Pro-Life Times: March 2002

Irish government's abortion blackmail

by John Smeaton

A leading Irish pro-life group has condemned as "blackmail" a threat by Mr Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister (Taoiseach), that his government will introduce liberal abortion legislation unless the Irish people vote for far-reaching pro-abortion changes to the Irish constitution.

Mary Thornton, leader of Ireland for Life, said: "In a 1983 referendum, Irish citizens voted for a constitutional amendment to protect unborn children. In that amendment, the Irish State was pledged to protect unborn children in its laws.

"That protection was undermined - not by the Irish people - but by a perverse decision of the Supreme Court in the X case in 1992. The Supreme Court, contrary to all reasonable expectations, allowed abortions in the case of threatened suicide.

"Now the Irish government has announced a new referendum which will further undermine constitutional protection for the right to life of unborn children. Moreover, they are blackmailing the Irish people by warning that unless we vote for their damaging proposals, they will legislate for liberal abortion themselves. This is completely unacceptable."

If passed, the referendum's proposals would repeal sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, the only law in Ireland making it a criminal offence to kill a pre-implanted embryo. The constitutional pledge by the Irish State to guarantee by its laws "to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right [to life of the unborn]" would be broken.

The use of drugs and devices that cause abortions before an embryo can implant in the womb (e.g. morning-after pills and IUDs) would be protected by law, and the door would be opened to laboratory techniques which invariably involve frequent destruction of human embryos (e.g. human cloning and in vitro fertilisation). Furthermore, direct (intentional) abortion on the vague ground of "saving the life of the mother" would be allowed (throughout the whole of pregnancy) - the loophole through which legalised abortion was first introduced in Britain.

The abortion referendum in the Irish Republic comes in the same month as the pro-abortion Family Planning Association makes a legal challenge in Belfast to Northern Ireland's pro-life laws. SPUC is intervening in that case to ensure that the overwhelming pro-life majority in Northern Ireland is represented.

Hope survives

Kabul, Afghanistan - Gul Chari holds her baby, born prematurely by caesarian section last November. The attending doctor said both mother and baby were suffering from malnutrition. Yet every new baby is a sign of hope. A new generation is needed to rebuild the country. It is tragic that the violence suffered by the Afghan people is being extended to their unborn citizens now that abortion has been made legal there again. See report on back page.

Comment

Gillian Foster, married with three daughters, describes herself as a freelance housewife. She is on the pastoral team at her local Baptist church. She is Secretary of SPUC's Bedford branch, helps man the British Victims of Abortion telephone helpline, and is on the SPUC Evangelicals Division national committee.

To be pro-life is not a neutral option. I was holding a SPUC collecting tin in Bedford when a man came up to me, stared me straight in the eye and said: "You are so evil". Half an hour later another man came up to me and gave me a bunch of flowers! It can take courage to speak out for those who have no voice, but how worthwhile and how essential in our time.

Eighteen years ago, never having thought about the issue, I was offered an abortion by a kindly-meaning doctor as I struggled to come to terms with an unexpected pregnancy. I turned the offer down, but realised how easy it had become in our society to let the next generation die merely because of inconvenience. In our school classrooms one chair in five is now empty because of abortion. God, who loves each individual, is grieved and angry. How can we who are His church do nothing? SPUC Evangelicals has just produced an excellent two-part video - "And still they weep". It's perfect to stimulate new thought in Protestant Bible-believing churches and study groups. Could you somehow use a copy of this superb video? See advertisement on page 3.

Father God, thank you for the courage of each one who makes a stand, big or small, for the sanctity of human life in our society. Bless them and encourage them. May the new video be used to awaken hearts, minds and voices of Your evangelical people across the land. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Setback in campaign against cloning

by Staff reporter

The Pro-Life Alliance legal action to prevent human cloning suffered a serious setback in January when the Court of Appeal ruled that the production of "carbon-copy embryos" in the laboratory can go ahead. The Appeal Court was over-ruling a High Court decision from last November which said that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority did not have power to license or prohibit research on cloned human embryos.

"This latest ruling shows the Government's determination that Britain should be ahead of the world in the race to clone human embryos for research," said Paul Tully of SPUC. "The Govern-ment's repeated assurances that the production of cloned babies will not happen are transparently worthless."

This is what has happened so far:

December 2000: the Government used a statutory instrument to amend the law to facilitate experiments on cloned human embryos.
December 2000: the Pro-Life Alliance launched a legal challenge to the statutory instrument, which came to court 11 months later.
January 2001: the Government established a Select Committee to investigate stem-cell research - a field in which scientists want to use cloned human embryos - but the statutory instrument permitting such research had already been passed (see above), and the Committee is regarded as a sop to opponents of cloning.
November 2001: the Pro-Life Alliance won success, when the High Court declared that the statutory instrument was improper - it did not actually cover cloning. The Government lodged an appeal.
December 2001: the Government introduced a new law, which was full of loopholes, banning doctors from placing a cloned embryo in a woman's womb. They used "emergency" powers (designed to deal with terrorists) to force the law through, while ensuring that no restrictions on producing cloned embryos for research could be discussed.
January 2002: the Government succeeded in getting the Court of Appeal to reverse the November decision of the High Court. The Appeal Court ruled that the embryo authority did have the power to license cloning for research.
The Pro-Life Alliance is now seeking leave to appeal to the House of Lords.

Irish government's pro-abortion referendum

by John Smeaton, National Director, SPUC

The Irish government's referendum on abortion includes the following proposals:

It removes the protection of the criminal law from the pre-implantation embryo, thus rendering lawful the, abortion-inducing morning-after pill and other abortifacient drugs and devices. This point has been stressed again and again by the Irish prime minister, the health minister, and other government ministers, as well as by leading lawyers in the Republic of Ireland.
It opens the door to human embryo experimentation.
It copperfastens Irish citizens' right to travel to obtain an abortion and to receive information on abortion services. This situation, dating from the 1992 abortion referendum, has already led to a sharp increase in the number of abortions on Irish women and it will now grow worse still.
It allows direct abortion throughout pregnancy in the course of an operation to save the mother's life and not only as an unintended result - in direct conflict with the teaching of the Roman Catholic church, to which the majority of Irish citizens faithfully belong.

These and other flaws in the proposals worsen the situation of the unborn and render unborn children even more vulnerable to future liberal interpretations of the law, not only by courts but also by individual doctors.

The proposals endanger unborn children worldwide. Governments elsewhere will say: 'If the Irish will accept such a law, our people will too'.

I pray that the Irish people will reject these pro-abortion proposals and demand a referendum which restores full protection for unborn children in their laws and constitution.

BBC supports cloning

by Anthony Ozimic

A highly publicised BBC television series, "How to build a human", included blatant propaganda in favour of human cloning. A few days before the first programme was broadcast on BBC2 last month, the series producer, Jill Fullerton-Smith, told BBC Breakfast TV that the programme was aimed at convincing people of the benefits of human cloning.

The BBC's publicity for the series describes the 21st century as a "new age [which] has provided us with a near god-like ability to manipulate and build human beings at will" The BBC also claims to have based the series on the "latest discoveries from the frontiers of science", yet the tremendous advances using ethically acceptable adult stem cell research were not covered. No scientist who rejected destructive embryo research was interviewed. Pro-lifers expressed concern that the BBC was set to run a repeat of the campaign it waged in the late 1980s to promote research into IVF, in the run-up to the legislation on embryo research.

News In Brief

GERMANY - Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German Catholic Bishops' Conference, and Manfred Kock, president of Germany's Council of Evangelical Churches, have written a joint letter to all members of the German federal legislature in defence of the early human embryo. The leaders insisted that all human beings had a "right to life and to unconditional protection from the moment of conception". (Zenit)

CANADA - the government of Quebec has banned all destructive research involving human embryos. The new guidelines announced by David Cliche, Quebec's Minister for Science and Technology, apply to both publicly and privately funded research. Gilles Grondin, President of Campaign Life Coalition Quebec, described the announcement as "the best pro-life news I've heard in 13 years". (LifeSite)

USA - Three people who played key roles in the legalisation of abortion on demand in the United States have come together in a major pro-life advertising campaign. Norma McCorvey ("Jane Roe" in the Roe v Wade case which declared a constitutional right to abortion), Sandra Cano ("Mary Doe" in the Doe v Bolton case which legalised abortion up to birth) and Dr Bernard Nathanson (co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League) have all reversed their views since the 1970s. (AP)

FRANCE - A decree published in the French Government's official journal allows all girls under the age of 18 to get the morning-after pill from pharmacists, free of charge and without parental agreement. Pharmacists are required to speak briefly to each girl to ensure she knows how to take it properly. (AP)

"Contraceptives" - are they killing unborn children?

by Antonia Tully

In over 35 years of campaigning to protect unborn children, SPUC has rarely commented on birth control methods. However, as the pro-life campaign grows to protect human embryos who are at risk from the morning-after pill - often referred to as 'emergency contraception' - the fact that other forms of 'contraceptives' can also induce abortions cannot be overlooked.

Antonia Tully summarises a new SPUC report, Current contraceptives: Preventing conception or inducing early abortion?

How do these contraceptives work?

Typically, contraceptives have several effects: stopping eggs from being released by the ovaries, thickening the mucus in the cervix, and making the fallopian tubes harder for the sperm to pass through. They also change the endometrium (the lining of the womb) to make implantation less likely. This last function is what concerns us. When this happens a newly conceived human baby is unable to implant in the lining of the womb and so he or she dies. A point to note is that the hormone progesterone is a critical factor in enabling the newly conceived embryo to implant in the womb. In contraceptives a higher proportion of progesterone means that the abortifacient effect is more likely and the other effects are less likely.

Are human embryos at risk? And does it matter?

Women taking the oral contraceptive pill sometimes become pregnant. Historically this has been put down to women not using the pill properly. However, there are studies which show significant 'breakthrough ovulation' which is not necessarily due to user error. As modern formulations of the pill contain more progesterone, ovulation is more likely to take place.

There is also evidence to show the reduced thickness of the endometrium in pill-users, which greatly reduces the likelihood of implantation.

Some people argue that because contraceptives are not intended to be abortifacient you cannot say that they are. However, an abortifacient is any agent which causes an abortion, regardless of intent. The pharmaceutical companies clearly state on their products how they affect the lining of the womb. Doctors and health professionals are also aware of which birth control methods prevent implantation, and by prescribing them show their intention for this to happen, as there are alternatives.

It does matter that human embryos are dying because their mothers are using abortifacient contraceptives. It does not matter how often embryos die - it only matters that they do.

Which contraceptives are abortifacient?

The following list highlights the abortifacient nature of some of the most common contraceptives. Combined oral contraceptives - pills, taken daily, with a balance of oestrogen and progestin. Among other functions, they change the endometrium and make implantation of the newly conceived embryo less likely.

Progestin-only pills - taken daily, they contain no oestrogen. They do not rely on stopping egg release and change the lining of the womb making implantation of the newly conceived embryo less likely, among other actions. Combined injectable contraceptives - injections of oestrogen and progestin given once a month. Among other actions they change the endometrium, making implantation less likely.

Intra-uterine devices (IUDs) - one action of IUDs is to inhibit implantation. In particular it is the new levonorgestrel-releasing IUD which relies even more on prevention of implantation. Norplant implants - a 'fit and forget' method of birth control which consists of six small flexible capsules filled with synthetic progestin (levonorgestrel) inserted under the skin of the upper arm by a minor surgical procedure. One function is to change the lining of the womb, making implantation less likely.

Progestin-only injectable contraceptives - injection of progestin given every 2-3 months. One of the functions is to inhibit implantation.

From the desk of Joanna Bogle

Honouring Cardinal Winning

Scotland is getting a new pro-life centre in the heart of Glasgow, dedicated to the memory of Cardinal Winning. Sister Roseann Reddy, who runs the city's Pro-Life Initiative, reports that the new centre, in Albert Road, will house all the counselling administration, storage of baby goods etc. under one roof. By spring of next year it will be a state of the art pro-life centre.

In 2003 they'll be having special celebrations to mark the Initiative's 5th birthday. Over £15,000 was donated by friends and supporters to the Initiative after Cardinal Winning's funeral, at the request of his family. The new centre will bear his name and honour the leadership he gave. In the words of Archbishop O'Brien at his funeral: "He gave a voice to the voiceless - to the unborn baby in the womb and to the pregnant girl."

Chance meeting helps pro-life doctor

Here's a practical and positive story about the way in which SPUC is creating a culture of life in this country. A young Iraqi doctor, living in the North East, found herself under pressure following her refusal to help complete an abortion started by another doctor in a major hospital. Her medical studies as a gynaecologist and obstetrician were at risk after this, when a chance meeting with a local member of SPUC led to the SPUC Educational Research Trust giving her financial help to finish her training.

In her letter of thanks the doctor writes, "In the future after I have started work it will not be financial help I require but support, encouragement and good practical advice as I intend to pursue my career on a fully pro-life basis." I'm sure pro-life readers will join me in wishing her luck.

National lottery

The National Lottery is funding a website which gives advice on sex and offers highly biased information on abortion. The website "TheSite" aimed at young people aged 16-25, is promoted by BBC Radio 1. It has been given £850,000 of lottery money in a 3 year grant. On abortion, it says that it is "a simple and quick medical procedure that will bring an end to pregnancy" - no mention of any complications, and the unborn baby is described a "the contents of the womb". Perhaps the governors of the BBC might be interested to know your view on this, and the National Lottery too. Write to: BBC, Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA and Camelot Group plc, Tolpits Lane, Watford, Hertfordshire WD18 9RN.

Tough students

I spoke recently at a meeting organised by the pro-life group at the University of Kent at Canterbury. This university attracts students from all over the world so there was a wide range of nations and races represented. It was a good evening.

But pro-life students need tenacity. I was shown posters for a forthcoming pro-life meeting, defaced with graffiti, plus a huge poster denouncing the pro-life cause which bore a sticker from the Students' Union. "We've had this sort of thing before," I was told. "You just get used to it and carry on."

Major new book defends pro-life laws in N. Ireland

by Dominic Baster

SPUC is launching a major new publication in defence of Northern Ireland's pro-life laws. Entitled A Way of Life, it is one of the most comprehensive books on the issue ever published in the UK.

A recent survey indicated that 71% of general practitioners, consultant obstetricians and psychiatrists in Northern Ireland were against the extension of Britain's Abortion Act, while both Unionists and Nationalists in Northern Ireland remain overwhelmingly opposed to liberal abortion.

Britain's Abortion Act does not apply to Northern Ireland, and the book points out that this is one of the reasons why it is the safest place in the UK for children, both born and unborn. However, pro-abortionists are mounting a concerted campaign to liberalise abortion law in Northern Ireland. A Way of Life is published just as the pro-abortion Family Planning Association mounts a legal action questioning the current prohibition of abortion in Northern Ireland.

A Way of Life provides a comprehensive exposition of the pro-life position and explains why it is so important for Northern Ireland to retain its legal protection of the unborn. The book carries a preface signed jointly by Nigel Dodds MLA of the unionist DUP and Danny O'Connor MLA of the nationalist SDLP, stressing the cross-community support for the pro-life cause in Northern Ireland.

A Way of Life will be sent to every school, library and elected politician in Northern Ireland after its official launch at Stormont, near Belfast, on 4 March.

UNICEF supports teenage abortion

by Staff reporter

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is supporting a South African website which promotes abortion for underage girls.

The LoveLife website tells girls: "It is your right to get an abortion. If people are unhelpful, don't get discouraged. Keep trying." Describing the abortion procedure as "a gentle suction", the website claims that girls will "feel a sense of relief" after an abortion and suggests that they should "celebrate together" with their boyfriend.

The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute revealed that the LoveLife website received "major funding" from UNICEF, which is well known for its support of abortion. In 1996, UNICEF announced its intention to distribute "contraceptives and drugs to terminate pregnancy" to "a million starving refugees" along the border between Rwanda and Zaïre.

An internal memo issued by the executive director of UNICEF in 2000 affirmed that adolescents should have "full access to information on responsible sexual behaviour, equitable gender roles and to reproductive and sexual health services", including abortion. The UN defines adolescence as beginning at the age of 10.

Abortion legal again in Afghanistan

by Paul Tully

Abortion up to the third month of pregnancy is legal again for Afghan women if their health is in danger. This announcement, by health minister Abdullah Fahim, came within weeks of the interim government taking power in January. All abortions were banned under the Taliban militia from 1996-2001. The minister said that abortions will be allowed with a certificate signed by three doctors and the permission of his department.

Days after the fall of the Taliban, Western pro-abortionists were pushing for abortion through the local representative of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. A representative of the London-based Marie Stopes International (MSI) has already visited the country to distribute birth control drugs. Peter Lawton, a regional advisor for MSI, said that his organisation might begin operations in Afghanistan soon, if the security situation improved.