WASHINGTON, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback is hoping that resurgence in faith and traditional values among US voters will work in his favour in a bid for the 2008 Republican nomination for president.

Brownback first campaigned for the US Congress in 1994, but as a "very different candidate," according to a New York Times report. "In a contested Republican primary, he was generally considered the candidate friendlier to abortion rights because he did not oppose abortions in cases of rape or incest or to protect the life of the pregnant woman," explained NYT columnist David D. Kirkpatrick.

But his life changed when he was diagnosed with melanoma in 1995. "It really caused me to stare at the end of life, and I wasn't very pleased with how I was living at that time," Brownback said to a group of monks at St. Anselm's abbey Tuesday. "It sunk my roots real deep into my faith." Formerly an evangelical Christian, Brownback converted to Catholicism in 2002; his entry into the Church was sponsored by Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
 
In 1996, Brownback ran for the US Senate, but he "began to shift his emphasis from economic issues to social issues like abortion," according to Kirkpatrick. Brownback has backed bans on human cloning and destructive embryonic stem cell research and backed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex "marriage." "At the Republican National Convention in 2004 he rallied a closed- door meeting of Christian conservatives with calls for a ‘cultural war,’" Kirkpatrick added.

Brownback organized a meeting last November to discussing the dangers of pornography addiction, calling on members to endorse a public health campaign warning that the addiction is destroying families and harming children.

In comments made to students at St. Anselm's abbey Wednesday, he described the so-called separation of church and state as "the great debate of our season" and abortion "the defining issue of the difference between the political parties today."

Conservative Legal and Educator groups launch Joint Christmas project

Washington, D.C. - Today, Liberty Counsel and Christian Educators Association International ("CEAI") kick off their joint Christmas project. Liberty Counsel is a national, religious liberty public interest law firm with offices in Florida and Virginia and hundreds of affiliate attorneys in all fifty states. CEAI has 8,000 members comprised of public school teachers and administrators. CEAI is a conservative alternative to the National Education Association.

For the past three years, Liberty Counsel has conducted its "Friend or Foe" Christmas campaign. This campaign provides education about celebrating Christmas in public schools and on public property. Liberty Counsel offers pro bono legal advice and defense to government entities that do not censor Christmas, but Liberty Counsel will file suit whenever Christmas is censored.

CEAI's 8,000 public school teachers and administrators are now joining forces with Liberty Counsel in a national Christmas campaign. CEAI educators will distribute Liberty Counsel's legal memo about Christmas to their local school districts and government officials. They will also advise Liberty Counsel of any violations of the law so that Liberty Counsel can take whatever legal action is necessary.

Public school students have the right to distribute religious Christmas cards to their classmates, wear clothing or jewelry with religious themes or messages, and sing Christmas carols during choral or talent performances. Teachers have the right to display nativity scenes alongside secular holiday displays and may include Christmas in a discussion about the holidays. In the past few years, students have been suspended for distributing candy canes with an attached card describing the Christian celebration of Christmas. Students have been told they may not say "Merry Christmas," may not sing Christian Christmas carols, or may not wear red and green. These and other forms of discrimination against religious viewpoints will be challenged in court.

Outside the school setting, local, state and federal governments may display nativity scenes or religious greetings alongside secular holiday displays or greetings. Public employees may wear jewelry or clothing with religious themes if other employees are permitted to don secular themes.

Finn Laursen, Executive Director of CEAI, commented: "Christmas is not constitutionally taboo in public schools or in public places. Our teachers and administrators will be the 'eyes and ears' in their communities to ensure that the 'reason for the season' remains part of the holiday celebration."

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated: "With a cavalry of thousands of public school teachers and administrators joining forces with hundreds of religious liberty attorneys, we intend to stop the Grinch from stealing Christmas. We will be the friend of government officials who do the right thing, and the foe of those who don't."

Help protect religious television programming

Congress is currently considering legislation that will impact how much religious programming will be available in your home!

Unless Christian conservatives act soon, the level of religious programming made available on your local cable systems could well decrease in coming years.

Congress is currently considering legislation concerning the transition from analog to digital television and it is essential that consumers of religious programming be represented in this debate.

Local religious broadcasters are the backbone of faith-based media outreach in America. These stations work tirelessly to promote pro-family messages that are direct reflections of their communities and they provide a haven for many who are in-need, suffering or simply seeking a positive, comfortable television environment.

In order that the voice of religious broadcasters not be diminished, it is imperative that Congress pass what is known as a "multicast must-carry" provision to its digital television legislation. This provision provides that local cable systems must carry the programming of all local broadcasters.

We strongly believe that without "multicast must-carry" the conservative, faith and family broadcasters will be at a disadvantage. The major media networks do not need this provision to get their programming carried on local cable systems. However, the cable companies do not readily carry the Christian networks and the "multicast must-carry" provision will force cable and satellite companies to treat secular and faith oriented broadcasters equally. The senate Thursday set the end of analog broadcasting to be on April 7^th 2009.

(Click here to contact Congress on this issue)

Chinese Breast Cancer Deaths Jump 40% since One Child Abortion Policy

(Oct. 13, 2005 LifeSiteNews.com)

BEIJING, Chinese state media has reported a sharp increase in the number of cases of breast cancer in China in the last ten years. According to official statistics from the Ministry of Health, about 40% more women are dying from breast cancer and the disease is striking women at younger ages than ever before.

According to the officially released statistics reported in China Daily, the fatality rate of breast cancer rose 38.7 percent for women living in urban areas and 39.1 percent for rural women between 1991 and 2000.

Xu Guangwei of the China Anti-Cancer Association put the increase down to stress and greater consumption of fatty food, which have been linked to cancer in many studies. A much easier explanation, however, is the communist country’s obsession with limiting its population with abortion. The link between abortion and instances of breast cancer is much better documented than that between stress and cancer.

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer points out that an identical increase in breast cancer in US women was found between the mid-1980's and 1998, "the increase took place entirely within the Roe v. Wade generation - the group of women who were under age 40 in 1973 when abortion was legalized."

Karen Malec, the group’s spokesman said, "The Chinese government, like the American government, isn't telling women why they're getting more breast cancers.  Here's a little clue for the Chinese and U.S. governments. Nations that prohibit abortion (like Ireland and Poland) have significantly lower breast cancer rates."

The connection between abortion and breast cancer, though verifiable in many studies, has been assiduously blocked, says the Coalition, for years because of politics. Most national medical associations and physicians’ organizations have accepted abortion as a great boon to women’s health and routinely accuse any report finding otherwise of "political" bias.

More Questions about Harriett Miers (Oct. 10 2005 American Values by Gary Bauer)

Several more things have happened in the last 72 hours. First, Senator Sam Brownback spent over an hour with Miss Miers. Senator Brownback is a Christian who takes his faith very seriously. He has led the fight in the Senate to stop same-sex "marriages." He has led the charge against religious persecution around the world. But after his meeting with Miers, he sadly reported that he could find out virtually nothing about her judicial philosophy. For now, like me, he is reserving judgment. Likewise, Concerned Women for America, the largest pro-life women's organization in the country, announced today that it could not support the nomination without getting specific answers to questions related to her judicial philosophy. In addition, Judge Robert Bork, a hero of many conservatives, came out against Miers' nomination, calling it "a disaster on every level."

American Academy of Pediatrics fudging the Data on Homosexual Parenting

(Oct. 17 2005 Family Research Council by Tony Perkins)

According to media reports, Dr. Ellen C. Perrin, a long-time advocate for homosexual parents, has released another study purporting to show "that children of homosexual parents do as well as children whose parents are heterosexual in every way." It will take time to examine the full study, but there are good reasons for skepticism. Even pro-homosexual researchers, like sociologist Judith Stacey, have acknowledged that previous claims of "no difference" between children raised by homosexual and heterosexual parents were unsupportable. Perrin claims between one and six million children are being raised by "committed lesbian or gay couples." Since the 2000 census showed only 600,000 same-sex partner households nationwide, the upper range of Perrin's estimate would yield an astonishing ten children per homosexual couple!

Another red flag is Perrin's statement that "single heterosexual parents' children have more difficulties" than children of homosexual parents. Advocates for homosexual parents can only achieve their desired result by comparing their outcomes with those of dysfunctional heterosexual family structures such as single-parent households. They know perfectly well that direct comparisons between homosexual couples and heterosexual married couples would show the latter provide the superior environment for child-rearing.

'Comprehensive' Sex Ed Still Gets More Tax Dollars than Abstinence Education

(Randy Hall Oct, 14, 2005 CNSNews.com)

As Congress finishes work on the federal budget for the 2006 fiscal year, attempts to hold down spending on programs dealing with sexual health have drawn criticism from both sides of the political aisle.

But while activists are complaining that their programs will not receive sufficient money for the coming year, funding for "comprehensive sex education" supported by liberals still outpaces "abstinence education" backed by conservatives by a margin of 12 to 1.

Klepacki noted that while she would like to see abstinence education "increased as much as possible," she views the budget battle as part of a bigger picture.

"Everyone in the United States has to be cautious with increases while we have a war in Iraq, and two major hurricanes have hit the United States," she stated. "With that said, I think abstinence education is the healthiest option for our children inside or outside our public schools."

Battling Pornography: Listen to the Ladies (Oct. 10 2005 Family Research Council)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has launched a new website designed to increase public awareness of the agency's efforts to combat broadcast obscenity, indecency, and profanity. The website explains the FCC's rules, definitions, and procedures in a user-friendly format. The agency has often been criticized by pro-family forces for failing to vigorously enforce federal laws.

The FCC's action comes as the Harris Poll released findings from a new survey. While Harris headlines the supposed lack of consensus among American adults on what to do about pornography, the results make clear that American women have strong and defined views of the subject. Sixty-two percent of women believe pornography "raises men's expectations of how women should look"; fifty-eight percent of women said it "changes men's expectations of how women should behave." How come liberals and feminist leaders aren't hailing these survey results? Interestingly, the poll also found that only 10 percent of all respondents thought that government has no role with respect to pornography and only one percent thought all forms of pornography should be legalized.

Senator Hutchison to introduce Immigration bill to strengthen states Immigration enforcement

(Oct. 11 2005 FAIR)

‘There is no doubt the Minutemen highlighted the dire need for more agents to patrol our borders.’

WASHINGTON, DC -- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today will introduce immigration legislation that would give state and local officials expanded authority to arrest, detain and prosecute illegal aliens as well as create a Volunteer Border Marshall Program.

Senator Hutchison is introducing the bill the same day she is meeting with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in her Washington, D.C. office to discuss broad immigration reform measures and the new provisions outlined in her bill.

"Our borders have been hemorrhaging for too long. It is a national security and safety threat to our nation," Sen. Hutchison said. "Elected officials and residents from border and non-border states alike want to see action to secure our homeland and enforce our laws."

The authority of state and local law enforcement officials to enforce immigration laws has been limited to the criminal provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) which defines criminal and civil enforcement measures. The physical crossing of the border illegally is a criminal violation under the INA. By contrast, the enforcement of civil violations, which includes apprehension and removal of deportable aliens who are already in the country, has strictly been viewed as a federal responsibility.

Sen. Hutchison’s bill would remove barriers to state and local prosecution for both criminal and civil immigration violations. It would allow communities to take enforcement action based on their own interests but restricts their actions to limits imposed under federal law. Power over naturalization will continue to be determined at the federal level as defined by the Constitution under the new legislation.

In order to strengthen border security and reduce the strain on local and federal border officials, Sen. Hutchison’s bill also would allow the Secretary of Homeland Security to create a Volunteer Border Marshall Program. The program will assist the Department of Homeland Security to secure our borders using already trained, state-licensed peace officers in a volunteer capacity. The volunteers could be sworn in and assigned to the Border Patrol on temporary missions to identify and control illegal immigration and human and drug trafficking.

"There is no doubt the Minutemen highlighted the dire need for more agents to patrol our borders. While I worked with other border-state senators to secure funding in the appropriations process for 1,500 new Border Patrol agents, we need more," Sen. Hutchison said. "Trained, licensed peace officers could be a valuable and accountable asset to supplement our Border Patrol."

Senators Alexander and Cornyn Introduce Bill to Strengthen American Citizenship

( Oct.4th, 2005 FAIR)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and John Cornyn (R-TX) today introduced the Strengthening American Citizenship Act, legislation to help and encourage legal immigrants who are prospective American citizens to learn our common language, history and way of government.

"This bill is about fulfilling the promise of our national motto that’s written right here on the Senate wall: E Pluribus Unum, from many, one," Sen. Alexander said during a Senate floor speech. "As a nation of immigrants, that motto is very important to us. Our unique history makes us a diverse nation, but we are still one American nation."

Sen. Cornyn, Chairman of the Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship subcommittee, said the legislation "promotes American values and traditions by educating prospective citizens about U.S. government, civics and English. By promoting good citizenship and English fluency, this legislation is an important step towards assimilating new legal immigrants into our society."

The Strengthening American Citizenship Act

• Helps and encourages prospective citizens to learn English by providing grants of up to $500 for English courses to immigrants who declare their intent to become American citizens; and allowing citizenship applicants who speak fluent English to meet the residency requirement after four years of living in the U.S. rather than five;
• Helps and encourages prospective citizens learn more about the American way of life by establishing a foundation to support the activities of the Office of Citizenship within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and providing grants for organizations to offer civics, history and English courses;
• Codifies the Oath of Allegiance, which today is written only in federal regulations, but not in law, thereby giving it the same standing as the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem, and;
• Celebrates new citizens by instructing the DHS to develop and implement a strategy to raise public awareness of naturalization ceremonies; and establishes an award for citizens that have been naturalized within the last ten years and made outstanding contributions to the American nation.

"How do we, as Americans, take all the magnificent diversity that is the United States and mold it into a single nation? We can be one nation because we are united by principles expressed in our founding documents, such as liberty and democracy and the rule of law, not by our multiple ancestries," Sen. Alexander added. "We are united by our common language, English, and our history of constantly struggling to reach the high ideals that we have set for ourselves as a nation. Part of that American history is welcoming new immigrants to join our nation."  

Britain's Churches nearer to last rites? (Oct. 14 2005 Prophecy Watch)

Britain's Churches are in such serious decline that if they were shops, they would have been declared bankrupt long ago, Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, said last night.

In a bleak assessment of the future of Christianity in this country, he said that the Churches were approaching meltdown and the "last rites" could be administered at any moment.

In a lecture in a Buckinghamshire church, Dr Carey expressed his exasperation that his efforts to revive the Church of England in the 1990s had been frustrated by lack of support from the clergy. 

He delivered a warning to his successor, Dr Rowan Williams, that his initiatives could meet a similar fate.

However, the former archbishop argued, that it was still possible to turn the tide if the Church did not "throw up its hands in despair" 

Speaking at St Michael's church in Amersham-on-the-Hill, Dr Carey said that all the Christian denominations had suffered plunging congregations. 

"No Anglican can be satisfied that only one in 50 people attend this national Church," he said.

Referring to an official report published this year, Dr Carey said it spoke of a Church "that is running out of cash and spending it on buildings, that has lost its vision and is becoming a club for the elderly." He continued: "The picture I have described is of Churches approaching meltdown rather than on the cusp of renewal."

However, Dr Carey said there was also good news. He cited the 2001 census, in which 72 per cent of the population described themselves as Christian, and said that there was still a "deep allegiance" between nation and Church.

He said the Church had to focus on its mission from top to bottom" or it would become "an irrelevancy in the nation.

Who's religious and who's not on College Campus (Oct.10 2005 Prophecy Watch)

Black students have the highest levels of religious practice on America's campuses, according to a survey of 112,232 students at 236 colleges being released today. 

The study, conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, which is affiliated with the University of California at Los Angeles, said black students led white, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian and Hawaiian students in seven out of 12 spirituality categories. 

One-third of the black students polled said spiritual growth and following religious teachings are both essential, compared with less than one-fifth of the white and Asian students polled. Black students also reported higher levels of church attendance, prayer and belief in God. 

Phil Bowling-Dyer, director of Black Campus Ministries for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, a college student ministry based in Madison, Wis., said he sees "a lot" of black students involved in spiritual pursuits as a way of replacing absent parents. 

"There's a high amount of spiritual involvement among black students," he said, "plus a high amount of community involvement among the religious students. 

"Spirituality is just part of the black community," Mr. Bowling-Dyer added. "It plays out with college students, too. 

Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders came in second in four of the 12 categories: charitable involvement (27 percent), spirituality (25 percent), ecumenical worldview (24 percent) and religious struggle (15 percent). 

Asians were the least religious, leading in only one category -- religious skepticism -- and polling at the bottom of five other categories, including spirituality and religious commitment. 

White, Hispanic and American Indian students polled in the middle of most categories. Whites were the lowest in charitable involvement, helping others, ecumenicity, spiritual quest and compassion. Hispanics were the lowest in religious struggle and religious activities. 

Funded by a $1.97 million grant from the Templeton Foundation, the survey is the largest done to date on the spiritual lives of college students. 

Rhys Williams, a University of Cincinnati sociology professor who has researched the church involvement of black students, said black collegians tend to re-create on campus the church life they knew back home. 

"Church is an enormous social and psychic support for these students, especially if they are on white campuses," he said. "So they try to re-create at their college something similar to the church where they grew up." 

White students, in contrast, tend to separate themselves from anything to do with their parents, including the church they grew up in. 

"They wish to distinguish themselves from their parents and establish their own religious identity," he said. 

He also professed some surprise at the low rates of religious behavior reported by the Asian students in the survey. 

"Considering the high amount of Christian Asian student groups on campus these days, those should be higher," he said. However, he added, if middle-class students from India and Japan -- who tend to be more secular -- are included with the more devout Koreans, "that might have pulled down the Asian numbers." 

The study, administered in fall 2004 to college freshmen, reported that four of five students are "interested in spirituality," three-quarters said they are "searching for meaning or purpose in life" and 79 percent said they believe in God. 

A follow-up survey will be given to the same students in 2006 to measure whether higher education increased or decreased their religious beliefs and activities. 

Forty-seven percent of the black students were Baptist, compared with 11 percent of the white students and 5 percent of the Hispanics. Thirty percent of the white students and 53 percent of the Hispanics were Catholics, compared with one-tenth of the black students. 

College women outscored the men in all categories except for "religious skepticism," where the men polled at 21 percent and the women at 14 percent. 

Voice of the Martyrs urges American Christians to pray for persecuted Cuban Christians

(Oct. 18 2005 Prophecy Watch)

Cuban police recently raided a home in the Cuban city of Colon and confiscated what officials later called "subversive and dangerous." But the contraband wasn't drugs, or pornography, or bomb-making instructions. What police confiscated were printed Gospels of John and a small printing press. 

It was Sunday morning, Oct. 9, and five plainclothes secret police entered the house. After calling for reinforcements, a truck arrived with 12 armed, uniformed police who seized the gospels and the printing press. Cuban officials called the materials "subversive and dangerous." 

Police then took Pastor Eliseo Rodriguez Matos, head of an Assembly of God church in the area, to the local police station for interrogation. Police then called Señora Caridad Diego, the minister of religion in Havana – an atheist who supports the Communist government in restricting Christian evangelism. The Ministry of Religion called the confiscated printing press "very dangerous." 

"We agree with the government's assessment," responded Tom White, executive director of The Voice of the Martyrs, USA. "The Word of God is dangerous. It can produce eternal freedom in the midst of evil tyranny." White was a prisoner in Cuba 25 years ago after the plane from which he was dropping Christian leaflets crash-landed there. 

Elsewhere in Cuba, threats of demolition of house churches have never been so high. Recently, the government outlawed them and plans to hunt them down and close them. Many house churches have had equipment such as pews, homemade benches, musical instruments, Christian literature and anything else confiscated by police. 

Voice of the Martyrs urges American Christians to pray for Christians in Cuba.

Venezuela orders U.S. missionary group out (Oct.14 2004 Prophecy Watch)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered a U.S.-based Christian missionary group working with indigenous tribes to leave the country Wednesday, accusing the organization of "imperialist infiltration" and links to the CIA.

Chavez said missionaries of the New Tribes Mission, based in Sanford, Fla., were no longer welcome during a ceremony in a remote Indian village where he presented property titles to several indigenous groups.

He accused the missionaries of building luxurious camps next to poor Indian villages and circumventing Venezuelan customs authorities as they freely flew in and out on private planes.

Nita Zelenak, a New Tribes representative reached by phone, declined to comment on Venezuela's decision or say how many missionaries are working in the country.

The New Tribes Mission specializes in evangelism among indigenous groups in the world's remotest places. The organization says it has 3,200 workers and operations in 17 nations across Latin America, Southeast Asia and West Africa.

Liberals Push for Wider Abortion drug Availability (Oct. 17 2005 Citizen Link)

Left-leaning members of Congress pressure the FDA to approve the "morning-after pill" for over-the-counter distribution, despite health concerns.

Pro-abortion members of Congress are turning up the heat on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the agency's 60-day window for public comment on over-the-counter distribution of the "morning-after pill" draws to a close.

Senators Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., are trying to drum up grassroots support for their view that the FDA is dragging its feet on making the pill -- also known as emergency contraception and Plan B -- available without a prescription. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., has gone so far as to write a letter to the FDA demanding quick action on approving the drug for over-the-counter distribution.

But the FDA is right to be cautious, according to Jim Sedlack, president of the American Life League's Stopp International. For one thing, the medication can cause an early abortion.

"They are hesitant about making it over the counter because of all the bad effects that the birth-control pill has had," Sedlack told Family News in Focus. "And yet they are being put under tremendous political pressure to do so.

"This letter being sent by members of the congressional pro-choice caucus simply shows how much political pressure is being put on the FDA to make a political decision and not a medical decision."

Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics at Focus on the Family Action, said pro-life Americans can counter the influence of the politicians in Washington.

"If folks feel strongly about this issue," she explained, "if they do not want to see it over the counter, they need to be communicating with the Food and Drug Administration because those comments will be weighed and considered as they move closer to a final decision on this question."

The FDA's public comment period runs through Nov. 1.

TAKE ACTION: To let FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford know how you feel about plans to make Plan B available over the counter, visit the Citizen Link Action Center.

Medical Ethicist Describes Holland's Inevitable Progress from Mercy Killing to Murder

(Oct. 10 2005 Prophecy Watch)

Burke Balch, director of the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics of the National Right to Life Committee, says the Netherlands is no longer sliding down a slippery slope, but rather has fallen off a moral cliff as the medical community in that nation expands its euthanasia practices. He notes that the Dutch government intends to expand its euthanasia guidelines to include so-called "mercy killing" of children with spina bifida or other disabilities, as long as the parents consent.

This development is horrifying, though not surprising, Balch contends, because once a price is placed on human life, the price goes down. "In the Netherlands, although they started with purely voluntary euthanasia for people who were dying," he says, "they moved very rapidly to individuals who were not dying but were disabled."

Soon after that, the head of the Powell Center says, doctors in the Netherlands started euthanizing "individuals who were neither dying nor disabled but who were simply old and, in fact, lonely. They moved on to depressed patients, then, they moved into cases where the patient hadn't given consent at all."

For instance, Balch asserts, the pro-euthanasia doctors in the Netherlands have now moved on to euthanizing the elderly in nursing homes and even killing children without parental consent. He says it is obvious that arguments about physician-assisted death being the patient's choice are no longer relevant. Instead, he insists, it has come to be about a determination of who is fit to live.

Doctor Reinforces Suspicions of Euthanasia at New Orleans Hospital

(Oct. 13, 2005 LifeSiteNews.com)

NEW ORLEANS, A September 12 LifeSiteNews.com story (reported in the BMAT Watchman) related the first hand account of an anonymous doctor who, anxious that help would not arrive in time for several critically ill patients at New Orleans Memorial Medical Center, decided to euthanize them instead. Another doctor has come forward to corroborate the admission.

Dr. Bryant King was also at Memorial during and after the hurricane. He told CNN news that, despite not actually witnessing the acts of euthanasia, "most people know something happened that shouldn't have happened."

Prior to the hurricane, 11 people had died and been brought to the hospital’s morgue. After the flood, 45 bodies were recovered; Louisiana’s attorney general is investigating allegations that many of those people were victims of euthanasia and has ordered autopsies. Frank Minyard, Orleans Parish coroner, said investigators suspect euthanasia was committed.

King is convinced euthanasia did indeed occur. "There was only one patient that died overnight," he said. "The previous day, there were only two. From Thursday to Friday, for there to be 10 times that many, just doesn't make sense to me."

King related that on the Thursday morning after the hurricane, a hospital administrator and another doctor approached him to discuss putting patients out of their misery. Later, the area was cleared of everyone except the hospital administrator, patients, and two doctors – one of whom had said they would be willing to euthanize patients. The administrator asked if anyone would like to join in a prayer, King said. One of the doctors then brought out a handful of syringes.

"I don't know what's in the syringes. ... The only thing I heard the physician say was, ‘I’m going to give you something to make you feel better,’" King stated. "I don't know what the physician was going to give them, but we hadn’t been given medications like that, to make people feel better or any sort of palliative care." King said. "We hadn't been doing that up to this point."

King then boarded a boat and left the hospital, saying he would rather be remembered as someone who abandoned patients rather than someone who actively killed them.

Secret Abortion for 17-year-old Lands Planned Parenthood in Hot Water

(Oct. 14, 2005 LifeSiteNews.com)

ST. PAUL, Minnesota, A judge has ruled that Planned Parenthood is guilty of breaking state law for committing an abortion on a 17-year-old minor without her parents' knowledge.

Ramsey County District Judge David Higgs ruled a Planned Parenthood abortuary was guilty of contravening the Minnesota notification law, which requires abortionists to inform a minor’s parents before committing an abortion. Planned Parenthood committed the abortion December 26, 2002. The girl’s parents launched the suit in May.

Planned Parenthood argued the girl, a high school senior, was legally an adult because she already has a child. "Clearly our definition is that she was a legal adult," said Planned Parenthood’s director of marketing communications, Marta Coursey, according to an AP report. "We are really committed to making sure this young woman’s rights are protected."

The girl’s parents argued the state law applies to all girls under 18 years of age, whether they are a parent or not. "My clients feel the relationship between a minor and parents have been breached by this," said the parent’s attorney, John Angell. "They have a right to be notified and respond accordingly. They were never notified."

ACLU sends Governors "Not in my state" anti-abstinence letters

(Oct. 17 2005 Family Research Council)

What does the ACLU do when they are not suing school boards for allowing prayer or courthouses for posting the Ten Commandments? They sue governors who challenge teenagers to be abstinent. The ACLU recently sent "Not In My State" letters to eighteen state governors warning of lawsuits if they implement abstinence education programs in their public schools. The ACLU calls these abstinence programs "unsafe" and "ineffective." Alliance Defense Fund has indicated that it would defend any governor challenged by the ACLU over state abstinence programs. ADF is already defending a variety of faith-based state programs against ACLU attacks across the country.

As noted by the non-partisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, prior to adoption of abstinence programs, teen pregnancy had risen sharply. Since approval of abstinence programs, however, the national teen pregnancy rate has fallen as much as 22 percent. FRC has written to all eighteen governors targeted by the ACLU encouraging them to help the youth by fully implementing abstinence education. They should help young people understand the grave risks of pre-marital sexual activity. They should warn youth of the ineffectiveness of condoms in preventing the spread of many sexually transmitted diseases. In short, these governors reply to the ACLU should be: "Yes, In My State!"