BURGOS, Spain, July 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Archbishop of Burgos, Francisco Gil Hellín, has issued a call to Spanish Catholics to resist the country’s new abortion law, which he says is no law at all.

In a statement published on the bishops’ Catholic Information Service, Gil Hellín laments the recent promulgation of the law, an “evil law which is directly opposed to right reason and the most elemental justice. Such is the law that establishes that the Spanish have the right to kill the unborn, as long as they do it before 14 weeks.”

“Let us diagnose it with total clarity: this law is no law, although it is presented as such by some political and legislative bodies. And it isn’t because no one has the right to eliminate an innocent. For that reason, it doesn’t obligate. Even more, it demands a head-on opposition without reservation. Right reason cannot admit as a right the killing of an innocent person.”

The new abortion law, which is being contested before Spain’s Constitutional Tribunal, abolishes penalties for all abortions during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.  It also allows minors to obtain abortions without parental permission, although they must first inform their parents of their intention to do so.

The archbishop rejects arguments that claim the law is somehow valid because it was passed by the legislature and approved according to the required legal processes.

“It is a fallacy to affirm that this law has been approved by the majority of the Parliament and that this represents the majority of the citizens, or to say that if the Constitutional Tribunal decrees its conformity [with the Constitution] it would be disobedience to oppose it, and would deserve a punishment. The fallacy consists in attributing to politicians, judges, or citizens a right that they don’t have, and no one has the right to legislate that an innocent can be killed.”

“What society would continue if it declared that is the right of citizens to kill innocent persons by majority [vote]? In the best scenario it would be converted into a tyranny, against which upright persons would have to react, according to this advice by Gandhi: ‘As soon as one understands that obeying unjust laws is contrary to his dignity as a man, no tyranny can dominate him.’”

The archbishop’s strong statements were made only days before the Constitutional Tribunal is to decide if the law will be suspended while it is under review.

A previous ruling of the Tribunal in the 1980s decreed that the right to life of the unborn child is paramount except in certain cases, including danger to health, rape, or fetal deformity.

Anti-abortion march attracts thousands

‘The hands of South Africa’s lawmakers are dripping with blood.’ said Archbishop Buti Tlhagale to more than 2,000 anti-abortionists who marched on Saturday 13 March with the Archbishop from the Cathedral of Christ the King to Constitution Hill where officials from the Department of Health accepted a petition addressed to the Minister of Health calling for an end to abortion.

South Africa is a young democracy – said the Archbishop – yet those at the helm have wasted no time in ‘binning God’. They tolerate religion so long as it is practiced in private. South Africa’s law makers deny that God is the source of all freedom. The Act simply frees a person from moral responsibility, from the dictates of their conscience. Since abortion is approved by Government legislation it cannot be wrong is the reasoning which sees morality reduced to a personal preference. The debate around moral regeneration is simply that – debate. There is no search for elusive moral value, not much conscience. In the debate there are no absolutes, no non-negotiables.  For Christians God is the author of life and we have to answer to Him on the issue of abortion. Yes, there are tensions between individuals and tension between the church and politicians who have legislated the killing of life in the womb but society is far too lazy to search for the truth, to do what is moral.

We are on a cause of life. We march today because the Church is duty bound to raise its voice; duty bound to value life, especially life in the womb. South Africa’s lawmakers deny life and offer abortion on demand.  In this country child rape, brutal abuse of women and children, drugs, violent road deaths are common. Amidst this everyday violence the gospel calls us to protect and revere life. ‘Thou shalt not kill’ is unambiguous. Life is of unassailable, inestimable value and abortion is a deplorable crime.

Doctors and nurses are pledged to serve life, not death. How long will it be before the South Africa’s constitution protects life?

The Archbishop called on young people to respect their bodies, respect life and speak out. Silence means complicity.

‘Love God, love your neighbour.’ he urged the assembly. ‘Protect and defend life – life from its inception!’

Permission for the march was withheld until Thursday. Nevertheless it was well attended and marchers were well disciplined. Some carried graphic photos of aborted babies, others images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn.  SAPS and Metro police accompanying the march were redirected from the ‘Old Fort’ entrance to the Con Court entrance.

If we proceed from the assumption that, after birth, human infants are beings with moral status (who therefore enjoy a right to life), the onus is on pro-abortion advocates to show how the nature of a newborn infant is different from the foetus before birth; in other words why birth represents a morally significant dividing line.  It is clear that birth does not change the nature of the being in question in any morally significant way.  To make this event the marker of the infant acquiring moral status is irrational and arbitrary.

One can now ask whether there is any point in pregnancy (or characteristic of the foetus which is developed during pregnancy) which represents a morally significant dividing line, in other words, which changes the nature of the foetus in such a way that it becomes a being with moral status, when it was not such a being previously.  South African law makes no reference at all to the nature of the foetus, but implies that 20 weeks is such a dividing line, as conditions under which abortion is legal are extremely limited after this point.  If 20 weeks is a morally significant dividing line, the onus is on lawmakers to show why this is so.  If one cannot say why his point is morally significant, the decision to disallow abortion after this point, while allowing it before this point, is arbitrary.

Characteristics which have been considered relevant in this regard are quickening, the ability to feel pain, or viability.  However, none of these characteristics can be shown to be morally significant.  The inability to move, feel pain, or survive independently cannot be rationally defended as characteristics which deprive a being of moral status (they do not count as such after birth – imagine the implications if they did).  It is impossible to identify a point in pregnancy which represents a morally significant dividing line, apart from conception, when a new being comes into existence.  Therefore we are logically left with two options – acknowledge that the foetus has moral status from conception, or deny that it has moral status, and accept the implications of this, which is that infanticide is acceptable.  As the second option is morally repugnant to most people, and is not accepted in South African law, we must logically accept that the foetus has moral status from conception.

It would still be possible to defend abortion if one defends the proposition that the mother’s right to bodily autonomy supersedes the foetus’ right to life.  However, if the foetus is a separate being with moral status, who therefore has the right to life, this is a far more fundamental right than the right to bodily autonomy, and this defence therefore does not hold.

I knew it would be a moving scene-and it was. They sat quietly praying the
rosary in the middle of the wide driveway. The elderly bishop looked like he
came out of a Norman Rockwell painting, while the young friar with him
resembled a figure in a Giotto fresco in the medieval Basilica of St. Francis.
Every demonstration has a sense of drama – a clash of ideas-people dedicated
to opposing points of view and holding them with real emotion.
The thought occurred to me: Today there was no way that the opposition to
life was going to be able to match these two men willing, as they were, to
take on the whole federal government if necessary in their opposition to
infanticide. Congress and the courts had made it clear that they might have
to take on the federal government in their effort to stand up for the
sanctity of life.

Both of these prolife witnesses knew what they were doing. Bishop George
Lynch, the retired auxiliary bishop of Raleigh, N.C., and Brother Fidelis
Moscinsid, a student friar of the Franciscans of the
Renewal, had been arrested many times before. Both had spent extended time
in jail. Both were well aware of the possible consequences of their actions,
a form of civil disobedience to an unjust law that
permits and even encourages the destruction of human life for personal
convenience. They are both soft-spoken, gentle people, not the type to
enjoy such confrontation.

Aware of the absurdity of being arrested for defending babies from
destruction, they were both calmly serious about their witness, which is, in
itself, a profoundly serious act of Christian discipleship. Bishop Lynch has
been to jail more than 20 times. Recently he was taken from Westchester
County Jail to his doctor in handcuffs. This was, no doubt, to fulfill some
regulation lest he run away. He had
told demonstrators protesting his imprisonment: “Don’t be upset. The rest of
the people in here don’t want to be here. I want to be in jail.”

Brother Fidelis, for all his youthful appearance, has been a jailbird too.
Before joining the friars he had to drop out of his Rutgers University class
to spend two months in the same county jail. Like many in the prolife
movement, he’s convinced that the protection of human life is the greatest
single moral challenge facing our society, requiring religious groups to act
as a conscience for the nation.

This picture is incomplete, though, without mentioning the 30 other people
who showed up that early Saturday morning. These prolife demonstrators were
old hands at anti-abortion protests and knew the rules of engagement.
They kept moving as they prayed the rosary, lest they
be accused of loitering. Three so called “pro choice” pickets were also
experienced demonstrators, but none of them had done jail time for their
convictions. This morning they were not only outnumbered but outclassed.
Jenny shows up first and spends her time shouting “prochoice” in an obvious
but futile attempt to interrupt the rosary. Then there’s Bob who refers to
me as “mister monk” and once told me to go back to my “comfortable life.” We
don’t answer such provocations but I was really tempted to invite Bob to
accompany me on my daily routine. Bob’s specialty is telling us that we are
“crazy, wicked, hell itself.” Bob’s no dope, though, and when he observed the
dignity of the old bishop and the young friar blocking the gate, he
retreated to the other side of the street and focused his attentions on the
police who quietly went about their embarrassing task.

Then there was Judy. She’s openly, almost violently antiCatholic. Since most
of the weekly demonstrators at the abortion clinic in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., are
Catholics, she tends to forget that millions of Protestants, Eastern
Orthodox Christians, Jews, Moslems and Buddhists are equally opposed to
abortion on demand. Judy’s shouted remarks are so anti-Catholic that they
technically constitute a disturbance of the peace-a common enough activity
for pro-abortion demonstrators, but one I’ve never witnessed once with
prolife people. About the noisiest thing we do is sing hymns. Suddenly, in
the midst of all this, the manager of the clinic arrived and drove up to the
gate so quickly that she came to a breathtaking stop a few feet from Brother
Fidelis. A police officer pointedly asked her if she was trying to hit him.
I’m told that this lady’s name is Ruby and she works for the abortion
doctor, Stephen Kali.

I keep them all in my distracted prayers because I fear for their eternal
judgment and I fervently hope that they have a change of heart someday and
join us in campaigning for life. The three noisy
demonstrators, Judy, Bob and Jenny, don’t appear to be paid clinic
employees, although they could be. Unlike the directors and employees of the
place they don’t seem to be profiting from this shedding of blood. Even some
of those who have made a living off abortion have been converted and are
well known prolife activists today. We all prayed for the opposition-paid
and unpaid-outside that abominable death house.

There are some other members of the cast who should be mentioned. The Dobbs
Ferry Police went about their task in a quiet, professional way. They
appeared to be embarrassed when they had to drag the old bishop off to the
side in handcuffs. I don’t think that the officers ever thought that
enforcing the law would require them to drag a 78-year-old bishop off to
jail for doing something holy. Surely the greater sin is on those who’ve
passed the unjust laws which demand such a response.

We cannot leave out the judge who ordinarily handles these cases. Judge Luba
Iler is known for dealing with prolife demonstrators with a serene
objectivity-touched at times with severity. She’s sent
prolifers to jail, Bishop Lynch and Brother Fidelis among them.

Today’s charge was not so bad, disorderly conduct. Except that the whole
thing is a travesty of justice-something like the trial of St. Thomas More.
Is it really “disorderly” to pray at the entrance to a place of death? The
law has gone mad since Roe vs. Wade.

We were all appalled when 19 children were killed in a federal building in
Oklahoma City by a mad bomber. But that many children are killed every
Saturday in Dobbs Ferry under the protective mantle of the courts and
Congress. Mother Teresa is certainly right when she says that abortion is
the greatest threat to world peace. Whose conduct is disorderly? That
Saturday morning in Dobbs Ferry, the disorderly conduct of Bishop Lynch and
Brother Fidelis, in fact, had a marvelous result: Two women who came for
abortions turned around and did not kill their children.

Some people tell me that they don’t like to demonstrate, although Pope John
Paul has called upon us to use conscientious objection and protest to lift
the conscience of a nation in his encyclical, “The Gospel of Life.” If
demonstrating is not your “thing”-then what are you doing for life? I
believe we who live in this dreadful time will be asked that question on
judgment day.

I do not think that American Catholics can feel that they have responded to
the Gospel of Life until there’s a quiet group of Christians praying every
morning outside every abortion clinic in our country. Then the ultimate
“disorderly conduct,” the murder of the innocent and defenseless, will come
to an end and the curse will be taken off our land.

Father Benedict J. Groeschel, C.FR., is a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal
and a spiritual writer.

Taken from the “National Catholic Register,” July 16, 1995. For
subscriptions contact the “National Catholic Register”, P.O. Box 260380,
Encino, CA 91426-0380, (800) 421-3230.

Provided Courtesy of:
Eternal Word Television Network
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Irondale, AL 35210

Introduction

Back in the late 1960s in the United States, pro-abortion groups promised us  that the rewards would be great if we legalized abortion. A group called  NARAL promised us that “Legal abortion will decrease the number of unwanted  children, child abuse cases, and possibly subsequent delinquency, drug  addiction, and a host of social ills believed to be associated with  neglectful parenthood.”1  http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
This is how the Devil works: He promises us everything, then betrays us. No  wonder he is called “a liar and the father of lies.”
A few prophetic people, like Father Paul Marx, the founder of Human Life  International, realized that the pro-abortionists were lying. But even  Father Marx could not have seen just how bad things would really get after  abortion was legalized;

*Several abortionists in the United States specialize in killing unborn  babies right up until the moment of birth with a hideous procedure called  dilation and extraction, or `partial-birth abortion.’ The abortionist  delivers the baby feet first, all but the head. Then he uses a special tool  to break a hole in the baby’s head and sucks the brains out. Most of these  babies and their mothers are perfectly healthy, and almost all of the babies  would be perfectly normal if they traveled just three more inches down the  birth canal.

*Many doctors say that, since abortion is legal right up till the moment of  birth, that it should be legal after birth as well. If a mother changes her  mind and does not want to have the baby after it is born, these doctors let  the child starve to death, or kill it outright. They call this  “fourth-trimester abortion” or “a second chance at choice.” More than a  dozen abortionists have been charged with killing newborn babies. We suspect  that thousands each year are simply left to die.

*Hundreds of women have died of so-called “safe and legal” abortion in the  United States. Most of these deaths were avoidable, since the worst doctors  in the profession seem to become abortionists because they cannot get work  anywhere else in the medical field. In one case, abortionist Alicia Hanna  Ruiz killed a mother of four, then tried to stuff her dead body in the trunk  of her car right in front of two of her children. In another case, abortionist David Benjamin punctured the uterus of a mother of four and then  just walked away, allowing her to bleed to death. Both abortionists were  convicted of murder.

*More than four out of five abortions in the United States are performed on  single women. Abortion has become a fast and easy “eraser of mistakes” for  women who have sex before marriage. But they are often victims, as well as  their unborn babies, because their boyfriends now expect them to abort if  they get pregnant, and get violent with them if they do not. At Human Life  International, we have documented more than fifty cases of boyfriends  murdering their girlfriends because they would not get abortions. And, since  the pregnancy of the girlfriend is usually not reported when newspapers  write about these crimes, we can estimate that at least one hundred  boyfriends kill their pregnant girlfriends each year because they would not  get abortions. In one particularly horrible case, a boyfriend lured his  15-year-old pregnant girlfriend into a forest, killed her by jamming a  branch down her throat so hard it tore her tongue out, and then crushed her  skull with a 15-kilogram rock.

*Abortion has destroyed millions of marriages and engagements in the United  States. I have seen husbands standing around outside abortion clinics with  sad looks on their faces. When I ask them why they do not do anything to  protect their own child, they just shrug and say “What can I do? Abortion is  a woman’s right and I can’t interfere.” Studies have shown that a great  majority of marriages and pre-marital friendships break up within two months  after an abortion.

*And, of course, the psychological impact on women is huge. It has to be  when one commits such a profoundly unnatural act. Any priest can tell you  about women confessing their abortions from 10, 20, 30, even fifty years  previously. Their dead children will just not let them rest. My mother  Pamela died in July 1991. On the last day of her life, she confessed to my  wife Kathy that she had had an abortion forty years earlier, in 1951. She  felt compelled to tell someone about this event after all those years.
Significantly, she never told my brother or I that she had aborted our older  brother or sister.

We are all pro-life here. We are aware of the terrible effects abortion has  on the family, on the fathers, on other children, and most of all on  aborting women themselves.

But we often lose sight of the wider effects of abortion, of contraception  and sterilization, and of the Culture of Death itself. This “anti-life  mentality” does not only affect individuals and families; it has terrible  effects on ethnic groups, on nations, and even on entire continents.
What I am here to talk to you about today is about the more sweeping,  large-scale impacts of abortion.

The Demographic Fruits.
Introduction. The most profound impacts of the Culture of Death indirectly  affect everyone on earth. But almost nobody thinks about demographics, or  the characteristics of a nation’s population, because these effects take  place so slowly.
The direct cause of abortion is the separation of sex from procreation.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in Europe, which has been in the grip of  the anti-life mentality since World War I.
There are many demographic impacts caused by the Culture of Death in general  and by abortion and contraception in particular. In Europe, these effects
are:
* a declining population
* decreasing support ratios
* collapse of the family
* the influx of Islam
* declining economic power

Plunging Populations
Demographers use a very important term called the total fertility rate  (TFR), which is the average number of babies each woman has during her  lifetime. In order for a developed nation to replace its population, its TFR  must be about 2.2.

Not one of Europe’s 39 countries is currently replacing its population.
Sixteen of the lowest twenty TFRs in the world belong to European nations,  and the highest European TFR is Albania’s 2.03, still well below  replacement. Europe’s average TFR is now 1.35, which means that Europe’s  population is about to plunge.

There are currently eighteen countries in the world whose population is  actually declining. Fifteen of these are in Europe. In fact, Europe is the  only continent whose total population is now declining. Historically, this  has only happened during famine, epidemic or war. This is the first time in  the history of the world that an entire continent’s population is declining  due to people simply not having any more babies, for no more pressing reason  than they do not want them any more.

The only European country with laws that fully protect preborn children or  allow for only a “life of the mother” exception is tiny Malta, home to just  1/20 of one percent of Europe’s population. Even Ireland’s strong  traditional protection of preborn children is eroding rapidly, with ten  thousand Irish women and girls travelling legally into England for abortions  every year.

Support Ratios
The nations of Europe are already feeling the profound demographic effects  of their longtime anti-life policies. These include rapidly dropping support  ratios.

The support ratio is the number of working people (aged 20-64) supporting  each retiree (assumed to be 65 years old and older). In the year 2000, the  European support ratio was 4.1. In other words, slightly more than four  workers were supporting each retiree. This ratio will shrink to about 1.7 by  the year 2050, collapsing national social security systems and retirement  plans and leading to a huge push for cost-cutting in the health care area.
This will obviously also lead to a sustained push for euthanasia. We have  already seen this in the Netherlands, the first nation to legalize  euthanasia. Keep in mind that the Netherlands is one of the youngest nations  in Europe.

Collapsing Families
In Europe, the Culture of Death has successfully undermined its two great
enemies: Faith and family. There has been a huge increase in the number of  divorces (from 125,000 in 1960 to about 750,000 in 2001); births to unwed  mothers (4.5 percent of all births in 1960 to about 25 percent in 2001);  unemployment (from five million in 1977 to more than 15 million in 2001);  and a huge increase in abortions, from about 250,000 in 1960 to more than a  million annually today among the EC12 countries alone.2  http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
Europe and Islam
The United Nations estimates that there will be an influx of about 50  million Muslims by the year 2025, mainly from North Africa. Because they are  generally a very religious people, Muslims tend to integrate poorly with  secular European society, a situation causing great tension and conflict  that will only worsen in the future.3  http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html

Muslims, who are generally very pro-life, know that they can conquer the  world, if not with the sword, then with patience and with their children. As  Atifa Dawat, an Iranian delegate to the July 1985 conference entitled “Forum  85,” in Nairobi, Kenya, stated, “The more children we have, the better. When  there are enough Muslims in the world, then we will have world victory.”4  http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html

If `Christians’ continue to selfishly abort their children while Muslims  continue to have large families, then Islam truly deserves its “world  victory.”
In Germany, rioting has broken out in response to the incoming flood of  foreign workers (gastarbeitern, or “guest workers”) who are needed in order  to make up for the fifteen million Germans who have been aborted over the  past thirty years. As expected, the world media has painted this as a  “right-wing backlash,” with a “small minority of Nazis” causing nationwide  disruption. Common sense reveals the truth: Germany is caught in an  impossible situation. It must become an ethnic melting-pot with great speed  in order to survive, and almost all Germans, regardless of age, resent the  influx of foreigners, which has caused their taxes to more than double since  1980.

European countries that have been victims of permissive abortion for even  longer periods than the United States are feeling ethnic impacts right now.
In Paris, the largest city in the nation known as the “eldest daughter of  the Church,” there are now more mosques than there are Catholic churches!
As The Wall Street Journal observes:

Fewer Europeans are practicing Catholics than ever and the  size of nominally Christian families in Europe has been shrinking for  decades. By contrast, many Muslim immigrants are enthusiastic practitioners  of their faith and often have more children than the European average. The  Muslim population in Europe has doubled in the last decade, according to  United Nations estimates. There are now more Muslims in Italy than Jews or  Protestants. The first mosque in Rome opened in 1995 and perhaps 100 have  opened on the Italian peninsula since 1989. Islam is now the number two  religion in France; Muslims edged out Protestants several years ago. There  may be as many as five million practicing French Muslims today, a number  roughly equivalent to the number of practicing French Catholics …5  http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html

This state of affairs is a direct result of falling Europe birthrates; the  last year “native” Europeans replaced themselves was 1973, and since then,  there has been a shortfall of tens of millions of births required to replace  the population.6  http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html

Until now, massive immigration has made up for the shortage of babies. But now the  population of Europe, despite this immigration, is declining for the first  time since the Black Death of 1347-1351.

Loss of Economic Power
According to the United Nations definition, there are 39 nations in Europe  with a population of greater than 100,000 in the year 2000. The UN has  projected the average age of the people in each nation of the world by 2050.
By 2050, fifteen of the twenty oldest nations on earth will be European.
Thirty-four of the oldest fifty will be European. By 2050, Europe will be by  far the oldest nation on earth. This table shows the average age of people  by continent in 2050:
Europe………… 52.3 years
Latin America….. 46.6 years
North America….. 45.1 years
Asia …………. 45.1 years
Oceania ………. 44.7 years
Africa ……….. 30.7 years
—————————-
World ………… 42.5 years

Twelve European nations — including Ukraine — will have an average age of  more than 50 years. The youngest nation in Europe will be Albania, with an  average age of 42 years. By comparison, the average age of Nigerians will be  20 in 2050. Liberians will enjoy an average age of 23, and Somalians will  average 22 years of age.

In Ukraine, 40 percent of the people will be aged 60 and over, and only 14  percent will be children under 15, compared with 27 percent children and 10  percent over 60 in Nigeria.

The United Nations has also predicted that 43 nations will actually decline  in population by 2050. Two-thirds of these (29) are European nations.

Europe is currently losing about a million people a year, and this trend is  accelerating fast. If we use the historically more accurate low variant, the  United Nations predicts that the European population will collapse from its  current 725 million to 565 million by the year 2050 — a loss of 22 percent.
And this accounts for massive immigration from the South.

The fact that the European population is both aging and getting smaller does  not bode well for European economic power in the future. We all know that  the future belongs to the young; and this does not just refer to our  children, it refers to entire nations and continents as well.

As we have already said, by the year 2050 the European population will be  rapidly shrinking. It will be about 565 million. By comparison, the  population of the United States will be about 355 million. In 2050, the  average European will be 52 years old. The average American will only be 45.
With its vast storehouses of technology and natural resources, the United  States will be much better positioned to lead the world economy than the  European Union. But here is another strange demographic effect: By 2050,  more Americans will speak Spanish than English, because English-speaking  Americans are dying out and Hispanics are having large families!
But where will the real power be in half a century? Probably not in North  America or in Europe.

In Africa!
This continent has already begun to exploit vast natural resources that may  dwarf the combined assets of both the European Union and the United States.
And Africa will have the people to capitalize on its natural wealth. By  2050, the population of Africa will have nearly doubled to 1.515 billion.
And the average age of Africans will be only 31, fourteen years younger than  any other continent.

If African nations can overcome AIDS and official corruption, there will be  no stopping Africa from dominating the world’s economy and moral values for  decades to come. In the United States, we already see this effect with the  large numbers of African priests coming to our parishes. Father Boniface  Osuji from Nigeria once told me that African priests see the United States  as mission territory, since so few people go to church there.
Trying to Stop the Dying Process

At least a dozen European countries have recognized the danger posed by  plunging birthrates, and have tried to reverse the process, but with little  success. History shows us that once the people of a nation are conditioned  to believe they should live for themselves and that children are a burden,  it is virtually impossible to persuade them otherwise.

As one example, European population alarmists have been exaggerating the  high cost of raising children for decades in their campaign to get people to  have smaller children. When the terrible demographic effects of too few  babies become obvious, the governments try to reverse the thinking of the  people, but with little effect. The people remember only that babies are  messy, noisy and expensive.
This is why the La France a besoin des enfants! [France needs babies!]  campaign failed.7  http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html

And this is why, when the German State of Brandenburg offered to pay its citizens US  $650 to have a child, there was not even the slightest change in the birth  rate. People were insulted that the government had told them for years that  raising a child cost more than $300,000, then turned around and offered them  just $650 to have babies. No wonder Wolfgang Jahmer, director of a social  welfare program in Schwerin, Germany, said that “We have some fears that the  tree of life may be falling.”8  http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
Germany’s culture is extremely top-heavy with elderly people, and visiting  American pro-lifers have noted the common sight of dogs being dressed up in  expensive clothes and even being wheeled about in baby carriages!9  http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html

The only answer to this situation is for pro-life activists to convert the hearts and  minds of the people one by one. This will take as long to do as the  population controllers took to destroy the European’s love of children. We  are talking about a process that will take at least a generation. The  conversion of hearts is our greatest mission. If the current generation  refuses to have children, and if nothing changes their minds, then we must  evangelize their children.

Conclusion
Now that I have thoroughly depressed you, I do not want anyone here to go  out and commit suicide. There are too few Europeans as it is.
So now I will give you the good news. The future belongs to the people who  have babies. Nations — and now even entire continents — are dying. Ethnic  groups are simply disappearing. But we see signs of hope everywhere in the  world today:

* Since the current Pope took office in 1978, there has been a
64 percent increase in the number of seminarians worldwide. And groups like  Human Life International and Priests for Life are doing their best to reach  these young men with pro-life materials and instruction.

* In the United States, pro-abortion families are dying out  because they average only about one child. Pro-life families are flourishing  because they average between three and four children each. Public opinion  polls show that Americans are becoming more pro-life by about one percent  per year. Within the next ten years, you are going to see huge changes in  our pro-abortion law, which is one of the worst in the world. We are  beginning to destroy pro-abortionism at its roots in the United States, and  we think the same will begin to happen in Europe soon. The evil weed of  anti-life thinking cannot be killed from the top down; it will die from the  roots up. How can the Culture of Death win? It contains the seeds of its own  sterile destruction.

* Even in nations that have had abortion for almost a century,  the people are recognizing the terrible effects and are rising up against  it. In Russia, the young pro-life movement is making strong advances, giving  the people a message they have never heard before. And in South Africa, the  nation with the world’s worst abortion law, pro-lifers are defying the  repressive regime and are speaking out in greater and greater numbers.

* Finally, and most importantly, we were made to fight — to  fight for Faith, for life, for family, for country — to fight for the  values that dignify humanity, that care for the least and most helpless  among us, that lead to true liberty and freedom. There can be no higher  calling. We should be sincerely grateful to God for this matchless  opportunity to serve Him! Our Lord told us to “Go forth and make disciples  of all nations” [Matthew 28:19], and there is no better way to achieve this  than by saving lives and souls in the pro-life movement. And our reward will  be great, but only if we fight on until the end: “… and you will be hated  by all nations for My Name’s sake. And then many will fall away, and betray  one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and  lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will  grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved” [Matthew 24:9-13].

We have to fight with all our might, but do not worry too much if you lose  and lose again. Nothing tempers a soul like the pro-life movement, where we  are taught to endure and have faith. If ever you get discouraged, just  remember the words of 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my beloved brethren,  be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing  that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Endnotes
1 National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), “A Speaker’s and Debater’s  Notebook,” 1974, page 11.   http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
2 Eurostat. A Social Portrait of Europe. Luxembourg: Eurostat, 1991. The
EC12 countries are Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Ireland,  Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
3 R. Clarke. “Population Imbalances: The Consequences.” Forum [Council of  Europe], 1986, pages 5 to 7.   http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
4 Janie Hampton. “Women at United Nations Conference Stage Heated Fight Over  Abortion.” The Oregonian, July 21, 1985.   http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
5 Wall Street Journal editorial, September 25, 2000. See also “News Notes.”
The Wanderer, October 5, 2000, page 3.   http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
6 Calculations and extrapolations based on figures from the Institut  National d’Etudes Demographique (INED). “Short Fall in Births Europe.”
Population, July/September 1983. http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
7 French national ad campaign. Daniela Deane. “Birth Rates Down Across  Europe.” USA Today, October 15, 1997.   http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
8 Stephen Kinzer, New York Times News Service. “German State Pays Bounty for  Babies.” The Oregonian, November 25, 1994, page A13. http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html
9 The author personally observed this phenomenon as early as 1986 during one  of his visits to Europe.  http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/clo/clo_02bitterfruitsabor.html

Pam with Archbishop Lawrence Henry, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town

After using her material for many years, we were very honoured to welcome
Pam Stenzel in the flesh to South Africa on a short tour earlier this year,
which included Johannesburg, Cape Town and Manzini, Swaziland. Human Life
International hosted Pam and her supporting Act, Mad Dogs and Englishmen,
consisting of Colin Hearn and David Christman when they visited Cape Town.

Unfortunately typical Cape Town winter weather prevailed, and the mountain
remained hidden under a shroud of cloud for the duration of Pam’s very short
stay. Pam spoke at two venues – Immaculata High School in Wynberg, as well
as an event organised by the Centre for Pastoral Development .

Pam addressed a packed out hall in Lansdowne on a very rainy evening, with a
varied audience – young and old alike, including many members of the clergy
as well as the Archbishop of Cape Town, His Grace Lawrence Henry. Pam is
renowned as a powerful speaker and she did not disappoint, delivering an
inspired and convincing abstinence message.

Pam’s talks always contain the truth about sex, that it is a God-given,
wonderful and powerful expression of love, if it takes place within the
boundaries that God has set – a faithful marriage relationship. Sex outside
of this boundary, said Pam, always has a price tag. Pam went on to detail
both the physical emotional and spiritual price of reckless and
boundary-less sex. Pam’s aim is always to educate, so that young people can
make decisions about sex knowing all the facts, so that they cannot say,
“nobody told me”.

If you missed Pam’s visit to South Africa, don’t worry, it is available to
you on DVD. Instead of ordering from the USA, Pam’s South African talks are
available locally, at local prices. This is an essential message to share
with your Youth Group, school, your children or grandchildren. Pam’s message
has changed lives, all over the world, and we are so happy that she has now
been able to visit our shores, where it is so very much needed. We hope to
welcome her back again, but in the meantime we thank her, as well as Colin
and David for giving so generously of their time to come and visit us.

The DVD “Pam Stenzel – Unplugged in Africa” is available at R75 from
Metanoia Media – Email them at metanoia@icon.co.za
Or call Norman on 082 437 7714.

This engaging DVD presentation covers Pam Stenzel’s talks during her
Southern African Tour. Pam addresses teenagers in a powerful way concerning
sex, and the life and death choices they are faced with daily. She brings a
hard hitting, honest, and to the point message to them concerning the
restrictions, responsibilities, and consequences attached to sexual
behaviour outside of the context of a monogamous, faithful marriage.

Pam addresses the following issues in her talk:
* The sacred nature of the sexual act, and the boundaries
which are not to be overstepped;
* Pregnancy, abortion, and the adoption option;
* Sexually transmitted diseases; the nature and implications thereof;
* Pam’s personal testimony;
* Relationships, and the element of respect;
* Peer pressure;
* Marriage;
* Chastity, a life giving decision.

What is a two-stage abortion?  Many, if not most South African abortions
nowadays are initiated by misoprostil (Cytotec®).  This is a prescription
medication registered for the prevention of peptic ulcers and normally costs
less than R4 a pill.  Misoprostil has the side effect of inducing labour
(and therefore is contraindicated in pregnancy).  Please note:  the drug
does not normally kill the baby; it merely expels the child (often still
kicking) from the womb.  It has come to my attention that the drug is
provided at high cost by GPs, pharmacists (often without prescription) and
by backstreet abortionists to pregnant women desperate for a discreet and
quick solution to their crisis pregnancy. I have heard quotes for two
tablets of misoprostil ranging from R250 to R1000.

The pill provider typically tells the woman how to use the pills and advises
her to visit a state clinic if bleeding persists after the baby is ejected
(and presumably flushed down the toilet).  The pill provider then pockets
the profit.  But that is not the end of the business in many cases.  The
woman takes the drug, thinking it will be a discreet, one-stop solution to
her dilemma.  After all, she avoids going to the state clinic because of
privacy concerns.  And she goes to extraordinary lengths to get the money
together. But when the bleeding doesn’t stop, she has no choice but to enter
the second stage of the two-stage abortion.  She reports to a state facility
with a “miscarriage” and has to undergo an emergency evacuation in theatre
under general anaesthesia.  This involves her being admitted to hospital and
taken to theatre, where remnants of the pregnancy (such as the placenta) are
removed.  She would often have to stay in hospital for a day or two.  If she
waited for a long time for the bleeding to stop, she most likely requires a
blood transfusion at R1,000 per pint as well. All this on the state budget.

“…misoprostil-induced “backstreet” abortion is not confined to a few cases
but has become a fully fledged industry.”

The problem is that the misoprostil-induced “backstreet” abortion is not
confined to a few cases but has become a fully fledged industry. And the
victims are clogging up limited theatre space in state institutions.
Logically the increase in two-stage abortions translates into more women
needing theatre time for evacuations of their wombs. The problem is that,
since 1997, when abortion was first legalised, theatre capacity at state
facilities has actually decreased (staff shortages being a main reason). The
express purpose of the Abortion Amendment Act was to broaden the
availability and accessibility of abortion services to the general public.
So now we are seeing an even greater demand for increasingly limited theatre
space – which leads to patient backlogs.

More serious than patient backlogs, however, is the following scenario,
playing itself out in rural hospitals in particular.  One of the Millennium
Development Goals’ indicators is the maternal mortality rate – the number of
women who die during or shortly after childbirth. The goal is to reduce this
indicator by three quarters by 2015. But this rate has actually been
increasing (not dropping), from an average 128 per 100000 births in a 2000
research estimate to 147 per 100000 in a StatsSA report from 2004 (with some
provinces reaching a whopping 364 per 100000).  All of this is conveniently
blamed on Aids, but things are not quite so simple on the ground. It is my
contention that two-stage abortions are a significant cause of the increase
in the maternal mortality rate. Let me give a real-life example.  Some time
ago, under conditions of anonymity, doctors from a hospital in the
KwaZulu-Natal Midlands revealed to me that five mothers – not those
undergoing abortions, but those in bona fide labour – died in a 10-day
period at their hospital. For that period, for that hospital, these five
women represented a horrific maternal mortality rate of about 1,250 per
100,000.  During that same period, about 50 women required theatre time for
evacuations.  Most of those needing evacuations confirmed to my colleagues
that they had indeed used misoprostil to induce their abortions. In total
they required about 40 pints of blood to resuscitate and as a group, these
50 women took up some 50 hours of theatre time (an average theatre only
operates 40 hours a week).

As a result, women with complications during childbirth could not access
theatre, but had to wait while the emergency evacuations were taking place.
Five mothers died. This is not an isolated incident. Similar scenes are
repeated in one state hospital after another in the rural areas. Wherever
you go, you find that critical staff shortages are made far worse by
abortion overloading. Clearly legalised abortion will be with us for a long
time to come.  But steps need to be taken now already to prevent two-stage
abortions from killing more South African mothers. Mothers should not be
dying in order to “liberate women”.

Dr Frank Muller is a medical doctor, pharmacologist and medicinal plant
expert with extensive links to rural African hospitals.  He is a director of
the Christian Medical Fellowship of South Africa.

References:
Maternal mortality rate for 2000:
http://www.ijgo.org/article/PIIS0020729200002666/abstract

Maternal mortality rate for 2004:
http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId