Bits 'n' Pieces
Canada
Supporters of John Tory cited his moderation and electability
as reasons to choose the former Rogers CEO over the more conservative
former Mike Harris-era cabinet ministers Jim Flaherty
and Frank Klees as leader of the Ontario Progressive
Conservative party. In the first post-leadership convention poll, Liberals
regained the lead ... Former Alberta Report publisher Link
Byfield, a vocal opponent of abortion, the gay-rights agenda
and judicial activism, has thrown his hat into the ring as a candidate
for the Senate. Alberta is expected to hold a province-wide election
for two Senate positions this fall and premier Ralph Klein
has asked the prime minister to appoint the winners to the open Senate
seats from that province ... Stephen Lewis was among
the "Greatest Canadians" chosen by the CBC in a two-hour special examining
the "contributions" of each so-called great Canadian. Lewis was quoted
as decrying the death of countless Africans, but there was no mention
of his advocacy of abortion, which included being the first politician
to introduce abortion legislation in Canada and thus being, along with
Pierre Trudeau, one of the fathers of abortion in Canada.
Trudeau and population-control advocate David Suzuki
were also among the CBC's "Greatest Canadians."
United States
Three specialists in third-trimester abortions - Martin Haskell,
George Tiller, and Warren Hern - have contributed
at least $7,000 among themselves to Democratic Senator John
Kerry's presidential campaign ... Kerry told Fox News
earlier this year: "I'm against partial-birth abortion, as are many
people." However, he has voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion
three times … Kerry has a 100 per cent pro-abortion voting record, according
to NARAL ... Jeffrey Bell and Frank
Cannon, writing in The Weekly Standard, say that polling
data indicates moral issues are determinative issues for nearly one
in five voters and that they prove vital to the re-election efforts
of President George W. Bush: "The most recent Time
poll (taken September 21-23) has George W. Bush winning socially driven
voters by a lopsided 70 to 18 percent. If not for these voters, according
to the poll, Bush would be trailing John Kerry by 5 points instead of
leading by 4." ... Bush has refused to sign onto a United Nations document
that reaffirms support for population-control schemes endorsing abortion.
The statement referred to statements in a 1994 UN document coming out
of the Cairo conference on population, which called on government to
provide "universal access to 'reproductive health information and services,'
(and) uphold fundamental human rights, including sexual and reproductive
rights" ... In both the second and third presidential debates, Bush
and Kerry clashed over abortion, gay "marriage" and stem cell research.
Kerry said he would only appoint judges to top federal courts who would
uphold Roe v. Wade. Kerry declared that as a Catholic, he is
pro-life, but he could not force "an article of faith" on the rest of
the country. He later contradicted himself and said that he was "pro-choice."
Bush called for a rejuvenation of the culture of life where every child
"is protected in law" ... New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi said
the state will recognize same-sex "marriages" performed in Canada for
the purpose of determining public employee pension benefits. The decision
supports a dictate earlier this year by state Attorney-General Eliot
Spitzer, who said full benefits must be extended to the partner
of any homosexual public employee if the couple has been "married" in
Canada.
International
The Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV,
a British government advisory board, suggested that family doctors,
nurses and family planning consultants be able to commit both surgical
and chemical abortions. At present, registered doctors must perform
or supervise abortions, and surgical abortions are provided only in
hospitals and licensed clinics. It also suggested that the value added
(sales) tax on the "morning-after" pill be eliminated ... According
to the Guernsey Press and Star, Ann Martin,
director of nursing at the Les Bourgs Hospice, found that in eight years
of working at the hospice, only a few people asked to end their own
lives: "More often than not, it's the relatives who ask (for the patient
to be euthanized)" ... In a letter to the London Times, Alison
Davis, a severely disabled British woman who now works with
SPUC's No Less Human division, said that if euthanasia
had been available 19 years ago, she would have been robbed of the best
years of her life ... The French government has set up regulations governing,
and thus permitting, human embryo research... ReNeuron,
a British company, says it can mass-produce fetal cells and wants to
offer a treatment to stroke patients that is derived from an aborted
child's brain.
