Report Claims Abortion Leads to Illegal Immigration

FOX NEWS, Nov. 13 — A report from a Missouri House of Representatives committee claims that the shortage of American workers caused by abortion has led to illegal immigration, Fox reported.

The report, by the Special Committee on Immigration Reform, was signed by 10 Republican committee members, but was not signed by the six Democratic committee members.

“That’s ridiculous to draw that conclusion,” said Rep. Ed Wildberger, D-St. Joseph, the chairman of the House Democratic caucus. “I don’t think that has anything to do with immigration.”

But Rep. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, countered: “If you kill 44 million of your potential workers, it’s not too surprising we would be desperate for workers.”

Crisis Pregnancy Head Gets Federal Post

THE WASHINGTON POST, Nov. 17 — An official at a Massachusetts crisis pregnancy center will be advising U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt on reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy, The Post reported.

President Bush appointed Dr. Eric Keroack, medical director of A Woman’s Concern in Dorchester, to be chief of family-planning programs.

As deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, Keroack, an obstetrician and gynecologist, will oversee $283 million in grants “designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons,” according to Health and Human Services. The program supports a network of 4,600 family-planning clinics.

Not surprisingly, the appointment, which does not need Senate confirmation, angered many of what The Post called “family-planning advocates.” They complained that A Woman’s Concern “supports sexual abstinence until marriage, opposes contraception and does not distribute information promoting birth control at its six centers in Massachusetts.”

Mark Conrad, president of A Woman’s Concern, was quoted as saying Keroack would be able to lead a federal program in which provision of birth control is integral. “I don’t think it’s going to be an issue for him,” he said.

The Christian pregnancy counseling organization’s website said that “crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness.”

Economist and School Voucher Advocate Dies

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Nov. 16 — Nobel Prize-winning economist and school voucher champion Milton Friedman died Nov. 16 in San Francisco, reported The Times. He was 94.

Friedman influenced both economics and politics, advocating less government and greater individual responsibility.

He held several controversial views. His book, Income from Independent Professional Practice, for example, argued that the American Medical Association exerted monopolistic pressure on the incomes of doctors, resulting in patients being unable to receive the benefits of lower fees from any real price competition among doctors.

A libertarian, Friedman opposed public education and argued that the government should give the poor vouchers to attend private schools, which he felt were superior to public ones.