News,

A bill which would recognise the status of the unborn will be re-introduced to the US senate this week. For the second time this year and the fourth time ever, Republican Senator Mike DeWine will present the Unborn Victims of Violence Act which will make it an offence to kill or harm an unborn child while committing a federal crime. President Bush called for such a move two weeks ago. Similar legislation is before the House of Representatives. [LifeSite, 6 May]


Three appeal judges from California will today hear arguments concerning Oregon's law which permits assisted suicide. Since November 2001 the US attorney general has tried to block the measure under which some 130 people have died since 1998. The federal justice ministry are appealing against a district judge's ruling that it could not overturn the state's law. The appeal court is expected to decide in a few months' time. Two of the judges are Democrats and the other is a Republican of the Mormon faith. The law exempts doctors from penalties for giving lethal drugs to terminally ill adults. [Statesman Journal, 6 May]


An American supporter of abortion has been appointed chief executive of the Young Women's Christian Association. Ms Patricia Ireland is reported as saying that she wants to capitalise on the organisation's "certain amount of respectability". The Traditional Values Coalition has warned parents about entrusting their daughters to the association. [LifeSite, 6 May] The association operates in more than 100 countries and claims to unite 25,000,000 women and girls. Ms Ireland was president of the US's pro-abortion National Organization for Women from 1991 to 2001.

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