Illinois Right to Life Committee
JULY 2005
July, 2005 Pro-Life News (see articles below): 07/29/05 Frist lacks ethical clarity on stem cell research 07/26/05 AGI report shows contraceptives are ineffective 07/22/05 Annual abortion rate declines, but oh so slowly 07/19/05 Reports reveal dangers of abortion drug and of contraceptives 07/15/05
Blagojevich shows disrespect for the
legislative process 07/12/05 Misuse of state funds 07/08/05 In vitro fertilization kills far more embryos than survive until birth 07/05/05 Parents:
beware of your pediatrician on sex education 07/01/05 Ask
Ellie acknowledges abortion
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, July 29, 2005 Frist lacks ethical clarity on stem cell research On
July 28th, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist established his support for
expansion of embryonic stem cell research funded by the Federal government. He
indicated that he now considers President Bush's 2001 policy too limiting in the
number of stem cell lines that it allows to qualify for embryonic stem cell research.
Frist wants to allow excess embryos from in vitro fertilization to be donated by
the parents for research, if they would otherwise discard them. In effect, Frist is
willing to let the parents be responsible for the decision to kill their excess embryos
and then step in to encourage the parents to allow these embryos to be killed for
scientific progress so at least "some good" comes from them.
At the same time Frist acknowledges that these embryos are "nascent human life" that is "genetically distinct" and "biologically human". These facts lead Frist to conclude that a human embryo "deserves to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect." He fails to explain how killing this human embryo to obtain its stem cells offers it this utmost dignity and respect. How does Senator Frist define the terms "dignity" and "respect"? One can only conclude that Senator Frist has fallen into the trap of the end justifies the means. In this case, dignity and respect are achieved through scientific progress while ignoring that the means required to achieve this progress involves killing the embryo.
Illinois Right to Life Committee expresses our total rejection of the embryonic stem cell research policy suggested by Senator Frist. Using "discarded" embryos for research does not display respect for those human beings, because the end does not justify the means. Why can't we expect that more parents will be motivated to "discard" their excess embryos when they learn that research will benefit? They will be less likely to choose offering them for adoption or freezing them for potential later use. Even saying "potential later use" demonstrates that the real source of ethical confusion here is the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process itself. IVF involves using human embryos to solve the fertility problems of their parents. The end does not justify the means here either. Now we can see where the slippery slope is taking us by creating these excess embryos in the first place.
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, July 26, 2005 AGI report shows contraceptives are ineffective The Culture of Life Foundation reported on July 26, 2005 the results of an Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) analysis of unplanned pregnancies and abortions in the United States. This new report from the Alan Guttmacher Institute provides wide-ranging statistics and demographic information on women who had abortions. The Alan Guttmacher Institute is the research arm of Planned Parenthood and openly supports abortion and widespread access to contraceptives. The Culture of Life Foundation review of this AGI report shows that access to
contraceptives does not stop unplanned pregnancies. The AGI report placed great emphasis on the fact that
48 percent of pregnancies in the US are unplanned. Of
those unplanned pregnancies, 47 percent end in abortion, 40 percent are carried to full
term, and 13 percent end in miscarriage. Advocates
of abortion often argue that to decrease abortions, unintended pregnancies must be reduced
through increased access to contraceptives. But
the Guttmacher Institute's research indicates that 53 percent of women who have unintended
pregnancies used a contraceptive method during the month they got pregnant. The information included in this AGI report demonstrates that Planned Parenthood knows very well that contraceptive use is not effective in preventing unplanned pregnancies. To whatever degree contraceptive use encourages sexual activity outside of marriage, increased demand for abortion must follow because of contraceptive failure. This AGI report offers another reason to conclude that true abstinence education is the only effective way to reduce unintended pregnancy and abortion. Practicing so-called safe sex is not effective in reducing pregnancy or abortion.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, July 22, 2005 Annual abortion rate declines, but oh so slowly How many abortions take place annually in the United States? For a number of years the estimated number has been 1.3 million. Accurate statistics seem hard to obtain. Reporting delays, and some states that do not even require collection of abortion statistics, complicate any efforts to establish an accurate total. We have recently learned that the Alan Guttmacher Institute, an affiliate of Planned Parenthood, has made another attempt to obtain annual totals. Their last report covered through the year 2000 and showed that 1, 313,000 abortions for that year. Now they have added figures for 2001 and 2002. Total abortions for 2001 are estimated to be 1,303,000 and for 2002 1,293,000. Because of the reporting anomalies mentioned previously, Guttmacher needed to make some assumptions to arrive at their estimates. If their assumptions are accurate, the number of abortions continues to decline, but only by 10,000 abortions per year. Since some states have had significant drops in abortion in recent years, the national numbers would suggest that the abortion rate may be on the increase in some states. The other possibility would be larger percentage declines in low population states and much smaller declines in large population states so the dramatic declines are not visible in the national total. One concern raised has been the possibility that abortions done using RU 486 might not be reflected in the abortion totals. I checked with Guttmacher Institute to find out whether they included RU 486 abortions in their national totals. The response I received confirmed that abortion totals they prepare do include RU 486 abortions. Since we recently saw a press release from the company that distributes RU 486 touting that 460,000 abortions used their product since it was approved in September 2000, the annual average for RU 486 abortions is 92,000. While usage of RU 486 has increased in recent years, somewhere from 7-10% of abortions in the United States are now done using this method. The percentage is not that high, but the number of women who are put at risk by using this dangerous drug to abort their babies is significant. This tragic loss of life remains at levels that are difficult for the human mind to put in perspective. Even though the drop from the high point of 1.6 million abortions in 1990 is a reduction of 300,000, the human tragedy of traumatized mothers and dead children taking place annually in our nation remains overwhelming. As more states get laws in force that require informed consent for women and parental notification when underage girls seek abortions, as more abstinence education helps teens to avoid casual sex, and with greater use of ultrasound so women gain more appreciation of the miracle of life in their wombs, we can only pray that the annual number of abortions will fall more rapidly. Guttmacher did note the abortion rate per 1000 women fell to the lowest level since 1974, but the nation’s larger population has kept the actual number of abortions higher in comparison.
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, July 19, 2005 Reports reveal dangers of abortion drug and of contraceptives Recent news further confirms the dangers of the drugs used for chemical abortion, and for various contraceptive methods. In a statement released on July 18th, Danco Laboratories, maker of the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug Mifeprex, admitted it has received "reports of five deaths from serious bacterial infection and sepsis" since the FDA approved its application to sell RU 486 in September 2000. Danco announced it is changing the labels that appear on bottles of the drugs to include updated safety information. Apparently, the fifth victim of RU 486 died in the last month or two. The first death occurred during trials of the drug in 2001. Two women died in 2003, one in early 2004, and "a recent one in mid 2005. The company did not reveal any additional information about the recent death. The most widely publicized death was Holly Patterson in 2003. Her parents were not aware she had taken RU 486 for an abortion, and were not aware of the medical complications until it was too late. The new warning labels, coming eight months
after the FDA required them, are intended to highlight how infections can bring about the
death of a woman using the abortion drug. Still,
Danco denies its drug is responsible for these women's deaths. "No causal relationship between these
[women's deaths] and the use of Mifeprex and misoprostol has been established," Danco
said, after acknowledging the deaths had occurred following use of their abortion drug. The contraceptive patch has been found to carry a risk of dying or suffering a survivable blood clot that is about three times higher than using birth control pills. Federal drug safety reports obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request present these telling statistics for 2004 when 800,000 women were on the patch. AP points out that the majority of the women were young and in otherwise good health and at low risk for blood clots. Some doctors who reviewed the Food and Drug Administration reports "were alarmed," according to the report. "I was shocked," said Dr. Alan DeCherney, editor-in-chief of Fertility and Sterility and a UCLA professor of obstetrics and gynecology." The AP reviewed 16,000 files related to patch-related effects. "These ranged from mild rashes to deaths," they said. "Within this collection of reports, the AP found 23 different deaths associated with the patch. The primary cause of death in those reports isn't always clear, but doctors who reviewed the 23 cases found about 17 that appeared to be clot-related, including 12 from last year. If that is not enough news about the dangers of contraceptives, another study has shown that women are at 100% greater risk of heart attack and stroke with the ‘low-dose” birth control pill, especially for those women with pre-existing medical conditions. The attempts to minimize the dangerous side effects by reducing the intensity of the pill have failed. A group of researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Université de Sherbrooke have examined the cases of contraceptive-related complications in women between 1980 and 2002. The risk of heart attack doubled with women using the “low-dose” version of the pill and only returned to normal after the women stopped using it.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, July 15, 2005 Blagojevich shows disrespect for the legislative process In
my previous newsline, I explained why Governor Blagojevich’s executive order to
provide $10 million for embryonic stem cell research, including cloning of human embryos
to obtain their stem cells, raises serious concerns about this misuse of taxpayer money
for research that venture capitalists will not fund, and moral and ethical issues through
its state sponsorship of the destruction of human life to pursue this research. Once I saw quotes of Governor
Blagojevich’s comments defending his decision that appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times
and the Chicago Tribune, I feel some additional observations are warranted. Governor Blagojevich is quoted as stating,
"It's the right thing to do, and however you get there is immaterial."
This admission that he is willing to use unethical means to reach a goal that he likes
confirms that he is not qualified to be governor of the great state of Illinois because he
just told us that in his mind the end justifies the means.
He also stated, "While we are forced to live in a democracy with several branches of government, sometimes in a democracy the process is frustratingly slow." What? We are forced to live in a democracy? Does he want us to appoint him as king of Illinois? Apparently, he must think it
has already happened, since he is willing to do an end-run around the legislature because
they are "frustrating slow." It seems that he has forgotten his oath of
office. Didn't he agree to follow the Illinois Constitution, regardless of whether
the process is "frustratingly slow"? Do
the citizens of Illinois really want a governor who disrespects the rule of law, the
legislative process, and the opinions of the citizens of Illinois? Its time to send our governor home because he is
an unworthy public servant. Truth Tour gets a
reaction from this motorist I received a call today from
a person who drove by the Truth Tour, sponsored by the Pro-Life Action League. He encountered the Truth Tour in Oak Lawn Friday
morning. He wanted to know if IRLC was
sponsoring this protest. I told him that we
were not, but that we certainly supported this effort.
He stated that it was a violation of God’s law to use pictures of
aborted babies to try to change public opinion. He
said this was disrespectful of these dead babies to use their pictures this way. He
went on to note that we should be spending our time and resources to help children who are
poor and in foster homes. He asked, Why are
we not willing to do that? I assured him that
many people in our movement were involved in helping others in various ways, but it was
not within the mission of IRLC. Even though he would not admit to being pro-abortion, I gave him many reasons why it was important to show the public what abortion really is, but he would only return to his complaint that we should be helping orphans and foster children. We will pray that this conversation leads him to some insight at a later date that will allow him to see the value of defending the right to life.
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, July 12, 2005 Today
Governor Rod Blagojevich announced his Executive Order, directing the Illinois
Department of Public Health to create a program that will award $10 million in grants to
medical research facilities for the development of treatments and cures. The
intended recipients of these grants will perform embryonic stem cell research.
Use of Illinois taxpayer funds for embryonic stem cell research is a misuse of state funds. This research has generated much more hype than reality. Even the researchers themselves are becoming concerned with the level of hype.
James
Thomson, a Wisconsin researcher, conceded that embryonic stem cell cures may not be
available until "ten to twenty years from now." Celgene President Alan
Lewis pointed out that venture capitalists "are very cautious'' about investing
because of the limited success and lack of future prospects. William Haseltine, CEO
of Human Genome Sciences, is a leading advocate of embryonic stem cell research.
Even so, he says results are decades away and his company is not spending money on the
unproven embryonic cells. “The routine utilization of human embryonic stem
cells for medicine is 20 to 30 years hence," Haseltine admits. "The
timeline to commercialization is so long that I simply would not invest," Haseltine
added. Does
this sound like a good use of taxpayer money when there is already a budget crisis?
No wonder embryonic stem cell researchers are seeking taxpayer funds. Where else can
they find people who are willing to throw their money away? Does Governor
Blagojevich has constitutional authority to direct $10 million for this program, to be
named the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute (IRMI), without specific appropriation
for it by the Illinois Legislature? Use
of state funds for embryonic stem cell research creates serious ethical issues. This
research requires the killing of human embryos. Some of these sacrificed embryos
will be extras from in vitro fertilization. Other embryos will be cloned and then
killed for their stem cells. Even though the announcement claims no cloning will be
done, this is not accurate. The embryos will be cloned, but they will not be
implanted and allowed to grow until born. The cloning has already occurred when the
embryo is created. Then it is just a matter of what is done with the clone.
The taxpayers of Illinois should not be forced to pay for the cloning and killing of human
embryos. If money is to be spent on stem cell research, it needs to be spent on research using adult stem cells and those obtained from umbilical cord blood. Research using stem cells from these sources has shown great success, including many experimental treatments on human patients. A large percentage of these treatments have produced positive results or even total success. More resources are needed to move more of these results from experimental treatments to standard medical practice. The diversion of funding embryonic stem cell research will only delay making effective treatments available. That is a tragic misuse of Illinois taxpayer funds.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, July 8, 2005 In vitro fertilization kills far more embryos than survive until birth On July 6, 2005 an article appeared in the Chicago Tribune entitled “In vitro new
front in embryo war.” The focus of the
article was to assess possibilities that some regulations might be placed on the in vitro
fertilization (IVF) industry. I was quoted
saying, "IVF requires killing" and
"They choose which [embryos] to implant, and they create spares that will die." These statements generated two emails that
disagreed the embryos must die when IVF is used. One response said my quote that "IVF requires killing" is a sweeping
generalization, indicating that she instructed her doctor to only create the number of
embryos he would implant. In my reply I observed that when IVF embryos are created,
they are evaluated for "implantation potential" as explained in an article
entitled "One in Fifteen Embryos Make the Cut With New Grading Scale for IVF".
I speculated that maybe her doctor does not view "unviable" embryos among
those to be counted when he agreed to implant all the embryos created. Based on the
information presented in this article it seems clear that many embryos must be created to
find a few suitable for implantation in the uterus. Thus,
many embryos must die in attempting to create those that will qualify to be implanted. The response also raised moral issues by stating, "In addition, you should know that IVF is not against the teachings of the Catholic Church, as long as you treat each embryo as a precious life and do everything possible to facilitate that life. We actually went through a series of consultations and received approval from our Bishop before we started IVF." I provided references and quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the 1987 Vatican document Donum Vitae, and a pastoral letter written by Bishop Sean P. O'Malley, now Archbishop of Boston, MA. Each of these documents shows that the Catholic Church sees IVF as morally unacceptable. Since the author of Donum Vitae is now Pope Benedict XVI, I do not expect its stipulations to be revised any time soon. Nor am I aware of any document that has nullified Donum Vitae or modified its conclusions. This is confirmed by the contents of paragraphs 2376 and 2377 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. These paragraphs are referenced in the Pastoral Letter by Bishop Sean O'Malley. A 2004 statement of Pope John Paul II again found IVF morally unacceptable. An acceptable alternative to IVF is called NaProTECHNOLOGY. It is offered within the Creighton Model FertilityCare System.
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, July 5, 2005 Parents: beware of your
pediatrician on sex education The American Academy of Pediatrics has joined the politically correct crowd and declared that abstinence programs do not work. Flying in the face of the facts, this national pediatricians group has adopted a new policy opposing abstinence-only education. Apparently, they prefer junk science to the facts. Are they unaware of the study released June 14, 2005 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and completed by a contract with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc, revealing that abstinence education works? “Students who are in these [abstinence education] programs are recognizing that abstinence is a positive choice,” HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation Michael O’Grady said. “Abstinence education programs that help our young people address issues of healthy relationships, self-esteem, decision-making, and effective communications are important to keeping them healthy and safe.” Maybe the American Academy of
Pediatrics does not like government studies so they decided to throw out those
results. Well then, let’s move on to
another report released the same day at the
Welfare Research and Evaluation Conference hosted by HHS.
This report finds a previous study that criticized abstinence programs to be
completely flawed. Robert Rector and Dr. Kirk
Johnson performed an analysis of the previously published findings by Peter Bearman and
Hannah Bruckner, of Columbia University. In
what can only be described as junk science, Bearman and Bruckner ignored four
statistically significant measures of sexually transmitted disease (STD) in claiming that
abstinence education had no impact in reducing STDs, and came to the opposite conclusion
on prevalence of “alternate sexual activity” by looking at a subset which
included only 21 respondents out of a total sample of 14,116. With these and other serious statistical
violations, they concluded that abstinence programs put young people at risk. The analysis of that study conducted by Robert Rector and Dr. Kirk Johnson showed that the exact opposite was true. Dr. Johnson stated, "Adolescents who take virginity pledges are less likely to have sexually transmitted diseases as young adults when compared to non-pledgers from similar backgrounds. Adolescents who take virginity pledges are also less likely to engage in 'alternate sexual activity’ (behavior other than vaginal intercourse). The more risky the behavior the less likely pledgers are to do it." It is truly appalling that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) chose to rely on
junk science in establishing their new policy that says teenagers should instead be taught
about birth control and given access to the morning after pill, which sometimes causes an
abortion. Dr. Jonathan Klein, chairman of
the AAP committee that wrote the new guidelines, said, "Even though there is great enthusiasm in some
circles for abstinence-only interventions, the evidence does not support abstinence-only
interventions as the best way to keep young people from unintended pregnancy." The new AAP policy removes a previous statement,
adopted in 1998, saying "abstinence counseling is an important role for all
pediatricians.'' The new guidelines encourage
pediatricians to encourage teenagers to abstain from sex, but also educate them about
various forms of birth control and the morning after pill.
Parents must now beware of what their pediatrician may be telling their
children.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, July 1, 2005 Ask Ellie acknowledges
abortion I must congratulate Ellie on acknowledging the serious negative consequences of abortion in her response to "Can't Get Past It" published June 30, 2005 in her Ask Ellie column. However, does she really believe that abortion providers are a reliable source of referrals to "doctors, counselors, or social workers" who might treat post-abortion depression? In her book Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion, Theresa Burke reveals that many women are denied effective help for post-abortion trauma, because acknowledging such trauma is not politically correct among doctors, counselors, and social workers. This excellent book is available from www.afterabortion.org. If abortion clinics actually make any referrals to doctors, counselors, or social workers as Ellie suggests, their referrals would likely only add to the pain experienced by women who are already suffering post-abortion trauma, by either seeking some other source for the woman's trauma or attempting to justify the abortion "as the right choice". True help for women such as
"Can't Get Past It" is available from the organizations whose web sites are
listed under Post Abortion Assistance within the Issues tab at
www.IllinoisRightToLife.org, either directly or through reliable referrals to people who
truly understand the underlying trauma and can effectively help women overcome their pain
from the poor choice of abortion. Justice O'Connor
resigns from the U.S. Supreme Court On July 1st we learned that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is resigning from the United States Supreme Court. Justice O’Connor has not been a defender of life. Her departure gives President Bush a real opportunity to shape the future direction of the Supreme Court and of our nation. Given the threat to our constitutional rights of many recent rulings, this is a most timely opportunity to make a change for the better. Pray that President Bush has the courage to nominate a person who will strictly interpret the Constitution. Offer your support to the President by phone on the White House Comment Line at (202) 456-1111 or by email at president@whitehouse.gov, or by fax at 202-456-2461.
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