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By Katherine Sabelko
In an unprecedented action, His Excellency Thomas J. O'Brien, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, ordered all parishes to have his letter read at all Sunday Masses. His reference to Judge William Sargeant, who sent a 14-year-old girl out of state to have her 24-week-old child in the womb killed, and to Gov. Jane Hull was clear. The Bishop was "simply appalled by the court decisions, which circumvented the state laws," referring to the judge's stunning disregard for human life and his lack of understanding in a situation where a young girl makes a decision that she is not capable of making emotionally or intellectually.
Reports that are coming to us are praising the Bishop for his defense of life. Most congregations across the Diocese applauded at Mass after the letter was read.
Though it is legal for an abortion at any stage of a pregnancy, as we fully know from the unsuccessful fight to end partial-birth abortion, the abortionists in Arizona do not currently kill babies that old.
Well, at least that's what they say. A quick reminder: John Biskind almost killed a full-term baby in an attempt to abort it at A-Z Women's Center in Phoenix last year.
This child, referred to as Baby 24 by pro-lifers, a child of a child, was carried out of state to be killed in another state, legally and with no rights, thanks to the order of Judge William Sargeant.
Arizona's formerly self-proclaimed pro-life governor, Jane D. Hull, initially backed the actions of the judge. This unbelievable coldness for the welfare of an unborn child and the cruel detachment for a troubled 14-year-old girl speaks volumes on her true stand - pro-abortion.
A candlelight vigil was held August 25 on the day the news broke, with Bishop O'Brien, clergy and people city-wide marching on the Capital, with Bibles and rosaries in hand. Another rally was held on the following Friday, with pro-lifers pleading for the life of the small defenseless baby.
Arizona House speaker, Jeff Groscost, an outspoken pro-life politician, told Arizona Republic reporter Chris Moeser, "We're extremely outraged. They are trying to take the child across the state line for a purpose, and that purpose is that they can't do it here."
Hull argued that as long as state money was not spent in this action, nothing is illegal. In fact, Governor Hull and the pro-abortion State Attorney General Janet Napalitano seemed more concerned that the information was leaked. Their concern was the public was alerted to the immoral decision of Judge Sargeant.
The very next day, Gov. Hull swung to the right and stated she would do everything legally possible to stop the abortion. Obviously, continued demonstrations at the court house and Capital had some effect. But sadly, in the end, the baby was aborted at George Tiller's abortuary in Kansas.
The words could not be clearer. By calling on all Catholics to become more involved in pro-life organizations, Bishop O'Brien has set definite guidelines for his people. The directives he gave will encourage all pro-lifers and hopefully cause the legislature, Governor Hull and the court system to take notice.
Several weeks later, September 29, another national horror probably took place in Phoenix: the killing of possibly hundreds of embryos by abortionist Robert Tamis, if the parents did not claim them. A morning prayer vigil, sponsored by Children of the Rosary took place on September 25, at Tamis's office at 2850 N. 24th Street in Phoenix.
Phoenix, once the home of 12 different abortion mills, has recently been blessed to see five mills closed. Bishop O'Brien's letter will push abortionists further back.
Bishop O'Brien's letter, read in all Catholic churches, September 5, 1999
Dearly Beloved in Christ,
I feel compelled to write you as your Bishop in light of recent events surrounding the 14-year-old girl who has been permitted by the courts to go out of the state to obtain an abortion — something I find to be totally abhorrent. In the strongest terms possible I must protest against this bizarre and gross occurrence allowed in the State which should be an embarrassment to all decent minded citizens.
I have great sympathy for the situation of the young mother, who is really a child herself. She is poor and vulnerable and without parental love and care. When I first learned of this incident, I issued a statement offering the resources of the diocese to assist her and her baby.
I am simply appalled by the court decisions, which circumvented the state laws enacted to protect the unborn and allowed the girl to seek the services of a major abortionist in Kansas. I find the courts' actions to be morally reprehensible. I am disturbed by the fact that some of our state leaders and agencies were reluctant to take action in defense of the unborn child. This should not have happened and should never happen again.
"I want to reaffirm the sanctity and value of life of the unborn and, in fact, the value and sacredness of all human life at all stages — whether born or unborn, young or old, rich or poor, healthy or sick. This is the teaching of the Catholic Church, which has a very long history of offering care and support of those in need, such as the case of the 14-year-old. Too often women turn to abortion because they are afraid and feel they have no alternative.
If we as a people settle for the direction set by these decisions, don't be surprised when the courts order a seriously depressed 14-year-old to go out of state for physican assisted suicide. Life decisions must be based on moral principles. If left to the individual choice alone, we will have nothing but moral chaos. Ever more and more, we are being engulfed by a culture of death.
I call upon you to support the pro-life movement in a peaceful and non-violent manner, and reject and challenge governmental actions which demonstrate callousness and indifference to human life. I call on you to support legislation which protects all life.
For my part, I will increase my efforts to make certain that our people, especially our young people, value the sanctity of life, particularly the life of the unborn.
Lastly, I ask for your prayers that hearts and minds will be changed among those who support abortion and that those of us who believe in the sacredness of human life will have the strength to continue our commitment to defend the basic and essential right to life.
Asking God's blessings upon you, I am
Faithfully yours in Christ,
Most Rev. Thomas J. O'Brien
Bishop of Phoenix."
The company which accepts our cancelled stamps for fundraising is located in Indiana. It would be more efficient to send the cancelled stamps directly to our Indiana coordinator, Caroline Kenny.
Please mail your stamps (trimmed to 1/2 inch around the borders) to Carolyn Kenning, 10610 West 124th Avenue, Cedar Lake, IN., 46303.
Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago, expressed surprise over media attention because he participated in a prayer vigil in front of an abortuary in July.
"The Church always accompanies the dying with prayer," he said, "People die in an abortion clinic, and it is good to pray for them and for the living they leave behind."
In the Chicago archdiocese newspaper, The New World, July 23, the Cardinal pointed out the error of those who believe that artificial contraception is a solution for abortion and that in the United States,
"contraception and abortion go hand in hand. Artificial contraception is no solution for abortion. In a culture that believes unwanted children should not be conceived in the first place and have no right to life if they are conceived, abortion is necessary as a back up when contraception fails, as it inevitably does at some time."
The Cardinal continued, "I was there because it must be said again and again that our society cannot indefinitely sustain the playing off of a mother's freedom against the death of her child."
Please think about Francis Cardinal George's example and plan to join us this week as we pray for the end of abortion on the sidewalks. What is more important than a child's life?
By Susan Martinuk
In an article by Susan Martinuk, a specialist in reproductive issues, Counting your eggs before they're grafted, National Post Online, September 27, the horror of science gone mad is brought into today's headlines.
A medical breakthrough that has the potential to reverse menopause and extend a woman's ability to bear children for an indefinite period of time has created all kinds of chatter about the horrors of 70-year-old women having children.
While some women are celebrating this seeming victory over Mother Nature, others are debating whether age limits should or could be imposed on women who want to use this technology to conceive. For example, legitimate concerns over children being orphaned at a young age are very real.
Allowing 65-year-old ladies, however, to have babies is not the worst mistake our society could make. A far more serious concern, and the one we should be addressing, is the source of the "young" ovarian tissue used in such procedures.
Essentially, this procedure involves freezing young, healthy ovarian tissue and then re-implanting it later on in the woman's life. The young tissue would resume producing the woman's biological eggs and thereby delay or even reverse menopause. The health benefits are immediately obvious to women -- no more physical and emotional problems associated with declining ovarian function.
Young women who can have their healthy ovarian tissue removed, frozen and stored will also be able to revive their chances of childbirth later on. Fertile women undergoing cancer or medical treatments that could destroy ovarian function, yet still want to have children, could fall into this category.
But what about women who haven't had the chance to freeze their ovaries while they were still viable? Where will they get ovarian tissue? There are two options: young, fertile women who donate ovarian tissue or, a far more likely source, aborted female foetuses.
The ovaries of unborn females are filled with more eggs than those of a young girl or fertile woman because the number of eggs is maximal prior to birth and then declines from birth onwards. Although the eggs are immature, they develop when subjected to the right hormones.
Which option will scientists choose? Getting an easy payload of eggs from an aborted foetus or performing an invasive, costly and risky surgical procedure on a young or adult woman to procure a bit of tissue and a few eggs?
Dr. Roger Gosden, the British researcher who developed this procedure, attempted to use ovaries from aborted foetuses to treat infertile women in Britain several years ago. In 1994, the British parliament passed regulations to stop such research and now Dr. Gosden is moving his work to Canada. Next month, he will take a position at McGill University in Montreal where he will continue this research. Indeed, the hospital has already invited women to come in and have their ovaries frozen. Unfortunately, there likely won't be a shortage of aborted foetuses to supply ovaries for those women who no longer have viable eggs but want an ovarian graft.
It is surely a reflection of the utter selfishness and shallowness of our culture that we would focus debate on the appropriate age at which to face the rigours of motherhood while turning a blind eye to the unpleasant reality that this technology uses eggs from aborted babies. Are we not concerned that we are about to create children whose genetic mothers will be aborted babies?
Large numbers of post-menopausal women are not going to rush out to become mothers. The health risks posed by increased stress on the heart and other organs during pregnancy won't be acceptable to most thinking women.
But this technology could prove irresistible to young, infertile women or to those in their late 30s and 40s who are experiencing declining fertility and could use a few fresh eggs to enhance their chances of conception.
We shouldn't be focusing on who gets ovarian grafts. The real debate is whether we are willing to accept the source of the tissue for the graft. I suspect that many Canadians are not.
The news on September 27 has continued the real-life horror story of mad scientists going amuck with the announcment that mice are now being implanted with human embryos.
These attitudes, showing the total debasing of human life, come directly from a society that believes man is almighty, that God is irrelevant and preborn babies are commodities to be bought, sold and cannabalized.
By Bradley Mattes
In the August issue of Connector, [reported on in CoR August issue] Dr. Willke brought you the shocking news that the abortion industry is involved in the harvesting of organs and tissue of aborted babies. As part of a two-year, ongoing investigation, Life Dynamics interviewed "Kelly," one of a team of individuals who work closely with abortionists to provide a wide range of human fetal tissue to pharmaceutical, government and university laboratories. Further, evidence shows that they will sometimes instruct the abortionist as to which type of procedure should be performed on the woman to ensure that the desired tissue is delivered intact.
Kelly's interview detailed the ghastly and often illegal procedures used to obtain the desired lucrative baby body parts.
Repulsed by the gruesome reality of her work, Kelly reported this activity to pro-life leaders and continues to work within the abortion industry, gathering information to expose the dirty and deadly secrets of so-called "choice." When we first broke this story in Connector, Dr. Willke was unable to reveal the documentation to prove Kelly's statements. The sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation dictated that we could not divulge this information without revealing Kelly's true identity. We can now share with you ironclad documentation that the abortion industry is indeed participating in a horrifying scheme to sell body parts of aborted unborn babies for profit.
Selling body parts or human tissue is against federal law, so how does the abortion industry circumvent this? Fetal tissue wholesalers pay abortion clinics a "site fee" to place employees, also known as "procurement agents," into abortion clinics to collect various body parts of aborted babies. In return, the employee will have access to all desirable fetal tissue. These agencies then ship the tissue to researchers at pharmaceutical companies, university research laboratories and government agencies. Technically the wholesaler is not paying for the tissue itself, but renting space to harvest the body parts. The abortionist then "donates" the tissue to the wholesaler.
At the other end of the transaction the wholesaler will "donate" the fetal material to researchers but bill them for the cost of retrieval. Thus the business deal is complete.
Life Dynamic's investigation has uncovered two fetal tissue wholesalers. Anatomic Gift Foundation (AGF) began doing business in 1994. Its founders, Jim and Brenda Bardsley, operate from a doublewide trailer near White Oak, Georgia. The location also functions as a catfish farm. AGF's headquarters has been moved to Laurel, Maryland, and Jim Bardsley's brother, Brent, is listed as the executive director. They have additional offices in Colorado and Arizona. Evidence shows that the Phoenix location deals only with adult tissue, but the facility in Aurora, Colorado is located in an abortion clinic called the Mayfair Women's Clinic. The person in charge is a woman named Ying Bei Wang. Representatives of AGF say they also operate in abortion clinics located in the Midwest and on the East Coast. In 1998 the National Abortion Federation listed AGF as a member.
The following is additional information on AGF:
Anatomic Gift Foundation
96 Satilla Drive
White Oak, GA 31568.
Phone (912) 576-5889
Fax (912) 576-3727
Anatomic Gift Foundation
13948 Baltimore Ave.
Laurel, MD 20707
Phone 1-800-300-LIFE (5433) or (301) 953-2702
Fax (301) 953-2701
Anatomic Gift Foundation (Mayfair Women's Clinic)
14446 E. Evans Ave.
Aurora, CO 80014.
Phone (303) 696-9761 (Mayfair)
(303) 755-8601 AGF voice and fax
The second wholesaler, Opening Lines, is located in West Frankfort, Illinois. It was founded in 1997 by Miles Jones, a pathologist. His partner, Gayla Rose, oversees operations. They are actively working to secure relationships with abortion clinics in Canada and Mexico. The National Abortion Federation lists both Miles Jones and Gayla Rose as donors in their 1991 annual report.
The following is additional information on Opening Lines:
Opening Lines/Professional Arts Lab, A Division of Consultative and Diagnostic Pathology, Inc.
PO Box 508, 502 W. St. Louis St.
West Frankfort, IL 62896
Phone 1-800-490-9980 or (618) 937-2439
Fax (618) 937-1525
Both wholesalers are located in small, rural areas in an attempt to avoid detection and pro-life protests. A spokesperson for Opening Lines, Dr. Miles Jones, bragged that even the businesses that rent in the same building are completely unaware of their clandestine operation.
Life Issues Institute has been provided with copies of 55 orders that have been placed for a vast array of body parts and tissue of aborted babies. This is merely a sampling of the numerous orders that exist. Copies of these orders are available upon request. Information that would identify the individual or facility ordering the fetal material has been omitted. Revelation of this information would reveal Kelly's true identity and stop further investigative work. Dr. Willke and I have viewed unredacted copies and can vouch for their detailed authenticity. We must caution you that this evidence is not for the squeamish reader. Orders for fetal materials are placed with a cold and callous disregard for human life. They demonstrate man's incredible inhumanity toward innocent unborn babies whose lives are viewed merely as a means of financial gain.
Highlighted throughout this article are excerpts of actual orders placed with these wholesalers. They matter-of-factly specify the tissue and quantity needed, detailed processing directions, shipping address, contacts with daytime and some nighttime phone numbers, and often a brief summary of what the tissue will be used for. They are careful to leave no loose ends. Even the Federal Express account numbers are provided for immediate shipment.
The documentation contradicts an often-repeated line of the abortion industry – that late-term abortions are seldom done and only when the baby has a health condition incompatible with life. The fact is that a vast majority of the orders for fetal material require that there are no abnormalities in the unborn baby. Neither do they want to deal with any sexually transmitted diseases. Almost exclusively, only normal, healthy tissue is accepted.
This new evidence also strengthens a case for what many pro-lifers have suspected all along – something that would be easy for the average person to overlook when reading through this documentation. One order requested 2-4 whole intact legs, including the entire hip joint of babies 22-24 weeks gestation. They outlined very specific dissecting instructions and required that the body parts be prepared for shipment within 10 minutes after the babies' deaths. That is an extremely narrow timeframe in which to perform various technical tasks. It increases the likelihood that the baby was not killed within the womb, but delivered alive, then killed and dissected. Another order specifically requested that the intact spinal column be processed "within 15 minutes after circulation has ceased."
Some individual orders required such a high volume of tissue that many unborn babies had to die to meet the demand of each one. The abortion industry is clearly involved in a lucrative, Frankenstein-like enterprise, and there is a seemingly never-ending demand for their human product that they are only too happy to supply. Evidence indicates that many pharmaceutical companies have jumped on the fetal tissue research bandwagon, frantically searching for cures that will meet the demands of aging baby boomers. These companies are well aware of the huge profits enjoyed by Viagra, which has even been eclipsed in profitability by a new arthritic pain-relieving drug. There is much money to be made by the drug company that can deliver the cure for Parkinson's or Alzheimers to our senior citizens, whose numbers are projected to vastly increase in the coming years.
Evidence clearly demonstrates that these wholesalers are in the business of selling human fetal issue. Opening Lines told Life Dynamic investigators that they offer volume discounts, free tissue to obtain new customers and occasional free tissue to good customers. Both AGF and Opening Lines provide a price list for their macabre services. AGF charges a flat fee per "specimen." However, the price varies depending upon whether it is a first trimester abortion or one done later in pregnancy, with frozen body parts costing more than fresh tissue and organs. There is a separate price for spontaneous abortions or miscarriages.
Opening Lines offers individual pricing per organ or body part. This is technically called their "fee for services schedule." Prices vary for the same organ procured, depending upon the gestational age of the baby, with eight weeks being the dividing line. A sampling of their inventory includes:
| an intact trunk (with or without limbs) | $500 |
| gonads | $550 |
| eyes | $75 (there is a 40% discount for a single eye) |
| brains | $999 |
| limbs (at least 2) | $150 |
| spleens | $75 |
| livers | $150 |
| spinal cords | $325 |
| Or you can get the entire intact unborn baby's body for $600. | |
Prices are in effect through December 31, 1999. They also offer a 30% discount if the tissue is "significantly fragmented."
Opening Lines is more aggressive in their marketing. They have produced color sales brochures targeting both abortion clinics and research laboratories. They even offer materials to abortion clinics designed to sell pregnant women on the idea of donating their aborted babies. This decision by women, the brochures says, will help "thousands of people with diseases and disorders that otherwise might not be cured without research." The brochure tells abortion clinic operators how to "turn your patient's decision into something wonderful."
The brochure targeting research labs is no less aggressive in its marketing strategy. They even claim that their "daily average case volume exceeds 1,500." Bold headlines tout "FRESH FETAL TISSUE harvested and shipped to your specifications...where and when you need it!" They offer fees "lower than the industry average."
There is an important element in this gruesome issue that should not be overlooked, and that is the total exploitation of the pregnant woman. First she is told that what she carries inside her is not a baby – it's a mass of tissue, a delayed period or a product of conception. If this were true, how does the abortion industry reconcile this rhetoric with a booming business in aborted babies' body parts? Women are further exploited when the possible physical complications are often sugarcoated or ignored all together, and Post-Abortion Syndrome isn't even acknowledged.
First, the abortion clinic staff misrepresents the reality of abortion. Then the unsuspecting pregnant woman is further lied to and exploited when they tell her that if she signs this permission slip she will be helping to protect and preserve life. Later in life, when women are ultimately confronted with the reality of abortion, possibly by giving birth, their world often crumbles down around them. At this critical point in their lives the abortion industry has nothing to offer these women. It is then that they come to the pro-life movement for help and solace. There they will find outstretched, loving arms to hold them and share their pain, while at the same time helping them begin the road to recovery. Is it possible that even the most ardent pro-abortion activist will, to some degree, question the rightness of their cause when learning about these grisly revelations?
Life Dynamics has prepared a complete set of documentation conveniently assembled in booklet form. It is available for $5.00, which includes shipping and handling. Please contact them for your copy(ies). Call them toll free at (800) 401-6494 or write to
Life Dynamics, Inc.
PO Box 2226
Denton, TX 76202
See page five to find out what you can do to help stop the gruesome and calculated abortion industry from exploiting babies and their mothers. ?
******************************
Our deep appreciation goes to Life Dynamics for the powerful documentation they have provided. Additional thanks go to Life Issues for publishing this excellent report on the Internet at www.lifeissues.org and providing graphics of the advertisements and the copies of the orders.
The following letter appeared in the Dallas Morning News, May 2, 1999, by Marcy Musgrave, who is a junior at Texas A&M University.
I am a member of the upcoming generation - the one after Generation X - that has yet to be given a name. So far, it appears that most people are rallying behind the idea of calling us Generation Next. I believe I know why. The older generations are hoping we will mindlessly assume our place as the "next" in line. That way, they won't have to explain why my generation has had to experience so much pain and heartache.
"What heartache?" you say. "Don't you know you have grown up in a time of great prosperity?"
Yeah, we know that. Believe me, it has been drilled into our heads since birth. Unfortunately, the pain and hurt I speak of can't be reconciled with money. You have tried for years to buy us happiness, but it is only temporary. Money isn't the answer, and it is time for people to begin admitting their guilt for failing my generation.
I will admit that I wasn't planning to write this. I was going to tuck it away in some corner of my mind and fall victim to your whole "next" mentality. But after the massacre in Littleton, CO, I realize that as a member of this generation that kills without remorse, I had a duty to challenge all of my elders to explain why they have allowed things to become so bad. Let me tell you this:
These questions don't represent only me but a whole generation that is struggling to grow up and make sense of this world. We all have questions; we all want explanations. People may label us Generation Next, but we are more appropriately Generation "Why?"
"Why did most of you lie when you made the vow of until death do us part?"
"Why do you fool yourselves into believing that divorce really is better for the kids in the long run?"
"Why do so many of you divorced parents spend more time with your new boyfriend
or girlfriend than with your own children?"
"Why did you ever fall victim to the notion that kids are just as well off being
raised by a complete stranger at a day care center than by their own mother
or father?"
"Why do you look down on parents who decide to quit work and stay home to raise their children?"
"Why does the television do the most talking at family meals?"
"Why is work more important than your own family?"
"Why is money regarded as more important than relationships?"
"Why is 'quality time' generally no longer than a five to 10-minute conversation each day?"
"Why do you try to make up for the lack of time you spend with us by giving us more and more material objects that we really don't need?"
"Why does your work (in the form of a cell phone, laptop computer, etc.) always come with us on vacations?"
"Why have you neglected to teach us values and morals?"
"Why haven't you lived moral lives that we could model our own after?"
"Why isn't religion one of the most important words in our household?"
"Why do you play God when it comes to abortion?"
"Why don't you have enough faith in us to teach us abstinence rather than safe sex?"
"Why do you allow us to watch violent movies but expect us to maintain some type of childlike innocence?"
"Why do you allow us to spend unlimited amounts of time on the Internet but still are shocked about our knowledge of how to build bombs?"
"Why are you so afraid to tell us 'no' sometimes?"
"Why is it so hard for you to realize that school shootings, and other violent juvenile behavior, results from a lack of your attention more than anything else?"
Call us Generation Next if you want to, but I think you will be surprised at how we will fail to fit into your neat little category. These questions should, and will, be asked of the generations that have failed us. You have pursued your selfish desires for years, but now is the time to reap what you have sown. Some rude awakenings like the Littleton massacre have occurred and probably will continue until you can begin to answer our questions and make the drastic changes to put us, your kids, first.
Time is running out, for in just a few short years, we will be grown, and it will be too late. You might not think we are worth it, but I can guarantee you that Littleton will look like a drop in the bucket compared to what might occur when a neglected Generation "Why" comes to power.
Dear Children of the Rosary Staff,
Thank you for your website.
I'm writing from the San Francisco Bay Area in No. California. I'd like to share with you a Purity Pledge that pre-married people, particularly youth, can make (this Pledge is from the Pure Love Alliance.):
"The pure relationship between a man and a woman is a sacred gift from God to be cherished and honored for the sake of building a true family, a healthy society, and a world of peace for future generations. Therefore, from this day forward I commit myself to:1. RESPECT and honor the ideal of purity in myself and others.2. PRACTICE pure love as a child, friend, spouse, and parent.3. REFRAIN from all sexual relationships before marriage.4. DEDICATE myself to absolute fidelity within marriage.5. ENCOURAGE others to do the same."
Please share this Pledge with your constituents. A friend of mine, Kevin Brugman, is the California coordinator for the Pure Love Alliance. He said the pledge is copyrighted and can be "reprinted with permission" -- so please use it.
Again, may God bless and guide your efforts.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Bento Leal
San Lorenzo, California
Married, 50 yrs old, father of 3.
Dear Friends,
As we near
We need help from Heaven if we are to see a return to sanity. Only when men and women have accepted God's Kingship over them, will nations have real peace, just laws, and a Culture of Life built on Love.
God gave a beautiful promise to Solomon in the Old Testament:
"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14.
In our own time Jesus sent His mother at Fatima, to tell us to do penance and pray the Rosary.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if God's people all over the world would spend the rest of 1999 in prayer for spiritual renewal? We could ask Mary to intercede for each one of us, begging her Son for mercy, for forgiveness, and for the restoration of a Culture of Life.
A Rosary Crusade begins at Our Lady of Angels Church, Woodbridge, Virginia on September 8th, Our Lady's birthday. We would like to present Mary with a bouquet of 100,000 rosaries by December 31, 1999. Will you help us to pray these rosaries?
You can e-mail your rosary pledge to childofmary@msn.com .
When you pledge your rosaries please include the date, your name, your affiliation, (if you're connected with a parish, school, group) your city and state, and the total number of rosaries pledged.
Please copy this and pass it to others who might help us.
Thank you!
Terese McGill
Child of Mary Group
Dear Group,
You continually surprise
I, like so many other people, was greatly disappointed in Bishop O'Brien for not standing up in St. Vincent de Paul's incident over bad boy Basha.
You rightly notified us of the situation and the lack of action by the Bishop.
Then I receive two e-mail announcements this month from your e-mail group praising the man!
Though I was very surprised, I was also pleased that you did not hesitate to give credit where credit is deserved!
Most groups, once they have closed the door on a public figure, do not have the guts to go back and open the door again.
Thank you for such fair reporting!
Thomas Klein
Casa Grande, AZ
Ed Note: Mr. Klien's reference to e-mail notification is a free service people can sign up for to receive last-minute news or action-needed reports. E-mail CoR at cor@childrenoftherosary.org if you wish to receive these types of notifications.
Thank you for sending me this news item about Bishop O'Brien's stand for pro-life.
I am Luhra Tivis Warren, a pro-life author and speaker. But back in 1988, I worked for George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas. He has been killing children in the 3rd trimester for almost 20 years now.
I am getting ready to take RCIA courses and hope to join the Church this year.
I'm hoping to quit my analyst job at the Arkansas Dept. of and do pro-life work
full-time. Please keep me in your prayers.
I am learning the rosary, but have trouble remembering all the Mysteries! Please
keep me on your mailing and e-mail list.
Luhra Tivis Warren,
Little Rock AR.
I often pray for a particular abortion provider, Brian Finkel. Suppose I am a little bit in the dark, but I recently noticed he advertises a website in the yellow pages.
Most of this is unnerving, but of particular note was how he speaks about the dangers of childbirth to underscore the dangers of abortion. I offered up many prayers and sufferings for this man and continue to do so, but this website of his is a slap in God's Holy Face!
Mrs. Tommie L. Richardson
Phoenix, AZ
Thank you & God bless you, your work, and all your associates. May God also especially bless your enemies with the descent of the Holy Spirit so that they, like St. Paul, can come down from their high horses & prostrate themselves before God & beg for forgiveness for themselves & for their neighbors that they have led so far into temptation.
A local public high school science teacher put it so well recently. He related that for the past 28 years he makes it a point to frequently write in big, bold letters on his chalk board: "ETERNITY, SMOKING OR NONSMOKING, IT'S YOURCHOICE!!" Somehow we need to get this message out to the leadership in government and religious groups. Not sure why anyone with even a basic education would want to dance with the Devil when Jesus has asked us all to dance with Him!!!!! Jesus is a much better dancer!!!!!!
If you have a way to pass this note to His Excellency Thomas J. O'Brien, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, please do so:
Would that our local Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Gary, Indiana, be so moved by the Holy Spirit. If we, in leadership positions, do not challenge this local, national & international disgrace, we will all have to pay the terrible price that the Lord will extract from each and every one of us, and not only from us, now & for eternity, but from our people for generations to come. If we don't do what our time, talents and treasures demand of us, it just might be better for all of us to have a millstone tied around our necks & cast into the deepest parts of the sea in an attempt to hide from the Wrath of the Almighty.
Let all of us be patient & obedient & learn from our teacher, Jesus, and accept our mission, the good, bad & ugly of it, and move with the direction and speed of the Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name & the Lord's time
Cy Huerter
Highland, Indiana
We just wanted to drop a line to thank you for your newsletter! We have supported your work for several years though we don't have an abortion mill in our area right now. Thank God!
Your newsletter is read from cover to cover as soon as we receive it. We have noticed that lately each month you use different layouts and columns. Congratulations! Most publications become very predictable and - sorry to say - boring to look at after awhile.
Bernie Mulhouse
Bozeman, MT
Ed. Note: Thanks goes in large part to Bob Novascone for his talent and his patience!
"Once again Planned Parenthood has forced its brand of sex education on parents and children," said STOPP International Director Jim Sedlak.
Sedlak was reacting to the news that the governor of California has signed a new law creating new sex education standards for California's schools. The new standards were championed by Planned Parenthood in California.
Previously, schools that opt to teach sex education were required to emphasize abstinence as the only 100% effective prevention method against pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease and HIV/AIDS. Planned Parenthood objected to that old law.
"Planned Parenthood-style sex education is nothing short of pornography," said Sedlak. "One need only look at Planned Parenthood's teen website (www.teenwire.org) or one of the books it is pushing "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris to understand how perverted the organization is."
"Parents should note," Sedlak continued, "that the new law does not require schools to teach sex education. It only requires certain course content if the school opts to teach sex education. We hope that all parents will now protect their children and insist that their schools opt out of sex education altogether."
STOPP offers a book to assist parents in ending sex education in their schools. The book is titled PARENT POWER!! and is available on-line [www.all.org ] or can be ordered from STOPP's resource department at 540-659-4171.
The following article was printed in the UN Population Report, proclaiming the Vatican had backed away from its defense of the unborn child...
Vatican "has accepted UN family planning", September 23, By Charles Clover, Environment Editor, UN Population Report, stated:
THE Vatican has given up attempts to stop the United Nations providing family planning for women in the poorest countries, a UN director said yesterday. Dr Nafis Sadik, of the UN Population Fund, said the Holy See had endorsed a five-year review of the plan for slowing world population growth. While the Roman Catholic Church continued to express its opposition to contraception, it had stopped trying to hold up proceedings by inserting reference to "natural methods" of birth control, Dr Sadik said.
She said: "They believe that the debate has been lost. Even strongly Catholic countries such as Honduras or Malta have family planning and sexual health programmes and the Church has let it go." Dr Sadik said that in some countries UN clinics and the Church's clinics were side by side and workers in the Catholic clinic sent some patients next door.
She said: "This doesn't mean that the Church at the top has changed its position. But it is accepted that the international community has accepted that family planning is one of the human rights of women. My opinion is that the Holy See has given up trying to change that position at the UN, though it always says at the end of the discussion that the Church maintains its position."
The UN strategy is helping to achieve a slowing in the growth of the world's population, which reaches six billion this year - a figure that will be celebrated on Oct 12. The annual increase this year is 78 million, down from about 90 million in the late Eighties.
Dr Sadik said China, the most populous country, had calculated that the world's population would have reached six billion six years earlier if it had not been for family planning programmes. The world's population had taken 12 years to put on another billion. The UN estimated that it might take about 14 or 15 years to reach seven billion.
The UN's population division now estimates that the world population will grow to between 7.3 billion and 10.7 billion by 2050, with 8.9 billion considered to be more likely. The 3.4 billion difference between the high and low projections reflects the different assumptions about world fertility rates. Annual increases are expected to decline from 78 million this year to 64 million in 2020-2025 and then fall to 33 million in 2045-2050.
Dr Sadik said the slowing of the population increase was not inevitable. It depended on the success over the next decade of providing universal health and reproductive health care to those who did not yet have it.
Some 350 million women - a third of all women of reproductive age in developing countries - still did not have access to modern methods of family planning, she said. About 120 million more women would use it if it were acceptable. About 585,000 women in developing counties died as a result of pregnancy and 70,000 died each year due to unsafe abortions. Aids caused by unprotected sex was shortening lifetimes in many countries.
The UN population report says the fastest-growing regions of the world are sub-Saharan Africa, parts of south Asia and west Asia.
September 24, 1999
Volume 2, Number 46
UNFPA head Dr. Nafis Sadik claimed on Wednesday that the Vatican has capitulated in its long-standing opposition to international family planning programs that include contraception and abortion. "This doesn't mean that the Church at the top has changed its position. But it is accepted that the international community has accepted that family planning is one of the human rights of women," said Sadik in a London speech.
In a statement expected sometime today, the Holy See will contradict Sadik's assertions. Veteran observers see Sadik's remarks as part of a continuing effort to undermine the Holy See's negotiating position at the UN. Sometimes joined by the Muslim world, frequently the Holy See is the lone opposition to the sexual and reproductive ideology of UNFPA and the rich industrialized nations. This has led to an effort by some NGO's to remove the Vatican's Observer status at the UN.
Sadik's comments came as UNFPA released its Annual Report on the World's Population. The cornerstone of the new report is that the world's population has doubled since 1960 and reached the milestone of six billion this year. UNFPA report also says that the world's population growth rate has slowed from 2.4 to 1.3 percent in the last 30 years. But the report charges that the current population bubble of one billion child-bearing adolescents presents a danger to the planet.
As a reaction to their fear that this adolescent cohort will reproduce itself, in the just completed Cairo+5 conference UNFPA and its allies in the developed countries attempted to promote the broadest possible notions of reproductive health for young people. At the same time they attempted to eliminate all aspects of parental control.
In light of recent criticism by American lawmakers, it was surprising that in her London talk Sadik also praised the government of China for its commitment to population control. Sadik said that the world's population would have reached six billion six years earlier if China had not adopted family planning programs. UNFPA has continuously praised China's efforts even though their family planning programs have included forced sterilization and forced abortion.
Steven W. Mosher, population expert and president of the Population Research Institute, today criticized much of the new UNFPA report. Mosher called the report "statistically misleading and designed to generate fear of an overpopulation crisis that simply does not exist." Mosher charges that the UNFPA report glosses over the emerging problem of "below replacement fertility." The UN's own statisticians believe that upwards of 87 countries will experience this phenomenon by the end of this year. "Below replacement fertility" means that a country is no longer reproducing itself and has begun rapidly to age. Much of the industrialized west is now experiencing this entirely new phenomenon.
Copyright - Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute.
Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall was famous for his words of inspiration from the floor of the Senate chamber. One of his favorite recitations was this poem by Josiah Gilbert Holland:
| GOD, GIVE US MEN! |
|---|
| God, give us men! A time like this demands |
| Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands; |
| Men whom the lust of office does not kill; |
| Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; |
| Men who possess opinions and a will; |
| Men who have honor; men who will not lie; |
| Men who can stand before a demagogue and damn |
| His treacherous flatteries without winking! |
| Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog |
| In public duty and in private thinking. |
The United States House of Representatives voted in favor of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (HR 2436), a bill to recognize unborn children as victims of federally-prohibited crimes of violence. The bill passed 254-172, over objections from the White House.
Under the bill, sponsored by Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), if someone injures or kills an unborn child while committing a violent federal crime against a pregnant woman, the assailant will be charged with a separate offense on behalf of the unborn child, with a separate penalty appropriate to the degree of injury to the unborn child.
HR 2436 explicitly says that it does not "permit the prosecution of any person for conduct relating to an abortion for which the consent of the pregnant woman has been obtained."
It achieves the protection of unborn children from acts of violence other than abortion, the recognition of unborn children as victims of such violent criminal acts, and the punishment of those who kill or injure unborn children while engaged in federally-prohibited acts of violence. The House rejected (224-201) an alternative proposal (the Lofgren Amendment) that reflected the position of pro-abortion advocacy groups that there is only one victim in such crimes, the pregnant woman.
"It is shameful that, urged on by the pro-abortion lobby and the Clinton-Gore White House, 172 lawmakers voted to defend the cold-hearted concept that if a criminal injures a pregnant woman, killin the child, nobody has died," National Right To Life Committee Legislative Director Douglas Johnson said. "In principle, this bill is like the law that Congress enacted without objection in 1994, which prohibits carrying out a death sentence on any woman while she is pregnant,"
Johnson noted. "Everyone recognizes that such an execution would take two human lives, only one of whom had been sentenced to die."
The House roll calls on the Lofgren Amendment and on final passage of HR 2436 are available at www.clerk web.house.gov [votes]. The text of the bill, as approved by the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 14, is available at the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org , along with other documentation on the issue of unborn victims.
The World Conference on Breast Cancer took place in Ottawa July 26-31. Dr. Joel Brind, an expert on research which indicates a strong correlation between breast cancer and abortion, says that he was all but shut out of last year's conference. Not one to give up, he is attending again this year with the hope that he will be able to break through the wall of silence on this issue that appears to have been set up by the medical industry and feminist ideologues.
Dr. Brind, however, is not the only dissenter at the conference. The Ottawa Sun reported on criticism voiced by U.S. medic and "crusader" Dr. Samuel Epstein. He said that breast cancer is a winnable war, charging that "the American Cancer Society and other institutes have a vested interest in focusing on treatment - not prevention - because they have links to major pharmaceutical and technology companies."
He honed in on the birth control pill as a major risk factor in breast cancer because of the amount of estrogen it adds to the body. The medical establishment appears unwilling so far to pit itself against the pill in the war against breast cancer, arguing that studies so far are inconclusive. [LifeSite Daily News, Suite 306, 53 Dundas St. E., Toronto, ON M5B 1C6]
In a case that could have national implications, the Illinois attorney general's office has asked state health officials to investigate a Chicago-area hospital's practice of delivering second-trimester babies deemed "defective" in order to let them die.
The practice first came to light when "Jill," a nurse at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., claimed to have held one such baby in a warm blanket until it died.
"It's a different world, holding a person to die that you shouldn't be holding to die," said Jill, who asked to be identified only by her first name. "It's watching their chest, seeing if you can still see a heartbeat and looking at their fingers and their hands and they are fully formed."
Jill wrote a letter to hospital administrators in April, outlining her concerns about the practice. She said a manager subsequently told her it was the most compassionate way to abort.
Yet according to Jill, when the hospital's schedules get too busy, even that so-called compassion can be lost.
"The baby goes to the soiled utility room and is left there to die alone," she said.
The Illinois attorney general's office confirmed last week that it has asked health officials to open an inquiry surrounding "pregnancy terminations" at Christ Hospital. A spokesman with the Illinois department of public health said state law prohibited him from speaking about the case.
Sue Reimbold, spokesperson for the hospital, admitted that the procedure is performed there and at other hospitals owned by their parent group, Advocate Health Care.
Reimbold said that babies aborted this way "are very, very sick fetuses that would not be able to sustain life outside the womb." Draft guidelines on "pregnancy termination" dated June 1, 1998, however, propose expanding the practice to include Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and even the mother's mental health as suitable reasons.
Reimbold said the hospital still does not have an official policy on the practice, but is working on one.
Keith Scherer, an attorney with the Chicago-based Pro-Life Law Center, said he is exploring various legal responses to the practice, including murder charges.
Scherer added that the situation could be a good test case for dealing with the procedure in other states.
"If hospitals elsewhere are doing what they are here — a reasonable assumption — then we've taken another step down the slippery slope from abortion to infanticide," he said.
TAKE ACTION:
Contact the Illinois Department of Health and urge them to aggressively pursue the attorney general's request for an inquiry into the practice of "pregnancy termination" at Christ Hospital:
Dr. John Lumpkin, Director
Illinois Department of Public Health
535 W. Jefferson St.
Springfield, IL 62761
fax: 217-782-3987.
Also, write Advocate Health Care and express your opposition to aborting children—inside and outside the womb. Ask them to stop performing any and all abortion procedures, citing their mission statement's claim that they believe "human beings [are] created in the image of God." Write:
Richard R. Risk, President and Executive Officer
Advocate Health Care
2025 Windsor Dr.
Oak Brook, IL 60523-1586.
You can also contact Daniel Parker, Advocate's public relations Vice President, at dan.parker@advocatehealth.com , or Karen Schickedanz, director of corporate and internal communications, at karen.schickedanz@advocatehealth.com . [9/22/99 - Citizen Issues Alert]
Thus says the Lord: You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me. If I tell the wicked, "O wicked one, you shall surely die," and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death. But if you warn the wicked, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself.
--- Ezekiel 33:7-9
Is it not our duty to speak out against abortion and the use of artificial contraception?
Has God not called each of us to be a watchman for those preborn children in danger of abortion?
If we say, "Lord, we were just so busy," what will He say?
By Tom Takash
CoR continues to cover the abortion mills with our prayer warriors and counselors in order to offer help to the desperate women entering them week after week, and we pray for additional prayer warriors to join us at the mills to offer God's love to those often desperate and confused women. But, as you know, we have expanded our efforts to try and reach out to these mothers even before they go to the abortionists. This February we began an advertising campaign to do just that with our billboard on 27th Avenue just north of McDowell Rd. in Phoenix.
While the billboard is a good first step, we are embarking on a more ambitious campaign through our direct financial support and work with a Catholic non-profit advertising agency, Virtue Media. They recently have opened the door with several local Phoenix-area T.V. and radio stations for low-cost, quality pro-life ads designed to offer life-choices to pregnant women.
KUVK-TV45, KTVK-TV3, KASW-TV12 and KZZP-104.7 radio have already aired hundreds of these commercials at no-charge and at discounted rates due to Virtue Media's efforts. We are confident that the Holy Spirit is working through these ads. The call-ratio to ads run has been excellent. This medium is a natural extension of our efforts to reach the confused and uncertain pregnant women who have been overwhelmed with the devil's propaganda through groups like Planned Parenthood and, unfortunately, through the efforts of our own government. In the past few weeks, 128 women responded to these commercials via a toll-free number. That's potentially, 128 babies saved! If you have seen any of these ads and have any ideas on additional ways that Virtue Media can present the Pro-life message, please contact Tom Peterson at 480-545-4237.
Pray for the continued success of this program, and if you can help financially, please send your check to CoR with a memo, "For Media Ad."
by Mona Charen
Cincinnati, OH - The woman was 22 weeks pregnant when she sought the assistance of Dr. Martin Haskell, the originator of the partial birth abortion procedure, to rid herself of her already-kicking child.
Haskell performed the first stage of the partial-birth abortion. He inserted a seaweed-based substance into the woman's cervix and instructed her to return the following day.
In the usual course of events, the seaweed absorbs the amniotic fluid from the womb and expands, thus slowly dilating the cervix. The next day, new seaweed is inserted. On the third day, the abortionist opens the cervix with his fingers, feels around for the baby's legs and pulls them out of the birth canal. He rotates the fetus' shoulders so that the baby's face is oriented toward the mother's lower back, pulls all but the baby's head from the birth canal, and then, using scissors, he punctures the exposed base the baby's skull and suctions the brain out through a tube. But in this case, things did not go according to plan.
The woman complained of severe abdominal pain on the first night and, reported to the emergency room of her local hospital, Bethesda North, in Cincinnati. As she was being examined (she did not say she was pregnant), the baby was born - alive.
Pediatricians and neonatologists came running. The baby girl weighed in at one pound. The doctors decided that the child was very unlikely to survive and instructed that nothing be done. Connie Boyles, a nurse, and Shelly Lowe, a medical technician, saw the baby girl gasp for air and were stunned. Lowe, knowing that the nurses were busy caring for other patients in the emergency room, asked if she could hold the child she dubbed "Baby Hope" until she died. The request was granted. Lowe wrapped Baby Hope in a blanket and settled into a rocking chair for what she imagined would be just a few minutes. She sang to her and stroked her cheeks.
"I wanted her to feel that she was wanted," Lowe explained later. "She was a perfectly formed newborn, entering the world too soon, through no choice of her own."
The baby sucked on her lower lip, opened and closed her hands, and moved a bit as Lowe held her. She also did something else - she continued to breathe on her own. Dr. John Willke, a pro-life activist and former obstetrician, says he doesn't quarrel with the initial determination made by the emergency-room physicians that Baby Hope was too small and too premature to survive. But, he says, when she was still alive and breathing room air 30 minutes after birth, her status should have been rassessed. An excellent neonatal care unit was a mere helicopter ride away. And she might have been saved. As it is, nothing was done.
After three hours, Baby Hope died in the arms of the compassionate Shelly Lowe. The state of Ohio issued her death certificate. The cause of death was listed as "extreme prematurity secondary to induced abortion."
Would Dr. Haskell have issued her a death certificate at his shop, or does he simply throw the bodies in the trash?
Very few premature infants survive when born before 23 weeks, though there have been survivors at 22 weeks. Still, one has to wonder: If a woman who did not want her baby spontaneously aborted in an emergency room, would the doctors have been so quick to give up on the child? Would they ignore the signs of unusual vitality this infant showed? (Most premature babies have trouble breathing without assistance. That this infant was able to breathe room air was amazing.) Was Baby Hope's value as a human being secondary to her value to the mother?
If we judge people's humanity by any standard other than that each is a unique individual with God-given rights, we demean every person's dignity. A child is a child. Would-be adoptive parents wait years and years or go abroad in search of children to love. Lowe was asked at a press conference what her position on abortion was. She said she had been pro-choice but was now pro-life. What changed her mind?
Three hours.
Reprinted from Life Advocate, July/August, 1999
The headlines in a Montreal paper, September 23, screamed the horror about to befall Canada: CONTROVERSIAL REPRODUCTIVE "SCIENTIST" EN ROUTE TO CANADA - With No Regulations, Canada Is a Haven for Mad Scientists
Gosden will take up his post at McGill University's Royal Victoria Hospital in Quebec, Canada. With its absence of laws prohibiting new reproductive technologies, it is an attractive base for researchers involved in the most controversial areas of this growing field.
Professor Gosden's research was made illegal under Britain's Criminal Justice Act. British MP Dame Jill Knight, who was instrumental in criminalizing Gosden's research, commented that it was "the stuff of nightmares," and noted that children born of his intended procedures would be told that they had come "from a dead mother, a mother ... that was never actually born at all." ?
As our readers are aware, we have decreased the cost of the newsletter. At the same time we have decided to continue our campaign of billboard ads at over $500 monthly. Now we have also committed $500 monthly to support Arizona television and radio advertising [click here for related story ] to help women in a crisis pregnancy situation and one for post-abortion depression.
Never in the history of Children of the Rosary have we committed to such a major monthly financial burden. The Board of Directors and officers were confident that the efforts to save the lives of babies, and to help moms not make a fatal mistake, were worth the financial gamble.
Were we wrong? These two items alone push us over $1,000 in expenses each month, yet we must continue to cover our monthly operating costs and the cost of publishing the Newsletter.
We were not wrong. The money is being spent exactly where it should be spent -- trying to help save babies' lives and save moms and dads from making the wrong decision - abortion.
We are praying that you will continue to send in your much-appreciated donations and now sign other families up also for the publication!
We are old customers with Lifeline Long Distance Company, which offers pro-life groups fundraising with no hassles.
Call Lifeline at 1-800-493-2002 if you are interested, and be sure to give them Children of the Rosary's identification number: 45766. They will be happy to answer all your questions.
We continually receive phone calls because people are no longer receiving their complimentary CoR publication.
We understand your concern over missing the latest in the pro-life news. Unfortunately we can not continually send out mailings unless we receive some financial support.
Perhaps it is time for you to consider sending in a $20 donation and you'd be guaranteed to receive 12 issues of our publication!
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