Overturning Roe v. Wade Abortion Case Must Remain a Top Pro-Life Goal

From http://lifenews.com/nat4610.html

Overturning Roe v. Wade Abortion Case Must Remain a Top Pro-Life Goal

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 25, 2008

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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Writing in the latest issue of the Catholic weekly America, writer Mark Stricherz says the naysayers who are urging the pro-life movement to give up on overturning Roe v. Wade are wrong. He says there are other efforts to reduce abortion but pro-life advocates must ultimately work to legally protect unborn children.

Stricherz disagrees with writer Ross Douthat, who penned a piece at The Atlantic that expresses sympathy for Catholics who voted against the war and in response to the economy rather than against abortion.

"Ross seems to sanction Catholics who voted on 'several issues' not just one," Stricherz responds. "This view strikes me as wrongheaded."

"Overturning Roe (and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton) should have been the top priority of Catholics this election and should still be," he says.

"For one thing, nothing in American life is as hidden, brutal, and pathetic as abortion. It is true that war is evil and poverty and economic distress are ills. Yet at least each occurs generally in plain sight," Stricherz explains. "As the late Gov. Robert Casey pointed out, the same is not true of what happens in the nation’s abortion clinics: 'on this issue, the media spare us the details.'"

Stricherz agrees with the nation's Catholic bishops, who point out that issues like war and the economy don't trump abortion when it comes to the sheer number of lives lost.

"No disease, accident, or war kills more Americans than the abortion regime sanctioned by Roe. Every day, more than 3,000 unborn infants are killed," he says.

Ultimately, Stricherz says it's okay for Catholics and other voters to be concerned about the war but he believes abortion, like slavery, is a higher priority.

"I think of our situation as comparable to Americans in the late 1850s," he concludes. "War and poverty and economic distress needed to be fought. But slavery and the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott needed to be fought most of all."


Buzz up!



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From http://lifenews.com/nat4611.html


New Injection May Cut Down Syndrome Symptoms in Womb, Reduce Abortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 25, 2008

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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Government researchers say they have developed a new injection that could curb the effects of Down Syndrome. They have tested the idea on mice and say they used a shot of chemicals into an unborn mouse to reduce the effects of Down Syndrome during pregnancy and had success.


If the results can be replicated in humans, the new shot could help reduce the abortion rates of babies with the condition -- which runs as high as 90 percent.
Dr. Catherine Spong headed the National Institutes of Health research team that conducted the tests and published their results in the latest issue of New Scientist.
According to their report, the researchers developed an injection based on two proteins that they have found can help brains grow normally. People afflicted with Down Syndrome make fewer of the proteins.
The scientists genetically engineered the mice to have pups who had Down's and gave them the shot midway through the pregnancy. They found the mice given the shots reached the same developmental milestones as mice born without the condition.
Spong said a "significant amount" of the developmental delay had been prevented due to the shots and that they had normal levels of the ADNP protein that Down causes to be underdeveloped.
They are now watching the mice to see if they reach the same levels of development in their later years.
Tests on humans are still years away but observers say they could result in a reduced number of abortions.

Still Carol Boys, chief executive of the Down's Syndrome Association in England, told the London Daily Mail that people should be cautious about calling the shots a cure for Down Syndrome.
And Josephine Quintavalle, of the pro-life group Comment On Reproductive Ethics, told the newspaper that she's concerned about the eugenics component of the shots and how it may lead society to view the disabled negatively.
"If it is life saving, it is one thing. But if your intervention is just to ensure that somebody conforms to our idea of an ideal standard, there are an awful lot of issues to be weighed," she told the newspaper.
The news of the injections come after reports that the number of abortions of babies with Down syndrome in Scotland is on the decline.