Supreme Opening

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 6 — Pro-lifers have gotten their case heard before the Supreme Court. Well, sort of.

Just as the Supreme Court's new term was about to commence, pro-life demonstrators erected a tall wooden cross in front of the famed building. The gesture was made to protest anti-life rulings such as Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion across the U.S.

About 200 demonstrators prayed and held signs, including one that read, “Without God's Law We Have a Lawless America.” A man dressed as Moses, wearing a rough tunic, held tablets meant to depict the Ten Commandments.

Archbishop O'Malley Rally

THE BOSTON GLOBE, Oct. 6 — Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley led about 1,000 people in the annual Respect Life Walk after urging them to create a “civilization of love” that supports adoption and opposes abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

“Abortion is violence — we want to be people of peace,” said the archbishop, who received the loudest ovation of the dozen or so speakers who addressed the annual rally and walk on Boston Common.

The president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Peg Whitbread, said Archbishop O'Malley's ability to “calmly and unequivocally” focus on the issues struck exactly the right tone.

“We have always understood that you need to change people's hearts before you change the law,” she said. “You don't change people's hearts by attacking them.”

No Insurance, No Abortions

ERIE TIMES-NEWS, Oct. 3 — A building association has asked a judge in Erie, Pa., to shut down a new abortion business there, noting the liability insurance for American Women's Services will soon expire.

The request for an injunction is part of a lawsuit stating that the center's insurance problems present “a real and substantial risk of loss and liability to the Professional Building, its member-owners, and persons entering the building.”

The lawsuit claims American Women's Services secured liability coverage by Acordia Northeast through The Hartford Fire Insurance Co. by stating the clinic was “a doctor's office.”

“In light of finding out this insured performs abortion services, we will need to decline offering coverage,” wrote Caitlin Phraner, new-business underwriter for Acordia Northeast.

Umbilical Blood Bank Planned

THE SUNDAY HERALD, Oct. 5 — Stem cells will be taken from Scottish babies at birth and stored for 10 years in the first national bank of umbilical-cord blood, the Glasgow-based newspaper reported.

The cells will be used to treat children suffering from cancer or blood diseases such as leukemia and different forms of anemia.

Specially trained midwives will be sent into maternity hospitals to collect the vital cord blood — from babies whose parents have given permission — at the time of birth. The stem cells will then be stored by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.