News,

The US House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bill prohibiting states from executing pregnant women. The Innocent Child Protection Act, which bans the execution of pregnant women by any state or federal authority, including the military, passed by 417 votes to none. A law passed in 1994 banned federal executions of pregnant women, and this new law extends the same principle to state executions. Vice President Al Gore said last week that a pregnant woman on death-row should have the right to decide whether to delay her execution until her baby was born. [Associated Press, NRL, Pro-Life Infonet, 25 July] A disabled man who appeared on television in New Zealand saying that he wanted his ventilator turned off so that he could die has since changed his mind and now wants to "give life a go". Brian Park, aged 32, was left unable to move his arms or legs or breathe unaided as a result of a truck accident earlier this year, and made his plea to be allowed to die during the visit to his country of Dr Nitschke, the Australian euthanasia campaigner. Mr Park's condition has now improved so that he might be able to operate an electric wheelchair using a voice-activated computer. [Humanity, New Zealand, July 2000] A United Nations body has admitted that global food supplies are predicted to grow faster than the world's population, contradicting the arguments of population control advocates. The report, published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, said that the projected world population of 8 billion in 2030 would in fact be better fed than before. It stated: "Growth in agriculture will continue to outstrip world population growth of 1.2 per cent up to 2015 and 0.8 per cent in the period to 2030." [LifeSite Daily News, from a UN press release, 25 July] In the US, both pro-life and pro-abortion Republicans have been reacting to the news that George W Bush has chosen Dick Cheney as his running mate. Alan Keyes, another candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, had said that he would consider leaving the Republican party if Bush appointed a running mate who supported abortion, but now he intends to give Bush his support. Meanwhile Roselyn O'Connell, president of the National Women's Political Caucus and a pro-choice Republican, said she was very disappointed. She said: "I think it sends a clear message ... that there is not going to be the real option of getting the attention of Governor Bush in terms of reproductive rights for women." [Associated Press, Reuters, NRL, 25 July; from Pro-Life Infonet] The body which is managing Ted Turner's donation of one billion US dollars to the United Nations is giving 21 million dollars to UN agencies including the pro-abortion United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to target adolescent girls in developing countries. During the conflict in Bosnia, the UNFPA distributed kits to refugees containing abortion apparatus and abortifacient drugs. [Reuters, Planet Ark, 25 July; LifeSite Daily News, 25 July] Statistics published in a pro-life newspaper suggest that world bodies over-emphasise so-called reproductive health at the expense of other vital health issues including access to clean water. A sample from figures issued by the UN in 1997 indicated that, whereas only 28 percent of Haitians had access to safe water, 81 percent had access to contraception. In Uganda the figures were 34 percent and 82 percent respectively, while in Vietnam 36 percent had access to safe water but 95 percent had access to contraception. [Humanity, New Zealand, July 2000]