Abortion Clinic Abuses Studied

ELLIOT INSTITUTE, Aug. 18-State attorneys general may soon be prosecuting abortion clinics for deceptive business practices, the Elliot Institute reported in an Aug. 18 statement.

The Institute, a research and education group, is working with individuals and organizations around the country to collect complaints about abortion's risks.

The goal of the project, entitled Expose Deceptive Abortion Practices, or EDAP, is to “prove to state attorney generals what we already know to be true — that the abortion industry is willfully deceiving women about the dangers of abortion,” said Elliot Institute director David Reardon, Ph.D.

The Elliot Institute has prepared a brochure describing its nationwide project, which includes a survey to collect preliminary data about what information was denied to each woman. Women who fill out the surveys may later be asked to make a formal complaint to the attorney general, which can be done anonymously.

“When we have lined up a hundred or more complaints in each state, we will work with groups in that state to coordinate a flood of complaints to their attorney general's office,” Reardon said.

Courts Beef-Up Animal Rights Law

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Aug. 18-Protecting the rights of animals has become a hot issue in U.S. courts and law schools recently.

A cadre of passionate attorneys specializing in animal rights law announced Aug.17 that the annual pigeon shoot in Hegins, Pa., was canceled after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court put pressure on local organizers,the New York Times reported.

Last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that a zoo visitor could be given the legal standing to sue the government so that it would issue regulations on improved living arrangements and amenities for chimpanzees.

Several other groundbreaking animal rights cases have been argued before the nation's courts in the past year, and small firms specializing inp animal rights law have appeared on the legal scene. A scholarly journal that serves the animal rights movement has been published at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., for the last five years.

In 1994, 44 states considered animal cruelty a misdemeanor; today, 27 states consider animal abuse a felony, with fines reaching $100,000 and >prison terms up to 10 years.

Abortion Drop in Wisconsin Reported

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 11-The State of Wisconsin has released its annual report on the number of induced abortions for 1998. The report indicated that 1,500 fewer abortions were reported last year than in 1997, continuing a trend in Wisconsin that began about ten years ago. The only increase in abortions reported in Wisconsin during the last decade was from 1995 to 1996, when the number jumped by 891.

But this year's figures indicate a full 35% fewer abortions in 1998 than in 1997. Wisconsin residents between the ages of 5 to 44 had 10 abortions per 1,000 women last year. That was half the rate of abortions performed per 1,000 women nationally in 1996, which is the most recent year for which data is available, the Associated Press reported.