News, 14 June 2000
The governor of Illinois has vetoed a pro-life bill which would have
stopped tax-funded abortions. Governor George Ryan, who has
consistently claimed to be pro-life, cited his concerns for women's
health because no 'health exception' was included in the bill. Backers
of the legislation could still seek to overturn the veto, but
commentators say that they are unlikely to achieve sufficient
majorities to do this in either the House or Senate. [Chicago Tribune,
St.Louis Post-Dispatch, Springfield Journal Register, 11-12 June; from
Pro-Life Infonet]
There are reports of a growing informal boycott of the annual bishop's
appeal in Calgary, Canada, after Bishop Fred Henry rejected his
predecessor's policy of refusing to fund any organisation which
supported abortion. Rod Sykes, former mayor of Calgary, said, "My wife
and a great many of her friends are refusing to support this appeal.
Henry made it plain that he'll give money to organisations that support
abortion, just because they support other causes he likes." In a speech
to the Alberta Pro-Life Alliance in May, Bishop Henry identified the
three possible responses to abortion as withdrawal, revolution and
involvement. Remarking that his predecessor Bishop Paul O'Byrne had
taken the first approach, he favoured the third. [The Report
Newsmagazine, issue for 19 June; on Pro-Life E-News] [A response to
Bishop Henry's comments by Scott Klusendorf, a guest columnist for the
The Report Newsmagazine in Canada, is at
http://207.34.57.66/MAGAZINE/guest.html ]
The organisers behind pro-life television advertisements in Canada have
claimed that the results of a new poll show that the commercials are
changing attitudes. The Pro-Life Society of British Columbia raised
217,000 Canadian dollars last year which enabled the purchase of 374
spots on four stations, and this year the amount raised is expected to
be more. Similar sympathetic and non-judgmental advertisements in the
US state of Michigan have been credited with reducing the abortion rate
by 43%. [The Report Newsmagazine, issue for 19 June]
A district judge in the United States has ruled that transportation
authorities in Atlanta were wrong to refuse to place advertisements by
the National Abortion Federation on its buses, bus shelters and subway
trains. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority had claimed
that it was within its rights to refuse advertisements supporting or
opposing a subject of public controversy, but the judge rejected their
argument that they had a compelling state interest in violating the
pro-abortionists' freedom of speech. The National Abortion Federation
has associated clinics throughout the USA and Canada, and their current
advertising campaign has so far run in 11 cities. [Newswire, 12 June;
from Pro-Life E-News]
To subscribe to SPUC's email information services, please visit www.spuc.org.uk/em-signup. The reliability of the news herein is dependent on that of the cited sources, which are paraphrased rather than quoted. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the society. © Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 2012