TV Star Urges Global Contraception & Abortion

The U.S. television show Dallas has been extremely popular overseas, where some have even credited it with subverting communist regimes by giving people a look at unbridled capitalism. So it is understandable that the U.N. Population Fund would choose a star of the show, Linda Gray, to be its spokeswoman.

The Washington Post (Feb. 2) called Gray the Fund's “glambassador.” “Working with the fund's celeb-heavy Face to Face program,” the account continued, “Gray will star in documentaries to promote greater access for women to health care, birth control, and abortion, and an end to sexual violence.”

The controversial nature of her work—which critics say is designed to change the cultures of Third World nations to conform to some of the worst aspects of first-world culture—seemed lost on Gray in her quoted remarks about her recent trip to Nicaragua.

“There are wonderful health care promoters who explain to the women that their mothers had 10, 12, 14 children but that they don't have to have that many,” she said.

In describing her new work Gray said, “I have been a Hollywood celebrity for many years.… I don't know whether wisdom kicks in or age kicks in, but it's time to share.”

Museum of the Culture of Death?

“This is a disgrace for our century. Human dignity should also be respected after death, and that is not the case here.” Beate Reinecke, of Hanover, Germany, reported her disgust in the guest book at Mannheim's Museum for Technology and Work.

The Museum currently features an exhibition of dead bodies prepared by “anatomical artist” Gunther Von Hagens, according to Newsday (Feb. 3). The exhibits are preserved and “anatomically highlighted” by a process Dr. Von Hagens developed that shows brightly colored organs through transparent or missing skin.

Though ostensibly meant to teach viewers about anatomy, many—the local Catholic Church included—are deeply disturbed by a display of dead bodies. Included in the exhibit:

√ “Totally Expanded Body,” a dismembered corpse with eyes suspended by wires behind a face and in front of a brain.

√ “The Runner”, a corpse in a lifelike running pose, but with certain muscles “peeled back” as if in a strong wind, for viewers to examine.

√ A woman's corpse, spit in half lengthwise, with the woman holding various internal organs in her hands.

√ A simulated pregnant woman's corpse, cut open to reveal an unborn child's corpse within.

Each member of the exhibit (apart from the infants) agreed to donate his body to the project before death, after being given information of about Dr. Von Hagen's plans, according to the article. That did not stop local Church officials from criticizing the exhibit as an affront to human dignity with a commercial rather than a scientific aim.

Pro-Lifers Come to 11-Year-Old's Aid

Little “M” has, temporarily, become one of the most famous people in her native Brazil, but few people know her real name, according to a Miami Herald report (Feb. 2).

M's case has gained great notoriety because it exemplifies the “hard case” scenarios that abortion proponents like to focus the abortion debate on. M was impregnated last August by a rapist, she turned 11 in December, and is due in May.

She is able to have a legal abortion in Brazil—both because she is the victim of a rape and because her small size makes her pregnancy dangerous—but a drama that has been played out in the Brazilian media began when she attempted to do so.

First, pro-life activists intervened. Then local authorities postponed her abortion until after they could speak to her parents. Apriest spoke to her parents, too, showing her father a videotape of The Silent Scream. Finally, pro-lifers offered to pay for sophisticated medical care that could help keep her—and her unborn child—safe.

“I'm happy now” that the birth will proceed, M is quoted saying. “My father wanted me to have the abortion. I didn't want to have it.”

The father, Walter Oliveira, a farmer, summed up his reasons for finally deciding to accept the advice of the pro-life side. “It was hard to know what was right, except that 95 people were saying one thing and only five were saying something else.” The material assistance offered by pro-lifers further helped convince him, he said.