Web Site Goes After Morning After Pill

AMERICAN LIFE LEAGUE, April 13 — American Life League is launching http://www.morningafterpill.org a new, Internet site designed to counteract widespread misinformation about so-called emergency contraception, better known as the “morning after” pill.

“Calling these pills ‘contraceptives’ is a lie,” said ALL president Judie Brown. “It's not contraception. It's abortion.”

Morning-after pill manufacturers freely admit that the pills can act to stop implantation of a fertilized egg.

“These spin doctors then try to tell us that ‘pregnancy’ does not begin until implantation, and therefore this action is not an abortion,” said Brown. “Life has already begun at fertilization and any chemical agent that acts to end that life is abortifacient. The morning-after pill is a killer.”

The facts on the site are backed up by medical and scientific endorsements, including links to physicians’ statements, journal articles and textbook excerpts that point out the clearly abortifacient nature of emergency contraception.

Japan Aims to Ban Human Cloning

BBC NEWS ONLINE, April 14 — The Japanese government has proposed new laws to outlaw human cloning, the BBC reported.

A bill before parliament would make it an offense to implant a cloned human embryo inside a woman. It would also ban the creation of hybrid embryos containing human and animal genes.

Research into cloning will still be allowed, but only under strict conditions. The bill marks the first attempt by Japan to impose legal restraints on gene technology.

Countries of the European Union have already imposed similar restrictions.

Hungarian Tries Ethnic Cleansing Via Contraceptives

LIFE SITE DAILY NEWS, April 11 — A Hungarian official is in trouble for proposing the distribution of free contraceptives to the country's Gypsies, known locally as Roma.

A news brief in the British Medical Journal of April 1 noted that Peter Szégvári, deputy state secretary in the Hungarian prime minister's office, had approved a proposal for supplying free contraceptives to the country's 500,000 Roma population to combat “excessive multiplication.”

The government is considering legal action against him for the violation of laws that protect minority rights.

Thousands of Unwanted Embryos Perish in England

REUTERS, April 14 — Tens of thousands of frozen human embryos have been destroyed in Britain because couples are not using them for fertility treatment and they are not being donated to childless couples, the news service reported.

Under British law, frozen embryos must be thawed after five years unless the couples or donors request a five-year extension.

A study at two fertility clinics in Manchester, published in The Lancet, a medical journal, showed 904 of 1,344 frozen embryos had been thawed because couples had not requested an extension or donated them to other couples or for research, Reuters reported.

“We are extremely concerned at the high rate of embryo destruction highlighted by this study,” said Dr. Brian Lieberman of St. Mary's Hospital in Manchester, who conducted the study.

The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, which regulates the country's 120 fertility clinics, said it was difficult to know how many embryos have been destroyed because it is a rolling program and the authority is not notified when embryos are thawed. But it estimates that 51,000 embryos were thawed between April 1997 and March 1998, reported Reuters.

The government is considering lifting a ban on using embryos for therapeutic cloning research to develop treatments for diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's.

Doctor Attempts Forced Abortion With Syringe on His Lover, Police Say

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 17 — An abortionist was arraigned on charges of assault, abortion and criminal possession of a weapon after a bizarre syringe attack on a nurse outside a Bronx hospital, the wire service reported.

Prosecutors say the attack was an attempt to abort the nurse's unborn baby by injecting her with methotrexate, a drug used to induce labor or an abortion, AP reported.

Dr. Stephen Pack, 44, reportedly had been romantically involved with the woman. The nurse, 31, was stabbed five times in the leg and once in the buttocks. She was admitted to a hospital in stable condition. The New York Post reported she was undergoing treatment to counteract the drug.

According to the Bronx district attorney's office, Pack shouted, “I'm giving you an abortion!” and forced the woman, who is six- to eight-weeks pregnant, to the ground. He was arrested minutes later.