Month in review

President George Bush sends feminists into a tizzy as his administration sets a policy in place allowing states to provide health insurance to unborn children. The policy designates a baby before birth as eligible for government benefits. The administration notes this will advance prental healthcare ... Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America: "I think Bush really believes abortion should not be available to women" ... White House spokesman Scott McClellan tells the Boston Globe: "The president believes that we ought to be a culture that welcomes and respects life at all stages, and that is why he makes the decisions that are right for America'' ... In addition to defeating several of Bush's pro-life judicial nominees, the Democrat-controlled Senate refuses to even consider legislation passed by the House of Representatives including a partial-birth abortion ban, a ban on human cloning, conscience protection for healthcare workers and the Child Custody Protection Act, which would make it illegal to take a minor across state lines for an abortion in contravention of another state's laws. Bush has signalled he would support each measure.

Representatives of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities have met with officials of the World Bank and religious figures in London, to discuss how to use religion in ongoing efforts to limit population size ... Speaking before a women's conference in Kampala, Ugandan first lady Janet Museveni said mothers could turn around the nation's social ills, such as abortion and teenage promiscuity: "Women as mothers can reverse the worsening trend of events leading to conflicts by bringing up God-fearing and morally upright children who care about the needs and well-being of others as well as their country" ... Latin American bishops release a document that notes, "The future of humanity will not be possible without the recognition and respecting the values of the natural institution of the family" ... The Taipei Times reports that as many as 200,000 illegal abortions may be committed each year in Taiwan which has a population of just 23 million. This is in addition to 300,000 "legal" abortions in 1996, the last year for which official statistics are available ... Figures released in London show that over 75 per cent of abortions in England and Wales are committed on single women ... Society for the Protection of Unborn Children secretary-general Paul Tully says the fact there are now more "over-60s than under-16s" in the United Kingdom "shows that the systematic promotion of abortion not only has a devastating impact on the lives of individual mothers and babies, but is indirectly fuelling the growing pressure for euthanasia."

Report newsmagazine's Joanne Byfield writes: "In Gallup's 2001 poll, only 32 per cent of Canadians agreed abortion should always be legal; 52 per cent thought it should be legal only in certain circumstances and 14 per cent thought it should always be legal. In other words, two-thirds of Canadians oppose the current situation in which abortion is legal up to the moment of birth" ... Saskatchewan MP Garry Breitkreuz (CA, Yorkton-Melville) says, "I have found much more concern over abortion among voters than the government says there is."

New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord is emerging as a leading contender for the national Progressive Conservative leadership race to replace current leader Joe Clark. Lord is urging the party to follow the same old platform for failure tried by Tory leaders Kim Campbell, Jean Charest and Clark: fiscal responsibility and social "tolerance" ... The National Post and the Toronto Sun have spent the last few months resurrecting the reputation of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. While Mulroney denies any interest in the Tory leadership contest, Patrick Brown, immediate past president of PC Youth, says, "He could wield some influence in the leadership race." Mulroney has publicly said Lord would be a good leader.

The Hollywood Prayer Watch has for five years "bombarded Hollywood with intercessory prayers," as 150 First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood congregants pray in 30-minute segments on the first and second Saturday of the month. In a column reprinted in Good News magazine, Los Angeles Times writer K. Connie Kang says: "We do this in the belief that prayer can transform Hollywood's world-wide influence" ... Actor and director Mel Gibson is working with the Vatican to produce a movie about the Passion.