LIFE DIGEST: Pro-life cause made gains, Bush says
- Jan 19, 2009 -
The effort to protect all human life made advances during his eight years in the White House, President Bush said as he prepared to leave office.
Also in this edition: Prediction: 2009 to be ‘dark year’ in bioethics and Morning-after pills given to 13 year olds
The president defended his advocacy for a “culture of life” in an Oval Office interview with columnist Cal Thomas that was published Jan. 7, less than two weeks before he was to be succeeded by President-elect Barack Obama
Saying he believes “we have made progress on the issue of culture of life,” Bush told Thomas, “I do believe people are beginning to understand why a person like me takes the position I take. And I do believe we can take those positions without being so judgmental that our voice is not heard. In other words, I have always tried to say, ‘I understand your position, but here’s mine, and here’s why I think this makes sense for a compassionate America.’
“[A]s we disagree, let’s keep things in mind: that all life is precious; that a society is strong when it worries about the most vulnerable among us, whether it be those who are elderly, those who are sick, and those who are yet unborn.”
During the Bush presidency, his administration reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which bars federal funds from going to organizations that perform or promote abortions overseas, and blocked during the last seven years congressionally approved funds for a United Nations agency that supports China’s coercive population-control program. Bush also signed into law such pro-life measures as the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act and the Born-alive Infants Protection Act. In 2001, he ordered a ban on federal funding for stem cell research that destroys embryos.
He told Thomas the Republican Party should maintain its pro-life position.
“I will be the first to concede that laws change only after hearts change,” Bush said, “but our party has been on the leading edge of saying to people there’s a better way than what took place in the past in the country on a very sensitive issue like abortion. We were the ones who fought for the ban on partial-birth abortion, and then went to the courthouse to defend it. We’re the ones who promote adoption.”
In his last week in office, Bush issued a proclamation declaring Jan. 18 as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. On that date, he said, “our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world.”
Prediction: 2009 to be ‘dark year’ in bioethics
This will be a “dark year” in bioethics, Wesley Smith predicts.
A pro-life bioethics specialist, Smith included the following predictions for 2009 in an article written for the Center for Bioethics and Culture:
- President Bush’s ban on federal funds for embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) will be overturned;
- The amount of federal funding for ESCR will stay about the same, however;
- A bill permitting research, or “therapeutic,” cloning likely will gain passage in the U.S. Senate but may be held up in the House of Representatives;
- Physician-assisted suicide will become legal in at least one of three states — California, Hawaii or Vermont — and “open the floodgates in 2010;”
- The Freedom of Choice Act will not become law this year;
- Conscience protections recently implemented by the Bush administration for pro-life health-care providers will be rescinded
Writing on his weblog, Smith said he had been asked whey he “would be so publicly pessimistic.”
“The worry is that people might get discouraged,” he wrote. “Perhaps, but I hope it will wake people up! I am so tired of hearing, ‘It can’t happen here,’ that the time has come for all to understand that not only can it happen here, it is happening now. It is now or never to defend the ramparts!”
Morning-after pills given to 13 year olds
British girls as young as 13 years of age have received pills at their schools in the North of England that can cause abortions, according to a recent report.
The Sun, a British newspaper, reported Jan. 11 the “morning-after pill” has been given to at least six 13 year olds and maybe many more without notifying their parents. They were distributed by National Health Service nurses working at the schools. Some schools do not record the ages of the girls that receive the pills, while some do not distinguish whether a student is 13 or 14, according to the Sun.
The “morning-after pill” not only works to restrict ovulation in a woman, but it can act after conception, thereby causing an abortion. This secondary mechanism can block implantation of a tiny embryo in the uterine wall.
“If girls as young as 13 are being given the morning-after pill, then an illegal act is taking place . . . it’s sex with a minor,” said Josephine Quintavalle of the pro-life organization Comment on Reproductive Ethics, according to the Sun. “Why are the authorities not investigating what is happening to the child and just handing out pills?”
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. If your church is interested in purchasing bulletin inserts or other materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Life, Abortion, Birth Control, End-of-Life Issues, Stem-Cell Research, Science, Bioethics