PRO LIFE NEWS (Feb. 5, 2007)

St. Malachy Council 12540

Indiana Legislative Update: Pro-Life legislators have introduced a bill that would require abortion practitioners to tell women considering an abortion that 1) their baby’s life began at conception and 2) the abortion procedure will cause the unborn considerable pain. If the fetal pain measure becomes law, Indiana would become only the fifth state to inform women about the pain their baby would feel during an abortion—something pro-life advocates hope will help reduce the number of abortions. This bill was introduced during the last session, but Senate Pro Tem Robert Garton refused to allow a floor vote. However, Mike Fichter of Indiana Right to Life said he didn’t think there would be as much of a problem with the bill getting a vote this time because the current Senate president, David Long of Ft.Wayne, is strongly pro-life. Yet, there could be a problem in the House if the new leadership doesn’t allow a vote on the bill. Betty Cockrum, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, said the abortion business would oppose the bill and its requirements to inform women.

Positive Research Findings: Amniotic Stem Cells—Researchers from Wake Forest University have been able to successfully manipulate stem cells found in the amniotic fluid of a pregnant woman that have many properties of embryonic stem cells. These scientists claim the amniotic cells have the ability to grow into brain, muscle, fat, bone, and other tissues and could be used to treat a multitude of diseases and medical conditions. The amniotic cells, which are shed into the fluid by the developing unborn child and can easily be retrieved during prenatal testing, are easier to maintain in a laboratory than embryonic stem cells and don’t pose some of the same transplant concerns (such as causing tumors) that embryonic stem cells do. Of interesting note is the resistance that this research has met in the scientific community. One of the scientists responsible for the breakthrough, Paolo De Coppi, stated that four different medical journals rejected the paper and it took over seven years to get it published. He concluded that there is resistance to finding an alternative to embryonic stem cells because many leading researchers, particularly in the U.S., are so heavily invested in embryo research. Adult Blood Cells—Researchers at the University of Minnesota Stem Cell Institute report that adult stem cells taken from bone marrow can be grown indefinitely in the lab and show some of the same properties as embryonic stem cells. These adult stem cells can be manipulated and turned into a wide variety of other cells and tissues, the same kind of ability that scientists backing embryonic stem cell research like.

New Poll Results: A CBS News poll, conducted in January, surveyed 1,168 adults nationwide. It found:

  • 47% of Americans want to prohibit all or most abortions
  • 16% want abortions to be greatly restricted
  • Just 31% of the public wants to permit abortion in all cases.

Planned Parenthood Irresponsibility: In a statement released on January 30th by The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the abortion business claims there are no emotional or psychological concerns associated with having an abortion. As we have learned over the past several months, this statement runs counter to the latest research studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals.

Putting the Numbers in Perspective: Even under the most conservative of estimates, somewhere between 40 and 50 million unborn children have died under our nation’s regime of abortion. The best estimate is that the total war dead, of all causes, for all of America’s major and minor wars since 1775 is 1,329,991 or an amount equal to just one year of Roe v. Wade’s infernal tally.

“How we treat the weak, the infirm, the elderly, the unborn child and the foreigner reflects on our own humanity. We become what we do, for good or for evil.”

Archbishop Charles Chaput, January 14, 2007