LIFE DIGEST: U.S. funds go to U.N. supporter of coercive abortion
- Mar 31, 2009 -
It’s official. The Obama administration will grant federal funds to a United Nations agency that went seven consecutive years without receiving U.S. money because of its apparent support of China’s coercive, population-control policy.
The State Department announced March 24 it would contribute $50 million to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) as designated by Congress in the recently approved omnibus spending bill. The action came about nine months after the Bush administration refused to forward nearly $40 million in congressionally approved aid to UNFPA.
Also in this edition: Tiller acquitted but faces more charges and Sebelius signs abortion information bill and Implanting one embryo more successful, study shows and Majority of British doctors oppose assisted suicide and Utah’s Huntsman signs pro-life bills
The Bush administration had taken the same action each year beginning in 2002. During that time period, the administration withheld nearly $235 million as a result of President Bush’s finding that the agency aided in a program of forced abortion and sterilization. Bush’s determination was based on the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, which was first approved in 1985. That measure prohibits family planning money from going to any entity that, as decided by the President, “supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.”
The Obama administration’s decision was expected. The President indicated Jan. 23 he looked forward to working with Congress to restore funding to UNFPA.
Officials in many parts of China have practiced a forced family planning program for three decades in an attempt to curb the birth rate in the world’s most populous country. A law codifying the policy throughout China went into effect in 2002, although the national government forbids physical coercion for abortion or sterilization.
The policy limits couples in urban areas to one child and those in rural areas to two, if the first is a girl. Penalties for violations of the policy have included fines, arrests and the destruction of homes, as well as forced abortion and sterilization. Infanticide, especially of females, also has been reported.
The United States regularly urged China to eliminate coercive abortion and sterilization, and it called on the UNFPA to redesign its programs so it could receive U.S. funds, according to the Bush administration. “Since no key changes have taken place, these restrictions are being applied again,” a State Department spokesman said last year.
Tiller acquitted but faces more charges
A Kansas county jury acquitted George Tiller, the country’s most notorious abortion doctor, of 19 misdemeanor counts March 27. Tiller had been charged with failing to obtain another independent doctor’s opinion before performing late-term abortions.
Pro-life advocates received some hopeful news after the disappointing verdict, however. The Kansas Board of Healing Arts announced an investigation into similar allegations against Tiller.
Tiller’s practice has made Wichita a destination for women seeking late-term abortions. Women from throughout the United States and numerous other countries undergo abortions at Tiller’s clinic, Women’s Health Care Services. The clinic advertises on its website it has “more experience in late abortion services over 24 weeks than anyone else currently practicing in the Western Hemisphere, Europe and Australia.”
The jury needed only about an hour to find Tiller not guilty after prosecutors had accused him of using a doctor for second opinions who was, in essence, his employee, according to the Associated Press.
The medical board then announced a complaint had been filed against Tiller in December, AP reported.
“This is a great turn of events,” said Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director of Kansans for Life, of the board’s announcement, according to AP.
Sebelius signs abortion information bill
Pro-choice Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed into law March 27 without fanfare a bill that would require clinics to post signs saying forced abortions are illegal and would mandate a doctor offer a woman the opportunity to watch a sonogram of her baby before the procedure, The Wichita Eagle reported.
The new law also mandates a physician offer a woman a chance to listen to her baby’s heartbeat. Women are not required to view the ultrasound image or listen to the heartbeat.
Sebelius, a Democrat whom President Obama has nominated to be secretary of Health and Human Services, vetoed legislation last year that included the sonogram provision. She has drawn opposition from pro-life advocates and has thwarted past attempts to regulate abortion clinics in the state.
Had Sebelius vetoed the bill, Kansas legislators appeared to have enough votes to overturn her veto. Both houses passed the measure with more than the two-thirds majorities required, according to The Eagle.
Implanting one embryo more successful, study shows
A new study shows a woman who has undergone in vitro fertilization (IVF) is more likely to give birth if only one embryo is implanted in her womb.
The results conflict with the conventional wisdom in fertility treatments, which has been that multiple embryo implants increase the chances of a live birth. One of the consequences of that approach by fertility specialists has been the frozen storage of an estimated 400,000 embryos in the United States.
The study by researchers at the University of Oulu in Finland found the live birth rate was five percent higher in women who had a single embryo implanted at a time, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported March 25. The study was published in the journal Human Reproduction.
Majority of British doctors oppose assisted suicide
A majority of British doctors oppose physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, putting them at odds with the public.
A new poll shows 35 percent of physicians support the legalization of assisted suicide and 34 percent favor permitting euthanasia, according to a March 24 report in the Guardian. In the general public, however, support for legalization of assisted suicide is at 62 percent and of euthanasia at 82 percent.
Assisted suicide involves a physician prescribing a lethal dose of drugs a patient has to administer in order to kill himself, while euthanasia consists of a doctor administering drugs to the patient in order to kill him.
The study results were published a few days after Patricia Hewitt, a member of Parliament and a former Health secretary, introduced legislation to bar the prosecution of people who aid family members and friends in traveling to another country to end their lives with assistance. She also called for the eventual legalization of assisted suicide in Britain.
Utah’s Huntsman signs pro-life bills
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, signed into law March 20 three bills supported by pro-life advocates.
One of the new laws bans post-viability abortions, with exceptions to save the mother’s life and to protect her physical health. Another law requires a doctor to offer a woman information on the pain an unborn child may feel after the 20th week of pregnancy and anesthesia for her baby prior to an abortion. The third law sets up a fund to pay for legal fees when a pro-life law is challenged in court.
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