Archive for the 'Health Issues' Category

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LifeSite posted yesterday the second installment of its two-part interview with Dr. Peter Hollands, the Chief Science Officer of the UK Cord Blood Bank. (Part one is here.)

As pro-lifers have been saying for years, the future of stem cell technology isn’t in embryonic stem cells, but adult stem cells — a major sub-category of which are umbilical cord stem cells. (These are obtained from a baby’s umbilical cord following delivery.)

Hollands states:

As a scientist, and even as a lay person, it is simple to see that cord blood as a source of stem cells for therapy and research is the easiest route to take. We have a never ending supply of cord blood and if we can start to collect and store this valuable resource instead of discarding it then we will start to make real progress in stem cell therapy and research…

To claim that there are enough “spare” embryos in IVF clinics is nonsense. These embryos could not support the demand for stem cell transplants.

Hollands goes on to plainly state a fact that cannot be said often enough:

It is important to note that embryonic stem cells have never been used to treat anyone and that there are no plans to do so. In the UK for example we have invested millions in a national stem cell bank which contains approximately 6 different embryonic stem cell lines none of which are suitable for transplant [emphasis added].

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Not unexpectedly, but no less unfortunately, this morning the FDA approved over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill to women 18 and older.

Backers of the FDA’s decision can send their “Thank you for your support” letters to the current occupant of:

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

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The Elliot Institute reports on the latest evidence of the negative effects of abortion on women:

National Study Finds Teens Who Abort Are More Likely to Experience Subsequent Mental Health Problems Compared to Those Who Give Birth to Unplanned Children

Springfield, IL (Aug. 10, 2006) — Adolescent girls who abort unintended pregnancies are five times more likely to seek subsequent help for psychological and emotional problems compared to their peers who carry “unwanted pregnancies” to term, according to a new nationally representative study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a research psychologist at Bowling Green State University, also found that adolescents who had abortions were also over three times more likely to report subsequent trouble sleeping, and nine times more likely to report subsequent marijuana use. The results were compiled after examining 17 other control variables, like prior mental health history and family factors, that might also influence subsequent mental health.

The data was drawn from a federally-funded longitudinal study of adolescents from throughout the U.S. who participated in two series of interviews in 1995 and 1996. About 76 percent of girls who had abortions and 80 percent of girls who gave birth were between the ages of 15 and 19 during the survey, with the remainder being younger.

Researcher Dr. David Reardon, who has contributed to more than a dozen studies examining psychological outcomes after abortion, said that Coleman’s study was particularly important because it examines pregnancy “wantedness,” in addition to a large number of other control variables.

“Over the last six years, numerous studies have conclusively linked higher rates of mental illness and behavioral problems associated with abortion compared to childbirth.” said Reardon. “But abortion advocates have generally dismissed these findings, insisting that while women who abort may fare worse than women who give birth to planned children, they may fare better than the important subgroup of women who carry unintended pregnancies to term. Coleman’s study addresses this argument and shows that the facts don’t support abortion advocates’ speculations.”

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Roaches are one thing.

Bloodstained walls are quite another.

That’s what Operation Rescue found in spades when they recently conducted Luminol testing inside the facility that formerly housed Central Women’s Services abortion clinic in Wichita, KS. (Operation Rescue now owns the facility.)

OR reported this morning:

Three members of Operation Rescue have become the first pro-lifers to use crime scene technology to conduct blood trace tests at a former abortion mill. Tested was the former Central Women’s Services, which was recently purchased by Operation Rescue. The staff members who conducted the testing are saying that the results were stunning and disturbing.

The group was curious about some of the stains and other filth discovered when they took possession of the building in June, 2006, after refusing continuation of tenancy to the abortion business that had occupied that location for 23 years. They decided to test certain surfaces inside the facility, which has remained unchanged since its purchase, with a substance called luminol, a reagent that brightly glows in the dark when it comes in contact with even minute traces of human blood.

Armed with cameras and a spray bottle of luminol, the rescuers arrived at the empty building around 9 PM on Thursday, August 3, 2006, in order to have optimum conditions for their testing. Brenna Sullenger sprayed the luminol in the areas to be tested while Keith Mason documented the results with a digital still camera and Cheryl Sullenger video-taped the testing and the results.

The group began to apply the spray to the recovery room area. All lights were extinguished as Brenna began to apply the spray to the carpeting. While a faint glow could be seen in the bottle as the spraying began, rescuers wondered at first if the product was working properly because there was nothing visible on the portion of carpet where they began their testing.

Read on for the grisly details. For the squeamish especially, consider yourselves forewarned:

It’s bad. (more…)

Last month I posted about a demonstration I participated in outside of the Playboy headquarters in downtown Chicago.

We were there to protest a fundraiser benefiting the Illinois Coalition for Adolescent Health — a group that has recently partnered with Planned Parenthood of Greater Chicagoland to form a coalition whose goal is to strip all funding of abstinence-only education for Illinois schools and instead require them to use condom-based sex education programs.

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Via Project Reality:

NEW SIECUS REPORT ATTACKING ABSTINENCE PROGRAMS GIVES INACCURATE INFORMATION ABOUT CURRICULA CONTENT

July 19, 2006 (Glenview, IL) – A report released today from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), accuses abstinence programs, including Project Reality’s Game Plan program of relying on inaccurate and misleading information and fear and shame-based messages. SIECUS is an anti-abstinence education organization that fights against federal funding for abstinence programs, and advocates for more federal funding for condom-based sex education.

In fact, the quote that SIECUS uses in accusing Game Plan of being fear and shame based and inaccurate, is, in itself, inaccurate.

Oh, the irony!

The SIECUS report quotes Game Plan as stating to students, “Even if you’ve been sexually active, it’s never too late to say no. You can’t go back but you can go forward. You might feel guilty or unworthy, but you can start over again.” In fact, the quote, from page 45 of Game Plan states, “You can’t go back in life, but you can always go forward. Even if you’ve been sexually active, it’s never too late to start over again.”

SIECUS has proven once again that its stock-in-trade is equal parts moral bankruptcy and incompetence — an extraordinarily dangerous combination.

Project Reality director Libby Macke commented:

SIECUS clearly did not research our programs thoroughly and accurately. It is likely that other inaccuracies exist in their report focusing on 50 states using abstinence education programs.

Quite so.

Since buying the building that formerly housed Wichita’s Central Women’s Services abortion clinic, Operation Rescue staffers have discovered horribly unsanitary and unsafe conditions in the facility.

Like this:

OR wants action:

Operation Rescue is calling for emergency inspections of the four remaining Kansas abortion mills in light of filthy and unsafe conditions discovered when Operation Rescue bought the Central Women’s Services building last month.

Operation Rescue invites Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to tour the Central Women’s Services facility and see the conditions for herself.

Discovered were horrific, unclean conditions in addition to out-of-code electrical wiring and plumbing, broken ceilings, and evidence of roach and rodent infestations.

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This last week of the last month of the first half of 2006 has been an eventful one. Here are some highlights:

One really, really rich guy gave a lot of money to an even richer guy, and a lot of it will be used to fund abortion and contraception.

Father Tom Euteneuer’s commentary on this windfall for the culture of death is spot-on, as usual. Here’s a taste:

There is nothing that fuels the anti-life movement more than money. It exists, perhaps symbolically so, on filthy lucre, and with this one mammoth financial windfall I believe the abortion-promoting elite have pushed the already-imbalanced life vs. death battle beyond the point of no-return. With Buffett’s billions Gates may be, in a strictly worldly sense, unstoppable. The culture of life simply cannot compete with this kind of money.

And this is precisely the point where the pro-life movement has needed to be for a long time: the point where all strictly human solutions are rendered impotent and we have no choice but to turn to an even greater power than the combined fortunes of the world’s two richest men. Simply put, they have money, we have God; which means we live in hope for the definitive solution to this mess and they live in fear of a stock market crash.

Operation Rescue wrote a new two-step chapter in the pro-life playbook:

1. Buy an abortion clinic.
2. Close it.

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I recently came across a section titled “Bad Advice” on the Modesty Zone website. (Modesty Zone is the host of the ever insightful blog Modestly Yours).

One feature, titled “Do Whatever the Man Wants”, encapsulates why How-To-Get-Used-by-A-Man-Instruction-Manuals like Cosmo, Glamour, and Marie Claire aren’t worth the perfume scented glossy paper they’re printed on:

I’ve been carrying around this clipping from my friend’s Cosmo for a few months now, it’s from their ASK HIM ANYTHING column:

Q. I’ve been with this guy for two months, and we’re really into each other. There’s one problem, though: He keeps pressuring me to have sex with him, but I’m not ready. I want to wait six months to make sure it’s right. Unfortunately, my man thinks that’s ridiculous and is getting annoyed, but I’m not about to change my rules. If he liked me enough, wouldn’t he be patient?

A. Let me make sure I read that correctly. You want him to hold out for six months? You’ve heard of dog years, right? Well, there’s also such a thing as guy years—and six months of waiting for sex feels like two years to him. See, a guy needs sex as part of a balanced man-diet. He needs it like he needs calcium, iron, and buffalo wings. If a man isn’t getting his nutrients, he turns into a cranky, whiny baby. And do you really want that disaster on your hands? As long as you don’t have any issue with premarital sex, I suggest you bump up that due date. After all, you say you’re really into him, and it’s already been two agonizing months—so what exactly are you waiting for? I mean, what are you going to learn about this dude in four months that you don’t know by now?

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“Condoms Found to Block a Virus Harmful to Women,” headlines the New York Times article about a study on condoms and HPV (human papilloma virus) published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In many circles, the study is being touted as a boon for proponents of condom-based sex education and a setback for abstinence education supporters.

A closer look at the study, however, reveals that the tired old message of “Use condoms” is hardly an advisable strategy for HPV prevention.

Among the study’s findings:

The incidence of genital HPV infection was 37.8 per 100 patient-years at risk among women whose partners used condoms for all instances of intercourse during the eight months before testing, as compared with 89.3 per 100 patient-years at risk in women whose partners used condoms less than 5 percent of the time (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.3; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.1 to 0.6, adjusted for the number of new partners and the number of previous partners of the male partner).

Read that alarmingly high 100% condom use failure rate again in light of the New York Times headline. The study itself uses considerably less stronger language: (more…)

JivinJ gives an update:

Heh.

If this really were a game, the “Adult” team could be justifiably accused of running up the score.

Potentially life-saving research, however, isn’t a game. That’s why it’s so terribly important to pursue avenues that are most likely to yield positive results.

Embryonic stem cell research has been repeatedly shown to hold little scientific promise. Not to mention that it reduces small human beings to the level of disposable specimens.

On the other hand, adult stem cell research has been repeatedly proven to hold remarkable scientific promise. And the whole “disposable specimen” issue is a non-factor. (See here and here for a smattering of references.)

Yet we “far right anti-choicers” are not infrequently dismissed as a bunch of Galileo-condemning, evolution-denying, life-begins-at-conception-believing dupes.

Perhaps this helps explain why our world is still plagued by the ridiculous notion that Christianity and science are incompatible.

Earlier this month, the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer was nominated by the National Breast Cancer Coalition to receive the latter’s first ever Golden Boob Award.

“Exposing the Biggest Boobs of All” is the award’s stated aim, and its mascot–for lack of a better term–is a silhouette of a busty mermaid who appears to be signaling a touchdown.

The NBCC states that “[t]his dubious honor calls attention to efforts that undermine the fight to stop breast cancer”:

This year’s nominees waste valuable time, money and energy. They spread false information and call it science and sell useless products to women trying to do what they can to avoid breast cancer.

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