Showing posts with label Sex Life Health & Death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sex Life Health & Death. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

So, abortion doesn't harm women's mental health? The stats disagree By Adelaide Mena

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There are facts and truths that "sexual libertarians" don't want society or public opinion to know, that even they don't want to know. To sum up those facts - accumulated in different human cultures and societies - we don't need sex to live a full life and be content. To define one's identity on the basis of our sexuality alone is to reduce our human value and dignity. I am a lot more than just my genitalia, and so are you. G.S.

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My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best human efforts to make sense of our lives - and of our human sexuality in particular - also including the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium. The Church has been accumulating much valuable wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7 
Father Gilles Surprenant, priest & poustinik

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So, abortion doesn't harm women's mental health? The stats disagree
By Adelaide Mena 

Washington D.C., Jan 3, 2017 A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association says that women who get abortions show no signs of increased mental health problems after having an abortion – and that in fact, it's women who are denied an abortion that suffer more greatly.

But pro-life organizations and other researchers have responded that the study doesn't show the whole picture, and that these findings don't mean that women don't regret their abortions. They also counter that similar studies involving an exorbitantly higher number of women have shown the opposite results, and that everything needs to be taken into account.

“I confess I'm not that surprised at what it uncovered, and it's important for abortion opponents to neither instantly vilify the study nor to fear what it can tell us,” Mark Regnerus, associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin told CNA.

“A sober assessment is in order.”

The study, called the “Turnaway Study” was conducted by researchers from University of California – San Francisco and tracked 956 women from 21 states for more than five years. The women – all of whom had sought abortion – were interviewed once a week after seeking out an abortion, and then every six months for that five year period.

Antonia Biggs and Diana Greene Foster, two of the researchers who wrote the study, told CNA in a statement that in their study, women who were denied abortions had more mental health repercussions – like anxiety, lower self-esteem and less life satisfaction, in the short-term than women who had abortions. The study also found that by six months these rates of mental health consequences were similar. Both groups of women  had “ similar levels of depressive symptoms over the entire five year period,” of the study the researchers commented.

“We found no evidence of increases in mental health problems after having an abortion,” they added. Critics, however, say that the relatively short length of the study doesn’t account for women who come regret their abortion many years later, nor does it mean that a lack of depression or other mental health effects means that women don’t experience regret.

Ana-Maria Dumitru, director of Medical Students For Life, told CNA that other studies have come to opposite conclusions. Dumitru pointed to astudy by Dr. D Paul Sullins of the Catholic University of America published earlier in 2016 followed more than 8,000 women for over 13 years.

“The Sullins study confirmed that even after controlling for over twenty possible variables, there's still a clear, significant increase in the relative risk of mental health disorders for women who have abortions.” These risks, she added were compared to both live birth and miscarriage outcomes. Other studies from New Zealand and Norway also showed similar increased risks of mental health issues for women who have abortions, she added.

Regnerus helped explain some of the design of the study to CNA. He said that while abortion is not his area of study, there were some reasonable interpretations and qualifications to be made of the findings from a social sciences perspective. He said the basic design of the study was “competent,” since the researchers were able to track nearly 1,000 women over the five-year time span, and that the findings were “illuminating.”

He added that it’s reasonable to expect that women who do not see abortion as wrong would experience abortion differently. “Some, of course, may come to think differently about their abortion weeks, months, or even years later. Others seem not to,” he said.

Regnerus also noted that “no study can do it all,” and that there are some indirect effects between abortion and emotional consequences that the study could not assess. The professor also pointed out that regret and depression “are two different things,” and the study doesn’t delve into women’s regret about their abortions “and that's fine because it's not a study of regret.”

The professor also pointed to flaws in the study that might be overlooked by most casual readers. Regnerus noted that there was “a good deal of sample selection bias – only 32 percent of women approached actually participated, leaving us to wonder if there are differences between they and the 68 percent who didn't.”

Furthermore, the study was unable to keep track of 42 percent of the original participants. Regnerus added that while these kinds of sample selection bias and challenges in collecting data are difficult to avoid in studies, particularly on a subject like abortion, they do introduce unknowns into the study.

Regnerus said that the study's focus on near-term emotions such as anxiety or self-esteem “are too tangled up in the emotions of the event, the circumstances surrounding pursuing an abortion,” and said he thought it was a “leap for the authors to draw sensible conclusions” from such data.

What was more noteworthy, he commented was the study’s tracking of depression over the five year period, which remained constant. “The ability to track the direct effect of abortion on depression longer-term,” he noted, “is this study's contribution.”

“It is unreasonable to presume that every abortion conducted in the United States – and elsewhere, for that matter – will make the woman who sought it troubled or sad over the long run,” Regnerus added.

“It does for plenty, no doubt. We hear about it. On the other hand, we hear of accounts to the contrary.”

Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life said that in her experience, even in cases where there is regret and suffering, those feelings can lead to more positive states of healing.

“Abortion takes the life of one and often wounds the life of another,” Mancini told CNA. “Some women only come to discover such deep wounds after many years, sometimes decades,” she said, pointing out again that the study only covered a five-year span.

“My personal experience in working with women who regret abortion is that when a woman honestly faces the truth of what’s happened, she suffers tremendously, but this in turn is the first step to finding real and lasting hope and healing.” 

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/so-abortion-doesnt-harm-womens-mental-health-the-stats-disagree-39867/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email

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My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best efforts as human beings to make sense of our lives in general - and of our human sexuality in particular - and to also include the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium; given that the Church has been accumulating the wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7     G.S.

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© 2006-2023 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2023 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
 

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Saturday, September 3, 2016

Abortion linked to mental health problems down the road, study finds

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There are facts and truths that "sexual libertarians" don't want society or public opinion to know, that even they don't want to know. To sum up those facts - accumulated in different human cultures and societies - we don't need sex to live a full life and be content. To define one's identity on the basis of our sexuality alone is to reduce our human value and dignity. I am a lot more than just my genitalia, and so are you. G.S.

----------------------------------------------------------------

My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best human efforts to make sense of our lives - and of our human sexuality in particular - also including the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium. The Church has been accumulating much valuable wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7 
Father Gilles Surprenant, priest & poustinik

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In considering abortion as an option, or else before or after trying to understand what might be consequences of having an abortion, it is good to remember that LOVE UNLEASHES LIFE.

Courtroom genetics testimony of Dr. Jerome Lejeune on the wonder of human conception in the Circuit Court for Blount County State of tennessee at Maryville, Tennessee on August 10th, 1989. 

Abortion linked to mental health problems down the road, study finds Washington D.C., Sep 3, 2016

Credit: TRIG via Shutterstock.

Abortion during the late teen and early adult years raises a woman’s risk of mental health problems and may be linked to almost one in ten cases of these women’s mental disorders, a new study says.

“Evidence from the United States confirms previous findings from Norway and New Zealand that, unlike other pregnancy outcomes, abortion is consistently associated with a moderate increase in risk of mental health disorders during late adolescence and early adulthood,” said the study’s abstract.

The study, conducted by sociology professor Donald Paul Sullins of The Catholic University of America, was published July 22, 2016 in the peer-reviewed Sage Open Medicine journal.

After adjusting for demographic differences and other factors, the study found that abortion during these years elevated a woman’s risk of mental health disorder by 45 percent.

“One-eleventh of the prevalence of mental disorders examined over the period were attributable to abortion,” the study’s abstract said.

The study sought to examine any links between pregnancy outcomes like birth, abortion or miscarriage and mental health outcomes for U.S. women during the transition to adulthood. It drew on a national study of 8,005 women that surveyed them three times at average ages of 15, 22 and 28.

Involuntary pregnancy loss was associated with a 24 percent elevated risk of mental disorder, while childbirth was “weakly associated” with reduced risk of mental disorder.

Students for Life of America said the study showed the need for better data about the risks of abortion.

“Abortion activists have repeatedly denounced attempts to link abortion with any adverse events,” the group said Aug. 23. “In medical schools across the country, students are taught that there are no long-term consequences of abortion, and that abortion is a safe procedure. However, these statements are misleading at best.”

Students for Life said that each state sets its own reporting laws. States like California do not require any reporting of abortion statistics. Reported statistics may be unreliable, given that pro-abortion research organizations like the Guttmacher Institute consistently report abortion rates as much as 30 percent higher than Centers for Disease Control reports.

Only 16 states require reporting on abortion complications, and only eight publish abortion complications in their public abortion reports. Four states inquire about maternal mortality after abortion, while only one state asks about follow-up care to women who have had abortions.

 https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/abortion-linked-to-mental-health-problems-down-the-road-study-finds-44010?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email

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My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best efforts as human beings to make sense of our lives in general - and of our human sexuality in particular - and to also include the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium; given that the Church has been accumulating the wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7     G.S.

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© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
 

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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Lifelong Effects of Abortion on Men – A Robbed Manhood…

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There are facts and truths that "sexual libertarians" don't want society or public opinion to know, that even they don't want to know. To sum up those facts - accumulated in different human cultures and societies - we don't need sex to live a full life and be content. To define one's identity on the basis of our sexuality alone is to reduce our human value and dignity. I am a lot more than just my genitalia, and so are you. G.S.

----------------------------------------------------------------

My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best human efforts to make sense of our lives - and of our human sexuality in particular - also including the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium. The Church has been accumulating much valuable wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7 
Father Gilles Surprenant, priest & poustinik

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Lifelong Effects of Abortion on Men – A Robbed Manhood…

August 26, 2014 by Katrina Fernandez Leave a Comment

… Once I saw a bumper sticker, “Having an abortion doesn’t make you un-pregnant. It makes you the mother of a dead baby.” The same could be said for a father whose child has been aborted.

Little attention is given to men when the topic of abortion is raised. Many believe since men don’t have a uterus they don’t have the right to an opinion on the matter. But a pregnancy doesn’t involve just the pregnant woman. Many people are involved – a child yet born, future and/or existing siblings, grandparents, and yes, a father.

Not only does abortion hurt women, it ruins the lives of men as well. It robs them of the fatherhood and effects the way they see themselves as a man.

Let me introduce my friend R. We met about 3 years ago at a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat. He allowed me to share his story.

R. admitted how profoundly he’d been changed after an abortion his girlfriend, now ex-wife, underwent when they were teenagers. They both felt crushing parental pressure to have an abortion. As scared teenagers they went to their parents for help. Instead they got sermons and statistics thrown at them.

“Young parents have a lower success rate of finishing college. The odds were insurmountable. It would be cruel to bring an unwanted baby into the world that would just burden everyone. Think of the cost. Think of the delayed or abandoned plans and dream. Abortion is the best thing”, they rationalized.

R. shared with us how he and his girlfriend never wanted to end the pregnancy but neither had the courage to stand up against their parents, who they trusted to know better.

He vividly recalled his ex-wife, then a terrified 18 year old girl, staring at him with desperate pleading eyes. She wanted him to stand up and firmly say “This is my child too. You will not have an abortion. We can cope.”

Instead he looked away.

The decision was made by their parents and the following week they drove her to the clinic. It was done.

 

Lifelong Effects of Abortion on Men – A Robbed Manhood… continued

They eventually got married and had several more children together but from the moment he looked away from his pregnant girlfriend’s gaze and surrender his responsibility as a father he lost a good deal of his manhood and a great deal of her respect.

He also lost the ability to make decisions. He didn’t trust himself to make the right choices and second guessed himself at every turn. So he stopped making them altogether.

As a result his wife ran his life, making all major decisions in the family, and she resented his spineless ineptitude to take charge. He was a coward at work, with his friends, his wife, and eventually his children. No one respected him because he lacked firm resolve.

Not only did R. lose his first child to abortion, he also lost his manhood, his fatherhood, and his self respect.

He and his ex-wife no longer speak and the children are grown and estranged to him. He’s never met his two grandchildren.

One single abortion, with promises of a better future, was supposed to solve all their youthful problems. Ultimately it destroyed two generations of his family and caused endless heartache.

Abortion is a horrible evil. We often say we want better for our daughters, but we should also demand better for our sons too.

Men need to know the lifelong effect abortion can have on their psyches. When men are tested by life and found wanting it ruins their self worth and can potentially damage all their future relationships.

R.’s situation is more than just an anecdotal accounting of abortion. It’s backed by psychological research into the subject.

Masculine identity may be damaged when men fail to keep those they love from harm. Role confusion or a sense of emasculation may occur if men are not allowed to act on their healthy instinct to protect or when they judge themselves to have failed as guardians. In an attempt to fulfill their perceived role as one of stoic support to their partners, men tend to contain their own emotions and put on a brave face.

Ironically, men’s efforts to be strong for their partners by repressing their own emotions may lead to complicated or unresolved grief or to clinical depression. – Men and Abortion: Psychological Effects by Catherine T. Coyle, RN, PhD

Anything that promises a quick fix to life’s challenges always has a higher price to pay in the end. Make sure your sons know that and know that they can come to you for love and support should they ever find themselves in R’s position.

MORE LINKS

Men and Abortion: Finding Healing, Restoring Hope by the Knights of Columbus 

http://www.uffl.org/pdfs/vol27/UFL_2017_Coyle.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282404039_A_Thematic_Analysis_of_Men%27s_Experience_With_a_Partner%27s_Elective_Abortion

https://www.menandabortion.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/NOV_Coyle_Rue_2010.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26453706_Men_and_Abortion_A_Review_of_Empirical_Reports_Concerning_the_Impact_of_Abortion_on_Men

https://www.menandabortion.net/index.php/resources/research/

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My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best efforts as human beings to make sense of our lives in general - and of our human sexuality in particular - and to also include the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium; given that the Church has been accumulating the wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7     G.S.

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© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
 

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Monday, June 15, 2009

Early Christians and Abortion Commentary by David W. T. Brattston

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There are facts and truths that "sexual libertarians" don't want society or public opinion to know, that even they don't want to know. To sum up those facts - accumulated in different human cultures and societies - we don't need sex to live a full life and be content. To define one's identity on the basis of our sexuality alone is to reduce our human value and dignity. I am a lot more than just my genitalia, and so are you. G.S.

----------------------------------------------------------------

My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best human efforts to make sense of our lives - and of our human sexuality in particular - also including the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium. The Church has been accumulating much valuable wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7 
Father Gilles Surprenant, priest & poustinik

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Early Christians and Abortion

Commentary by David W. T. Brattston

June 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This article presents the Christian attitude toward abortion before the first ecumenical council, that is, until A.D. 325. Because the New Testament does not comment on the morality of abortion, this article considers the writings of the first generations of Christians after the apostles, for they indicate that opposition to abortion (1) was shared at a time when the writers — or Christians not many generations earlier — personally knew the apostles or their first disciples and thus benefited from their unwritten teachings and interpretations of Scripture, (2) comes from a date so early that there was no likelihood for the original gospel to have been corrupted, and (3) is not based on only one interpretation of the Bible among many but was the interpretation of Christians who were personally familiar with the New Testament writers or their early followers.

With the exception of one author who wrote at length on the subject, early Christian writings do not discuss abortion in depth but merely state in a few words or phrases that it was forbidden to Christians. Most of the authors of the period do not touch on the subject but those who did considered it among the worst of sins.

The earliest source is an anonymous church manual of the late first century called The Didache. It commands “thou shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten.” (at 2.2)

The Epistle of Barnabas contains a similar guide to Christian morality. It was composed sometime between A.D. 70 and 132 and was included in some early versions of the New Testament. In the midst of several chapters of instructions on ethics, it states: “Thou shall not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born.” (19.5) The latter phrase refers to the ancient Greek and Roman practice of abandoning newborns to die in unpopulated areas if the baby was the “wrong” sex or suspected of health problems. To the author of Barnabas, this practice and abortion were equal in sinfulness.

Dating from just before A.D. 150, the Revelation of Peter was still read in church services in fifth-century Palestine. It describes in detail the various punishments in hell according to different types of sin. The punishment for women who induced miscarriage was to sit up to their necks in blood and dirt while the aborted children shot sparks of fire into their eyes (Chapter 25). Clement of Alexandria, the principal of Christendom's foremost Christian educational institution at the end of the second century, accepted these statements as an accurate exposition of the Faith (Extracts from the Prophets 41; 48; 49).

In Paedagogus 2.10.96 Clement spoke negatively of women who “apply lethal drugs which directly lead to death, destroying all humane feeling simultaneously with the fetus.” Clement and other early Christian writers often quoted from the Sibylline Oracles as the work of a pagan prophet who had predicted the coming Christ like the Jewish ones. Later, the Sibyllines were rewritten to increase the proportion of Christian ethical teaching. Oracle 2 describes abortion as contrary to God's law, while Oracle 3 commands people to raise their children instead of angering God by killing them.

A Plea for the Christians was written around A.D. 177 by “Athenagoras the Athenian, Philosopher and Christian”, partly to convince the Roman Emperor that there was no truth in the rumor that Christians ritually murdered and ate babies. In declaring that such a practice was contrary to Christian ethics, Athenagoras emphasized the sacredness of unborn life:

And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very foetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God's care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder. (Chapter 35)

To Athenagoras, abortion was the same as abandoning a newborn and other murder.

The Octavius of Minucius Felix was composed sometime between A.D. 166 and 210, in part to prove that Christians had a higher morality than pagans. In condemning pagan practices, Chapter 30 deplores the fact that “There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit [murder] before they bring forth.”

Our next author is Tertullian, a lawyer who became a Christian and a theological writer. He wrote a large number of books on Christianity, three of which mention abortion: Apologeticum (A.D. 197), An Exhortation to Chastity (around A.D. 204) and On the Soul (between A.D. 210 and 213).  The Apologeticum was an introduction to Christianity for inquirers who wished to learn about it. Chapter 9 acquaints readers with the Christian position on abortion:

murder being once for all forbidden, we [Christians] may not destroy even the foetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. 

On the Soul was the longest work related to abortion in the first three centuries of Christianity. According to Chapter 37, “The embryo therefore becomes a human being in the womb from the moment that its form is completed. The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion, inasmuch as there exists already the rudiment of a human being.”

In An Exhortation to Chastity Tertullian mentioned that there were many difficulties in raising children but he asked: “Are you to dissolve the conception by aid of drugs?” and answers his own question with “I think to us [Christians] it is no more lawful to hurt a child in the process of birth, than one already born.” He recommended that life-long celibacy makes life freer because it relieves a Christian from the burdens of raising children; there is no alternative because, after a child is conceived, it is forbidden to kill it.

In the early decades of the third century, Hippolytus was a bishop in central Italy. Later, his followers purported to elect him bishop of Rome in opposition to another candidate, thus becoming the first “antipope.” For a few years Hippolytus and his rival operated competing church organizations. In his Refutation of All Heresies he made many accusations of lax morality against the opposing side in an attempt to maintain that it had departed from the standard of behavior commanded by the gospel. Among other practices, he charged that in the opposite camp,

women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for producing sterility, and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth. (9.7) 

Whatever the truth in these allegations against Hippolytus’ opponents, this passage indicates common disapproval of abortion, sexual promiscuity and placing material considerations above the life of unborn children.

A generation after Tertullian, Cyprian, the bishop of his city, listed abortion among the sins of a Christian who was causing a deep rift in the universal Church (Letter 52.2). By including the reference, he indicated that it was impermissible among Christians.

The Apostolic Church Order or Ecclesiastical Canons of the Apostles were composed around A.D. 300 as a short law-book for Christians, ostensibly by eleven apostles. Its wide popularity is evidenced by the fact that it was translated into several languages. Included in Chapter 6 is a prohibition that Christians shall not kill a child, at birth or afterward.

After Christianity was legalized, congregations in various regions held conferences to regulate the affairs of the Church. One objective was to standardize the practices of excommunication. About time of Constantine’s conversion, or perhaps a few years before, the Council of Elvira in Spain decreed that anyone who committed abortion was to be given the Eucharist only when in danger of death (Canon 63). This was the same penalty as for repeated adultery and child-molesting (Canons 47 and 71). The more lenient Council of Ancyra in Turkey (A.D. 314) enacted a ten-year suspension for women who caused abortion and for makers of drugs that induced miscarriage (Canon 21). The first ecumenical council, held at Nicaea in A.D. 325, did not itself condemn abortion but the third ecumenical council (Chalcedon, A.D. 451) adopted the decrees of Ancyra, including those against abortion.

In short, in the first three centuries after Jesus all Christian authors who mentioned abortion considered it a grave sin. This opposition was not merely local: Christian sources in Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Greece, Egypt, Turkey and Syria recognized abortion as forbidden by God and in the same category as any other murder. The condemnation was universal and unanimous.

(Note: The author retains the copyright to this article. Hence, it may not be reprinted without the permission of the author.)

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My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best efforts as human beings to make sense of our lives in general - and of our human sexuality in particular - and to also include the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium; given that the Church has been accumulating the wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7     G.S.

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© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
 

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Wednesday, October 5, 2005

ABORTION - A MARCH OF DIMES PRIMER The A-Z of Eugenic Killing By Randy Engel

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There are facts and truths that "sexual libertarians" don't want society or public opinion to know, that even they don't want to know. To sum up those facts - accumulated in different human cultures and societies - we don't need sex to live a full life and be content. To define one's identity on the basis of our sexuality alone is to reduce our human value and dignity. I am a lot more than just my genitalia, and so are you. G.S.

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My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best human efforts to make sense of our lives - and of our human sexuality in particular - also including the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium. The Church has been accumulating much valuable wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7 
Father Gilles Surprenant, priest & poustinik

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In considering abortion as an option, or else before or after trying to understand what might be consequences of having an abortion, it is good to remember that LOVE UNLEASHES LIFE.

Courtroom genetics testimony of Dr. Jerome Lejeune on the wonder of human conception in the Circuit Court for Blount County State of tennessee at Maryville, Tennessee on August 10th, 1989. 

A MARCH OF DIMES PRIMER The A-Z of Eugenic Killing By Randy Engel

A is for Alpha—The Beginning

On July 22, 1958, the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis/March of Dimes announced it was turning its sites on preventing birth defects. Still reeling from a bad corporate conscience and massive coverup concerning the "effective, safe and potent" Salk Inactivated Poliomyelitis Vaccine, "a vaccine which turned out to be inadequately studied, seriously flawed and prematurely introduced,"' the MOD stated it would become a new conscience for America by extending its purview from poliomyelitis to birth defects.

Basil 0' Connor, President of the NF, and a very powerful national medical figure, became interested in medical genetics through his association with the Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, instructional course initiated by Johns Hopkins University and the Jackson Laboratory. The Bar Harbor grant has continued for more than thirty years—the longest grant in the 50 year history of the foundation.^

By the start of the 1970 ' s, the MOD ' s commitment to Eugenics and all that the commitment implies was evidenced by the plethora of openly proabortion speakers on the MOD circuit, by the addition of known eugenicists to its various National Advisory Committees, by the eugenic writings found in their Original Articles Series,by their energetic funding and promotion of mid-trimester, non-therapeutic prenatal diagnostic research, clinical testing, and by their provision of seed monies to expand eugenic services at university based medical centers throughout the United States' Once the Key Officials of the NF/MOD accepted the fundamental premise of eugenics—that there are certain people who never should be born and that it is a positive act for families and society, to insure that such persons are not born—the fate of the March of Dimes was chiseled in stone. This report is the story of the NF/MOD's journey into the killing fields of eugenics.

B is for Baby Parts

As the battle over the use of fetal tissues and organs of aborted babies heats up in the U.S. and abroad, we should recall that the MOD has funded such practices for more than two decades." In the early 1970's MOD funded John F.S. Crocker, MD of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The $19,000 study to examine environmental factors causing congenital kidney malfunctions involved "60 pairs of embryonic kidneys...obtained from human therapeutic abortions after five to twelve weeks gestation."^ Crocker's earlier animal studies were featured in the MOD'S Birth Defects Reprint Series (PERS—166,2/73).

In 1981-82, a combined MOD grant enabled Dr. Stanley J. Robboy and his colleagues at Massachusetts General to develop a method for testing the teratogenic and carcinogenic effects of drugs (DES) on developing human organ systems. The "researchers" isolated intact the reproductive tracts from human fetal tissue, obtained by D&C abortions of preborn baby girls up to ten weeks and prostaglandin abortions thereafter. The reproductive tracts were then implanted in laboratory mice to test the effects of diethylstilbestrol^

In 1983-84, a similar experiment was carried on the embryonic reproductive tract of the human male by Dr. G. Cunha, Robboy's associate at the University of California (S.F.) School of Medicine. Twelve male reproductive tracts were obtained by D&C abortions from which the gonads were removed and grafted onto mice. Additionally, the reproductive tracts of eight females obtained through D&C abortions were subjected to similar testing.^

C is for Cystic Fibrosis

The funding of Cystic Fibrosis "Search and Destroy" (S & D) operations was given top priority in the 1980's by the MOD. CF is the most prevalent inherited disease among Caucasians in the United States, and the discovery of a prenatal marker for the disease would make possible "a new program of mass genetic screening of vast proportions."^

In 1981-82, the MOD got the CF-S&D ball rolling with a $108,000 research grant to abortionist and MOD National Advisor, Henry L. Nadler, M.D., for "pre-natal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis." In 1983, the MOD, in collaboration with the CF Foundation, awarded a $50,000 grant to pro-abortionist and MOD National Advisor Dr. Michael Kabac to study the family planning patterns of CF families and see "whether parents of affected children would be more likely to plan other pregnancy if a prenatal test [presumably backed by selected abortion of affected children] for CF were available.""

In more recent years, Dr. Hope Punnett of St. Christopher's Hospital for Children ($20,000/4-1-8^—3-31-85) and Dr. Harry Harris of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine ($60,000/87-88-89) have received research grants for expanded prenatal testing of CF.

D is for Deceit

The fact that the National Office of the MOD deceives even their own chapters is demonstrated by the controversy surrounding the pre-natal diagnosis technique of fetoscopy—a form of live fetal experimentation, funded by the MOD. 

On June 3, 1980, the Pittsburgh Chapter of the MOD, in response to prolife criticism, stated that "...the March of Dimes funds no phase of fetoscopy research," and that "March of Dimes funds are not now, have never, and never will be used in support of anti-life programs."^

Actually, the MOD funding of fetoscopic research to identify "thalassemic fetuses by analyzing placental blood samples early in the course of high-risk pregnancy" has been well publicized in medical circles since such non-therapeutic research is prohibited under the moratorium of the federal NIH. Private foundations like the MOD are not covered by the ban.

Hence, over the last two decades, MOD funding offetoscopic techniques and blood analysis to such physicians as Blanche Alter, David Nathan, Haig Kazazian, Yuet Wai Kan and Mitchell Golbus have kept the killing fields open in the genetic community.

As Alter explained at a MOD-sponsored seminar on disorders held in New York in December, 1980, pre-natal screening for hemoglobenopathies is now available—and should significantly reduce the incidence of severe forms of this disease."

E is for Eugenic Mafia

Since the implementation of its eugenic policies and programs in the late 1960's, the MOD'S various Advisory Committees for Medical Services, Basic Research, Clinical Research and Basil O'Connor Starter Research have been dominated by nationally known eugenic abortionists famed for their late abortion technical skills, especially prostaglandin-induced abortion, which provide fresh fetal tissue and organs.

These MOD National Advisors have included William Spellacy, M.D., Edward J. Quilligan, M.D.,Leon Speroff, M.D.,* John C. Hobbins, M.D., Maurice J. Mahoney, M.D. and Henry L. Nadler, M.D.* Note should be made that Hobbins and Mahoney argue even in favor of the third trimester abortions (as in case of anencephaly) where (1) the disorder is incompatible with postnatal survival for more than a few weeks... (2) the presence of PND tests to affirm condition.^

Other nationally known pro-abortion MOD Advisory members (including MOD Research and Medical Services grant recipients) are Kurt Hirschhom, M.D.,* Charles Flowers Jr. M.D., David G. Nathan, M.D.,* John T. Queenan, Kenneth J. Ryan, Rodney Howell, M.D., Richard W. Erbe, M.D.,* Leon Rosenberg, M.D.,* Mitchell Golbus, M.D.,* Laird Jackson, M.D., Michael Kaback, M.D.,* Norman Kretchmer, M.D.,* Amo Motulsky, M.D.* and David Rimoin, M.D. Ph.D.* (*Current National Advisors—1989-90)

F is for Fetal Experimentation

It has never been clearly enunciated for nor understood by the general public that all forms of non-therapeutic first and second trimester techniques of pre-natal diagnosis (PND) have first been carried out on TBA patients, i.e. TO BE ABORTED women, and that these techniques were considered a form of LIVE FETAL EXPERIMENTATION!

It should also be noted that in many cases, it was the PND technique itself (i.e. mid-trimester amniocentesis or fetoscopy, or first trimester chorion villus sampling (CVS) that caused the death of the child and not the anticipated abortion.

Beginning in 1968 and continuing throughout the late 1980's, the MOD has funded and promoted all of the above techniques, including fetoscopy of chorion villus sampling and maternal blood sampling.^

In fact, it has been the financial backing of private foundations like the MOD that permitted fetoscopic and CVS researchers such as MOD grantees David Nathan, M.D., Blanche Alter, M.D., Yuet Kan, M.D. and Mitchell Golbus, to BYPASS the federal moratorium on live, non-therapeutic fetal experimentation.'"

G is for Genetic Diseases Act

The MOD is a registered lobby in Washington, D.C. In September of 1978, a "Dear Member" letter, signed by MOD president Charles L. Massey, was circulated to all members of the U.S. House of Representatives, staling that the National Foundation/March of Dimes "strongly endorse(s) passage ofH.R. 12370"—which incorporated the National Genetic Diseases Act of 1976 (Title XI—PHSA) and provided for federal, tax-funded expansion of genetic services, genetic education and genetic laboratory facilities in order to "reduce the incidence of all genetic diseases" in the United States. (Note: UNALLOWABLE costs under Title X—PHSA were treatment and inpatient hospital care.) This landmark legislation which passed in November, 1978, was to the eugenicist, what the Family Planning and Population Services Act of 1970 was to the birth controller and abortionist.

In lobbying the measure, Massey noted "The financial cost of treating and institutionalizing our severely affected survivors is staggering; we cannot begin to measure the cost...."

The Massey letter cites Sickle Cell Anemia, Cooley's Anemia, Tay-Sachs Disease, Down's Syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy...as diseases which could be reduced through genetic screening and prenatal diagnosis. Amniocentesis is described as a procedure that "saves thousand of babies..." How puncturing the womb with a needle, introducing the possibility of infection, miscarriage, exsanguination act and mistakenly aborting "normal" children and deliberately aborting "affected" children, contributes to "saving" lives can only be understood within the context of a eugenic mind set which disinherits from the human family genetically handicapped preborn children but bankrolls the moral defectives who lobby for their slaying.

H is for Health by Death

One of the many tragic consequences of the institutionalization of the "Health by Death" Ethic by the March of Dimes in the United States has been to divert medical science from its original objectives of cure, treatment and advocacy of the ill, the handicapped and infirmed to the killing of the afflicted—prenatally by abortion and postnatally by infanticide and euthanasia.

Amniocentesis, it should be remembered, was a strictly therapeutic innovation for use in late pregnancy and in labor before the MOD mounted its multi-million dollar genetic services campaign of "preventing birth defects" by fetal euthanasia.

Once prenatal diagnosis became linked with abortion, legitimate scientific research for cures or treatment of disorders especially Tay Sachs and Down's Syndrome fell dramatically.

Dr. Carlo Valenti of Brooklyn's Downstate Medical Center who has appeared at numerous MOD-sponsored genetic symposiums, has argued from the MOD pulpit for legal sanction of late eugenic abortions.

"Unrealistic" and "untreatable" were the words used by Valenti to describe the hope for treatment of most genetic diseases in utero. "...Although I would welcome an alternative to the abortion of a defective fetus. I reluctantly conclude that abortion must remain the solution to inheritable disease."^

I is for Insurance

Securing insurance funds for expanding health insurance coverage for genetic services including screening and prenatal diagnosis has been a major concern of the March of Dimes.

In 1982-83, the MOD, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Community Health Services (HHS), funded a $181,968.00 one year study by the Health Services Foundation—a Blue Cross-Blue Shield affiliate—to determine if private reimbursement methods will remove financial barriers to obtaining genetic services, thus saving, according to MOD Vice President, Dr. Arthur J. Salisbury, the government billions of dollars in "custodial care" of "geneti-cally handicapped children" born in the U.S. each year. No mention of increased coverage for treatment of disorders was mentioned in the HSF press release of March 1, 1982.

In its Final Report^ the HSF stated that screening and prenatal diagnosis were cost-effective when compared to the high cost of caring for "blighted" children, and authors cited the U.S.'s Tay Sachs program as an ideal program. "Prior to screening in 1970, between 50 and 1,009 children were born annually in North America with Tay Sachs Disease. In 1980, only 13 children in North America were born with the disorder. Costbenefit studies performed on different communities' experience with Tay Sachs screening along with prenatal diagnosis have demonstrated its cost savings potential." (pg. 53)

Since there is no known treatment or cure for Tay Sachs disease—in the womb or out—only the abortion of affected preborn children would make the Tay Sachs program "cost-saving."

Remember Dr. Salisbury's complaint and the HSF "Health by Death" ethic the next time you read the MOD'S Position Paper on "Search and Destroy" approaches: "...The MOD does not ally itself with those who view abortion as a means of reducing society's cost for care of the handicapped, or as a means of 'purifying the gene pod.'"

J is for Justice for the Unborn

Since the prolife battle with the March of Dimes began in the early 1970's, the movement has been virtually unanimous in its support of an MOD boycott. In 1978, the International Foundation for Genetic Research,^ popularly known as The Michael Fund, was formed to support prolife genetic research under the direction of the world famous prolife geneticist. Dr. Jerome Le Jeune.

One of the few prolife groups which has supported the MOD is American Citizens Concerned For Life.The ACCL defense paper, which was written by its Program Director, Raymond J. Di Blasio, Ph.D., is still widely circulated by the National Office, field staff and chapter administrators of the MOD to discredit prolife critics.

According to Di Blasio, "...the March of Dimes' good deeds speak for themselves, and I feel some outrage that idealogical zealots eager to invent new enemies should have forced this noble enterprise to defend its honor."

"Occasional misgivings...concerning the supposedly doubtful character of the March of Dimes," Di Blasio states, are "one of those despicable, utterly unfounded misconceptions that clings all the more stubbornly to some minds when it is forcefully reflected."

"As to amniocentesis" the ACCL director stated, "it is a dead issue to both ethicists and medical technicians; the primary question these days is the (medical) safety of its administration. BEDSIDES, THE BIG NEWS THIS MONTH IS THAT AMNIOCENTESIS IS ABOUT TO BE SUPPLANTED BY AN EASIER, SAFER TECHNIQUE." (emphasis added)

Di Blasio is of course making reference to chorion villus biopsy—the first trimester PND technique practiced on to-beaborted women, developed and promoted by the MOD, more dangerous than amniocentesis and which has as its sole claim to fame, that it permits earlier abortion of affected preborn children. Unfortunately, these affected children have no multimillion dollar public relations department to plead their case, but they should at least be able to obtain justice from those who call themselves "prolife."

K is for Kazazian

In 1984, Dr. Haig H. Kazazian of Johns Hopkins University, a long time MOD grantee and nationally recognized advocate of eugenic abortion was one of the first MOD grantees to receive MOD clinical research funds of $35,000.00 "to explore the safety and utility of first trimester diagnosis of hereditary anemias and other disorders, by gene analysis of chorionic villus samples."

During this time period. Dr. M. Golbus of the University of California (SF) received $50,000.00. Well known prostaglandin-abortionist Dr. Maurice J. Mahoney of Yale also received $35,000.00 for CVS grants for developing a PND technique which would permit the First trimester abortion of affected preborn children.

Moving into the 90's, the MOD continues to pursue its dream of a first trimester, safe and simple pre-natal test by awarding Dr. Kazazian with a more recent (89-90) Clinical Research Grant of S50.000.00 to refine and apply methods of "enabling accurate, timely prenatal and carrier diagnosis" for Beta-Thalassemia, Hemophilia A, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Cystic Fi-brosis—- none of which are treatable disorders in utero.

L is for Lymphocytes

l'rom the early 1970's to the present time, the MOD has demonstrated a special interest in non-evasive, simple and safe early prenatal diagnosis techniques to supplement or replace mid-trimester ainniocentesis, thus shifting the abortion timetable of affected children from the second to first trimester of pregnancy.

One such MOD grant was awarded to Dr. A. de la Chapelle of the Department of Medical Genetics of the University of Helsinki, Finland for the isolation/purification of human fetal lymphocytes found in maternal blood to determine fetal genetic diseases early in pregnancy.

It is instructional to note before hand that the de la Chapelle grant had been preceded by the controversial Adam grant of $9,240.00 (7374) which covered travel expenses to Helsinki and lab and technician costs for fetal brain metabolism studies on living, human babies aborted by hysterotomy (and still attached by the umbilical cord to the mother) who were decapitated and their heads mounted on perfusion equipment by Adam and his colleagues. According to Arthur A. Gallway, MOD V.P. for Development, (1) the "research" was "done legally and ethically under Finnish law" (2) "the investigators did not participate in the decision to terminate pregnancy" and (3) "they were concerned with the ethics of discarding such fetal tissue without seeking to find ways to improve the life and health of live born premature infants."^ (emphasis added) 

Having experienced considerable prolife flack over the Adam severed heads grants, it seems incredible that the MOD should turn around and award de la Chapelle research funds for fetal blood experiments involving more aborted babies.

Nevertheless, according to grant data published by de la Chapelle and associates in San. J. Immunol., (vol. 6, 1977) and credited to the NF/MOD (No. 1-405) and the Sigrid Juseluis Foundation, cell sources for the experiment were obtained from both maternal blood samples and "BY OPEN-HEART PUNCTURE OF 10 WEEK FETUSES THAT HAD BEEN ABORTED FOR VARIOUS REASONS, NOT CONNECTED WITH FETAL DISEASE..." (i.e. healthy unwanted babies).^

M is for Minors and Abortion

The 1989 MOD Position Paper "on Promotion of Abortion to Minors" (P. 14) states that MOD "educational materials prepared for use by minors, ..do not present abortion as a way of dealing with teenage pregnancy," and that a number of MOD cooperative programs..."not on matters related to abortion...are specifically designed to restore and support parental guidance."

Left unsaid however is that the MOD does promote proabortion materials produced by others

For example, in its Professional Education Catalog under Perinatal Publications (P. 16), the MOD offers FREE Adolescent Perinatal Health: A Guidehook for Services, prepared by an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Task Force which INCLUDED GABRIEL STICKLE—MOD V.P. for Education.

When the ACOG report was released in 1979-80, the MOD 12 featured the guidebook in its Maternal/Newborn Advocate as "A positive approach toward improving health care for adolescents underage 17... "even though the rabidly pro-abort report endorsed I st and 2nd trimester abortion for minors without parental consent and a full range of contraceptive and abortifacient services including "post-coital treatment." (P. 24-26)^

On the educational front, the MOD has brought eugenics and abortion into the classroom and biology and science labs of American schools through its funding of the openly pro-abort Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) based in Boulder, Colorado. ^ 

N is for NOAPP
(National Organization on Adolescent
Pregnancy and Parenting)

The MOD has been funding NOAPP—a pro-abortion, proschool based clinic agency—since 1983. NOAPP lobbies "reproductive rights" heavily on Capital Hill.

MOD grants include an initial $1,000 PHE grant (83-84) for the production of a NOAPP newsletter with subsequent grants to publish the newsletter; and a CEG of $20,000 (1/1/90-12/31/90) fora series of training workshops on adolescent pregnancy program evaluation.

On March 25-27, 1985, the MOD co-sponsored and cofunded an adolescent pregnancy seminar titled "Inventing The Future," which included on its faculty, Mary Hughes, MOD V.P. for Community Affairs and NOAPP Advisory Council Member. Included in the "New Futures" Summary Report^ were numerous anti-life references and scenarios PROMOTING school based clinics, compulsory population control, homosexuality, birth control ads and divorce.

O is for Orwellian Newspeak

For an explanation of what is meant in MOD genetic circles by the phrase "therapeutic research" we quote Dr. Henry Foster, who served on the MOD'S Medical Service Advisory Committee in the early 1980's (the committee which reviews grant applications for funding of MOD medical service grants):

Flaving stated he personally had done "a lot of amniocentesis and therapeutic abortions, probably near 700,"" Dr. Foster defended fetoscopic research to detect thalassemia prenatally as "clearly therapeutic" since "it was done for the same reasons that we do amniocentesis, to decide whether or not the pregnancy should continue, and to provide a therapeutic abortion..."^

Similar examples of Orwellian Newspeak can be found in much current MOD prenatal diagnostic literature.

P is for Pope Blesses MOD!

One of the MOD'S top public relations seams occurred in the summer of 1984 when the MOD published its Volunteer News-letter featuring a cover picture of Pope John Paul II and headlined "Pope sends Blessing and gift to the March of Dimes."

In actuality, the alleged gift of $2,000 was a personal gift of a Vatican Bank official to an old friend who was being honored at a MOD fund-raising dinner in Hartford, Conn. Likewise, the Papal Apostolic Blessing was secured by the same Vatican official from the Rome offices which issue such honorariums.

Despite the fact that the Holy Father has repeatedly condemned "neo-nalal euthanasia" when the discovery of a prenatal deformity is the equivalent of a death sentence--^

And the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has condemned "any directive or program, ..of scientific organizations which in any way were to favor a link between prenatal diagnosis and abortion"

And the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio reputed the inference that the MOD has received "official church approbation"—" The Volunteer cover was kept in circulation until the National Office ordered its chapters to remove it from circulation in 1989-90.

Q is for Question: What are "Genetic Services?"

"Innovation' and 'leadership' are the words the MOD uses lo describe its role in supporting genetic services." One of these "innovative" genetic service centers is the Prenatal Genetics Clinic for Prenatal Diagnosis and Consultation/Wisconsin Clinical Genetics Center located at Rockford Memorial Hospital. The Rockford/University of Madison genetics complex has been the recipient of thousands of MOD dollars in the form of Basil O'Connor, Clinical and Basic, Social and Behavioral and Reproductive Hazards in workplace grants.

In December, 1980, Renata Laxova, M.D. of the WCGC unleashed the ugly truth about the eugenics war on the preborn at Madison in a Pediatrics article titled "Prenatal Diagnosis of Genetic Diseases" (P. 66-76). Mid-trimester arnniocentesis or fetoscopy combined with pregnancy termination of affected children to eliminate preborn children with (1) chromosomal disorders (2) neural tube defects (3) metabolic disorders (4) sex linked blood or muscular and other inheritable disorders were "grossly underutilized," complained Laxova. Included in the comprehensive genetic services' program are late abortions "complicated" by live births which has made Madison General Hospital and the University of Wisconsin Hospital the scenes of numerous pro-life picketing.

Despile bad press, MOD monies have continued to pour into Madison including a $10,800 (84-85) grant to spread the positive message of eugenics to clergy, teachers, professionals and the public, statewide. However in 1983, more "live births" complications inspired the possibility of revising late abortion killing procedures.

At the Genetics Center of Baylor College of Medicine, another MOD institution grant center, "In the circumstance of a lethal (sic) diagnosis PAST 24 weeks, pregnancy termination can be registered by our institutional review mechanisms..."^

R is for Right-To-Life

The contempt which National Officers and Staff of the MOD have exhibited toward pro-life critics is reflected in the now famous VOSS Memorandum circulated from the MOD'S Public Relations Department to all chapters nationwide in 1975-76.

Titled "Pro-Life Agitation," the internal memorandum was designed to counter "Pro-Life Resistance" to MOD'S Growing eugenic policies.

Interestingly, the memorandum features the familiar argument that prenatal diagnosis is not a "search and destroy mission(s)," but rather "life-saving." Where did this rationale originate? The answer is—with a pro-abortionist.

In the early 70's, prior to Roe vs. Wade, the MOD financially underwrote and co-sponsored a symposium on Advances in Human Genetics and Their Impact on Society featuring a number of key eugenicists who publicly hailed the "enormous" humanitarian gains of PND combined with selective abortion of affected children. According to Dr. M. Neil Macintyre, of Case Western, "Incongruous as it may seem to some readers, prenatal genetic evaluation, coupled with therapeutic abortion to eliminate a defective conceptus, is both a life-giving and a lifesaving procedure.""

I however, as pro-life ethicist, Prof. Arthur J.Dyck of Harvard has pointed out. "To decide that a given set of diseases is to be eliminated by elimination of the diseased, is one of the principles on which programs of eugenics and euthanasia rest."

Further. Dyck remarks, if both physician and society should "be impartial" regarding eugenic abortion, "What advocate is left for dcfen.,eless Life?""

S is for S.K.A.T. (Sex, Knowledge and Attitude Test)

In 1980, the MOD awarded a $25,974 Public Health Education Grant to Dr. Peggy Smith, Population Program of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX to provide funds "for the development and implementation of a teacher training kit for Parenting Education"' (emphasis added) as part of MOD'S program "to protect maternal and newborn health."

Fourteen public school teacher trainees underwent a nine week 72 hour sexual attitudinal desensitization and restructuring program, after which they taught 35 teachers in a 48 hour class setting. Evaluation of both trainers and trainees involved the use of various S.K.A.T. tests including the Autoeroticism Scale, the Abortion Scale, and the Sexual Myths Scale. " A significant shift toward more "liberal" view, especially toward masturbation and other sexual perversions was reported. 

According to the project director, the proposed pyramid training model "maximizes opportunities for future project replications," was "costeffective," and could be used as "a model for school based staff development programs in human sexuality."

T is for Tay Sachs

Tay Sachs Discase (TSD) is a fatal inborn metabolic disorder which primarily affects children of Ashkenazi Jews. In the early 1970's, it was the first disorder which met the key criteria for prototype "search and destroy" (S & D) programs for untreatable, recessive autosomal disease.

In 1975, the MOD co-funded the first International Conference of Tay Sachs Disease: Screening and Prevention, and its local chapters notified area physicians that TSD could be prevented "since intrauterine diagnosis of an affected fetus could be legally followed by termination of pregnancy.""

The MOD has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into TSD genetic "services" and "research" programs, the largest single recipient being pro-abortionist and MOD National Advisor, Dr. Michael M. Kaback (UCLA).

In the 1980's the TSD—S&D operations continued with MOD grants to such institutions as the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School "to test a new visual method for diagnosis, carrier detection, and prenatal detection of disorders such as Tay Sachs and Gaucher Disease." (7/1/84-6/30/85) (7/1/87-6/30/88)

U is for Understanding

The key to unraveling the mystery of the March of Dimes lies in an understanding of the role that money and public relations play in the success and survival of powerful national health agencies such as the MOD.

According to Dr. Herbert Ratner, editor of Child and Family and author of "An Untold Vaccine Story" (Complete four part series available from Child and Family, Box 508, Oak Park, IL 60303, $ 12.00)~an expose of the Salk Vaccine Fiasco of 1955—

"To be realistic, the success of national health agencies, and the tenure of their top administrators, depends heavily on the talent of their public relations divisions and for the most part, is measured by the amount of funds garnered from the public...appearance, good or bad, premature or otherwise becomes habitual..."

When the agencies make seriously flawed decisions says Dr. Ratner, and reputations and even the preservation of the organization is at stake, "the pressure and the temptation to cover up is intense," even when actual human lives are at stake.

The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions' 1962 American Character Critique of American Medicine captured the essential character of over publicized, media-type tactics of such agencies as:

"Mass manipulation by hand-selected, well-subsidized overly committed scientists backed by powerful public relations departments of wealthy national health agencies."

The recommendation of Dr. Ratner is that one become "less innocent and more sophisticated in regard to the trustworthiness of mass programs sponsored and supported by national health agencies, the alleged guardians of our health."^

V is for Villi as in Chorion Villus Sampling (CVS)

CVS is a new prenatal diagnostic technique which can be performed between the 9th-11th week of pregnancy for direct chromosomal and biomedical studies. According to the MOD'S head of CVS studies, Laird G. Jackson of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, CVS is preferable to Mid-trimester am-niocentesis, performed at 16 weeks gestation because, "Clearly, it would be preferable to identify genetic abnormalities before the 12th week of gestation, so that patients could opt for first-trimester termination of pregnancy, which is simpler, safer and less psychologically stressful than the mid-trimester procedure."

As with fetoscopy, Laird stated that "Our initial experience with chorionic villus sampling was obtained from a group of 60 volunteers who underwent the procedure immediately before termination of pregnancy." According to another MOD grantee, Dr. Mitchell Golbus, it is "very necessary" for doctors attempting CVS to practice on TBA patients first.

The Jackson statements were taken from an article by Dr. Jackson titled, "First-Trimester Diagnosis of Fetal Genetic Disorders" (Hospital Practice, AP. 15, 85), sent to this writer by Richard P. Leavitt, head of Corporate Communications for the National Office of the MOD in White Plains, New York.

In still another of its Public Relations seams, the MOD press release on CVS dated 4/15/84, claims that "safe first-trimester diagnosis of genetic disorders MAY make it possible to intervene and treat problems before damage is done in the womb. [emphasis added] The March of Dimes supports research on chorion villus biopsy and the Philadelphia registry in an effort to determine the risks and applicability of the new procedure." MOD'S reference to future therapy is ludicrous when one understands that the sole selling point of the more dangerous CVS procedure is that it makes possible an earlier eugenic abortion—the ultimate damage to the child in the womb.

W is for WHO—U.N. World Health Organization

The belief that First and second trimester prenatal diagnosis for untreatable disorders such as Tay Sachs or Downs Syndrome is inextricably linked to abortion of suspected affected pre-born children can be validated at the international level by the action of the W.H.O.

A report titled Prevention and Control of Genetic and Congenital Defects, published in 1984 by the Pan American Regional Office of WHO, under the section dealing with the Alpha-Fetopro-tein (AFP) testing for neutral defects (a test actively endorsed by the MOD and in effect at MOD-financially established genetic centers across the U.S.) reads:

"This primary prevention measure [i.e. AFP testing and amniocentesis] is already being applied voluntarily in countries with organized prenatal care programs and WHERE THERE IS THE LEGAL OPTION TO ABORT ABNORMAL FETUSES IN THE 2ND TRIMESTER. The technique is simple and the cost-benefit ratio very favorable." Listed as the first requirement for an effective AFP program was "Legislation permitting the interruption of pregnancy when the fetus is abnormal." (P. 12)

X is for X-Linked Disorders

The MOD has stated it does not support mid-trimester prenatal diagnosis for sex selection purposes, but this is not quite true.

Because of the relatively high risk of fetal loss following fetoscopy to detect sex-linked disorders such as hemophilia or muscular dystrophy Duchenne, an "alternative" genetic strategy has been to use amniocentesis or chorion biopsy to determine the sex of the fetus, and then abort all the males since there is a 50% chance the male offspring of a female carrier will develop the disease with the female offspring (at the same percentage) being only carriers.

According to Dr. Stylianos E. Antonarakis, of Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Pediatrics, "We certainly can reduce the cases of hemophilia by two-thirds, perhaps 250 cases a year. if all the women who have an affected fetus elected to abort."

In "Guidelines for the Ethical, Social and Legal Issues in Prenatal Diagnosis," a $17,000 MOD study by the pro-abort think-tank known as the Hastings Institute, the Institute's Genetics Research Group recommended that "Prenatal ascertainment of sex in fetuses at risk for otherwise undiagnosable sex-linked disorders should be available to parents who want it..."

Regarding sex selection across the board, the Hastings Report, which was sent to all MOD field staff, science writers and family interest editors throughout the U.S., concluded that "although we strongly oppose any movement aimed at making diagnosis of sex and selective abortion a part of ordinary medical practice and family planning. WE RECOMMEND THAT NO LEGAL RESTRICTIONS BE PLACED ON ASCERTAINMENT OF FETAL SEX..."

The MOD has funded research grants also to discover the gene marker for hemophilia B as a basis for PND (Jagadeeswaran-pudur $25,000: 9/11/84-8/31/85 & $20,830: 9/1/86-87) and for gene carrier tests for woman carrying the gene for hemophilia A or B. (R. Janco, $15,000: 1/1/90-12/31/90)

Y is for Yale-Harvard Medical Underground

Since the early 1970's there has existed among various MOD-funded university-based genetic medical complexes a type of "medical underground" which co-operates at a number of levels to provide various types of research assistance—for example, supplying fresh human fetal tissues, blood or organs—to their colleagues in need.

A very rare opportunity to witness the activities of this underground was provided in the Feb. 2, 1977, issue of Medical Tribune in an article titled "Fetal Research Continued Despite Hysteria."

In an exclusive interview with Medical Tribune (P. 1 -25), Dr. David Nathan, Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard University, a MOD grantee and current National MOD advisor, disclosed how his fellow MOD-funded colleague, Dr. Blanche Alter and their fetologic hemoglobinopathy team "master-minded a plane and bus shuttle of blood samples and patients and an interprofessional axis between London, New Haven and Boston in order that 'knowledge go on, vital clinical testing go on, and when necessary, abortions go on.'"

Through their fetoscopic trials, Nathan claimed, they have given the hematologic green light to abortions all over the world... Dr. Nathan said, "I told the Right-To-Life group here...there was no way to pass a law to stop us...You can't stop knowledge."

About the same time of the Medical Tribune interview, Nathan detended the policies of the National Foundation/March of Dimes against "attacks by 'Pro-Life' or 'Right-To-Life'" groups in a special issue of the Villanova Law Review on "Research on the Fetus." Here Nathan warned that "because the foundation supports research on the developing fetus, it became the object of utterly mindless calumny. "
Going into the 90's there is sufficient information to support the belief that the "underground" described by Nathan is alive and well today among MOD-funded researchers.

Z is for Omega—The End

Perhaps the most frequently asked question concerning the National Foundation/March of Dimes' role in spreading the gospel of eugenics is this—How did it happen? When did the MOD take the wrong turn in the road?

A similar question was raised in the final scene of the GM movie classic Judgement of Nuremberg, based on the war-guilt trials of the Nazis.

One of the convicted jurists (played by Burt Lancaster), expressing his deep regret at his role in the Holocaust, cries out to Judge Dan Hayward (played by Spencer Tracy):

"Those people—those millions of people—1 never knew it would come to that. You must believe it! You must believe it!"

Hayward's response was simple: "It came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent."

The answer regarding the beginning of the National Foundation/March of Dimes' role in eugenic killing which has lead to the death of thousands of innocent preborn children whose only "crime" was to be suspected of being "less than perfect" is this:

It began the very first time the National leadership of the March of Dimes knowingly gave its assent to the contract killing of handicapped children in the womb. The rest is history!

MORE LINKS

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4421

https://www.all.org/march-of-dimes-part-1-prelude-to-the-holocaust/

https://www.all.org/march-of-dimes-part-2-prelude-to-the-holocaust/

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My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best efforts as human beings to make sense of our lives in general - and of our human sexuality in particular - and to also include the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium; given that the Church has been accumulating the wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7     G.S.

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© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
 

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Beyond sex politics is God's unconditional love for every human being. Until we learn and accept to love as God loves, we suffer and cause suffering, but God kindly remains with us in it.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------- There are facts and truths that "sexual libertarians" don't...