World Family Policy Center Newsletter
* News
relative to protecting the family worldwide *
Volume 4 Issue 5 - February 1, 2005
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Quote of the Day: “We
need to reinstate a respect for
family, a respect for the aged, the dignity of all
people,
the open opposition to abortion, and the open
opposition
to any other practice that does not favor the healthy
family.”
—Elias Antonia Caca, President of the Republic of El
Salvador
From speech given January 11, 2005,
Inauguration Symposium of the Family and Democracy
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Today’s Contents:
A. Editorial Comment
B. Featured Articles:
1.
In Germany: 'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'
2. Out-of-state Teen Abortion Bill Has New
Chance for Passage
Related Article: Judgment Awarded in Abortion-Breast
Cancer Case
Related Article: Babies 'Very Happy' Over Feldt's Decision, Pro-Lifers
Say
3. Young Teen Sex: Hottest New Pop Culture
Concern
4. The Bible in class: Is it ever
legal?
5. Same-Sex Marriage Battle
Shifts to California
Related
Article: PBS ripped for lesbian show
C. Coming Events
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Editorial Comment Regarding today’s first featured
article:
We sometimes hear arguments that govt policy has
little real effect on people’s lives.
Today’s lead article demonstrates the profound effects that govt
policies can have, particularly when they purport to “normalize” practices that
have traditionally been considered both immoral and illegal. Experiments in
this realm are often morally hazardous, as today’s lead article
demonstates. The effects frequently
extend well beyond the initial scope of the experiment.
A. Scott Loveless, Executive Director
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FEATURED ARTICLES
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1.
In Germany: 'If you don't take a job as a
prostitute, we can stop your benefits'
By Clare Chapman
30/01/2005
A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing
"sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her
unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.
Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two
years ago and brothel owners – who must pay tax and employee health insurance –
were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.
The waitress, an unemployed information technology
professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had
worked in a cafe.
She received a letter from the job centre telling her
that an employer was interested in her "profile'' and that she should ring
them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal
reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.
Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55
who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an
available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment
benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to
4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification
in 1990.
To read entire article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/30/wgerm30.xml
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2. Out-of-state Teen Abortion Bill Has
New Chance for Passage
David Crary
The Associated Press
January 30, 2005
NEW YORK -- The abortion bill most likely to become
federal law this year would affect a relatively small number of pregnant teens,
yet its impact on them could be dramatic -- sharply reducing the options for
girls in many states who dread telling their parents of their plight.
Supporters and opponents each offer vivid worst-case
scenarios in debating the bill, which was included this week in the Senate
Republicans's priority list. It would outlaw transporting a minor across state
lines to obtain an abortion in order to evade parental consent or notification
laws in the girl's home state.
The bill's advocates evoke the image of a girl being
impregnated by an abusive older man who then drives them to an out-of-state
abortion clinic so the girl's parents and the authorities won't find out about
a relationship that might have been illegal because of age differences.
Opponents of the bill say it would criminalize the
well-meaning acts of an aunt, older sister or other confidante who assist a
girl terrified of being beaten or evicted from home if her parents learned of
the pregnancy.
"You're talking about girls who really need
support -- let them use whatever support they have," said Shawn Towey of
the National Network of Abortion Funds. "This bill is going to have a
chilling effect on people who are just there to help."
Titled the Child Custody Protection Act, and carrying
a sentence of up to one year in prison, the bill has bounced around Congress
for years, winning House approval three times but never reaching a vote on the
Senate floor. Only now -- after making the Senate GOP's Top 10 priority list --
do supporters and foes believe its passage is probable.
To read entire article:
http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=46506&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Related Article: Judgment Awarded in
Abortion-Breast Cancer Case
1st of its kind against clinic for failing to inform
patient of increased risk
January 27, 2005
WorldNetDaily.com
For the first time, a court ordered a judgment against
an abortion clinic for performing the procedure without informing the patient
of psychological risks and increased risk of breast cancer.
The lawsuit against the All Women's Health Services
clinic in Portland, Ore., was the second of its kind in the U.S. to be
successfully prosecuted but the first to obtain a judgment.
Jonathan Clark, attorney for the 19-year-old
plaintiff, told WorldNetDaily he believes the judgment "makes a pretty
powerful statement about the science," indicating the clinic was not
willing to argue against the claim that there is a link between abortion and
breast cancer.
To read entire article:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42570
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3. Young Teen Sex: Hottest New Pop
Culture Concern
1/28/2005
By Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D.
What the girls (and guys) don't realize is that they
are getting more than they bargained for.
The hottest new pop culture topic is "young
teen" sex. People magazine has a special report, NBC News aired a special
on Wednesday night, and CNN's Paula Zahn is featuring special interviews on the
topic-all in this week.
It's about time people got concerned. Roughly 20
percent (depending on the poll) of young teens (13-16 years) are sexually
active and that doesn't include the large number of young teens who don't think
that oral sex is really sex. Polls indicate that 12 percent of young teens have
had oral sex. However, only 15 percent of parents say that their young teen is
engaged in sexual activity beyond kissing while nearly 30 percent of teens
admit going there.
And, all that talk about "safe" sex and
condom training?
According to the People/NBC poll, only 67 percent of
young teens having sex say that they use a condom every time. In fact the
People article begins with the story of a 14-year-old who has had two recent
"pregnancy scares": the first because "the condom broke"
and the second because of a "heat-of-the-moment" encounter. Even
scarier: The Centers for Disease Control report that chlamydia, herpes and HPV
have increased among 10 to 19 year olds.
To read entire article:
http://www.beverlylahayeinstitute.org/articles/7352/BLI/femfacts/index.htm
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4. The Bible in class: Is it ever legal?
By Amanda Paulson
The Christian Science Monitor
It provided some of the foundations of America's laws
and is referenced in literature from Dante to Dostoevsky. Bring it into the
public schools, though, and the Bible can be problematic.
When parents in Frankenmuth, Mich., proposed a high
school class about the Bible a year ago, the superintendent's first question
was a natural one: Is it legal?
The group providing the curriculum said yes: The
course was elective, treated the Bible as literature and history, and complied
with a 1963 US Supreme Court ruling that said schools could teach about
religion in a secular way.
The ACLU and People for the American Way said no: The
curriculum in question promoted a specific Christian interpretation and looked
at the Bible as a source of history, both things that crossed over a line into
unacceptable territory.
To read entire article:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0127/p11s01-legn.html
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5.
Same-Sex Marriage Battle Shifts to California
Thursday, January 27, 2005
SANTA ANA, Calif. — The legal fight over same-sex
marriage has shifted to Southern California now that a lawsuit filed by a gay
couple from suburban Orange County is the only remaining challenge to the
federal Defense of Marriage Act.
Christopher Hammer and Arthur Smelt plan to be in U.S.
District Court on Thursday as their attorney argues that the federal law, as
well as California's Proposition 22, are violations of civil rights akin to
slavery or denying women the right to vote.
California recognizes only marriages between a man and
a woman, and the Defense of Marriage Act allows states to disregard gay marriages
performed in other states and foreign countries.
The hearing comes two days after gay couples in
Florida decided to drop similar lawsuits.
To read entire article:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,145553,00.html
Related Article: PBS ripped for lesbian
show
WASHINGTON (AP) — The new U.S. education secretary
denounced PBS on Tuesday for spending public money on a cartoon with lesbian
characters, saying many parents would not want children exposed to such lifestyles.
The not-yet-aired episode of Postcards From Buster
shows the title character, an animated bunny named Buster, on a trip to Vermont
— a state known for recognizing same-sex civil unions. The episode features two
lesbian couples, although the focus is on farm life and maple sugar.
A PBS spokesman said late Tuesday the network has
decided not to distribute the episode, called Sugartime!, to its 349 stations.
She said the Education Department’s objections were not a factor in that
decision.
“Ultimately, our decision was based on the fact that
we recognize this is a sensitive issue and we wanted to make sure that parents
had an opportunity to introduce this subject to their children in their own
time,” said Lea Sloan, vice-president of media relations at PBS.
To read entire article:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2005/01/26/910766.html
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COMING EVENTS
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Please note:
FORTY-NINTH SESSION
OF THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
will convene at the United Nations, New York City, NY
28 February to 11 March 2005
The Commission will be focusing on two thematic issues
as outlined in its multi-year programme of work:
1.
Review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome
documents of the special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women
2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first
century"; and
2.
Current challenges and forward looking strategies for the advancement and
empowerment of women and girls
For more information: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/49sess.htm
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Note: The preceding article excerpts are highlights of
current events and
do not necessarily represent the views of the World
Family Policy Center
or Brigham Young University.
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Newsletter created and distributed by:
World Family Policy Center
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University
Managing Director:
Richard Wilkins
Executive Director:
A. Scott Loveless
Newsletter Editors: Joy S. Lundberg and Gary B.
Lundberg
If you have any articles, editorials, or papers you
would like
circulated through the WFPC News network, you may
submit them to
lundberg@lawgate.byu.edu
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