Rochester Area Right To Life
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Rochester Area Right To Life |
The newsletter of the Rochester Area Right to Life
1999 January Articles
May Your New Year Be Filled
with Many Blessings
Happy New Year! January 1 marks the official birthdate of the new RARTL website: www.righttoliferoch.org. This website is centered in Rochester but attempts to capture information of interest to an area of approximately the eight counties around the city. It includes a variety of information centered on the pro-life issues of abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. We tap local events and national newsletters. We have information on some local area centers which aid women with problem pregnancies.
Want to know what we did last year? Check our accomplishments page. Willing to wield your pen, pencil or keyboard? We have information on upcoming legislative activities – your legislators might benefit from hearing from you. (And there's a page with their addresses too.)
Want to know the current status of, for instance, parental notification/consent for abortions? Check out a wide variety of pro-life newsletters. Considering a health care proxy, living will or just thinking about euthanasia issues? Serious, complex issues. We have links to a lot of sites, each one of which has something unique to offer. We are pleased to be part of pro-life information sharing on the Web.
Have a bright idea of something additional that should be on this site? Want to contribute? Call the RARTL office. If you have any comments, suggestions or curses, please direct them to the Webmaster at alleblanc@compuserve.com or roch_rtl@juno.com or call. We’re the new kid on the block and we would like feedback.
Come visit us! Anne LeBlanc: RARTL Webmaster
RARTL volunteer Anne LeBlanc and Ex. Dir. Tom Beck donated time and talent to develop this invaluable asset to RARTL and community pro-life efforts. We are most grateful.
The annual March for Life will be held on Friday, January 22, 1999 in Washington DC. This will be the 26th anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision that wiped out the law prohibiting abortion in the USA. The theme of this march will be:
"For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Buses will leave from two Monroe County locations. Reservations are a must. When you call to make reservations, ask for details about food and stops. The following is all information obtained as of 12/31.
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3000 Chili Avenue; Rochester 14624 |
 From St. Thomas the Apostle Church; 4536 St. Paul Blvd; Rochester 14617 |
Over the last few years, an activity has become a custom in many sections of the United States. The activity is to ring bells on January 22nd to commemorate the children who have died as the result of abortion.
Each year, at noon on January 22nd, churches, towns, anyone with bells is encouraged to ring them once for each million babies killed by surgical abortion. Although the exact number of children killed in abortion up to January 22, 1999 is not known, the number is estimated as being 38,000,000.
The US Bishops’ Conference released a statement of "Living the Gospel of Life." The EWTN News report follows.
"No public official, especially if he calls himself a serious and faithful Catholic, can responsibly defend, or actively support, direct attacks against innocent human life." This was said in the annual plenary session of US Bishops’ Conference.
In the document, ‘Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics,’ the National Conference of Catholic Bishops pointed out that Catholic politicians who say they are opposed to abortion, but who refuse to defend their beliefs before their constituents are "seriously mistaken."
This is the first time such a clear message on this matter has been sent to politicians by the bishops. The document does not publicly denounce or name inconsistent Catholic politicians. It goes deeper by making "a private call to Conversion," which must always be "the first step in dealing with these leaders."
Cardinal William Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore, recently elected president of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities, explained that the new document "gives some guidelines for our dialogue" with legislators who support abortion. "But we are not looking for a public challenge." The first thing he recommended is private discussion.
Cardinal Bernard Law, the previous president of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities, said that the document is a teaching tool and not a "witch hunt" against mistaken politicians. "People who are looking for sanctions in this document will be disappointed."
The document also condemns violence perpetrated against clinics where abortions are performed and against the doctors who perform them. The complete text of the bishops’ statement can be found on the Internet at http://www.nccbuscc.org
Researchers have now announced that they have found a primitive kind of cell in the embryo. It has been claimed that this cell can grow into every type of human cell. US News & World Report said: "Called embryonic stem cells, these tiny bits of protoplasm are capable of developing into all 210 different kinds of tissue found in the human body."
The cells must be taken from an embryo less than a week old. The embryo, a living human being, is sacrificed in the process.. Belief in the sanctity of human life, from conception until natural death, makes this practice totally unacceptable.
Planned Parenthood no longer has offices in North Dakota, Mississippi and Hawaii. Jim Sedlak, Director of STOPP International,. said that in recent years the number of PP clinics has fallen from 938 in 1944 to just 900 today.He also reported that PP’s number of birth control customers has declined and volunteers have fallen from 30,000 in 1987 to 20,000 in 1996.
National Catholic Register 12/7/98 You may remember the tragic case of the New Jersey high school girl who gave birth to her baby at her senior prom; she threw the child into a trash can. Melissa Drexler was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the crime. When abortion was legalized, a consequence pro-life people feared was an increase in infanticide. A study in the December, 1998 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine shows the fear was well-founded.According to the study, the rate of infanticide increased from 7.2 for every 100,000 births between 1983 and 1987 to 8.9 for every 100,000 births between 1989 and 1991. If there has been no decrease in these figures, this means that nearly every day, at least one baby is killed after he or she is born.
A couple met with their attorney to discuss their wills. The attorney encouraged them to consider the Health Care Proxy. Discussing what they would not want their Health Care Agent to do, they were sure that they did not wish to be organ donors so their medical treatment would not be directed by desire for their organs.They then recalled that younger persons are more at risk as young, fresh organs are more sought for transplants. The attorney then asked what body part they thought is most desired for transplants?" They made guesses. "Heart? Eyes? Kidney?"
The attorney then responded. "The part of the body most sought for transplants is skin."
Victories for abortion advocates
The New Mexico Supreme Court in November ruled that the state must pay for abortion under Medicaid. That brings to 16 the number of states paying for abortions through Medicaid. Medicaid is a joint federal-state health program for the poor. In New York, Medicaid has always paid for abortion for "poor women" whose abortions are "medically necessary." There has been much inconsistency in the state’s definitions of "poor" and "medically necessary" so that Medicaid abortions are generally viewed as "abortions on demand" funded by Medicaid.
Since 1976, Congress has forbidden use of federal money to pay for abortions except in cases of rape or where the mother’s life is at stake. The US Supreme Court upheld the federal restriction but states have the right to provide state funding of abortion. States that have not done that funding are now being taken to court for refusing to pay for poor women’s abortion Lawsuits seeking Medicaid funding of abortions are pending in Alaska, Florida, Tennessee and Texas. Further, abortion advocates have successfully had courts n 3 states void laws requiring minors to have parental consent before getting an abortion. On-going opposition to blocking partial-birth abortions is underway in 28 states.
The American Feminist, Volume 5, Number 4, Winter 1998-1999 profiled 15 "Remarkable Pro-life Women." The publication included informative descriptions of the women. The following is a summary only to identify recognized women whose pro-life stands are rarely noted by the media.
Mother Teresa is the most well known of the list. In the entertainment field several were named.
Dolores O’Riordan: lead singer of the Cranberries |
Other women on the list have made their marks in politics, the media and other areas. They are:
| Linda Chavez: USA Today columnist Mary Ann Glendon: attorney & Harvard professor Eunice Kennedy Shriver: founder of Special Olympics Mary McAleese: President: Republic of Ireland Benazir Bhutto: former Pakistani Prime Minister Lindy Boggs: US Ambassador to the Vatican and former Democratic Member of Congress House Rep. Anne Northrup (R-Ky) Gov. Joan Finney: Kansas’ first female governor Louisiana State Rep.Sharon Weston Dr. Pamela Smith: President: American Association of Pro-life OBGYNs Mary Cunningham Agee: founder: Nurturing Network Elizabeth Fox-Genovese: former head of Emory University Women’s study institute; forced resignation for pro-life stand Cecelia Klingele: college student who became a full-time parent and chairs pro-life group at U. of Wis. |
A copy of the publication is at the RARTL office. To purchase the issue, contact Feminists for Life of America; 733 15th Street, NW; Suite 1100; Washington DC 20005; www.serve.com/fem4life
The 11/22/98 CBS’s 60 Minutes showed the video-tape of Jack Kevorkian injecting potassium chloride into the arm of Thomas Youk, man with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Kevorkian calmly described the stages in the death of Mr. Youk.
Kevorkian’s narration and his actually injecting the victim were television firsts. Previously victims had personally turned on the "machines" Kevorkian had designed to deliver lethal drug combinations to the willing victims.
Kevorkian also has a clear message. As author Wesley Smith has written, "a little known fact about Dr. Kevorkian is his vicious bigotry against disabled people." Smith observes that Kevorkian "has often stated that paraplegics and quadriplegics are ‘pathological’ if they do not want to die.
The above information came from Vol. 25 No 13 National Right to Life News; 12/10/98 in a cover story by Mary Jane Owen. This particular issue gave emphasis to euthanasia. NRTL President Wanda Franz’s column "Sliding Towards Euthanasia" was compelling. She forecast the next steps of the "agents of ‘choice ‘ …is doing something about the physically imperfect children who escaped the abortionist, about the disabled who ask for ‘futile’ health care and inform who cling to life and use up ‘resources’."
For comprehensive life issue news, subscribe to the NRL News. Send your name, address, city, state, zip and check to
| NRL News 419-7th St. N.W.; Suite 500; Washington, DC
20004 |
Re-structuring of Medicare likely in 1999
Presently, older Americans have the legal choice of health insurance that can save them from rationing. According to Burke J. Balch, J.D., NRTL Director of Department of Medical Ethics, there is likely to be a struggle over whether that right will be taken away.
The 17-member National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, created by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, is to make recommendations to Congress by March 1, 1999, concerning the long-term re-structuring of Medicare.
It is not now known what the commission will propose. Balch opines that the views of some commission members, the Clinton Administration and major media outlets make it likely that rationing focus will re-surface during 1999 congressional consideration of the commission proposal. .
Currently, Medicare payments are made in one of 2 ways. In traditional fee-for-service programs, still available, government will pay for health care as claims are submitted by doctors and hospitals. Thus government itself acts as the insurance company – although the rate at which it pays is well below the private market rate.
The other method of government payment is the "Medicare+Choice" program. When a Medicare-eligible person chooses this, instead of paying as treatments occur, the government sets aside a lump sum payment per beneficiary. Amounts vary by the beneficiary’s county of residence, medical condition, etc. The beneficiary will be able to select a private insurance company plan from among a number of competitors.
Many of the Medicare+Choice plans will be managed care plans under which provider choice is limited and treatments are subject to denial to hold down costs. Indeed, the government payments, standing alone, will only be enough to provide care that will have to be more and more rationed as the years go on.
Because they are set up to ration treatment through mechanisms as "utilization review" (under which doctors must get permission from the insurance company in order to provide a specific treatment or diagnostic test) managed care companies can survive on low government payments and make a profit.
Under the 1997 legislation, Medicare beneficiaries will be able to avoid such rationing by picking the new Medicare+ Choice option of a "private fee-for-service plan" . In order to do so, they will need to add their own money on top of the government payment to pay a premium high enough to provide treatments without rationing.
Editor’s Note: Preceding from NRL News cited above. Article is 2+ pages; above is 1 column. Additional sections will be run in the March issue of RARTL LIFE-LINES because the information is critically important.
LIFE-LINES 10/98 issue correctly reported that the Monroe County Legislature voted to not enter into contracts with or fund any agency/affiliates performing partial-birth abortions. The article noted that Fred Amato proposed an amendment that the funding ban be done to agencies/affiliates which both perform and/or refer for partial birth abortions. The article incorrectly reported the amendment was defeated.
In fact, the amendment was tabled. The amendment being tabled allows for the amendment to be "taken from the table" at some time in the future and voted upon at that time. Action was simply not taken on the amendment to the Resolution. County funding will be denied to agencies/affiliates performing partial-birth abortions. Denial of funding to agencies referring for partial birth abortions has not yet been called for a vote.
As the New Year begins, this would be an excellent time to send a short note of thanks to your legislator if he/she voted to deny county funding to agencies/affiliates who perform partial-birth abortions. The Monroe County legislators who voted for the ban were Tracy Logel, resolution sponsor and Michael Hanna, Fred Amato, Mark Assini, Karla Boyce, Charles Eber, John Ferlicca, Sean Hanna, Peter McCann, David Proud, William Reilich, Jim Roose, Ray Santirocco, Peter Smeenk, William Smith, Max Streibel, George Wiedemer, Chris Wilmot, Robert Zinck, Dennis Pelletier.
If uncertain of your legislator’s name, call the County Board of Elections at 428-4550. The Board of Elections will give you name and address of your legislator. Send your note to either the local office or to your legislator at Monroe County Legislature, 39 West Main Street; Rochester, NY 14614.
Area MDs not performing/referring for abortions
In 1970 when abortion was made legal in NY state, RARTL began receiving calls from women seeking identification of doctors who neither refer for nor perform abortions. To be able to accurately provide the information, RARTL did a survey of all doctors in the area. That list has been kept as current as possible.
Recently Feminists for Life of Western New York did a survey and shared their results. Information from both surveys is available by calling the RARTL office (716) 621-4690.
Although extensive, the list of the doctors cannot be considered to be 100% accurate and complete. The lists identify only obstetricians, a general practitioner and nurse/midwives whose practices are known to not include performance or referral for abortion.
The lists are not intended to recommend doctors or practices. They are presented only as a guide for use of women seeking pro-life obstetrical services.
ABORTION
DENIES
Due to contract changes, our movie ad, "The Choice is Life" moved from the Regal Cinema Eastview to the Sony Webster as of 12/18/98. The ad was also scheduled for 3 weeks at the Pittsford Sony starting 12/18/98.
Father John Reif RARTL Advisory Board Member preparing for a 5 month sabbatical in Ireland
Anne LeBlanc Newly elected member of Rochester Area Right to Life Committee, Inc. Board of Directors
E-mail about time-sensitive topics and events, with emphasis on both state and federal legislation had been sent from roch_rtl@juno.com. on request. Now with the web site, Life-Mail will be discontinued. However, roch_rtl@juno.com can still be used to send e-mail to the RARTL office. Of course, former Life-Mail information will be found at our website.
Campaign is still underway. Winners will be identified January 21st.. If you’ve misplaced your campaign books or could use more please call the office at 621-4690. Donations to the campaign are voluntary.
A
BORTIONDECISION FOR 2
MADE BY 1
In 1996, the number of reported legal abortions in the US rose. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this is the first increase in abortion in this decade,
The federal agency received reports of 1,221,585 abortions in 1996. That was a 0.88% increase from the 1,210,883 reported for 1995. That number was 15% below the 1,429,577 reported in 1990. The disease control centers in Atlanta also reported that the abortion rate rose to 314 from 311 for every 1,000 live births.
Remembering the November elections
The November, 1998, elections seem like a decade ago. Following is a synopsis of changes in Congress.
In the Senate, results appeared to be a wash. The pro-life side gained one vote on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act; on other abortion-related matters, there was no net change.
In the House, 4 to 10 pro-life seats were lost, depending on the specific issue, e.g. on the Hyde Amendment 8 to 10 seats may have been lost. While unfortunate, that will not be critical as the Hyde Amendment passed this year by 270 –150.
Saturday, April 10 at Four Points Sheraton; Roman Catholic Diocese 4th Annual Celebration for Life to Benefit Consistent Life Ethic Grant Fund
Tuesday, September 14 at Rochester Marriott Thruway Hotel 3rd Annual Pro-life Celebration and Presentation of the Leo Holmsten Human Life Award
ROCHESTER AREA RIGHT TO LIFE EDUCATION FUND
UNITED WAY DONOR CHOICE
NUMBER IS 1087.
Your telephone bill can help the cause
of life!
10% of your long-distance telephone bill can be given to RARTL – at no cost to you
Some area pro-life people have already switched to LifeLine; we are grateful. For those who have not, please con-sider making the change. It will cost no more; you’ll pay less for long distance telephone service. If not completely satisfied, LifeLine will pay the fee to switch you to another carrier.
LifeLine, a Christian company, has taken a stand against abortion. The company is helping pro-life groups across the country preserve the lives of unborn babies and their mothers. For information and/or to order LifeLine Long Distance, call 1-800-341-9417, RARTL’s designated LifeLine number.
Life-Lines
Official Publication: Rochester Area Right to Life Committee, Inc.
Education Fund
Suite 3; 675 Ling Road Rochester, New York 14612
(716) 621-4690 Third-class postage paid at Rochester, NewYork
Permit No. 1931 A non-profit organization
Volume 27: Issue 3 Price $10.00 per year
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