file: /pub/resources/text/ProLife.News/1993: PLN-0315.TXT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Life Communications - Volume 3, No. 15 July, 1993 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This newsletter is intended to provide articles and news information to those interested in Pro-Life issues. All submissions should be sent to the editor, Steve or the assistant editor Sean ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Michigan: Informed Consent Bill Passes On 13 July, the Michigan State Senate approved by a 25-5 vote the ``informed consent'' abortion bill. The bill now goes to Pro-life Governor John Engler, a who has promised to sign it into law. The bill requires that people seeking abortions undergo a 24 waiting period, and receive pamphlets describing the development of the fetus and the possible emotional and physical complications of the procedure. ACLU-Michigan Executive Director Howard Simon asserts that bill is ``offensive to women and all those who care about the health of women.'' The ACLU has successfully challenged similar laws in Tennessee and Ohio. Barb Listing, president of Right to Life of Michigan, commented that this is a first step toward the ultimate goal of eliminating abortion in the state. She commented that the next step is to simplify the adoption procedures in Michigan. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Philadelphia: Anti-Blockade Law Declared Invalid Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Louis Retacco has decided that a Philadelphia law prohibiting blockades of abortion clinics is ``invalid.'' Seventy-five people challenged the law in clinic protests on 10 April; Judge Retacco dismissed the charges against them. There's no word yet on why Retacco decided the law was invalid, or on how this decision will affect the Operation Rescue campaign currently underway in the city. (Apparently other trespassing laws still apply). Pro-Abortion Mayor Ed Rendell, signer of the invalidated legislation, asserts he will not allow clinic blockades. The law declared invalid called for 90-day jail, and fines of up to $300. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Missouri: Fetal Killing Results in Murder Charges The Kansas City Star (on 8 May 1993) reported that two Missouri women who allegedly attacked a pregnant woman (kicking her in the stomach and slashing her with a razor blade) and thus killed her four-month old fetus are being charged with second-degree murder. This case raises a couple of interesting points. First, St. Louis circuit attorney Dee Joyce-Hayes decries the fact that this woman's Federal right to an abortion was "taken away from her." [This observation makes one wonder...] Secondly, under a recent Missouri law, unborn children have the same rights as other children unless the law explicitly states otherwise. Joyce-Hayes observes that this murder case is ``on the cutting edge.'' In December, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld a manslaughter charge in a case involving six-month fetus (later shown to be viable) killed in a car accident. Defense attorneys in the new case plan to bring up the lack of viability of the four-month fetus. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Washington DC: Clinton's Surgeon General Nominee President Bill Clinton has nominated a radical pro-abort, Jocelyn Elders, to be Surgeon General. In her view, abortion provides freedom and giving birth perpetuates "slavery". According to her the pro-life movement has "slave-master mentalities" [1]. "If Medicaid does not pay for abortions, does not pay for family planning, but pays for pre-natal care and delivery, that's saying 'I'll pay for you to have another good, healthy slave, but I won't pay for you to use your brain and make choices for yourself. ... It's a way to keep people poor, ignorant, and enslaved. If you are poor and ignorant you are a slave." In January she said "We would like for the right-to-life, anti-choice groups to really get over their love affair with the fetus and start supporting the children." Elders has also said that 60% of American children are "unplanned and unwanted", but she could not provide any evidence to support that claim. A newspaper article earlier this year quoted Elders as saying "Every child a planned child; every child wanted child." Considering that no method of birth control is perfectly reliable this is a call to abort whenever a pregnancy is unplanned or becomes unwanted. How is anyone to know if a child will be wanted after it is born, all through its life? When it comes to sex education she is just as radical. "We taught our children in driver's education what to do in the front seat. Now it's time to teach them what to do in the back seat" she said [2]. Given the failure of the "comprehensive" sex education programs that Elders advocates [3] this is a dangerous approach. It will also ensure that business doesn't decline at the federally funded abortion clinics that she wants. Elders evidently has some ethical problems [1]. She is currently being sued for malfeasance because actions by her and other former directors of the National Bank of Arkansas cost that bank $1.5 million. She allegedly made repeated loans to a businessman who had defaulted on previous loans, and then tried to cover that loss by approving a loan to an Illinois Savings and Loan which was to loan the money to the same man. The latter allegation is a violation of federal law. Her trial is scheduled to begin on August 23. Despite allegations of misconduct, Clinton has not backed down on his support for Elders for the nomination. News reports indicate that Elders' confirmation hearings may start this month [July] - write your representatives, and let them know your views! [1] National Review, April 26, 1993, pg. 38 [2] Insight Magazine, April 12, 1993, pg. 26 [3] Insight Magazine, October 12, 1992, pg. 6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Fighting Abortion: The Right to Write In another list someone asked what those of us who oppose abortion do to fight it. Much of what I do is standard: I pray for the success of the right to life movement and the conversion of abortionists, I contribute money to pro-life groups: political action groups, legal defense groups, educational groups, and groups that help women with problem pregnancies, I attend some marches and rallies, I write to public officials. However, I also do something that too many pro-lifers neglect. I write letters to editors. I am posting this to encourage more of you to do the same. Studies show that the letters to the editor column is one of the most popular and widely read parts of newspapers. A letter that presents facts or arguments against abortion can reach many uncommitted people who might otherwise not see that information. Also, many papers have a policy of printing letters on each side of a controversial issue in proportion to the number of letters received on each side, so even if your letter is not published, it can help get another pro-life letter published. (And at least one person at the newspaper or magazine office will read it.) A brief letter that covers one point is more likely to be printed than a long, comprehensive letter. Because I write a lot of letters I have a LETTERS subdirectory in my computer at home, with letters to a number of newspapers, magazines, and public officials. Each has my return address, including the telephone numbers some publications require for verification, and the complete mailing address of the publication or individual. All I have to do is call up the file, CHANGE THE DATE, delete the previous letter, and write the new one. I am including two letters I wrote recently because they include documentation that might be useful. You also can write letters answering arguments in previous letters, editorials, columns, etc. that supported abortion. The first letter (which was published) I wrote to a local weekly newspaper, responding to a review of a show at the Nassau Coliseum: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Reviewer Elyse Trevers reports that the first part of George Carlin's comedy act is a diatribe against pro-lifers. She quotes him as saying, "How come, when it's us it's an abortion; when it's a chicken, it's an omelet?" Mr. Carlin apparently never noticed that there are a lot of restaurants serving fried chicken, but no restaurants serving fried people. Human life is special, and an unborn child is a member of the human species and is alive and growing inside her mother's womb. Many supporters of abortion claim that it is not the killing of a human being, but some admit that it is. The September 1970 issue of _California Medicine_, the journal of the California Medical Association contained an editorial, "A New Ethic for Medicine and Society" The editorial advocated adopting this new, relativistic ethic to replace "the traditional western ethic [which] has always placed great emphasis on the intrinsic worth and equal value of every human life regardless of its stage or condition." The editorial said, "The process of eroding the old ethic and substituting the new has already begun. It may be seen most clearly in changing attitudes toward human abortion. In defiance of the long held Western ethic of intrinsic and equal value for every human life regardless of its stage, condition, or status, abortion is becoming accepted by society as moral, right, and even necessary. It is worth noting that this shift in public attitude has affected the churches, the laws, and public policy rather than the reverse. Since the old ethic has not yet been fully displaced it has been necessary to separate the idea of abortion from the idea of killing, which continues to be socially abhorrent The result has been a curious avoidance of the scientific fact, which everyone really knows, that human life begins at conception and is continuous whether intra- or extra-uterine until death. The very considerable semantic gymnastics which are required to rationalize abortion as anything but taking a human life would be ludicrous if they were not often put forth under socially impeccable auspices." -- -- -- -- -- -- -- The second letter was occasioned by an exchange in the House of Representatives last week. I sent versions of this to several newspapers and magazines, and to two of the pro-abortion politicians involved in the exchange. I included the final paragraph only in the version that went to the two politicians. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a eugenic racist who considered everyone not of Northern European ancestry to be of inferior stock. She wrote slogans such as, "More children from the fit, less from the unfit--that is the chief aim of birth control." In a letter to Clarence Gamble, another eugenic racist, dated October 19, 1939, she discussed a plan to hire "three or four colored ministers" to promote birth control among African Americans. She wrote, "We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to their more rebellious members." (Linda Gordon, _Woman's Body; Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America_, 1976). More recently, the October 12, 1980 _San Diego Union_ quoted Dr. Edward Allred, a wealthy abortionist who runs over 30 abortion clinics in California, as saying, "Population control is too important to be stopped by some right-wing pro life types. Take the influx of Hispanic immigrants. Their lack of respect for democracy and social order is frightening. I hope I can do something to stem that tide. I'd set up a clinic in Mexico for free if I could. Maybe one in Calexico would help. The survival of our society could be at stake." The paper also quoted him as saying, "When a sullen black woman of 17 or 18 can decide to have a baby and get welfare and food stamps and become a burden to us all, it's time to stop. In parts of South Los Angeles having babies for welfare is the only industry the people have." Therefore, when Congressman Henry Hyde warned that providing taxpayers' money for abortions would be saying, in effect, "we'll give you a free abortion because there are too many of you people," he was completely accurate. I urge you to use your position to help poor people by eliminating poverty, not to help eliminate poor people. - Marty Helgesen [We'll have more on exercising your right to write in the next issue. --Ed.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Reader Questions Subject: Protests in the 1960s I'm not _quite_ old enough to actually remember the turmoil of the 60s. Can anyone compare (either from personal recollection or from third party accounts) the efforts of some law enforcement and court personnel to restrict abortion protests to any similar efforts to limit protests during the 1960s? I am continually amazed by what seem to be coordinated efforts by members of the legal system to ``quell'' non-violent abortion protests... Did the same thing occur then? - Greg Welch Subject: Supporting Military Doctors Does anyone know of any way to voice support for doctors in the military who are refusing to perform abortions? I have a cousin who is a doctor (not in the military) who almost *wasn't* a doctor because she refused to assist in abortion procedures while doing her intern work. - Greg Welch Subject: Both versions of FOCA Does anyone have copies of both the senate and house versions of the FOCA?? I understand there are differences, and would like to examine them...thanks! - Bryan Boyle [Our archives only have a copy of the 1993 House Bill H.25 and a 1992 versions of the Senate bill (S.25)] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote of the Month: "Let there be no misunderstanding. The fight for life and Truth is not for professional warriors, but for those common folk who love peace. We simply want to get back to the business of living decent lives, knowing that the weak and the defenseless among us are cared for and respected. We do not enjoy resistance, but we will endure it in the interest of Truth." - Jeff Ostrander, founding director of the Pregnancy Resource Center in Grand Rapids Michigan. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Credits: | | 1 - Many thanks to reader Claude Garner. | | 2 - From a 14 July 1993 (Philadelphia) UPI Report. | |3,4- From the _Feminists for Life E-mail Newsletter_ v1n1, June 1993. Again, | | many thanks to reader Dean Schulze. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Anyone desiring information on specific prolife groups, literature, tapes, or help with problems is encouraged to contact the editor.