Bits 'n' Pieces

Abortion

The Minnesota Medical Association calls a state health department website mentioning studies linking abortion and breast cancer "misleading" and "confusing," while the state branch of the American College of Obstretricians and Gynecologists says the site is deceptive. The health department also claims there are studies that say there is no link ... The Centre for Reproductive Rights tells Focus on the Family, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute and other pro-life services and organizations to stop writing about its pro-abortion strategy. The Centre had written memoranda describing its campaign for an international "right" to abortion ... A court in New South Wales, Australia rules that in cases of assault, an unborn child should be treated as part of his or her mother and an attacker should face a 25-year sentence for causing bodily harm. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the state attorney-general, Bob Debus, says he plans to introduce a law that will make it an offence to kill an unborn child. … The Dutch newspaper Trouw reported that the number of teens aged 15 to 19 in the Netherlands having abortions has risen by 1,000 from 4,400 in 2002 to 5,400 last year. Abortionist Hanneke Bolt told Trouw that "Girls of 15, 16 years, we see at least one every day." Furthermore, the abortion rate for girls aged 12-13 doubled in that time. … On the 10th anniversary of the celebrated case of Lorenna Bobbit cutting off her husband John's penis, Dr. David Reardon of the Elliott Institute released a report linking the assault to an earlier abortion: "All the evidence presented at Lorena's trial supports the view that her psychiatric symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were precipitated by a coerced abortion three days before their first wedding anniversary. Lorena pleaded to keep her child and gave in to the abortion only because she was pressured into it by John. Like other women before her, Lorena experienced the unwanted abortion as an attack on both her maternity and her sexuality. That is the key to understanding her subsequent attack on John."

Canada

Former Ontario health minister Tony Clement and former Magna International CEO Belinda Stronach join former Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper as the only declared Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates. The leadership will be decided by preferential ballot on March 21 ... Calgary lawyer and 2003 Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jim Prentice drops out of the Conservative leadership race before it officially begins in January. Prentice had hoped to make the new party "fiscally conservative, socially progressive, socially tolerant." … Pro-abortion Alliance MP Keith Martin becomes independent and will seek the Liberal Party nomination in Esquimalt-Juan De Fuca, saying that the new Conservative party is too socially conservative for his liking. Martin also supports same-sex "marriage" … Former Saskatchewan premier Grant Devine announces he will seek the Conservative nomination in Souris-Moose Mountain. Under the pro-life Devine, the province overwhelmingly passed a defunding plebescite in 1991.

United States

All nine major candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination are pro-abortion. Formerly pro-life Congressman Dick Gephardt (Missouri) drops out of the race after finishing fourth in the Iowa caucus. Former senator Carol Mosely Braun (Illinois) drops out of the race one week before the Iowa caucus. Braun endorses former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who has called for the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide ... In a contest sponsored by the MTV political initiative Rock the Vote, retired General Wesley Clark wins for best advertisement as rated by youth. In it, Clark describes himself as an advocate of abortion. Meanwhile, Clark tells the Manchester (New Hampshire) Union Leader that life begins "when a woman chooses"

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