Court Protects Marriage

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, Nov. 1 — South Korea's top court has refused to decriminalize adultery.

Adultery is punishable by a jail term under South Korea's constitution. Offenders can be imprisoned for up to two years.

A young couple recently convicted of the crime — one partner was married — sought to have the verdicts overturned. They told the constitutional court the state had no right to interfere in their private lives and pursuit of happiness.

In their ruling defending the adultery law, eight of the nine judges cited Korea's traditional values of chastity, the sanctity of marriage, and the importance of maintaining monogamy.

The ruling said, “The law responds to the need for maintaining and protecting wholesome family life.”

Life Sacrificed for Baby

THE DAILY MAIL, Oct. 31 — A 32-year-old South Wales mother sacrificed her own life to save the life of the child she carried in her womb. Cheryl Anderson was diagnosed with cancer when she was two months pregnant and refused an abortion.

At six months, doctors performed an emergency Caesarian. Anderson came round from the anesthetic long enough to hear the news that her daughter had survived the traumatic delivery.

Hours later, Anderson died in her husband's arms, reported the Daily Mail.

Anderson is survived by her husband, Leigh, and daughters Georgia, 4, and the baby, Taylor.

‘Choose Life’ Plates OK'd

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 23 — An Alabama pro-life group won approval for an official license plate proclaiming “Choose Life” — a slogan that has prompted lawsuits from pro-abortion organizations when authorized for tags in other states.

The Alabama Pro-Life Coalition Education Fund got the Legislature's License Plate Oversight Committee to approve the bright yellow “Choose Life” tag 6-3. The state will print the plates when 1,000 motorists pay $50 each in advance to order a tag.

Teens' Pro-Life Shirts

LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, Nov. 9 — Lisa Klassen, a 16-year-old student in St. Thomas, Ontario, was given an “unofficial suspension” for wearing a pro-life shirt that has on its front, “Abortion is Mean,” and on the back, “You will not silence my message; You will not mock my God; You will stop killing my generation.” The shirt is distributed by Rock for Life.

Klassen was sent home by her principal, who told her some people found the shirt offensive. During her suspension, some 50 students at the school held a protest, at which many wore shirts with the same pro-life message.

A similar case over a “Rock for Life” shirt in Malone, N.Y., was resolved recently after intervention by the Thomas More Law Center. Bryan Kemper, director of Rock for Life, said those wearing the shirts only wish to spread the pro-life message and that the school has helped spread the message by making “such a big stink.”

Senate Recognizes Abortion Depression

NATIONAL REVIEW, Nov. 8 — An appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education that passed the Senate contains an amendment that recognizes the existence of “post-abortion depression and post-abortion psychosis.”

Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review pointed out in her column that the amendment marks the “first federal recognition that women — other than the ones who actually die or are otherwise physically injured, by infections or worse, at the hands of abortionists — can actually suffer from something real: a genuine, medically recognized depression.”

While the amendment didn't create an agency or appropriate any money, it does implore the National Institutes of Health to “expand and intensify research and related activities . . . with respect to post-abortion depression and post-abortion psychosis.”

Post-abortion-stress syndrome, is usually characterized by severe depression, guilt, eating disorders, anxiety, anger, and low self-esteem following an abortion.

England Rejects Human Cloning

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 7 — The British government said it plans to reject an expected application from an Italian fertility doctor who wants to clone babies in Britain.

Dr. Severino Antinori, who is part of an international team seeking to become the first to clone a human being, has said he intends to apply to Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority for a license to begin work on cloning babies.

His group says it is pursuing cloning as a treatment for couples who are unable to have their own children.

“Worldwide, this is not considered acceptable, and it will remain illegal in the United Kingdom,” junior health minister Hazel Blears told lawmakers.

Smoking vs. Conception

REUTERS, Oct. 30 — Non-smoking women conceive sooner than those who smoke while trying to conceive a child.

“The study clearly shows a link between smoking and fertility problems,” said Marcus Munafo, who led the research team.

“The message from this research is that, if you want to get pregnant, you will not only improve your chances by quitting, you will also be doing something to protect the health of your child in the long term,” Munafo said.

“This is good news for women smokers who are thinking of trying for a baby, as it shows it is never too late to give up. A year after quitting, a woman's chances of conceiving return to those of a never-smoker,” said Munafo, whose research appears in the Journal of Biosocial Science.

Planned Parenthood Condemned

LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, Oct. 24 — In the South African National Assembly, Cheryllyn Dudley, MP for the African Christian Democratic Party and Member of the Health Portfolio Committee, presented a Notice of Motion against Planned Parenthood.

The motion read in part that the House: “Condemns the actions of Planned Parenthood in New York and the United Nations Population Fund, who are advancing their unscrupulous agenda in the name of charity … in the wake of the collapse of the World Trade Towers, Planned Parenthood is offering free abortions to New Yorkers, and the U.N. is offering free abortions to Afghan refugees.

“Acknowledges that while the democratic world's fight against terrorism is understandable … Planned Parenthood and the U.N. tally a death toll second to none. Planned Parenthood alone has killed more New Yorkers than Osama bin Laden has and these figures pale in comparison with the children they have murdered in Africa, Asia and South America.”