Professors vs. Unions

CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE, March 29 — The California Faculty Association settled a lawsuit brought by two college professors from different universities who refused to pay union dues because of their religious beliefs, reported Cybercast News Service.

Seeking religious accommodation, the professors asked that their dues be sent instead to a non-profit charity.

Attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, said he has successfully represented union workers in similar situations, and that such cases often involve workers who “are committed to their faith and object to the liberal positions supported by the union, which range … from work-ethic practices to supporting abortion and homosexuality,” reported Cybercast News Service.

The Pacific Justice Institute is a nonprofit legal defense organization specializing in defending religious freedom.

Dacus said as union workers nationwide learn about their rights he expects more of them to refuse paying dues to unions that contradict their religious beliefs.

Campus Pro-Life Resurgence

REPORT, April 2 — The Canadian magazine Report discussed the resurgence of pro-life activity across their nation's campuses.

One powerful tactic used on at least two Canadian campuses is the Genocide Awareness Project, which employs pictures of aborted babies and compares abortion to the Holocaust and slavery — in which the denial of “personhood” to human beings led to their persecution and systematic suppression, reported Report.

In the U.S., students at the University of Houston used similar pictures last month to educate their campus community about the brutality of abortion, reported the Daily Cougar, a campus newspaper.

Pro-life students at the University of Illinois set up 4,000 small, white crosses in front of the English Building in a display called “Cemetery of the Innocents,” reported the Daily Illini, a campus paper. Each cross symbolized one child aborted each day in the United States.

Idaho Abortions Down

IDAHO STATESMAN, April 2 — The number of abortions performed in Idaho in 1999 — the latest year for which numbers are available — dropped to 867, reported the Statesman.

Abortions in the state peaked at 2,706 in 1981. The ratio of abortions to live births in Idaho was also low: 76 (1999 figures), far below the national average of 306 (1997 figures), reported the paper.

David Ripley, executive director of Idaho Chooses Life observed, “People are beginning to realize that abortion is not a viable solution.”

Ripley also said the state's abortion numbers should drop further because of a new law banning taxpayer funding of abortions.