Pakistani Nurse Raped for Refusing to Perform Abortions

Charges Filed for Selling of Body Parts in New York, Philadelphia

Convicted Sex-Offender Abortionist Still Practicing

Research Confirms Unborn Learning About Outside World

Children with Down Syndrome in Demand

MS Abortion Site Stops 2nd Trimester Abortions While Waiting on License

AL Unborn Victims of Violence Bill Still Held Up by Senate Committee Chairman

NEW YORK CHOOSE LIFE LICENSE PLATE LAWSUIT CAN CONTINUE. Second Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Attorney General Spitzer’s second attempt to ban the phrase "Choose Life" from a pro-adoption specialty plate.  The three judge panel said Spitzer & officials "engaged in viewpoint discrimination."  [LifeNews.com, 10Mar06]

MS ABORTION SITE STOPS 2ND TRIMESTER ABORTIONS WAITING ON LICENSE,  Jackson Women's Health Organization [only MS abortion business].  State law requires abortion businesses to comply with commonsense standards that apply to legitimate medical centers. One rule ensures the safety of women by making sure an abortion practitioner has admitting privileges at a local hospital in case of a seriously botched abortion.

The two out-of-state abortion practitioners at the JWHO abortion center do not have local privileges. NC-based National Women's Health Organization operates the abortion facility. Since stopping performing the second-trimester abortions in mid-February, the abortion site has referred about 25 women to an abortion center in Alabama.  [AP; LifeNews.com, 10Mar06]

ALABAMA UNBORN VICTIMS BILL STILL HELD UP BY SENATE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN. A bill that would offer justice for pregnant women and their unborn children who are victims of violent assaults is being held up by a state Senate committee chairman. State Sen. Rodger Smitherman, [Democrat Bham, 334-242-7870] says he doesn't know if or when the House-approved measure will get a vote. 

"Mr. Smitherman just refuses to put it on an agenda for a vote," Parker told the Huntsville Times newspaper. With his daughter and grandson's death and a 97-0 vote in the House, Parker told the Times he thought that would be enough to move it through the Senate.  [LifeNews.com, 10Mar06]

PAKISTANI NURSE RAPED FOR REFUSING TO PERFORM ABORTIONS. A young woman was raped by 3 men in retribution for refusing to perform illegal abortions in a rural community in the western Punjab 22Feb06. Rubina K., 26, worked as a nurse in the Mattrai health center.

She refused to carry out abortions on 2 women, despite six months of constant pressure from the women’s families. “In the past our staff has been subjected to this type of victimization for refusing to carry out illegal abortions, but they have not raised their voices for fear of retribution,” said Riaz Hussein, of the Punjab Healthworkers’ Association.

Abortion is illegal in Pakistan after the fourth month of pregnancy, unless the woman’s life is in danger. Under the tribal system operating in isolated districts of the country, village leaders sometimes order gang rapes as a punishment against women for various social “transgressions”.

"The family came and harassed me but I never imagined they would do this," Miss Kousar said, weeping. "They have threatened my family with dire consequences if we do not settle this. But this is not the past when we can get pushed around." The UN has targeted Pakistan with aggressive population control measures over the past five years.

In November 2000, the UNFPA threatened to withdraw US$250 million in health programs if the country refused to accept an additional $35 million in funding for birth control and abortion. Pakistan succumbed to pressure and agreed to make population control a “national priority” in the country. 
[http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2001/apr/01042503.htm; Telegraph; Gudrun Schultz MATTRAI, Pakistan, 27Feb06, LifeSiteNews.com, http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/feb/06022705.html; N Valko RN, 28Feb06]

CHARGES FILED FOR SELLING OF BODY PARTS IN NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA. One district attorney called it “something out of a cheap horror movie.” He's referring to a case in which the owner of a biomedical supply house and 3 others have been charged with selling human body parts for use in transplants.

Investigators say the defendants earned millions of dollars forging death certificates and organ donor consent forms to make it look like the bones, skin, tendons, and heart valves they obtained from bodies from funeral homes had been obtained legally.

The case marks the first set of charges to emerge from a scandal involving hundreds of bodies, including that of “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke, who died in 2004. Some of the body parts could conceivably spread disease to transplant patients. The bodies reportedly came from funeral homes in New York City, Rochester, Philadelphia, and New Jersey that contracted with the Brooklyn funeral parlor for embalming.

The Food and Drug Administration recently closed Biomedical Tissue Services, noting that the company had failed to screen for contaminated tissue. The FDA said patients who received the company's products could have been exposed to disease, although the risk might be minimal. [NY, LifeNews.com, 5Mar06]

CONVICTED SEX-OFFENDER ABORTIONIST STILL PRACTICING: De-licensed California doctor is allowed to keep sites open. The sex-offender at a chain of abortion facilities called "Clinica Medica Para La Mujer De Hoy", which target Spanish-speaking women and accept cash only, officially surrendered his medical license to the CA Osteopathic Board rather than face a Hearing to Revoke License.

Despite the seriousness of the charges, the criminal convictions and the surrender of his license in February, Reich will be allowed to continue his practice unrestricted until April 14, 2006.

Laurence Reich has a history of two separate criminal convictions for molesting women during physical exams. Reich has two associates, each with a criminal conviction as well.

John Rivera, M.D., was arrested and convicted when he publicly groped a woman in the vaginal area while on the drug ecstasy. He is on probation with the medical board. George D. Flanigan, M.D., has a conviction for stealing from the state Medi-Cal program and is under accusation by the medical board for incompetence and negligence in the traumatic death of an infant, "Baby Girl Rodriguez." Despite his conviction for sexual misconduct, Reich was never required to register as a sex offender. He has abortion clinics in Chula Vista, Santa Ana, Huntington Park, Baldwin Park and the Los Angeles area. [http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49028;  N Valko, RN, 28Feb06]

FOCUS ON THE FAMILY OPENS INSTITUTE OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY IN OTTAWA A new research center focusing on marriage and family life issues, the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC), opened 3/06 in downtown Ottawa. The IMFC will conduct research and assemble resources on current issues impacting family life.

Everything from childcare to age of consent to issues such as stem cell research and euthanasia will come under the mandate of the institute. IMFC director Dave Quist: "We inform decision makers about factors affecting the family, and children. That's been one problem in the past-there tends to be substance missing from the debates." 

The institute will offer Canada's political leaders a solid resource for current information on family issues from a social policy perspective, and will provide analysis of the impact of policy decisions on the health of family life. Along with conducting research, the IMFC will utilize both Canadian and international sources, providing a Canadian context for information gathered from around the world. "Family is the foundation of our society," Mr. Quist said in a press release yesterday. "Without a strong family, society will weaken." [Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, http://www.imfcanada.org/; Schultz, Ontario, 24Feb06 LifeSiteNews.com]

RESEARCH CONFIRMS UNBORN LEARNING ABOUT OUTSIDE WORLD. New research funded by Pampers has confirmed that the unborn are actively learning about the outside world. The study group found that from at least 25 weeks, the unborn can recognize their mother's voice, and can react to taste, touch, and sound, as reported by Ireland On Line. Related coverage: Science Reveals Unborn can Dream, Smell, Hear, Remember Events and Feel Pain
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/may/04051707.html; British Study Shows Unborn Are 'Conscious Before 24 Weeks' http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/mar/03031006.html [24Feb06 LifeSiteNews.com]

CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME IN DEMAND.  "People think they are just great kids; people feel like they are very lovable," said Rachel Crews, a social worker with the Special Additions adoption agency in Stillwell, Kan.

Changing attitudes are helping unite these children with families, advocates say. "Society as a whole is much more accepting," said David Tolleson, executive director of the National Down Syndrome Congress in Atlanta. "You are much more likely today to see people with disabilities in the media, places of worship, schools. Whereas in a prior generation, mothers were told ... [to] put the child in an institution and forget about them."

That's what happened 34 years ago to a little girl named Martha, whose single mother gave her up for adoption. Martha was diagnosed with Down syndrome and placed in a group home in Cincinnati. But when Martha turned 4, Robin Steele and her husband met her and fell in love immediately. With one son already, they adopted Martha and have gone on to adopt nine other children -- three of them with Down syndrome.

Martha's adoption also spurred the Steeles to start the Adoption Awareness Program in conjunction with the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati, which connects people who want a child with Down syndrome with biological mothers or adoption agencies.  [AP, http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060212-112732-6787r.htm, 13Feb06] 

NB GROUP CALLS UPON OTTAWA TO INVESTIGATE MEDICARE FRAUD OVER ABORTION FUNDING; Says funding of abortions in private centers fraudulently approved for medical necessity. NB Right to Life also wants Health Canada to drop its abortion dispute with New Brunswick over that province’s refusal to fund such a site.

Peter Ryan [dir, NB Right to Life] says Medicare only covers abortion in cases of medical necessity: "Abortion sites provide abortion on demand; there is no assessment or demonstration of medical necessity. An unwanted pregnancy is not an automatic criterion of medical necessity, I know of no medical body in this country that would say it is."

The group says that 6 provinces are violating the Medicare provisions of the Canada Health Act by funding private center abortions under the guise of medical necessity: Newfoundland, Manitoba, BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. 

"In all honesty, these provinces are practising fraud," says Ryan. "The new Tory government, which promised to end corruption, should not stand for it."

The Canada Health Act authorizes the federal government to penalize provinces for violating the Act. Ryan added that the federal government should immediately drop its dispute with New Brunswick over the latter’s refusal to fund Henry Morgentaler’s site in Fredericton. "That dispute arose under the previous Liberal administration which favored abortion on demand. Unless the new minister, Tony Clement, favors Medicare fraud, he should drop the matter. It is not about being for or against abortion, it is a question of respecting the law."  [New Brunswick, 23Feb06 LifeSiteNews.com]

FEMINISTS STEP UP ATTEMPT TO RATIFY CEDAW TREATY. Liberal efforts for U.N. ratification of the radical United Nations treaty known as CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) is alive and well, as Concerned Women for America (CWA) President Wendy Wright found when she spoke at a 12/05 debate in the D.C. area sponsored by a group called Women Engaging Globally. Wright was the only one of four on the panel who presented a pro-life, pro-family and anti-CEDAW viewpoint. 

“The other speakers claimed that other countries—those that have already signed CEDAW—will not treat women decently unless the U.S. also ratifies it,” said Wright. “This is a form of blackmail. They also said that women in the United States have it as bad or worse than in countries that regard women as property.”

CWA has learned that at least 4 organizations are working to get CEDAW ratified:
Center for Women Policy Studies (www.centerwomenpolicy.org): Founded in 1972, it is a leftist, feminist “think tank” advancing abortion on demand, lesbian rights and other liberal policies. It seems to have more recently added an emphasis in foreign policy, which would explain its involvement in this coalition.
League of Women Voters (www.lwv.org): While the League is better known, a lot of people mistakenly think that because they label themselves as “non-partisan,” they are not political. The League’s founder, Alice Paul, wrote the original ERA. Make no mistake; the League is very liberal and pushing CEDAW ratification.
Women’s Environmental & Development Organization (www.wedo.org): Back in 1990, former congressman and radical feminist Bella Abzug co-founded this group to advance the U.N.’s agenda on a global basis.
Open Society: This is the front group for left-wing international financier, George Soros, who is best known for spending millions of his own money in an effort to defeat President Bush in the 2004 elections.
The forum heightened CWA’s concern about CEDAW for several reasons:
CEDAW supporters are pushing its ratification and building grassroots support through low-key events, such as the forum, in order to win passage “under the radar.”

The slow, low-key approach is designed to avoid scaring people and arousing opposition, as happened with the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.

This is an election year and, like every second-term president, President Bush’s influence over Congress is waning. He has declined to push CEDAW.

Public opinion polls show that if the 2008 elections were held today, Hillary Clinton would be the likely winner. Since Sen. Clinton, as first lady, was heavily involved in integrating U.N. policies into U.S. executive agencies and led the infamous U.N. Beijing Women’s Conference, it would be fair to say that her liberal agenda as president would be pro-U.N., pro-feminist and pro-CEDAW ratification.

“People should be concerned because the CEDAW treaty is everything that was bad about the ERA and much more,” said Wright. “I believe that liberal feminists are preparing the groundwork for the Senate to try a quick ratification strike that would give us little time to react.”

CEDAW could become the law of the land simply with Senate ratification.

The U.S. Constitution doesn’t permit President Bush to veto its ratification, and the House of Representatives is similarly barred from any role in its approval.

Ratification of CEDAW would require two-thirds of U.S. senators present to vote for the treaty. 

Capitol switchboard: 202-225-3121. [Concerned Women for America 3/1/2006, Robert Stuber]

UN CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY TO ENSURE ABORTION INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED AS HUMAN RIGHT. There is a new desperation at the UN to secure international recognition of abortion as a human right, as abortion advocates increasingly anticipate that Roe vs. Wade will be overturned in the USA, says Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse. Dr. Crouse is reporting on the 50th Commission on the Status of Women, held at the U.N. headquarters, 27Feb 27 - 0Mar06.

Crouse said abortion advocates with the Commission are resorting to complex language games in an attempt to push through policy that would protect abortion rights. In one instance, the definition of “fertility regulation,” a term used to refer to reproductive health issues, was redefined by the World Health Organization to include “interrupting unwanted pregnancies”—in other words, abortion.

She pointed out that in the material prepared by the Commission to address the health concerns of women internationally, the drive to enshrine abortion as a human right has taken over all considerations of authentic issues surrounding women’s health. “Every single paragraph in the section on health is about reproductive health. Further…reproductive health is separated from maternal and child health. In fact, there is a distinct hostility toward public health that focuses on maternal and child health. One would think that the only health problems women face concern reproduction.”

Dr. Crouse said the U.N. Commission makes absolutely no mention of the top 10 diseases that kill women worldwide, and even fails to address basic health issues such as malaria, tuberculosis, measles and diarrhea, many of which are caused by the lack of essential services.

“One would think these basic health necessities would be the top priorities in advancing women’s health, well-being and development. Yet, the health section of the document from the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women mentions none of the diseases that cause so many tragic deaths. Instead, the document mentions only reproductive health (meaning abortion.)...These meetings are totally predictable—now more than ever—in that it all comes down to abortion, all the time, every time, without fail, regardless of the announced agenda.” [Crouse’ report: http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10264/BLI/nation/index.htm; LifeSiteNews.com, 8Mar06] G. Schultz; Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D., is a Concerned Women for America representative to the UN. She is reporting from New York on the 50th Session of the U.N.'s Commission on the Status of Women; writing for The Beverly LaHaye Institute, CWA’s think tank]

Abortion Lies vs. Realities: Misleading Women About Their Health
At the 50th session of the U.N.'s Commission on the Status of Women, members of the Pro-life, Pro-family Coalition for Non-Government Organizations are distributing vital information about abortion -- information that flies in the face of the conventional leftist wisdom.

More importantly, it is information that could mean the difference between life and death for women around the world who hear nothing except positive portrayals of abortion by "women's rights" advocates. In fact, women around the world hear a constant refrain that abortion is essential to "empowering" women and creating "gender equality."

The counterbalancing information about abortion and its negative impact on women's health and well-being from pro-life and pro-family advocates is carefully, meticulously documented. It often comes from the liberal organizations that promote their agenda though headlines that contradict their own research and facts.

Here are some little-known facts about abortion that directly impact women's health and well-being.

Abortion data is incomplete and/or inaccurate.

While abortion is one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures in the United States, it is the least regulated, has less follow-up care, and is remarkably protected from the usual accountability for complications.

In fact, abortion has escaped the thorough review, regulation and accountability to which other medical procedures are subjected.

Doctors report that abortion is seldom identified as the source of problems or death: a medical diagnosis might indicate "severe pain" when the real cause is abortion. The medical records might cite "vaginal bleeding" as the problem when that bleeding stems from an abortion. An operation might be indicated because of a "ruptured ectopic pregnancy and internal hemorrhage" after an abortion fails to end a pregnancy. An autopsy might list as the cause of death "overwhelming sepsis" after an abortion gone wrong.

Medical progress, not the legalization of abortion, reduced maternal deaths.

The decrease in maternal mortality coincided with the development of better obstetric techniques -- antibiotics, blood transfusions and better management of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy – and improvements in the general health status of women.

In fact, even the United Nations Population Division and World Health Organization acknowledge that there has been no substantial increase in maternal mortality since 1995, even though more women than ever had access to legalized abortion.

Sadly, they acknowledge that 99 percent of maternal deaths occur in developing countries and that those deaths could be prevented with adequate basic health care and good obstetric care before and after births. WHO also supports the view that improvements in general health and the development of modern obstetric techniques would dramatically (WHO's word) decrease maternal mortality in developing nations.

Worldwide data does not support the conclusion that legalizing abortion is responsible for reduced maternal mortality. Ireland, with one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, has not legalized abortion. The United States, which "legalized" abortion in 1973 and has high general health standards, has a maternal mortality rate that is four times that of Ireland. In Finland, where abortion is legal, a study has shown that the risk of dying within a year after an abortion is several times higher than the risk of dying after miscarriage or childbirth.

Abortion can be very dangerous for women.

Three international health organizations -- UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO -- have published warnings on abortion. The major problems that women face from separation from the fetus (whether by delivery or abortion) are hemorrhage, infection and obstruction. These risks are relevant in both births and abortions because the woman who aborts is already experiencing the changes of pregnancy and, thus, faces the risks associated with childbirth.

Obviously, the risks are greater in developing nations where the general health care is poorer, antibiotics are limited, and clean facilities and drugs for hemorrhage are less available than in developed nations. Experts agree that the key to saving women's lives -- even in developing nations -- is to improve overall health care for women rather than to legalize abortion.

Abortion is four times deadlier than childbirth.
Abortion advocates routinely claim that childbirth causes six, 10, or 12 times more deaths than abortion. Abortion clinics advertise that legal abortion is many times safer than childbirth.

The statistical analysis agency for Finland's government conducted a very accurate and complete study that reveals that out of 100,000 women, there were 281 cases of maternal deaths – 27 were women who had given birth, 48 were women who had miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, and 101 were women who had abortions.

When the researchers calculated ratios, they determined that women who abort are 3.5 times more likely to die within a year than are women who carry to term.

More startlingly, the researchers reported that the risk of death from suicide within a year of an abortion is more than seven times higher than the risk of suicide within a year of childbirth. A Canadian study revealed similar findings, as did a study of Medicaid payments in Virginia.

Sadly, many women have none of this information about the dangers of abortion. Instead, they know only the front-page information that has become conventional U.S. wisdom. Indeed, only a minute number of abortion deaths are classified as such in official data -- which leaves women at the mercy of abortion lies instead of being well informed about abortion realities.  [Janice Shaw Crouse, 8March06, http://www.lifenews.com/nat2133.html]

Pro-Life Groups Submit Briefs to Colombian Constitutional Court. In early February several pro-life groups filed Amicus Curiae briefs with the Colombian Constitutional Court, which is hearing a case on whether Colombia will be forced to legalize abortion because of the supposed demands of international law.

A suit seeking to decriminalize abortion has been filed by Madrid-based lawyer Monica Roa in the Colombian Constitutional Court with the support of pro-abortion NGOs in the United States.

The legal theory of the suit generally rests on the widely discredited claim that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights together compel Colombia to legalize abortion. Last December that suit was effectively quashed by the Colombian Court but only on technical grounds.

Almost immediately after that ruling from the Colombian Court, which was adverse to their interests, various pro-abortion groups and Roa filed follow-up lawsuits that were supposedly cured of the defects in the original suit. 

A number of very prestigious pro-life lawyers submitted briefs to the Colombian Court including Valparaiso University Law School legal philosopher, Richard Stith; Harvard legal theorist Mary Ann Glendon; and William Saunders, a Harvard Law graduate and constitutional lawyer at the Family Research Council in Washington.  Saunders told the Friday Fax that the Colombian episode is more of the same from the pro-abortion groups. "Once again, it is the strategy of the pro-abortion groups to pretend that" there "are international standards that require legal abortion." Saunders pointed out that there is no international "hard law" — such as treaties — and no international "soft law" — such as customary international law — which requires the legalization of abortion anywhere in the world. Saunders addressed the issue of rape and incest saying that the Colombian Constitutional Court should understand that even though rape and incest are terrible crimes, "it compounds the injustice" of those crimes to kill the resulting unborn child. 

The Colombian Court is in the process of considering the case and the decision will not be delivered for weeks, or even months. On April 2, pro-life leaders are planning to lead a procession through the streets of Bogotá to protest this attempt by international pro-abortion radicals to force legal abortion on a sovereign democracy.
[10Mar06, C-FAM  , Bradford Short]