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News Items

6 In 10 Canadians Support Legal Protection For Unborn Children – April 19, 2009

A Must See Testimony By Abortion Survivor Gianna Jessen – April 19, 2009

Adult Stem Cells Used Successfully To Cure Diabetics, Heal Broken Jaw Bone – April 19, 2009

Barrack Hussein Obama Is The Most Pro-Abortion President In US History – April 19, 2009

Dominican Republic Refuses To Be Pressured By Outside World Influences – April 23, 2009

Eating At McDonald's – April 20, 2009

Human Trafficking; Modern Day Slavery In Canada – April 19, 2009

Internet Porn Crisis – April 19, 2009

LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #418 – April 12, 2009

LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #419 – April 19, 2009

Undercover Video Of UCLA Student And Anti-Abortion Activist Lila Rose – April 27, 2009

United Nations Out Of Control – April 19, 2009

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Newsletter Archive

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1. 6 In 10 Canadians Support Legal Protection For Unborn Children – April 19, 2009

Why is forcing abortions on other sovereign nations a priority for our government when the majority of Canadians desire legal protection for the unborn child at some point prior to birth?

An Environics poll released in late November showed that almost 6 in 10 Canadians support legal protection for unborn children at some point before birth. See Catholic Civil Rights here or see

Furthermore, Canada’s elected representatives have failed for more than twenty years to address the abortion issue themselves.

In 1988 the Supreme Court of Canada said it was up to parliament to decide when and how to protect a fetus. However, as Andrew Coyne pointed out in the July 9, 2008, edition of Macleans magazine, “20 years after the Supreme Court ruling that bears [Morgentaler’s] name, this country still has no abortion law of any kind. It isn’t that abortion – at any stage of a pregnancy, for any reason, and at public expense – is lawful in Canada. It is merely not unlawful. When it comes to abortion, we are literally a lawless society: the only country in the developed world that does not regulate the practice in any way.”

“It will no doubt come as a shock to many to learn, not only that Canada has no abortion law to this day, but that this was never actually decided — by anyone. That's not what the Court intended. It's not what Members of Parliament voted for. It just . . . happened.”

(“It’s Time to Talk about Abortion”)

See Macleans Magazine or try this link Macleans July 9, 2008 Issue.

It is absurd for Canada to be directing other countries about their abortion laws when our own parliament has yet to address the issue.

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2. A Must See Testimony By Abortion Survivor Gianna Jessen – April 19, 2009

Below is a video presentation in `Queensland Australia by American Gianna Jessen. She survived a saline abortion in 1977. God is using this wonderful woman to take a message of life to a world coarsened by believing abortion is a right. I believe she speaks on behalf of the millions of children who did not survive abortion, including my own first child.

I had the honor of meeting Gianna Jessen in Kentucky a few years where we were both speakers at the 2005 Kentucky Right to Life annual convention.

I believe God allowed Gianna to survive an abortion against overwhelming odds to speak to this generation.

Please click on http://www.shininglamp.com/page2.html

Mark Pickup
Beaumont, AB, Canada

Defend the sanctity, dignity and equality of all human life.

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3. Adult Stem Cells Used Successfully To Cure Diabetics, Heal Broken Jaw Bone – April 19, 2009

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

April 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A study carried out in Brazil and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, on the use of adult stems cells to treat diabetes, has found that most of the patients in the study group were partially or wholly healed of the disease after receiving injections of stem cells from their own bone marrow.

The procedure, called autologous nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), was carried out on 15 patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM). The report on the study stated that most of the patients no longer needed insulin injections after the treatment and were still "insulin free with normal levels of glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) during a mean 18.8-month follow-up."

"After a mean follow-up of 29.8 months … the majority of patients achieved insulin independence with good glycemic control."

However, the astonishingly positive results of the use of adult stem cells to treat diabetes have received very little mainstream media coverage, a fact that has been strongly criticized by conservative bioethicist Wesley Smith.

"Had this been an embryonic stem cell success, the story would have reaped huge headlines and an angry lead editorial decrying President Bush for his stem cell funding policy," said Smith.

"You see, successful human treatments don't count as news if they are from adult stem cells. That doesn't fit the media narrative that ESCR [embryonic stem cell research] is the future. That is why a prospective Geron ESC human trial that might or might not work, got more coverage than these stories of an actual major success did put together," said Smith.

Smith observed that Dr. Richard K. Burt of Northwestern University's medical school and one of the study's researchers explained why the success happened in Brazil instead of the USA, saying, "The research was done in Brazil because doctors in the United States were not interested in the approach."

In another recent report of the successful use of adult stem cells, Korean doctors have re-grown a patient's jawbone using his own adult stem cells.

An 18-year-old Korean boy, who had one side of his jawbone and most of his teeth removed due to a tumor, had stem cells taken from his bone marrow, which were then "multiplied and specialized to form an osteoblast which is a bone-forming cell."

"It may sound complicated but the treatment itself is quite simple," one of the doctors involved told Arirang Korean News. "A bone-forming cell is injected into the impaired part and after six months to one year new bone material grows in to fill the gap."

"The advantage of this treatment is that it is very simple, because it is an injection. And also other parts of the patient's body are not involved in the treatment. So the patients, who are treated using their own adult stem cells, will not suffer from damage to other parts of their body."

The results of the trial were published in the British medical journal BMC Medicine and were also presented at the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.

In relates news, the pro-life position in the debate over the immorality and the practical challenges of using human embryonic stem cells in medical research received an unexpected boost during a recent appearance by Dr. Mehmet Oz, the director of the cardiovascular institute at Columbia University, on the "Oprah" television program.

"The stem cell debate is dead, and I'll tell you why," he told Oprah and guest Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease and is an outspoken advocate of embryonic stem cell research, and a nationwide audience.

"The problem with embryonic stem cells is that embryonic stem cells come from embryos – like all of us were made from embryos – and those cells can become any cell in the body," Oz said. "But it's very hard to control them, and so they can become cancer."

Referring to a form of adult stem cell research involving taking a person's own skin cells and reprogramming them into embryonic-like stem cells, called induced pluripotent stem cell research (iPS), Oz explained to Fox, "Here's what the deal is. I can take a little bit of your skin, take those cells, get them to go back in time so they're like they were when you were first made, and then they will start to make that dopamine, and I think those cells, because they won't be as prone to cancer – and because they're your genes – will be the ones that are ultimately used to cure Parkinson's."

Reinforcing Dr. Oz's statement is a report by Dr. Bernadine Healy in US News & World Report, where she comments on President Obama's campaign promise to lift the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

"Several events reinforced the notion that embryonic stem cells, once thought to hold the cure for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes, are obsolete. The most sobering: a report from Israel published in PLoS Medicine in late February that shows embryonic stem cells injected into patients can cause disabling if not deadly tumors," Dr. Healy wrote.

"The report describes a young boy with a fatal neuromuscular disease called ataxia telangiectasia, who was treated with embryonic stem cells. Within four years, he developed headaches and was found to have multiple tumors in his brain and spinal cord that genetically matched the female embryos used in his therapy."

The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics lists 73 diseases which have been successfully treated using adult stem cell therapies.

This list has been validated by the American Medical Association, which published a paper demonstrating the therapeutic benefits of adult stem cells, and states that, "Adult stem cells continue to show their ability to successfully treat human disease and injury, while embryonic stem cells continue to demonstrate zero benefits for humans, and only limited results in animal models."

Links to references in this article:

Adult Stem Cell Treatment Has Been Developed to Form New Bones

Journal of the American Medical Association Stem Cell Transplantation abstract

Why Embryonic Stem Cells Are Obsolete by Dr. Bernadine Healy

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4. Barrack Hussein Obama Is The Most Pro-Abortion President In US History – April 19, 2009

“Barrack Hussein Obama is the most pro-abortion president in US history.”

“The Friday Fax staff was [at the UN] just two weeks ago when the Obama administration made its UN debut by supporting language that has been used by UN agencies, UN committees, radical lawyer and judges to impose abortion on reluctant countries.

“Friday Fax staff watched in horror as the previous pro-life positions of the US were overturned in an instant by radical feminists representing the new Obama administration.

“The US will now join the UN bureaucracy, Canada* *and the European Union as the most aggressive promoters of abortion all over the world.

“This new pro-abortion coalition will actively seek to impose abortion on all the countries of Latin America, Africa, the Far East and even on the few remaining pro-life countries in Europe.”

Austin Ruse, President Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, New York, April 14, 2009

Hi Herm,

For years the United Nations has been used as a tool by special interest groups to pressure sovereign nations to adopt certain “politically correct” agendas.

Sadly, Canada’s representatives at the United Nations have used their influence to radically push for abortion rights, sexual education rights, and gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender rights in various UN committee documents at the expense of national sovereignty rights, religious freedom and parental rights.

Earlier this month at a /UN Commission on Population and Development/ meeting, two pro-family organizations observing the proceedings [United Families International (UFI) and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (CFAM )] reported that Canada’s representatives along with the U.S. and most European Union countries were pushing to include pro-abortion language in a draft document on population issues.

Terms these delegates sought to imbed in the document included “safe abortion,” “comprehensive sex education,” “sexual and reproductive health,” “reproductive health services,” and “control of fertility.” Don’t be fooled by how benign some of these words sound. They are not about helping women to have healthy babies.

These terms were intentionally left undefined in the draft, which is one of the tricks used by activists. As CFAM explains, “Without precise definitions UN agencies and committees use such imprecise language to influence governments to change their laws on social policy.” UFI further reported, “At an informal U.S. delegate/NGO meeting, the U.S. delegates were asked to define ‘reproductive rights’ to which they declined.”

Thus, if passed, without amendment this document could be construed to support, endorse and promote the “right to abortion” and be used by NGOs and UN committees to attempt to force abortion on countries opposed to it.

Is this what you want Canada’s foreign delegates endorsing and promoting?

I) Take Action: Send your 1 Click Letter today!

Write to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and your MP asking that they cease sending representatives to the UN who are pushing for pro-abortion language to be included in UN documents.

Send your 1 click letter here: http://unitedmothers.ca/links/1click/

http://www.1clicklobbyist.ca/ssnx/link.php?M=18148&N=20&L=12

"Canada Should Stop Pushing Abortion at the UN."

All it takes is 5 minutes to make a difference.

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5. Dominican Republic Refuses To Be Pressured By Outside World Influences – April 23, 2009

(Part A) C-Fam Article By Piero A. Tozzi, J.D.

(NEW YORK – C-FAM) Despite direct intervention by a top United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) official, the Dominican Republic appears poised to adopt a new constitution that protects human life “from conception until death.”

While Dominican lawmakers were debating the merits of such a provision and the nation’s penal prohibition of abortion, Nils Kastberg, UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, interjected himself, calling on Dominican legislators to consider liberalizing abortion so women would not be forced into “unsafe procedures.” He also suggested they would be “hypocrites” unconcerned with the nation’s higher than average teen birth rate. Kastberg made his unusual statements while visiting the capital of Santo Domingo at the end of March.

Rather than bowing to external pressure from UNICEF and pro-abortion non-governmental organizations, this week members of the bicameral constitutional assembly voted 167-32 to approve the proposed charter, including Article 30, which states, “The right to life is inviolable from conception to death.” Another article would define marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Pro-lifers are considering the constitutional reform to be a fait accompli, though a second reading followed by formal promulgation by the President is also required. Support crossed party lines, with the opposition Partido Revolucionario Dominicano and Partido Reformista Social Cristiano and most members of the President’s Partido de la Liberación Dominicana declaring their support for the right-to-life provision.

The meddling by Kastberg, a Swedish national, also brought to mind another pro-abortion Latin American intervention by UNICEF and other United Nations agencies. When Nicaragua strengthened legislation protecting the unborn in 2006, UNICEF joined agencies like the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Development Fund in signing a letter to the head of the Nicaraguan National Assembly that asserted – incorrectly – that the legislation violated rights contained in various international documents such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, or CEDAW.

In addition, four Scandinavian countries, Holland and Canada signed the letter, with Sweden reportedly cutting over $20 million in foreign aid to Nicaragua as a result of the legislative reform, and Finland threatening to link continued aid to changes in Nicaragua’s abortion law.

Despite its image as a benign agency dedicated to assisting children in the developing world, in recent years UNICEF has supported liberalized abortion. According to Douglas Sylva, a senior fellow of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) [publisher of the Friday Fax] and the author of a White Paper on the agency, UNICEF is “an opportunistic advocate of abortion rights.” One longtime UNICEF watcher told the Friday Fax, “Where does UNICEF get the authority to interfere in the constitutional decisions of a sovereign state?”

When formally adopted, the Dominican Republic will join other Latin American nations whose constitutions explicitly protect unborn life, including Chile, Paraguay, and Guatemala. In addition, at least 10 Mexican states have amended their state constitutions to protect life from the moment of conception, including most recently, the Pacific coast state of Nayarit. The pro-life constitutional revisions in Mexico and the Dominican Republic signal popular reaffirmation of pro-life principles throughout the region.

( Part B) WorldNetDaily Exclusive

Matters Of Life And Death
Vote will protect unborn beginning at conception 'Victory serves as example to other nations'

Posted: April 24, 2009 12:10 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

The Dominican Republic

Lawmakers working on a new constitution for the Dominican Republic have voted overwhelmingly to protect life, specifying in the document that "the right to life is inviolable from conception until death."

The vote yesterday was 167-32 in the national legislature, which was responding to pressure from international pro-abortion groups seeking to expand their business operations into the Caribbean island nation.

"A true respect for human life is protecting it from the beginning, the Dominican Republic is ahead of America in building a society where all human life is truly respected," said Ignacio Reyes, director of Live Action San Jose.

His group was among several that sent representatives to the nation over the past month to explain the full impact of abortion.

Live Action San Jose had produced a video of an abortion and made it available to several national television outlets to reveal the horrors of the procedure to millions of Dominicans.

"We are thrilled that the protection of human life from the moment of conception is now established into the constitution, in spite of fierce international pressure to legalize abortion," said Dr. Gene Antonio, a pro-life missionary in the Dominican Republic.

"This overwhelming victory serves as an example to the other Latin countries fighting to protect life, that we can win and we must win because the lives of little people are at stake," he said.

Other groups dispatching missionaries to the battle were the Faithful Soldier School of Evangelism and Personhood USA. They handed out more than 50,000 articles about abortion.

Keith Mason of Personhood USA said, "The people on the small Caribbean island understand that all life is precious and should be protected! We pray that America catches on soon."

His organization, a grassroots effort, was set up to support personhood efforts across America through legislation and constitutional amendments.

Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez earlier had convinced the ruling political party's leaders to approve the life protection.

Juan Julio Campos, a deputy in the party, said, "In the last meeting we had with President Leonel Fernandez in the National Palace he said that we had to maintain article 30 as is, which establishes the right to life from conception to death."

"Particularly I will accept that position, and I believe it's the same position of most of the [party] assembly members, to keep the penalty for abortion," he said.

The lawmaker representing Altagracia province said his nation is a "believing" nation and needs to maintain values that bolster the family.

According to LifeSiteNews, the vote came following a series of campaigns led by leaders of the dominant Catholic church.

Cardinal Archbishop Nicolas de Jesus Lopez of Santo Domingo led a series of marches and protests in recent months, the report said.

Mason told WND he spent about a month in the nation, and the Dominican Republic is among the nations leading in the protection of life.

"All the folks should visit a place like this and see what it does to a culture when abortion is illegal," he said. "It changes everything."

WND reported just weeks ago when legislative bodies in two U.S. states voted to define the beginning of human life – and human rights – at conception.

In a preliminary vote, North Dakota's House of Representatives approved a bill that declares "any organism with the genome of homo sapiens" – even one not yet born – is a person protected by rights under the state's constitution.

Then the Montana Senate endorsed the statement, "All persons are born free and have certain inalienable rights. ... Person means a human being at all stages of human development of life, including the state of fertilization or conception, regardless of age, health, level of functioning or condition of dependency."

The personhood approach within the pro-life movement was sparked by a statement in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that opened the doors for legal abortion in the U.S.

In his Roe v. Wade opinion, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun wrote, "[If the] suggestion of personhood [of the fetus] is established, the case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment."

Advocates of personhood legislation aim to follow Blackmun's reasoning by legally establishing that an unborn child is a full "person," therefore guaranteeing the baby's right to life.

"The language, in fact – basically in laymen's terms – just says that all humans are people," says Mason.

Similar efforts to establish personhood of pre-born babies have been attempted or are under way in other states, including Mississippi, Oregon, Alabama, Maryland, South Carolina and Colorado, where a personhood amendment failed in November.

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6. Eating At McDonald's – April 20, 2009

For your enjoyment, this is a good story, though it is unproven, according to sources at TruthOrFiction.com or Snopes.com, but please read it all the way through until the end as there are some points you may find of interest.

I am a mother of three – ages 14, 12, 3 – and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was Sociology. The teacher was absolutely inspiring, with qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with. Her last project of the term was called, 'Smile.'

The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and to document their reactions. I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake, literally.

Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald's one crisp March morning.

It was just our way of sharing special playtime with our son. We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did.

I did not move an inch. An overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved. As I turned around I smelled a horrible 'dirty body' smell, and there standing behind me, were two poor homeless men.

As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was 'smiling'. His beautiful sky-blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance.

He said, 'Good day' as he counted the few coins he had been clutching.

The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue-eyed gentleman was his salvation. I held my tears as I stood there with them.

The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted.

He said, 'Coffee is all Miss' because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm). Then I really felt it – the compulsion was so great I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes. That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging my every action.

I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray. I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman's cold hand.

He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, 'Thank you.'

I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, 'I did not do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope.'

I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and son. When I sat down my husband smiled at me and said, 'That is why God gave you to me, Honey, to give me hope.' We held hands for a moment, and at that time, we knew that only because of the grace that we had been given were we able to give. We are not church goers, but we are believers. That day showed me the pure Light of God's sweet love.

I returned to college, on the last evening of class, with this story in hand. I turned in 'my project' and the instructor read it. Then she looked up at me and said, 'Can I share this?'

I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class.

She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings and being part of God share this need to heal people and to be healed.

In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald's, my son, the instructor, and every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student.

I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn:

Unconditional acceptance

Share your love and compassion with others
Love people and use things
Don’t love things and use people

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7. Human Trafficking; Modern Day Slavery In Canada – April 19, 2009

"Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:17

Although Canada may be a first-world country according to the standard of the world, that doesn't mean that all is well. Beneath our veil of "niceness" is an abundance of perversity, hedonism, injustice, and idolatry. This issue of the e-Luminary will look at one example of injustice in Canada - human trafficking - and what we can do about it. The point is not to preach doom and gloom. Rather, it is to awaken us to the reality of the world we live in the hope that we will uncover the light God has given us and shine it into the darkness that pervades our communities and country.

Slavery may well be illegal in Canada but that does not mean that people aren’t being bought and sold. Human trafficking is defined as a multibillion dollar criminal industry that involves the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or delivery of people for the purpose of slavery, sexual exploitation, and forced labour. The sad reality is that our country is known world-wide for our lenient response to human trafficking. There is no minimum sentence for human trafficking in Canada.

Here are some staggering statistics to consider:

Humans are the second most trafficked "product" in the black market [internationally], surpassed only by drugs.
According to the RCMP, 800 to 1200 people are trafficked in and through Canada every year.
2200 men, women, and children, are trafficked into America from Canada every year. Canada is considered a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of prostitution and forced labour.
In Canada a girl can be sold for $15,000 and earn her owner over $40,000 a year. (Source.)

In 2004, our Parliament passed a law that officially recognized human trafficking as a crime. But it wasn’t until 2008 that the law was finally used. A man from the Niagara area was found guilty and received a three year sentence (minus 404 days for time already served) because he earned over $350,000 by sexually exploiting a 15 year-old girl daily for two years. If this horrendous crime only receives a three year sentence, the prospect of justice for other cases is looking dismal.

In an effort to clamp down on human trafficking, Member of Parliament Joy Smith has introduced a private members bill (C-268) that would change our Criminal Code so that human trafficking charges involving victims under the age of eighteen will receive a minimum sentence of five years imprisonment. It is scheduled to be voted on for the first time on April 22nd. Although this bill could be stronger, it needs our support. Please consider contacting your MP this week and ask them to be present and vote in support of Bill C-268.

We realize that the problem of human trafficking will not be stopped by laws. It is a symptom of the greed, lust, coveting, and other sin that fills our hearts. Although we need to aim at the root of the problem by preaching the Gospel and the need for repentance, we also have to minimize the effects of sin in our broken world. Supporting Bill C-268 is one small thing we can do to be a voice for justice in this respect.

More Resources on Human Trafficking

For further information on this topic, visit the website promoted in the article below. Also, visit the website from International Justice Mission, a Christian human rights organization that fights against oppression around the world by bringing the offenders to justice. Click here to go to a page that includes fact sheets and videos on slavery and sexual trafficking, among other things. Click here to go to the Canadian IJM website.

Check Out the New Website In Support of Bill C-268

Ottawa, ON: MP Joy Smith, Member of Parliament for Kildonan-St. Paul, is delighted with the launch of a new, Canadian-based anti-trafficking website and organization, Canada Fights Human Trafficking (CFHT). MP Smith has consistently advocated education and awareness as vital tools to combat the trafficking of women and children. [Continue reading this press release here .]

"Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:17

Here are some staggering statistics to consider:

Humans are the second most trafficked "product" in the black market [internationally], surpassed only by drugs.
According to the RCMP, 800 to 1200 people are trafficked in and through Canada every year.
2200 men, women, and children, are trafficked into America from Canada every year. Canada is considered a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of prostitution and forced labour.
In Canada a girl can be sold for $15,000 and earn her owner over $40,000 a year. (Source.)

More Resources on Human Trafficking

Check Out the New Website In Support of Bill C-268

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8. Internet Porn Crisis – April 19, 2009

Internet pornography has not only infiltrated the church – it has set up camp. Only the power of God can set people free. by Drew Dyck

Unless you’ve been locked away in an underground vault for the past 15 years, you are aware of the scourge of Internet pornography that has besieged our culture. You’ve seen the statistics. You’ve heard about the billions in profits. You may have even witnessed one of the countless marriages it has destroyed.

Yet, for many Christians, Internet pornography has largely been a problem “out there,” a crisis that wasn’t thought to affect many within the Christian fold.

That understanding is plain wrong according to the experts. Internet pornography has not only infiltrated the church – it has set up camp.

Last year the ministry Living Waters Canada held a conference to address the crisis. The conference title emphasized the seriousness of the problem: “Pornography: The Christian’s Drug of Choice.” A few of us might think that is overstating the problem. But, in fact, every new study seems to indicate that Internet pornography addiction among Christians is spinning out of control.

Addiction awareness

For Dan Gowe, an alcohol and drug addictions counsellor at West Point Grey Baptist Church in Vancouver, it was a small, informal study he conducted that opened his eyes to the growing problem. Gowe distributed a questionnaire to 43 young men at a Christian camp, asking whether they had ever stumbled upon pornography online and kept looking.

“We’re finding that guys get addicted very quickly…”

The men he questioned were all dedicated Christians, many of them leaders in their churches – not exactly the type of guys you’d expect to fall prey to the seedy side of the Internet. Still, to Gowe’s surprise, 37 out of 43 participants admitted to viewing online pornography. The findings – in addition to several other more official studies – convinced Gowe to branch out his addictions counselling to what he started to see as a growing epidemic, affecting not only society at large but the Church as well.

And while there’s a world of difference between the occasional stumble and full-on addiction, the slope is very slippery. “We’re finding that guys get addicted very quickly,” says Gowe. “It’s a massive assault on the Church. It’s taking down pastors and missionaries – no one is immune.”

Paul Wilkinson, a Christian bookstore owner in Ontario, was surprised when he developed a problem. It began a few years ago when he was Googling an innocent phrase that landed him on a site with an erotic story. “Text sites are just as dangerous as sites with pictures,” he now recalls. “Just because there aren’t pictures on the page doesn’t mean it’s not pornography.”

Soon Wilkinson found himself in the grip of an addiction. He says many Christians are similarly surprised by the power of Internet porn. “Christians usually don’t drink heavily or smoke but this is an addictive behaviour that gets us.”

Statistics about porn addiction range widely, but it’s safe to say the problem is serious and many Christians also suffer its effects.

XXXChurch, a ministry that helps porn addicts, quotes a variety of studies of Christian men that suggest more than half struggle with porn and a third have viewed it in the past month.

Leaders are no exception. A confidential survey of evangelical pastors and church lay leaders published in Patrick Mean’s book Men’s Secret Wars suggests that more than half of Christian leaders surveyed are struggling with sexual addictions of some kind or with some other secret sexual activity.

For the next generation – the first raised in a truly Internet-saturated world – the problem could be even worse. A 2007 University of Alberta study found that one-third of 13-year-old boys in Alberta admitted to viewing porn. The porn industry continues to get rich by exploiting vulnerable women and teen boys, causing damage that take many people years to recover from.

Just another addiction?

To explain the addictive nature of Internet pornography, John Auxier, addictions expert and president of ACTS Seminaries of Trinity Western University, points to the three A’s of Internet pornography: Anonymity,
Affordability and Accessibility.

Resources on Pornography

• www.xxxchurch.com: one of the best websites for struggling Christians and those who want to understand or help, led by Craig Gross in Las Vegas

• www.pureonline.com: an online video recovery program from a Texas-based ministry led by Joe Dallas. Sign-up, login, watch and learn. Downloadable workbooks and tracks for married men, single guys and single women

• www.safefamilies.org: free filtering software, education about online porn and assistance for sex addicts. Led by Bil Mooney-McCoy of Boston, Mass. Includes question forums and a radio show (www.blazinggrace.org)

• www.thepornographyeffect.wordpress.com: a free online book, The Pornography Effect: Understanding for the Wives, Girlfriends, Mothers, Daughters and Sisters by Canadian author Paul Wilkinson

• www.newdirection.ca: helps the Christian community minister to same gender attracted people. Affiliated with The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and led by Wendy Gritter

• www.purelifeministries.org: by ex-addict Steve Gallagher and his wife Kathy, authors of a helpful book for men, At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry, and for women, Create in Me a Pure Heart: Answers for Struggling Women. Ministry offers a live-in program in Dry Ridge, Kentucky

• www.twu.ca/sites/smarterfamilies: an outreach of ACTS Seminaries in Langley, B.C., to equip local churches in premarital counselling, marriage enrichment, parent education and recovery resources. Includes Professor John Auxier quoted above

• Men’s Secret Wars by Patrick Means (Revell, 2006). How to fight stress, burnout, temptation and unhealthy relationships

• Porn Nation by Michael Leahy (Northfield, 2008). A former sex addict who lost his 15-year marriage and children, Leahy explains how porn is changing the way we see ourselves and others – and offers a Christian
approach to what can be done about it

• www.somebodysdaughter.org : DVD of encouraging testimonies “That’s a powerful combination,” Auxier says. “There are a lot of guys who would never enter a store to buy pornographic material who nevertheless fall prey to viewing pornography online. It’s the sewer in your living room.”

According to Auxier, the problem fits the technical definition of addiction to a T. “It’s a behaviour addiction. You don’t stop the behaviour despite negative consequences that, in the case of porn addiction, could be loss of time, money and relationships.”

Auxier says pornography addiction always involves more than just the addict. “We’ve approached this problem largely as an individual issue. But it really has to be a family issue.” Auxier says that women whose
husbands have fallen into pornography addiction often say the experience is akin to dealing with an affair. “They feel that same sense of betrayal and loss,” he says.

Approaching the problem of porn as a family issue doesn’t mean thinking mainly about married, heterosexual men. As many as one in five Christian women admit to an addiction to Internet porn, according to a 2007 survey by ChristaNet.com. As for teens, nine in ten say they have viewed porn online by age 16, with age 11 being the average age for a first exposure, according to xxxchurch.com.

Teens who may be experiencing confusion in their developing sexual identity can sometimes be drawn to try out homosexual pornography.

“The anonymity of the Internet makes it the perfect laboratory to experiment,” says Wendy Gritter, director of New Direction Ministries Canada, an outreach to those dealing with issues of sexual identity and same-gender attraction.

For teens and adults trying to suppress or hide feelings of same-gender attraction, porn can seem like a safe outlet. But Gritter has repeatedly seen how an addiction to gay porn leads many to a double life that eventually falls apart. And she adds, “We regularly see that any pornography addiction can easily lead to riskier behaviours including the potential to try to hook up with another person.” Though many people think porn is a “lesser evil” than prostitution, a recent BBC news report suggests that many men who use prostitutes lead up to it with porn.

A related problem in the global human “family” is the number of porn films made using trafficked women. These are women forced into sexual slavery by gangs, often far from home. In one nine-country study cited at captivedaughters.org, almost half the women reported being pressured into pornographic films.

Struggle for freedom

As the Church seeks to help, it needs to aim for holistic solutions, says Auxier. Addicts need counselling that addresses all the underlying reasons for addiction. “There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Auxier says. “Often there’s an escape aspect to the addiction or it’s a way of coping.”

Even once someone finds freedom, the battle is not over. “When people stop using pornography, they have to replace that behaviour with something else,” Auxier says. “They need teaching on how to start engaging in alternative, God-honouring activities.”

Gowe echoes this reality of post-addiction challenges. “When guys stop using drugs, it can get out of their systems. But with porn, the images are still there in their minds.” The struggle to get free is monumental. “It’s hard to see the agony in these men’s lives,” Gowe says. “But the hardest part of what we do is getting the calls from devastated wives whose husbands are addicted.” However, Gowe is quick to point out that full recovery is possible. “Guys are being set free,” he says.

Two kinds of accountability

But in order for that process of recovery to take place, Gowe says two important elements must be in place: a small group and individual accountability to a godly person.

… nothing can take the place of divine help.

Jeff Colón of Pure Life Ministries in Dry Ridge, Kentucky, highlights the spiritual aspect of reform. “Porn addiction is pure selfishness. It twists desires and thinking. Only God can straighten you out,” Colón says. “The only hope for men caught in porn addiction is to be grieved by their sin and find true repentance.”

After addicts have glimpsed the severity of their sin and confessed, Pure Life Ministries plunges them into a rigorous program that involves account ability, one-on-one counselling and a course titled “Walk of Repentance.” They are seeing astounding results. “I’ve seen hundreds of men totally changed and set free,” says Colón.

Though Colón believes counselling is vital, he stresses that nothing can take the place of divine help. “Most of the guys we help have gone the [secular] counselling route and it didn’t work. It was too superficial.

There’s power in the Cross. The only answer to this problem is to become intimate with God and get discipled.”

The Church’s response

Auxier stresses the need for families to adopt practical preventive measures. “We should encourage families to employ practices to support our moral values. They should place restrictions on cable TV, control Internet access and install features such as Angel Eyes software to make sure their homes are protected.” (Angel Eyes is one of several programs that sends a report to an accountability partner detailing all websites visited from your computer.)

Unfortunately, such talk is rare.

“It would be easier to have a drinking problem than a porn problem in the Church,” Wilkinson says. He sees Christians as being particularly ill-equipped to deal with the problem. “In Canadian Christianity we’re not transparent enough. That makes us vulnerable to a problem like this that needs to be discussed.”

Laura Kalmar, editor of the Mennonite Brethren Herald, agrees. “When someone confesses to alcoholism, we have a place to send them: Alcoholics Anonymous. But when someone confesses to porn addiction, we don’t know what to do. We don’t know how to talk about sex in the church.”

Gowe – who reports approaching Christian leaders who are still incredulous about the widespread nature of the problem – says the first step is getting out of denial. “We need to educate ourselves and realize that we’re in a crisis. Some Christian leaders don’t want to talk about the problem because they are embarrassed to do so or because it’s quite likely they are struggling themselves.”

Still, there are signs of hope. “I see more and more resources coming out in the Church,” says Kalmar. “And that’s heartening.” She points for example to Dealing With Pornography, a 12-page booklet at faithandliferesources.org. “I don’t think it is changing fast enough,” says Kalmar. “But it is changing, and there’s less and less stigma attached to the topic within the Church.”

Church reaches porn culture

Discovery Christian Reformed Church of Bowmanville, Ontario, did more than address the issue in church – it reached out to a wide range of porn industry customers and producers. Last winter a delegation from the congregation staffed a booth at Toronto’s Everything to Do With Sex Show and handed out New Testaments.

“…it was amazing how many men were willing to say, ‘Yes, I have a problem.’ ”

The eyebrow-raising outreach was conducted in partnership with the ministry XXXChurch. Each member who participated had “high accountability” and a prayer partner. Within the first five hours of the three-day show, they handed out 5,000 Bibles.

“People were shocked that a church group would get involved,” recalls Discovery’s pastor, Martin Spoelstra. “There were some great conversations with people in the industry.” The experience impacted the congregation too. “It was a stretching experience for those who went,” says Spoelstra. “It really opened their eyes to the problem of pornography.”

Discovery addressed the problem of porn addiction internally, too, by using Celebrate Recovery, an addictions recovery program from Saddleback Church. Spoelstra believes that just talking about the issue makes it easier to deal with. “When we broached the subject, it was amazing how many men were willing to say, ‘Yes, I have a problem.’”

Need for Church action

Spoelstra thinks the Church in Canada still has a lot of work to do. “The way we’re dealing with pornography addiction is a lot like how the Church initially dealt with AIDS. There was a lot of fear and judgment at first.”

He says the first step is talking openly about the problem. “Once we get it out in the open we can do some theological reflection and talk about how best to tackle this issue.”

The desire for change in the Church is certainly there. In March 2005, Christianity Today published the results of “Christians and Sex,” a survey of 680 pastors and nearly 2,000 lay people. They found that 44 percent of churchgoers want to hear more scriptural teaching from their pastors on sex. And while 85 percent of pastors reported speaking on sexual issues once a year, only 63 percent of churchgoers say their pastors do so. Among the churchgoers who said they want their pastors to preach more about sexual issues, 47 percent say their pastor speaks about it once a year, an even bigger difference of opinion.

A Christianity Today International analyst commented on the study’s findings: “Perhaps this desire for more biblical exposition on sexual issues exists because pastors are not speaking forcefully or clearly enough, while exposure to sexual images and messages in today’s media is ever more heightened.”

Gowe believes it’s high time the Church addressed the problem on a wider scale. “We’ve allowed this to go on too long and, if we don’t do something quickly, we’re going to reap what we’ve sown.”

Auxier also urges action. “We need to talk openly about sex in the Church. We need to recognize that people are struggling and need our help and support. The Church should become a place of safety and healing.”

Colón talks about the need to address the problem from the pulpit. “Preach about it. Do whole sermons on it. Do a whole series!”

Whatever approach churches take, one thing seems certain: they can and should do more. Perhaps only then will the crisis receive the light it so desperately needs, offering people caught in the grip of the addiction a chance to change.

Drew Dyck is from Red Deer, Alberta. He now lives in Chicago, where he is editor of BuildingChurchLeaders.com.

Originally published in Faith Today, March/April 2009.

C9AP15

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9. LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #418 – April 12, 2009

Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.LifeIssues.net)

Dear Friends for Life,

Life is Victorious!

"Jesus Christ our King is Risen! Sound the trumpet of salvation!" (Easter Exsultet). Today is the Feast of Feasts, the foundation of all that we celebrate in our faith. By rising from the dead, Jesus did not only conquer his death; he conquered ours. He overturned the entire kingdom of death! He has opened the way to the true destiny of the human person: to be on the throne of God forever, in life that knows no end!

Because of this, we are the People of Life. We seek to apply the victory of Jesus over death to the problems of our day. We are a pro-life people, and reject the false solutions of abortion and euthanasia. Rather, we say yes to every life, no matter how vulnerable or burdensome. It is an Easter yes; it is a yes filled with hope. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!

To all our readers, my prayerful best wishes for a Happy and Blessed Easter.

God Bless, Jerry Novotny, OMI

Self Study: Want to learn more about hospice and all the services that your loved one is entitled to receive? It's all detailed in: "The Hospice Patients Alliance Family Guide To Hospice Care (What NO Hospice Will Tell You!)" by Ron Panzer Available by quick download and readable with the free Microsoft Reader software.

Get the E-Book version at: https://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=10548-1

LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #418 – April 12, 2009

Table Of Contents:
1. Dignitas Founder Planning Assisted Suicide Of Healthy Woman At Swiss Clinic
2. The Next Moral Quagmire: Conscience
3. Teen Abortions At Five-Year High
4. Terminally Ill Montana Woman: Doctors Won't Help With Suicide
5. Hillary Clinton Praises Eugenicist Margaret Sanger
6. "Conscience" Legislation Defeated
7. For Patients Seeking Cures, Adult Stem Cell Research Industry Is Blossoming
8. Protect Patients By Protecting Doctors
9. False Compassion
10. The Pope May Be Right
11. Planned Parenthood: Annual Budget Still Over $1 Billion; More Preborn Children Killed
12. Children: The Supreme Gift Of Marriage

Focus On Asia: "Migrant bodies found in Pakistan" – Pakistani police have found 44 bodies inside a shipping container in what appears to have been a failed attempt at human trafficking. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7983634.stm

Item #1. Dignitas Founder Planning Assisted Suicide Of Healthy Woman At Swiss Clinic
The founder of Dignitas, the pro-euthanasia group that operates the Switzerland-based euthanasia clinic, has revealed plans to kill a healthy woman in an assisted suicide. Backers of the practice claim they want suicides for terminally ill patients and the elderly, but they are pushing the envelope even further. Ludwig Minelli calls killing a healthy patient a "marvelous opportunity" and says assisted suicide should no longer be reserved for the disabled or very ill patients. The Dignitas clinic has killed more than 100 people and reports from Zurich University indicate at least 20 percent of them were not terminally ill. But Minelli isn't concerned about that. "It is not a condition to have a terminal illness," he said.

View full article at LifeNews.com.

Item #2. The Next Moral Quagmire: Conscience
As a family practitioner and a devout Christian, the Tennessee doctor has been able to cite an existing conscience protection for health workers to avoid doing anything that clashes with his beliefs. But with Mr. Obama looking at rolling back these conscience protections, Dr. Stevens says he isn't sure if he would go on practicing medicine. "If it happens, I would have to scale back my practice or quit," said Dr. Stevens, head of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations.

"This is important to me because I'm a professional; I professed how I was going to use the powerful knowledge I got in medical school. I wasn't going to do abortions.... I was always going to preserve life.

View full article at Canada.com.

Item #3. Teen Abortions At Five-Year High
The number of abortions carried out on girls aged under 18 in Wales is at a five-year high, assembly government figures show.

View full article at BBC News.

Item #4. Terminally Ill Montana Woman: Doctors Won't Help With Suicide
Four months after a District Court judge ruled that physician-assisted suicide is a right protected under the state's constitution, terminally ill patients say they're having trouble finding physicians willing to prescribe drugs that would hasten their deaths.

[Dr. Kirk Stoner of Plentywood, president of the MMA, says assisted suicide goes against the group's ethics. "Our reason for being is to care for our patients," he said.]

View full article at Flathead Beacon.

Item #5. Hillary Clinton Praises Eugenicist Margaret Sanger
Hillary Clinton accepted the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award this past Friday. In her acceptance speech, Clinton brazenly praised the noted eugenicist and the award's namesake. Here are some excerpts from Clinton's speech:

"I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision-taking on archetypes, taking on attitudes and accusations flowing from all directions, I am really in awe of her. And there are a lot of lessons that we can learn from her life and from the cause she launched and fought for and sacrificed so bravely."

Wow. Does Clinton understand the implications of what she is saying? Or does she really admire the vision of Margaret Sanger, who advocated for a "pure" race – one free of the poor, immigrants, and minorities. In a letter to Clarence Gamble, Sanger went so far as to say, "We do not want word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population." How is that in any way admirable?

View full article at Suzy B.

Item #6. "Conscience" Legislation Defeated
The amendment was voted down by a margin of 41-56, in which a majority of Catholic Senators voted against the amendment 9-16. The failure to pass this legislation now leaves the door open for the Obama Administration to rescind the law by executive order and force health workers to compromise their moral convictions. Last month, Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), expressed deep concern that removing the conscience rule would be "the first step in moving our country from democracy to despotism."

See the full article at EWTN.

Item #7. For Patients Seeking Cures, Adult Stem Cell Research Industry Is Blossoming
The adult stem cell marketplace is one of the most dynamic areas in life science today. There are an incredible number of scientific advancements, especially since 2008 as a heated pace of research discoveries and collaborations are underway among commercial companies, institutions and even a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary network initiative led by an executive department of the U.S. federal government.

Full article at LifeNews.com.

Item #8. Protect Patients By Protecting Doctors
"If health care providers are forced to perform objectionable procedures it will push qualified, ethical people out of the profession completely, exacerbating the crisis of fewer health care workers in an already diminishing field. This will hurt the poor the most, since many health providers in underserved populations are faith-based. Conscientious physicians are the very ones most likely to be in rural areas or inner-cities, and ministering to the poor and the medically underserved.

Full viewing at Christian Newswire.

Item #9. False Compassion
Oregon has become the model for how assisted suicide is supposed to work. But it actually demonstrates that the Oregon Trail is a dangerous path.

View entire text at CERC.

Item #10. The Pope May Be Right
When Pope Benedict XVI commented this month that condom distribution isn't helping, and may be worsening, the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, he set off a firestorm of protest. Most non-Catholic commentary has been highly critical of the pope. A cartoon in the Philadelphia Inquirer, reprinted in The Post, showed the pope somewhat ghoulishly praising a throng of sick and dying Africans: "Blessed are the sick, for they have not used condoms." Yet, in truth, current empirical evidence supports him.

View entire text at The Washington Post.

Item #11. Planned Parenthood: Annual Budget Still Over $1 Billion; More Preborn Children Killed
"For decades now, Planned Parenthood has operated the most proficient killing machine in the United States," said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International (LDI). "And for decades, the machine has killed more preborn children than the year before."

View entire text at Christian Newswire.

Item #12. Children: The Supreme Gift Of Marriage
What I wish to explore here is how the modern age has a philosophical and theological dysfunctionality in respect to its understanding of children and their intrinsic importance, and of the importance of children to their parents and society. At the risk of sounding unduly alarmist, I must observe that our society has nearly reached a state of philosophical insanity in respect to the value of human life, the value of babies and the meaning of sexuality. A state of philosophical insanity means that we are fundamentally and basically denying the reality of fundamental and basic truths to the point that our behavior is dangerously self-destructive.

View entire text at LifeIssues.net.

You Can Change Society:
1. Be Informed: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6. Visit Lifeissues.net Website for insights into current Life Issues. For all prior email see our Newsletters Archives.
2. Pray Daily: for the courage to be God's presence in society and to strongly support those who are deemed "unworthy of life". "If My people who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
3. Become Involved: Several years ago Fr. Jerry created a project entitled, "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia". It is a project which appeals for donations to help finance plane travel for lectures and seminars to developing countries in Asia. Strong focus is placed on reaching Asian Catholic Major Seminaries, Universities, Parishes, Hospitals and Family/Pro Life related groups. The lectures place emphasis on "The Asian Family at Crossroads: Life Issues Trends and Challenges".

For information about no-cost Pro Life Talks to your group in Asia: contact Fr. Jerry at jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp.

To become a supportive Missionary participant for this Asian project, kindly send your donations to: Fr. Jerry Novotny, OMI; LifeIssues.net, Editor; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072; (or transfer donation directly to ProLife bank account: Jerome Novotny, Shikoku Bank, Asakura Branch, No. 102-1-0080824).

Get a weekly dose of clear thinking: subscribe to our free Lifeissues newsletter! Sign up on main page of www.LifeIssues.net. Pass this free service to your friends and various groups.

Contact Editor: Jerry Novotny, OMI; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072; Tel/Fax: 088-843-0406; E-Mail: jerry@lifeissues.net (or)jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp

Websites by Editor:
English LifeIssues Site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese LifeIssues Site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI Site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html.

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10. LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #419 – April 19, 2009

Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.LifeIssues.net)

Dear Friends for Life,

Today we begin with some good news in Kenya where Muslins join Catholics against abortion. There has been much publicity about a proposed law in Kenya that would legalize abortions. Now we hear that the chief Muslim cleric is joining the Catholic bishops to oppose such a law.

Animal/Human Clones do not work. At least not to date: Dr. R. Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology has been trying, but in his words "we got beautiful little hybrid embryos but it didn't work no matter how hard we tried." So he states in the February 2009 issue of Cloning and Stem Cells, and according to the lengthy description in his published article, it just could be that they will never work.

As history and this present study show, parental involvement in the life of their children saves lives. Dr. Michael New at the University of Alabama has published the results of parental notification prior to their teen's abortion. His study has found the following: * If a state passes a pro-life parental notification law it reduces the minor abortion rate by 13%; * If this law also requires parental consent, it reduces the minor's abortion rate by 19%; * If it involves both parents rather than one, it reduces the rate by 31%; * These findings are true for age groups, 15-, 16-, and 17-year-olds.

Slowly but surely things are beginning to change. Leading researcher changes course and now does only Adult Stem Cells. Wisconsin's James Thomson, who isolated the first embryonic stem cells a decade ago, now has announced that his two research companies plan to focus only on adult and the new pluripotent stem cells. They will no longer be experimenting on embryonic stem cells.

God Bless, Jerry Novotny, OMI

Reflection – "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." – Edmund Burke

LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #419 – April 19, 2009

Table Of Contents:
1. Selective Abortion Causes 32 Million Extra China Males
2. Abstinence Only Proves Effective
3. Safeguards On Euthanasia? Don't Count On Them
4. Testimony To DHHS Re Rescinding Provider Conscience Clause
5. Study: Pre-Teens Engage In Risky Sex
6. Married Couples A Minority In UK Within 20 Years?
7. President Obama And Planned Parenthood Will Promote Abortion At Summit Of The Americas
8. Mothers Living In Poverty: How Uninvolved And Unreliable Men In Their Lives May Drive Them To Abortion And How Abortion Increases Risk For Adverse Outcomes
9. The Risks Of Pushing Towards Perfection: Selective Eugenics
10. St. Paul On Catholics Who Politically Promote Abortion?
11. Birth Control Pill Linked To Lupus Risk
12. Vatican Rejects Belgium's Protest Of Pope's Statement On AIDS And Condoms

Focus On Children: "Child trafficking into Britain accelerating, figures show" – Suspected victims of child trafficking from Asia, Africa and the Middle East are being smuggled through Britain's leading ports and airports at an accelerating rate, new figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal. A total of 957 children, including more than 400 from Afghanistan and 200 from Africa, were picked up by local authorities in the eight months between April 2008 and the end of the year. See Story.

Item #1. Selective Abortion Causes 32 Million Extra China Males
Selective abortion in favour of males has left China with 32 million more boys than girls, creating an imbalance that will endure for decades, an investigation released on Friday warned. In most countries, males slightly outnumber females – between 103 and 107 male births for every 100 female births. But in China and other Asian countries, the sex ratio has widened sharply as the traditional preference for boys is reinforced by the availability of cheap ultrasound diagnostics and abortion.

View full article at AFP.

Item #2. Abstinence Only Proves Effective
I can speak from experience that the abstinence-only-until-marriage message is effective. In the ninth grade, I heard the abstinence-only-until marriage message. It changed my life forever. Prior to the presentation I was ignorant to what STDs were and how they were spread. My only reasoning for not having sex was because I had been told simply, "Don't do it." I did not know the risk of multiple sexual partners throughout one's lifetime.

View full article at bradenton.com.

Item #3. Safeguards On Euthanasia? Don't Count On Them
Language is as vague as the protection offered.

View full article at The Gazette.

Item #4. Testimony To DHHS Re Rescinding Provider Conscience Clause
Pharmacists, hospitals, doctors and nurses should definitely not have to do abortions against their conscience. To force them by law or regulation to do so would force them to kill innocent living human beings. Such a law or regulation would be de facto a grossly unjust law that should not be tolerated by any civilized society.

Those who would force others to kill innocent human beings at the request of others often attempt to appeal to false scientific claims, e.g., the product of fertilization is simply a blob, a bunch of cells, or a piece of the mother's tissues, a potential or possible human being, a "pre-embryo", etc. However, such claims are absurd, have no basis in scientific fact and surely no viable or just law should be based upon them. It has been known for well over 125 years (with the voluminous work of Wilhelm His (Anatomie menschlicher Embryonen, 1880-1885) that a new, living, individual, genetically unique human being (a single-cell human organism) is formed at the beginning of the process of fertilization. This and similar famous research was used as the basis of the secular Carnegie Stages of Early Human Embryonic Development, instituted in 1942, and documented and updated since then by the international nomenclature committee on human embryology, i.e., the Nomina Embryologica which was part of the larger Nomina Anatomica (now called the Terminologia Embryologica and Terminologia Anatomica). The Carnegie Stages of Early Human Embryonic Development cover the new developing human being through the first 8 weeks of life, comprising 23 Stages, and are accessible the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

View full article at LifeIssues.net.

Item #5. Study: Pre-Teens Engage In Risky Sex
An alarming study from The University of Texas School of Public Health shows some children younger than 12 are involved in risky sexual behavior.

The study found that 12 percent of the students had already engaged in vaginal sex by age 12, 7.9 percent in oral sex, 6.5 percent in anal sex and 4 percent in all three types of intercourse. One-quarter of the sexually active children had had four or more partners.

View full article at CitizenLink.com.

Item #6. Married Couples A Minority In UK Within 20 Years?
Married couples will soon be outnumbered in Britain as more people stay single or choose alternative lifestyles, official forecasts assert. Within 20 years, only two out of five adults will be married, according to the Office for National Statistics. Husbands and wives will make up only 41 percent of the over-16 population by 2031, when divorcees, singles and cohabiting couples will outnumber them.

See the full article at Family and Life.

Item #7. President Obama And Planned Parenthood Will Promote Abortion At Summit Of The Americas
President Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood are expected to join forces to promote abortion at the fifth Summit of the Americas that begins in Trinidad tomorrow. The event is a chance for the leaders of the 35 members of the Organization of American States to gather, but it could be marked by a debate over abortion.

Full article at LifeNews.com.

Item #8. Mothers Living In Poverty: How Uninvolved And Unreliable Men In Their Lives May Drive Them To Abortion And How Abortion Increases Risk For Adverse Outcomes
Because physical violence as measured at baseline was not found to be predictive of the choice to abort, the post-abortion enhanced risk for violence detected in this study may have been attributed to abortion-related stress introduced into the relationship and/or elevated psychological stress in one or both partners. For example, a man may become very upset that his "baby" was aborted against his will. Alternatively, the woman may suffer from depression if she chose abortion for situational as opposed to personal reasons and she may become withdrawn, triggering anger in a man prone to violent behavior. Another possibility is that for some women the physical violence began after the birth of the first child and prior to the second pregnancy, thereby factoring into the decision to abort.

Full viewing at LifeIssues.net.

Item #9. The Risks Of Pushing Towards Perfection: Selective Eugenics
The purpose of selective eugenics is either to prevent the birth of babies showing serious genetic or structural disorders, or to terminate their lives once they have already been born . . . Elimination or annihilation of genetically flawed individuals is perceived as a chance of eliminating genetic diseases from the population and as a prospect for a general improvement in its overall biological condition. Selection of this kind can be accomplished at various stages of the baby's life.

View entire text at Catholic Culture.

Item #10. St. Paul On Catholics Who Politically Promote Abortion?
About five minutes after I completed my column "God and Mammon" concerning the falsity of Catholic arguments in favor of abortion, I came across in my daily spiritual reading the following passage from St. Paul's second letter to Timothy (3:1-7):

View entire text at Catholic Culture & "God and Mammon" at Catholic Culture.

Item #11. Birth Control Pill Linked To Lupus Risk
Women taking birth control pills, especially those who have just started taking them, may face an increased risk of developing the autoimmune disease lupus, a new study suggests.

Although the link between lupus and oral contraceptives has been debated for some time, this new study adds weight to earlier studies – including the Nurses' Health Study – that have shown a link between oral contraceptives and lupus, the study authors said.

View entire text at Health Day.

Item #12. Vatican Rejects Belgium's Protest Of Pope's Statement On Aids And Condoms
Reacting sharply to a Belgian government statement condemning Pope Benedict's remarks on condoms and AIDS, the Vatican Secretariat of State has issued a public rebuke.

On August 15 the Belgian ambassador to the Holy See, acting on instructions from his nation's parliament, formally delivered a message to "condemn the unacceptable statements of the Pope on the occasion of his journey to Africa and to protest officially to the Holy See." The Secretariat of State issued its reply on August 17, rejecting the Belgian criticism.

The Vatican response "deplores the fact that a Parliamentary Assembly should have thought it appropriate to criticize the Holy Father on the basis of an isolated extract from an interview, separated from its context, and used by some groups with a clear intent to intimidate, as if to dissuade the Pope from expressing himself on certain themes of obvious moral relevance and from teaching the Church's doctrine."

View entire text at Catholic Culture.

For information about no-cost Pro Life Talks to your group in Asia: contact Fr. Jerry at jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp.

Get a weekly dose of clear thinking: subscribe to our free Lifeissues newsletter! Sign up on main page of www.LifeIssues.net. Pass this free service to your friends and various groups.

Contact Editor: Jerry Novotny, OMI; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072; Tel/Fax: 088-843-0406; E-Mail: jerry@lifeissues.net (or) jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp

Websites by Editor:
English LifeIssues Site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese LifeIssues Site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI Site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html.

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11. Undercover Video Of UCLA Student And Anti-Abortion Activist Lila Rose – April 27, 2009

LiveAction.org. Anti-abortion activist

UCLA student and anti-abortion activist Lila Rose, 20, takes undercover video at Planned Parenthood clinics and posts it on YouTube.

Antiabortion movement gets a new-media twist

LiveAction.org
UCLA student and anti-abortion activist Lila Rose, 20, takes undercover video at Planned Parenthood clinics and posts it on YouTube. Lila Rose, a UCLA student, goes undercover at Planned Parenthood clinics to pose as an underage girl pregnant by a 31-year-old. Her surreptitious videos go on YouTube, and inspire outrage. By Robin Abcarian April 26, 2009. robin.abcarian@latimes.com

The girl's voice in the videotape is tiny and tentative. She is talking to a nursing aide in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bloomington, Ind. The girl wants an abortion.

The aide explains that the girl will need a parent's consent because she is only 13.

The girl balks; she does not want to name the father.

"Cause, I mean, he would be in really big trouble," says the girl. Her boyfriend, she explains, is 31.

The aide drops her head into her hands.

"In the state of Indiana," says the aide, "when anyone has had intercourse and they are age 13 or younger . . . it has to be reported to Child Protective Services."

There is a 60-second gap in the tape, according to the running timer on the video. What happens next is meant to be explosive.

"OK," says the aide, "I didn't hear the age. I don't want to know the age. It could be reported as rape. And that's child abuse."

"So if I just say I don't know who the father was, but he's one of the guys at school or something?" asks the girl.

"Right," says the aide, who has just stepped into a carefully laid trap.

As it happens, the boyfriend does not exist. The girl is not pregnant. Nor is she 13.

She is Lila Rose, a 20-year-old UCLA history major with a little voice and a bold plan to expose what she and many abortion foes see as Planned Parenthood's wrongdoings.

Since 2006, Rose has orchestrated undercover "stings" at Planned Parenthood clinics in Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Bloomington http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLDGFzdPjBU, Tucson, Phoenix and Memphis.

Surreptitiously videotaping their interactions, she and a friend have posed as abortion-seeking teens impregnated by older men. The videos – boiled down to five minutes, with portentous music and fast cuts to heighten the drama – are posted on Rose's website, LiveAction.org, and YouTube.

Rose's strategy – accusing Planned Parenthood of failing to report suspected statutory rapes – is not a new one in the antiabortion trenches. But the new-media twist on the idea has put her front and center of a new generation.

"There is this stereotype of who we pro-life leaders are, and for the most part it would be white middle-aged religious men trying to impose their will on women," said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition. "So now with Lila, you bring this young, fresh college student that completely blows any stereotypes away. No one is going to accuse Lila of being mean, vindictive and harsh."

Rose's goal is to undermine legal abortion by showing that Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the country, abets sexual exploitation by counseling pregnant minors to lie about the ages of their adult boyfriends.

Planned Parenthood officials strenuously deny the charge. Protecting minors is a crucial part of their mission, they say, but with 30,000 employees and volunteers and 850 clinics, they say, mistakes are inevitable.

Abortion is not likely to be outlawed any time soon, but Rose's work is having an impact, particularly on a local level, where abortion foes are increasingly focusing their efforts.

On Wednesday, Tennessee lawmakers said they would seek to end a $721,000 contract with Planned Parenthood, citing outrage over what they saw in a video Rose had posted two days earlier from a Memphis clinic http://www.youtube.com/user/LiveActionFilms?blend=2&ob=1. She posed there in July as a 14-year-old impregnated by a 31-year-old; a Planned Parenthood staffer says, "Just say you have a boyfriend, 17 years old, whatever."

Last month, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to suspend a grant worth nearly $300,000 to Planned Parenthood that was earmarked for sex education, not abortions. A conservative Tustin businessman raised the issue with Supervisor John Moorlach after meeting Rose and seeing her videos.

Last year, after the Indiana videos were posted on Rose's website, Bloomington's Herald Times reported that the nurse's aide seen on the tape had been fired. A second Planned Parenthood staffer, in Indianapolis, resigned: Rose's tape appeared to show that employee directing the young woman across the state line to a clinic in Illinois, which doesn't have a parental consent law.

A grand jury is investigating whether Planned Parenthood violated the law, said Mario Massillamany, a spokesman for the prosecutor of Marion County, where Indianapolis is located. "After we stated we were conducting an investigation, they hired a group to conduct better training for their staff," he added.

Laurie Rubiner, vice president for public policy and advocacy for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said it is a violation of the organization's policy to tell a young woman to lie about the age of a father. The well-being of patients, she said, is paramount. "And that means making sure that we are complying with minor-abuse reporting requirements."

Rose, she added, has refused to show Planned Parenthood her unedited tapes, so "it's very difficult for us to know what happened."

Rose said the full, 48-minute video of her encounter in Indianapolis is available at her website
http://www.liveactionfilms.org/wmv/indianapolis.html.

The conversation in the uncut version is more nuanced than the edited five-minute version, and includes a staffer stating emphatically, "We have to follow the laws," and another urging Rose to tell her mother about the pregnancy.

"I should also note that every time we release footage from a new clinic," said Rose in an e-mail, "we send complete copies of the footage to various state authorities, including the attorney general."

For this story, Rose would answer questions only by e-mail. When contacted in December, she agreed to meet a reporter the next day but canceled, citing schoolwork, and refused to reschedule. She was subsequently advised by a publicist to communicate only in writing.

She did not answer a question about who funds her work, saying only that she operates "on a very low budget" and uses "mostly student volunteers." Federal tax records for Live Action Films, created in 2008, are not yet available.

Planned Parenthood is treading carefully with Rose. Though the organization does not want to be seen as engaging in a David vs. Goliath struggle with a college student – albeit one with stellar connections – it has not ignored her.

In May 2007, Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles accused Rose of breaking state privacy laws http://laadvocate.com/ppletter0507.PNG when she secretly taped her interactions. It demanded she remove the videos from her website, which she did, though they are still easily found on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtyJ_7ZFgEw, – Arizona, Indiana and Tennessee, where she went next, have less restrictive privacy laws.)

For Rose, the threat was a badge of honor: "They are on the lookout for me," she told an audience of conservative Christian activists at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit in Washington in September. "When I walk into Planned Parenthoods across the country, I am flattered to see my picture on the wall. It is because to Planned Parenthood, I am – quote – a 'known anti-choice extremist.' This is one of the better compliments I have received."

In February, she was awarded $50,000 from the Gerard Health Foundation, a Massachusetts-based charity founded by a Catholic businessman that funds antiabortion and abstinence-only sex education efforts.

David French, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, gave her free advice when Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles threatened action, and appeared at her side during an interview with conservative TV talk-show host Bill O'Reilly. She also receives guidance from CRC Public Relations, a Washington-area firm that represents conservative clients and had a hand in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
campaign that targeted Democrat John F. Kerry during the 2004 presidential race.

Rose, the third of eight children, grew up in San Jose. Her father is an engineer for Sun Microsystems. She was home-schooled, she wrote in an e-mail, and also attended a part-time Christian school and a junior college throughout high school. When she was 15, she said, she founded Live Action and began giving antiabortion presentations to schools and youth groups.

Between 2006 and 2008, Rose attended four workshops at the Leadership Institute, a Virginia-based educational foundation that teaches conservatives how to polish their communication skills.

In fall 2006, when she was a UCLA freshman, she and fellow conservative activist James O'Keefe came up with the idea to infiltrate clinics.

Rose, by e-mail, and O'Keefe, in a phone interview, said they were inspired by the work of Mark Crutcher, a Texas antiabortion activist who in 2002 taped fake calls to hundreds of Planned Parenthood clinics around the country featuring women posing as pregnant minors.

They also found an unlikely source of inspiration: "Rules for Radicals," a handbook on grass-roots organizing by Saul Alinsky, a legendary left-wing activist who was an inspiration to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Among Alinsky's most famous admonitions is one that O'Keefe said he and Rose took to heart: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."

O'Keefe, 24, said he and Rose have received criticism from some of their associates for using deception. "It's a pretty complicated ethical issue," he said, "but we believe there is a genocide and nobody cares, and you can use these tactics and it's justified."

Rose and O'Keefe visited their first clinic – UCLA's Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center – in 2006. They videotaped an employee telling them "some pretty bad things," said O'Keefe, including that the fetus is a collection of cells. "That's what set us in motion."

"The videos," O'Keefe added, "are not supposed to necessarily show people breaking laws. They are supposed to change hearts and minds."

That's precisely the effect Rose's work had on Mark Bucher, the Tustin businessman who sent the videos to Orange County supervisors.

"I have never gotten riled up about Planned Parenthood getting taxpayer money to do abortions," Bucher said. "I got riled up when I saw that this organization doesn't care about their legal obligation to make sure some 13-year-old girl isn't going to be molested by a 31-year-old man anymore. No matter where you stand on the abortion issue, that ought to bother you."

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12. United Nations Out Of Control – April 19, 2009

In 2008 our friends at REAL Women of Canada http://www.realwomenca.com celebrated their 25 th Anniversary. Over the years this women’s organization has promoted life and family issues in Canada and internationally. We are grateful for their work in educating Canadians about critical issues impacting the family, appearing before parliamentary committees, intervening in Canadian courts, and serving as an NGO at the United Nations.

As a Non-Government Organization (NGO) with consultative status with the economic and Social Council of the United Nations their representatives have attended over 35 UN meetings in New York, Cairo, Beijing, Lisbon, Rome, Istanbul and Geneva, promoting the pro-life and pro-family cause.

Here is their report on activism at the United Nations from REALity Magazine, Volume XXVI Issue No. 3 May/June 2007.

“When the UN was established in 1945, with awesome hope and overwhelming good will, no one predicted it would become an agency that would probe and penetrate into the private and domestic lives of individuals residing in its member countries. This, however, is exactly what the UN is attempting to do. It is trying to introduce value systems, policies and practices that are alien to many, if not most, countries and which are very harmful, especially to women and girls and to their societies, in regard to abortion, homosexuality, sexual education and prostitution.

“In short, the officials operating the UN are pushing for power to transform the world in accordance with their own personal belief systems. They are attempting to accomplish this by two methods: Treaty Monitoring Committees and UN Rapporteur (Reporters).”

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.realwomenca.com/page/newslmj0704.html

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