Prolife Victories

Free Surgery for Life

THE WASHINGTON TIMES, March 12 — Couples who lost all their children in the Asian tsunami can undergo free surgery to reverse their sterilizations at government hospitals in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in order to try to have more children.

More than 3 million women in the state have undergone sterilization procedures over the past decade as part of a nationwide family planning program.

One agency said that more than 600 women and about 100 men have expressed interest in sterilization reversal.

Approximately 8,000 people in the state, including 2,500 children, died in the tsunami.


Life Worth Living

THE SCOTSMAN, March 6 — “Not many will have read Salvifici Doloris, the Pope’s 1984 essay on the redemptive power of suffering,” noted columnist Fraser Nelson. “But millions watching him now will see him live out his rejection of the notion that life on a hospital bed is not worth living.

“In the final stages of his life, the Pope’s key message is perhaps being made clearer than it has ever been: The human body may be frail, but human life is sacrosanct and the human spirit indomitable.”

And, adds the columnist, “if anything, the Pope is — through his suffering — communicating his message to more people than any priest, sermon or book would have been able to. He is making full use of his status as the first pontiff of the worldwide television age.”


Simple Changes Save

BOSTON GLOBE, March 4 — The lives of 3 million newborn babies in poor nations could be saved annually through simple improvements in birthing procedures and basic healthcare that would cost the world $4.1 billion per year — $2,100 per life saved — according to a new study published by the Lancet, a British medical journal.

The global community has regarded the deaths of newborns as a second-tier issue, a fact that a coalition of charities, activist groups and researchers is seeking to rectify.

Advocates say most of the deaths are caused by pre-term births and infections, and from a variety of complications, including tetanus — afflictions rarely fatal to newborns in developed countries.


Growing Opposition to Roe

LIFESITENEWS.COM, March 11 — A Harris poll on abortion released March 3 shows the strongest opposition to Roe v. Wade in years.

The survey of 1,012 U.S. adults conducted in February shows Americans support Roe v. Wade by just a 52% to 47% margin, a significant change from the 57% to 41% margin in 1998.

This weakening support for Roe is likely even more pronounced since the Harris survey question understates the 1973 decision, describing it as “the U.S. Supreme Court … making abortions up to three months of pregnancy legal.” Roe effectively made abortion legal through all nine months.