis Hart, archbishop of Melbourne, has an editorial in the Herald Sun on whether abortion should be a crime—along with viewpoints from two “experts,” Peter Singer (hold your breath!) and Susie Allanson.

A columnist from the Herald Sun, offering his no-nonsense point of view, says “Abort Brumby’s law.”

Life crusaders bombard new clinic with prayers
AURORA—Since the morning hours of Aug. 9, pro-lifers from many denominations have been praying around the clock near the property of a nearly completed Planned Parenthood building on New York Street in Aurora.
[Comment: This event has the potential to become an international news story. I’ve blogged about it before and it continues to build momentum.]

Related stories

Chicago Tribune reports

Pro Life Action Leagues gives updates

LifeNews reported on arrests of pro-aborts who harassed pro-lifers.

Generations For Life closely involved

UPDATED: Video here of Saturday's protest in Aurora, IL

Incalculable loss in trust and love
Home genetic testing could "devastate" children, families
While Pratibha Patil, India’s first woman president, calls sternly for a nation-wide mobilization to abolish sex-selection abortions that result in the deaths of 7,000 unborn girls a day in India, Consumer Genetics Inc. of Sunnyvale, California, is marketing new home-based tests to uncover even more factors which could lead to a decision to reject one’s child.

Related stories

The False Choice Between Development and Daughters
She is part of a growing global trend of sex selective abortion and infanticide that favors sons and proves deadly for daughters. The practice, once thought to be unique to China and India, is catching on in Central Asia, Latin America, ...

160 Healthy Babies Lost for Every 50 Down’s Cases Detected with Amniocentesis
LONDON—The risks of amniocentesis to the unborn child have long been known but now a new analysis by a British doctor has shown that using the tests in seek-and-destroy missions for Down's syndrome and other genetic abnormalities results in the deaths of hundreds of healthy babies every year in Britain.

Life-Chain in Canada 2007 to be Held on September 30th
The annual Life Chain, a pro-life prayer and witness event, will take place this year in cities across Canada on September 30… Life Chain involves an a hour of silent prayer and public witness and will take place from 2 to 3 p.m. Approximately 30,000 people participate each year

Edmonton Journal Columnist Scott McKeen Launches Vicious Smear ...
In his column published today in the Edmonton Journal, columnist Scott McKeen launches what I consider the most vicious, vitrolic attack against a political candidate that I have ever seen in a mainstream newspaper.
[Comment: While Mr. Whatcott has some very “unorthodox” and “politically incorrect” approaches, blogger “Anchorage Activist” is rightly shocked. McKeen takes aim fundamentally at Christian doctrine and morals—pro-life, pro-family—as well as free speech. Whatcott is unashamedly pro-life and when somebody, particularly a politician, takes such a courageous stand, 99 times out of a 100 that individual is a safe bet for political office and for society.

I hope much more is said by Christians and other concerned Canadians about this attack.

My last word is one of caution. In this story, Alaska Pride blogspot links to one of Whatcott’s flyers which often include some explicit, “realistic” photographs. Sometimes there are graphic pictures of aborted fetuses.You’ve been warned. ]

The quiet campaign against birth control
[Comment: Abortion and contraception are peas of a pod and pro-lifers will be wise to keep that fact front and centre. Plan B, the “emergency contraceptive,” has been much in the news lately and Cristina Page, pro-abortion advocate, sounded alarms this past week in this op-ed piece warning against the subtle resurgence of “anti-contraception activism.” Page is the author of "How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War on Sex," and she is spokeswoman for birthcontrolwatch.org.]

Related stories

Contraceptives Go Against God, Says Iowa Group
Iowans for LIFE (Life Is For Everyone) has joined a coalition of anti-choice groups under the umbrella of the American Life League and, by joining, has signed a document in opposition to not only abortion but all contraceptives…

The One-Year Anniversary of Hell Breaking Loose
[Comment: This week marks the one-year anniversary of the FDA decision to allow Plan B, the “morning after” pill, to be sold over-the-counter in the USA and Cristina Page goes on another rant. Read her arguments, understand the controversy and try to get a better understanding of the dynamics of abortion advocacy. It will equip you to better stand up for the truth and for the Unborn.]

“Your Own Stem Cells Work!”
An event planner named Carron Morrow says she had two choices when it came to treating a serious heart condition: Sign liability papers for an unusual new treatment—or drop dead. Not surprisingly, she chose to sign the papers—and became another stem-cell miracle: An adult stem-cell miracle, that is.
[Comment: Chuck Colson reports this week on another adult stem cell miracle. The stem cell debate is not new but it never fails to surprise those who follow it closely.]

Related stories

Family Research Council op-ed “A Cell in Time Saves Nine?”

Life Issues Institute resource page for articles on stem cell research

Blogger and pro-life activist Jill Stanek carries a great post this week

Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason writes an exceptional series on The Confusing Moral Logic of ESCR

South Africa: Catholic Church Reiterates Opposition to Pro ...
The Catholic Church in Southern today reiterated its rejection of a 1996 law allowing abortion after the Protestant South African Council of Churches Africa made a statement in favour of the legislation.

More stories this week of countries under heavy pressure to legalize more child killing

Dominican Republic Protest Against Attempt to Legalize Abortion

CNA: Guatemala bishops denounce campaign disguised as 'post ...

20,000 Brazilians Protest Attempted Expansion of Abortion

What has happened to pro-life Catholic parents?
Since she knows I came back full force to the Church after an on and off episode, she asked what the Church really taught about abortion. I was surprised she asked this, but I told her that the minute the sperm meets the egg, the Church sees that embryo as a human being and that aborting would be murder.
[Comment: From Catholic Answers Forum, an insightful, and shocking, thread of postings on the attitudes and actions of “Catholic” parents under pressure. Really, it’s not Catholic, but rather “pseudo-Catholic.”]

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