Crystal Meth User Found Not Guilty of Manslaughter of Her Unborn Son

Porn Common Among Child Molesters

Walgreens Fires 4 Illinois Pharmacists For Refusing to Fill Morning After Pill Prescriptions under Conscience Right

Intimate Partner Violence Injuries

Triplet Births, 1980-2003

New Test Could Diagnose Ovarian Cancer Earlier

PP Boycott List...

CRYSTAL METH USER NOT GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER OF UNBORN SON. Hawaii’s Supreme Court ruled 1Dec that 32-year-old Tayshea Aiwohi, whose son died 2 days after she smoked crystal methamphetamine on the day of his birth, was not guilty of manslaughter, overturning a previous court’s ruling.

The court’s ruling was based on the legal notion that an unborn child is not a person under the law and so no person was harmed when Aiwohi used the drug. No US court has convicted a woman for the death of an unborn child due to abuse in the womb. City Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Kim, decried the legal fiction of non-personhood of the unborn saying, “We continue to believe that babies such as Treyson Aiwohi deserve the protection of the law," he said. "And we also continue to believe that people like Tayshea Aiwohi doing what she did to her baby continue to deserve to suffer the consequences of the law for those actions."

A report from the National Drug Intelligence Center, says that crystal methamphetamine, known as “ice” on the street, is Hawaii’s greatest drug threat. Honolulu had the highest percentage of adult male arrestees who tested positive for methamphetamine among cities reporting to the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program in 2000.

The Center’s website says that abuse of the drug has caused many abusers to assault and even kill family members, including children. Aiwohi was shown during the court proceedings to have used the drug on the day of her son Treyson’s birth on July 15, 2001, and he died two days later.

The city medical examiner's office found high levels of methamphetamine in Treyson’s blood. Associate Justice Paula Nakayama noted in her decision the irony that an "overwhelming majority" of other courts have upheld convictions of persons inflicting injury on pregnant women causing the death of the newborn child, but it is impossible to prosecute and convict the mother for similar behavior.

The legal confusion caused by the acceptance of abortion on demand and the consequent refusal to recognize the existence of an unborn child, has created a set of irreconcilable conflicts in court cases of this kind. Nakayama said that the "logical implication" of the decision is that a person cannot be prosecuted for causing the death of a child by injuring the pregnant mother. [H White, 2 Dec05 LifeSiteNews.com]

PORN COMMON AMONG CHILD MOLESTERS.  40% of pornography users are molesters, a recent study released by the New Hampshire Crimes Against Children Research Center found. The report was based on interviews with police investigators.

“We have never found one case of child sexual abuse where the predator did not use or have in his possession pornography,” said Phil Burress, president for Citizens for Community Values.

The study details a strong link between the internet and child molestation, as well. Law officers point out how common it is for child predators to seek out children on the Internet. Parents are advised to monitor their child’s access to the web and to personal communication through e-mail. (Source: AFA Journal, “Porn Common Among Child Molesters, 09/12/05, http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/122005f.asp) Abstinence Clearinghouse, 10Nov & 16Nov05]

9th CIRCUIT ANTI-PARENT DECISION STIRS UP CONGRESS. On 16Nov, the House passed resolution H. Res. 547 [Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA)] denouncing the 9th Circuit ruling on 2Nov that parents' fundamental right to control the upbringing of their children "does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door," and that a public school has the right to provide students with "whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise." The vote was 320-91. No Republicans voted against this resolution, which has no practical effect except to alert parents to the  attack on parental rights. [18Nov05 EF News & Notes]

WALGREENS FIRES 4 IL PHARMACISTS OVER MORNING AFTER PILL SCRIPTS. They refused to fill prescriptions for EC "because the drug, which can sometimes cause an abortion, violates their moral and religious beliefs".  Several pharmacists have filed lawsuits to overturn it. John Menges said he was removed from his position because his pro-life beliefs compel him not to fill prescriptions for the Plan B drugs.  Ed Martin, an attorney for the pharmacists affiliated with Americans United for Life, which is helping them with the lawsuit, said the latest action is "disturbing." He said they would consider filing a lawsuit against Walgreens if the company didn't reconsider. [1Dec05, LifeNews.com]

GROUPS CALL FOR BOYCOTT OF AMERICAN GIRL COMPANY. Conservative groups such as the American Family Assn and the Pro-Life Action League are planning a boycott of the American Girl Company unless the toy maker cuts off contributions to Girls Inc., a youth organization that supports pro-abortion and pro-lesbian efforts. The company is best known for its popular line of dolls and children's books, including a series from different eras of American history. Ann Scheidler: "Parents need to know that…while Girls Inc. has some good programs, they also support abortion, oppose abstinence-only education for girls, and condone lesbianism."

AFA's Randy Sharp says that conservatives comprise a large share of American Girl's sales: "American Girl has won the trust of millions of conservative families. It's very popular among the homeschool movement because of the values the company followed. Now we find they're teaming up with Girls Inc., which supports the very things we oppose. It's very troubling." [AP, 10-14-05; EF News & Notes - 10/21/05]

PRINCETON BIOETHICIST PETER SINGER SAYS ONLY “KNOW-NOTHING RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS” WILL VALUE HUMAN LIFE BY 2040. Infamous advocate of infanticide and the man often credited as the founder of the modern radical animal rights movement, Singer was featured in the National Post  predicting that the traditional ethics of western civilization would shortly be abolished. Singer’s comments appeared first in the Sept/Oct journal Foreign Policy as a speculation on what social institutions would still exist in 35 years. [Hilary White, 2Dec05, LifeSiteNews.com]

INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE INJURIES. IPV is a serious public health problem in the USA and a common cause of injury. National data from the 1995 National Violence Against Women Survey indicate that 22.1% of women and 7.4% of men experience IPV during their lifetimes and that 1.3% of women and 0.9% of men experience IPV annually (2).

IPV results in an estimated $4.1 billion each year in direct medical and mental health-care costs, including $159 million in emergency department (ED) treatments for IPV physical assaults (3). IPV might constitute as much as 17% of all violence-related injuries treated in EDs (4). Intimate partners included current and former marital and nonmarital partners, dating partners, and same-sex partners. Males and females aged >15 years were included. Multiple ED visits for IPV injuries sustained during the same assault incident were counted once. Rates were calculated using U.S. Census bridged-race population estimates for 2002 for persons aged >15 years. A total of 3,988 ED medical records for assaults from the sampled hospitals were reviewed. Of these, 648 (16%) were documented as IPV assaults.

Among females, 575 (35%) of all ED assault records reviewed were IPV-related, whereas 73 (3%) of ED assault records among males were IPV-related. The rate of IPV injuries among black females was 2.8 times higher than the rate for American Indian/Alaska Native females & 4.7 times higher than the rate for white females. The most frequently injured body regions were the head, neck, and face (48% of injuries), followed by the upper extremities (25%), chest and back (12%), lower extremities (10%), and abdomen/pelvic region (3%)…The OWHS data further suggest that ED treatment for IPV injuries represents only about 10% of women injured by a partner each year... For injury surveillance purposes, IPV injuries were defined as intentional injuries inflicted by an intimate partner. Cases included only OK residents. [http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/otheract/ice/matrix10.htm]  [MMWR Weekly October 21, 2005 / 54(41);1041-1045 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC, HHS]

QUICKSTATS: RATE OF TRIPLET AND OTHER HIGHER-ORDER MULTIPLE BIRTHS --- USA 1980—2003. The rate of triplet and other higher-order multiple births increased substantially, from 37 per 100,000 live births in 1980 to 194 in 1998, a trend largely attributable to increased usage of fertility therapies.

During 1999-2003, the rate of triplet and higher-order multiple births has remained stable. Older mothers and non-Hispanic white mothers are the most likely to have a triplet or higher-order multiple birth. [Martin JA, Hamilton BE, Sutton PD, Ventura SJ, Menacker F, Munson ML; Births: final data for 2003. National vital statistics reports, vol. 54, no. 2. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics; 2005. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_02.pdf; Reynolds MA, Schieve LA, Martin JA, et al. Trends in multiple births conceived using assisted reproductive technology, United States, 1997--2000. Pediatrics 2003;111:1159—66; 20Oct05, CDC, MMWR  http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5441a10.htm]

ALGORITHM BLOOD TEST COULD HELP DIAGNOSE OVARIAN CANCER EARLIER, STUDY SAYS – analysis of proteins in blood samples may be able to help doctors detect early-stage ovarian cancer [study publ. 1Dec05 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; Long Island Newsday]. 

Although nearly 25,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year and 14,000 women die each year of the cancer, ovarian cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to detect at an early stage.  Dr. Lance Liotta [National Cancer Institute] and Dr. Emanuel Petricoin [FDA] have been working to find a highly accurate detection method for ovarian cancer.  Along with researchers from Bethesda, Md.-based Correlogic Systems -- which developed the test -- the team last year published a preliminary study in the Lancet that found a new computer-based diagnostic test can accurately distinguish between blood samples from women with ovarian cancer and samples from women without the disease. 

The researchers, who had identified a pattern of five proteins unique to ovarian cancer patients' blood, used the computer program to look for that pattern among the study participants who had confirmed ovarian cancer and patients who were cancer-free. 

The scientists evaluated 50 women with ovarian cancer and 66 women without the disease and found that the test correctly identified all 50 samples from the cancer patients, including 18 samples from women with "Stage I" cancer, or the early form of the disease. The test also recognized 63 of the 66 samples that were non-cancerous (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 2/8/02).  Stony Brook University biostatistician Wei Zhu then refined the math of the algorithm; clinical trials are being organized.  Zhu estimates that the blood test could be available within a year [Ricks, Long Island Newsday, 12/2; 3Dec03 Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report (not prolife) kaisernetwork.org] 

FUDGING THE DATA ON HOMOSEXUAL PARENTING. According to media reports, Dr. Ellen C. Perrin, a long-time advocate for homosexual parents, has released another study purporting to show "that children of homosexual parents do as well as children whose parents are heterosexual in every way."

It will take time to examine the full study, but there are good reasons for skepticism. Even pro-homosexual researchers, like sociologist Judith Stacey, have acknowledged that previous claims of "no difference" between children raised by homosexual and heterosexual parents were unsupportable.

Perrin claims between one and six million children are being raised by "committed lesbian or gay couples." Since the 2000 census showed only 600,000 same-sex partner households nationwide, the upper range of Perrin's estimate would yield an astonishing ten children per homosexual couple! Another red flag is Perrin's statement that "single heterosexual parents' children have more difficulties" than children of homosexual parents. Advocates for homosexual parents can only achieve their desired result by comparing their outcomes with those of dysfunctional heterosexual family structures such as single-parent households. They know perfectly well that direct comparisons between homosexual couples and heterosexual married couples would show the latter provide the superior environment for child-rearing.   [FRC, 17Oct05; WebMD Report via CBSNews.com]   

VA PLANNED PARENTHOOD BOARD MEMBERS RESIGN OVER MISMANAGEMENT. Planned Parenthood has opened a new multimillion dollar abortion business, but at least 4 members of the local board of directors have resigned because of concerns about mismanagement/poor leadership. They issued a 7-page no confidence statement which questions the leadership of president and CEO David Nova.

Shortly after the abortion business opened the doors, pro-life advocates began protesting and filed a lawsuit saying the new facility violates local zoning laws [The Hook magazine]. The 10Oct memo describes the situation at the abortion business as "deteriorating" and its funding base in the community "eroding." The statement calls Planned Parenthood's programs "dysfunctional" and the abortion facility a "failing business." It notes that several major fundraising pledges have been withdrawn and other major donors are right behind them. The magazine also reports that a local attorney who is the Treasurer for the abortion business came to Nova's defense. Al Knighton: "I think those four board members were acting in good faith. I think they were misguided." He contends an audit showed donations accounting for just 1.7% of Planned Parenthood's revenue and says income from services is up 15 percent. [The Hook magazine; Ertelt, LifeNews.com 1Dec05]

NEW PP BOYCOTT TARGETS NAMED. Life Decisions International (LDI) will release a revised edition of The Boycott List on 1 Dec 05. The List identifies corporations that are boycott targets due to their support of Planned Parenthood, the world's primary abortion-advocacy group. "So far, as a direct result of the commitment, action and prayers of pro-family people, a minimum of 122 corporations have agreed to stop funding the abortion-committing goliath," said Thomas Strobhar, [chair LDI].

Corporations slated to appear on The Boycott List for the first time include: AIG (financial/insurance), Altria (Phillip Morris, Nabisco, and Kraft products, Post cereals, etc.), Circuit City (retail electronics outlet), Cost Plus World Market (retail stores), Price Chopper/Mini Chopper (supermarkets/convenience stores), New World Restaurant Group (Chesapeake Bagel Bakery, Einstein Bros Bagels, Manhattan Bagel, etc.), Nike (apparel/footwear, etc.), Tommy  Hilfiger (apparel, etc.), and SBC Communications (AT&T, Cingular Wireless, Southwestern Bell, etc.), among others.

The new Boycott List will include a revised "Dishonorable Mention" section, which identifies charitable groups that are associated with Planned Parenthood and/or its agenda.

Among the groups to be named in the "Dishonorable Mention" section are The American Cancer Society, Camp Fire, The Dr. Phil Foundation, Girls Inc., Girl Scouts, Rotary Clubs, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the YWCA. LDI has intensified its research into companies that operate in a limited area. A revised list of local/regional boycott targets may be found at: http://fightpp.org/show.cfm?page=regional. "We ask all people who care about life to visit this page and determine which businesses in their area are supporting Planned Parenthood," Strobhar said.

"We urge picketing, letter-writing, and personal visits to these establishments. It's important for pro-family people to let these entrepreneurs know how they feel…As LDI President Douglas R. Scott said in his book, Bad Choices: A Look Inside Planned Parenthood, 'The Pro-Life Movement will succeed only to the extent that pro-life people are willing to be inconvenienced.' As for me, the very lives of children are worth that much effort and a whole lot more," Strobhar said. [28Nov05, www.fightpp.org; http://www.fightpp.org/show.cfm?page=boycott]

STICK 'EM UP, DOCTOR'S ORDERS. In Montana, James S. Bischoff was only accused of being a bad doctor. In Idaho, he's considered nothing short of a gun-toting highwayman. Bischoff, 47, scandalized MT last year when he was charged with negligent homicide for giving 85-year-old Kathryn Dvarishkis a lethal injection, which caused her to have a fatal heart attack, a "mercy killing." Her family didn't agree. Bischoff later agreed to serve two and a half years in prison (out of a possible 20) for the crime, as well as for the crime of prescribing 32,000 doses of Oxycontin, Adderal and other controlled substances that he couldn't account for when asked to by Drug Enforcement Administration officials last year. In Idaho, he walked into a  bank wearing ski goggles and brandishing a handgun, while out on bail from the other crimes. Bischoff has pleaded innocent, and is waiting for trial in jail on $750,000 bail. [http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A156142; 30Nov0; N. Collias]