December 2016 Newsletter

Posted By on January 12, 2017

Life Affirming News

 

Life Matters

Father and maker of all, you adorn all creation with splendor and beauty, and fashion human lives in your image and likeness. Awaken in every heart reverence for the work of your hands, and renew among your people a readiness to nurture and sustain your precious gift of life. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen

 

CDC Shows Decline in U.S. Abortions to Lowest Level in Decades  

LifeWire / Dec. 1, 2016

47 states report 664,435 abortions in 2013, a 5 percent decrease from the previous year.

Abortion continued to decline across the United States, according to most of the nation’s state health departments.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control released its annual “Abortion Surveillance Report,” listing abortion data from 47 reporting states — but not including Maryland, New Hampshire, or California (the country’s most populous state). According to the latest information for 2013, a total of 664,435 abortions were reported — a decrease of 5 percent from the previous year and a decline of 20 percent from 2004. The figures mark a historic low as recorded by the government agency since abortion was legalized in 1973.

The CDC finds that both the abortion rate (the number of abortions for every 1,000 women of child-bearing age) and the abortion ratio (the number of abortions per 1,000 live births) have also declined, indicating that increasing number of American women are rejecting abortion as a solution to unexpected pregnancy.

Bear in mind, the CDC numbers do not provide an absolute number of abortions performed in the United States. However, they do offer a glimpse of the continuing downward trend. Even so, the CDC report confirms that the welcome drop in the number of abortions continues.

 

Netherlands Offers Euthanasia for Alcoholics

NRL News Today / 11/24/16

Dutch expand eligibility for euthanasia to include alcoholism.

Mark Langedijk, a 41-year-old Dutch man, ended his life by lethal injection rather than living as an alcoholic, in a new extension of Holland’s euthanasia law.

The man’s brother explains in a recently-published magazine account why the man decided that death was the only way to escape from his addiction to drink.

The scope of the Dutch, introduced 16 years ago to apply only to those in unbearable suffering, has already widened so that those who wish to end their lives include many whose problems include “social isolation and loneliness.”

 

Dutch Team Creates 3D Atlas of Human Embryo

Bioedge.com / 11/25/16

Dutch anatomists have published an amazing 3D atlas of the human embryo (click here), offering 14 interactive three-dimensional models of human embryology and a database of 34 embryos that spans the first two months of human development. The innovative atlas could replace textbooks with more than a century of outdated information.

 

Doctors Association Refuses to Back Euthanasia in Australia

November 26, 2016  

After surveying its members the Australian Medical Association has reaffirmed its opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide. “Doctors should not be involved in interventions that have as their primary intention the ending of a person’s life,” says the latest version of its end-of-life care policy. But doctors do “have an ethical duty to care for dying patients so that death is allowed to occur in comfort and with dignity” The statement comes at a time when some state legislatures are debating euthanasia. A bill failed earlier in South Australia.

 

This State Now Requires Abortion Clinics to Bury Aborted Babies Instead of Selling Their Parts

Micaiah Bilger / Nov 29, 2016

New Texas rules requiring a dignified burial of aborted babies’ bodies will go into effect on Dec. 19, state health officials said this week.

The new rules, introduced in July by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, require that abortion facilities, hospitals and other medical centers either cremate or bury the remains of aborted and miscarried babies. State officials said the rules do not apply to miscarriages or abortions that take place at home.

The Washington Post reports the health commission finalized the rules on Monday. State health officials previously said the rules will bring about “enhanced protection of the health and safety of the public.”

The new rules are part of pro-life Gov. Greg Abbott’s L.I.F.E. Initiative, a four-point plan to increase life-affirming support, eliminate all taxpayer funding to abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and curb abortions in Texas.

Aborted babies’ bodies should not be “treated like medical waste and disposed of in landfills,” Abbott said previously. “… it is imperative to establish higher standards that reflect our respect for the sanctity of life.”

During a commission hearing in August, supporters said the rules are necessary because abortion facilities treat unborn babies’ bodies like garbage and sometimes dump them down public sewer drains, Fox 7 reported. State Rep. Mark Keough mentioned a gruesome case in 2005 when a woman who worked near a Houston abortion facility saw tiny aborted babies’ limbs and other body parts in a parking lot when a sewer line broke.

Abortion activists oppose the rules, claiming that they will create additional costs and burdens for abortion facilities. There also are rumblings that they may file a lawsuit.

David Brown, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told the Texas Tribune the rules are an “unnecessary burden and an intrusion” on women’s rights and beliefs.

“These new restrictions reveal the callous indifference that Texas politicians have toward women,” Brown said.

However, health department spokesperson Carrie Williams said their research indicates that the rules will not increase costs.

 

Mary and Jesus

The great joy of Christmas is multiplied when we realize our Savior, at His birth, had already humbled Himself for nine months because of His unparalleled love for all humanity from the moment of conception. We pray that you continue to see the lowly Jesus of the manger in the lowliness of the unborn, the despairing, the infirm, and the dying. We pray that you do unto them as you would do unto Him so that they in turn would see in you the love and hope and help of Jesus, and together we would join the angerls and sing “Glory to God in the highest.”

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