file: /pub/resources/text/ProLife.News/1992: pln-0220.txt --------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Life Communications - Volume 2, No. 20 December, 1992 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This newsletter is intended to provide articles and news information to those interested in Pro-Life Issues. Questions to readers and articles for submissions are strongly encouraged. All submissions should be sent to the editor, Steve (frezza@ee.pitt.edu). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) `CATHOLIC' NURSE TO LEAD PLANNED PARENTHOOD A recent headline read: "CATHOLIC Nurse to lead Planned Parenthood." Pamela Maraldo is a nurse who believes in abortion, on demand and no restrictions. She also believes that abortion is the only way that women will ever become equal to men. Pamela Maraldo: She is to assume the presidency of Planned Parenthood on February 15. Before that, she headed the National League for Nursing for eight years. Ms. Maraldo may believe in abortion without restriction, but she also believes that 1.6 million a year is too many. (sounds kind of contradictory) But she also states that "placing the child first is sort of a holdover, I think, from the traditional women's role." It's not the typical pro-abortion commentary that scares me; it's the fact that the newspapers printed the word "Catholic" in big print. In the article, Wanda Franz, president of the National Right to Life Committee stated that she "suspected that Ms. Maraldo's religion may have been one of the factors in the decision to name her." In other words, every time Planned Parenthood makes a decision in favor of abortion, they can say, "See, a Christian agrees with us. It's just those right-wing fanatics that disagree." I'm afraid that I agree with Ms. Franz; we Christians who oppose abortion are about to have our Christianity used against us by fellow believers. - Marissa Ratcliff [It will be interesting to see if the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Cardinal Beveloqua (Ms. Maraldo is from the Philadelphia area) makes any comments that make it into the public arena. He is not known to be silent on 'Catholics' publically contradicting Church teaching.] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) ELECTION VICTORIES Since much of the election news was bad, here is a short list of NEW pro-life Senate and House additions: Dan Coats(R-Ind.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) joined the Senate, and Bob Bennet (R-Utah), and Dirk Kempthorne(R-Idaho) joined the House. Some claim that there is at present, a slim majority of representatives who are willing to defeat the expected vote on the Mandatory Abortion-on-Demand Act [AKA F.O.C.A.] (S.25/H.R.25) We shall see. Please do not hesitate to write your congressman and senators, especially if they are newly-elected. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) IRISH ABORTION REFERENDUM In the recent referendum (late November) on the amendments to the Irish Constitution that prohibits abortion, the Irish voted AGAINST permitting abortion in Ireland even if the mother's life is in danger, and Voted FOR the right to travel abroad and the right to provide information on abortion services in other countries. This referendum was put forward in an effort to clarify the Irish Supreme Court decision that allowed a minor to obtain an abortion because she threatened to kill herself. This is how the voting went on the three proposed amendments to the Constitution: YES NO The Right to Travel: 62.3% 37.7% The Right to Information: 60.0% 40.0% The Right to Life: 34.6% 65.4% (Substantive issue) The parties who were campaigning on both sides are claiming victory on the "Substantive issue". The Pro-life lobby will now be looking for another referendum to re-introduce the absolute ban on abortion in all circumstances. Many people were confused when faced with the three ballot papers and the level of spoiled votes was higher than usual. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) A Christian Comment on "PP v. Casey" Exerpted from "Create Your Own Reality" by Joseph Fessio, S.J. In case you missed it, that select body which is supposed to be composed of the wisest men and women in the Land of Liberty, recently found occasion to reflect on the meaning of liberty. In the majority opinion of the _Planned Parenthood v. Casey_ decision, written by three Reagan-Bush appointees to the Supreme Court (Justices O'Connor, Souter and Kennedy), it was argued that a woman's right to have her unborn child killed was not really guaranteed by a "right to privacy", as had been asserted in the 1973 _Roe v. Wade_ decision. Rather, "These matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendement."[p. 9 of the PP v. Casey decision] Because this may not be obvious to lesser luminaries, the Justices continued with a definition of liberty: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." Now that is breathtaking. Hitler's only problem was that he was ahead of his time, and not protected by the American Constitution. Christ never promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against superpowers. And the Church has seen more than one civilization disappear from history's stage. And as a new Dark Age approaches, the Church, guided by God's merciful providence, is ready with a counter-cultural remedy for preserving not only the faith, but sanity and civilization. As the Roman Empire disintegrated from within and was attacked by barbarian hoards from without, God called St. Benedict and his sister St. Scholastica to flee the corrupt cities and offer their lives entirely to the praise of God in monestaries which were destined to be the seedbeds of a new and Christian civilization. Now the Church has issued a compendium of revealled truth, a sure guide to right thinking and right living. [The Catholic Church has recently approved a Universal Catechism which will begin distribution in French in December.] Not the "reality you prefer" but _God's_ "concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." Will we need monastaries? Indeed. But now, every home can become a monestary. The faithful around the world can drink deeply from the pure waters of Christ's teaching. The future is always in God's hands. Our task is to be faithful, to "hold fast to the deposit of faith". ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) NEW GROUP OF STUDENT ACTIVISTS FORMED A new collegiate group of activists has recently formed, Collegians Activated to Liberate Life (CALL). This is a small group (6) of college students who have taken their junior/senior year off to help with networking college right to life groups together. The former president of Indiana University's Students for Life, Lorraine Jamieson, a good friend of mine, is one of the students working there. They are primarily from the Midwest, but they hope to be nationwide someday. This is the first year for the CALL program, and all the students literally live in the CALL offices, to save money. CALL publishes a newsletter called _The_Trumpet_, free for college students, and $15/yr for others. The members do an excessive amount of rescuing, having been arrested many times. They travel from place to place, giving talks at high schools and colleges whenever they can. I'd really recommend contacting this group and supporting them in any way you can, financially, or if you're poor like me, through prayer. They feel that the only way to rid the country of the evils of abortion and all the other problems that arise in dealing with family life is to start up such a movement among college students and people, in union with the churches. To contact CALL: Collegians Activated to Liberate Life 1605 Monroe Street, Suite 107 Madison, Wisconsin 53711 phone: (608) 238-5262 FAX: (608) 238-4969 (Anyway, please pray for them and contact them if you like. If you speak with Lorraine, tell her that Jay sent you! ;-) - Jay Kythe (jkythe@silver.ucs.indiana.edu) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) READER QUESTIONS: My major question is (it may sound dumb) How can one call planned parenthood when they kill the thing that makes him/her a parent? I can't even see the logic they say they have for that statement. [Actually, from their point of view, this is easy: The object is to plan your parenthood - so that you are only a parent if you explicitly plan to be one, and never a moment sooner. Since an unwanted child makes you not want to be a parent (possibly an unplanned parent), then the obvious answer is to get rid of the child. Of course this is completely wrong, and does not take the child into account at all (they are only property, to be disposed of at will). They may be members of our species, but certainly not _human persons_, so according to the Supreme Court, women have the right to destroy them until the conflicting state interest comes into play at viability. Although the court has not explicilty declared unborn children to be property, they claim that "At the heart of liberty is ther right to define one's own concept of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life" so that the liberty protected under the 14th ammendment of the constitution now means that we have the right to decide when people are human, what the meaning (or lack therof) of another life (or our own) is, and how the universe is put together. At the rate we are going, i wonder if our nation will ever decide what the difference is between "liberty" and "license" are. So for people who believe in the "Planned Parenthood" ideals, this makes perfect sense: it is our right to decide when the unborn is human, and thus 'terminating the pregnancy' at whatever stage is a perfectly viable option.] -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- I recently saw a commercial on MTV by an organization called Musicians for Life. They urged abstinence, but failing that, condom use, to avoid AIDS, and they also urged people not to use drugs. Do you have any information about Musicians for Life? - Dean Schulze -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- What are student groups doing about the Jan 22 march for life. How are they all going, and financing this trip? - Kevin Welch [ Pitt Students for Life is pettitioning the school for monies to rent a bus, and we expect to have funds for 1/2 of a bus for the trip down. We also expect to send a representative to the ACL Conference then, and we expect to get some funding for this as well. The bus trip will be in conjunction with a local 'adult' pro-life group, People Concerned for the Unborn Child (PCUC), and with this and support from CMU students, we expect to be able to fill/pay for the bus trip. ] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) READER RESPONSES To Francis VanScoy's question concerning animal rights (v2n19) Well, as a pro-life vegetarian animal rights activist, I will respond. First, it seems rather arbitrary to grant rights based solely on the ability to enter into agreements. It is rather easy to the falsity of this argument exactly by extrapolating it to the unborn human case. What about people who are incompacitated in a way such as they have no way to show they can enter into an agreement? Basically, the use of 'agreement' as a prerequisite for rights is (to be blunt) quite ingnorant. Also, the last sentance of the editor replies scares me too. "Otherwise someone else can decide if you warrant protection [...]" EEK! Is something's value really determined by whether or not someone warrants you deserving of protection? We spend a lot of our time trying to fight arguments like that, but seem ready to use them in other circumstances. I would challenge pro-life people out there to closely examine their views. Make sure your views are consistant. If one of your viewpoints is inconsistant with another then something has to change our you are being very intellectually dishonest with yourself. As a note - I would be very interested to hear from other out there who extend their respect for life beyond the confines of the traditional pro-life issues. For some time I thought it sould be interesting to create a group that dealt with the issues of life from a coherent unified belief of the sanctity of life - all life. If anyone would be interested in such a thing, please contact me... orb@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu - Norm Richards ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote of the Month: "The woman's right to terminate her pregnancy before viability is the most central principle of _Roe v. Wade. It is a rule of law and a component of liberty we cannot renounce." - Justices O'Connor, Kennedy and Souter in the majority decision of the Supreme Court of the United States decsion "_Planned Parenthood of SE Pa v. Robert P. Casey, et al., etc.", Justices Blackmun and Stevens concurring. +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Credits: | | 2 - From "Washington Watch" v4n2 published by the Family Research | | Council (Nov. 10). To subscribe call 1-800-232-6459. | | 3 - From Issue No.304 of THE IRISH EMIGRANT, Liam Ferrie, Editor. | | To subscribe contact irish-net-REQUEST@cs.cornell.edu | | 4 - From "The Catholic World Report", November, 1992 p 1. The CWR | | can be ordered by writing The Catholic World Report, | | P.O. Box 6718, Syracuse, NY 13217 1-800-825-0061 | |QOM- Quoted from p. 28 of the "PP v. Casey" Supreme Court decision | | for cases 91-744 and 91-902 issued on 29 June, 1992. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ Anyone desiring information on specific prolife groups, literature, tapes, or help with problems is encouraged to contact the editor.