World Family Policy Center Newsletter

Bruce C. Hafen
President, Europe Central Area, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Utah and is a former dean of Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, was president of Ricks College from 1978 to 1985.

Featured Speech:
"Lovers Do Not Live for Themselves Alone: The Social Value of Traditional Marriage"
Presented at the 2007 World Congress of Families, Warsaw, Poland

Excerpt:...The universal Love Story is one of history’s most familiar and hoped-for story lines: boy meets girl, and they fall in love. As their love proves stronger than their fears, they marry, have children, and face life’s tests together in a life story punctuated by what one ancient writer called “suffering, sorrow, afflictions -- and incomprehensible joy.”

Men and women the world over have found that married love gives birth to commitments so deep that marriage creates a kind of mysterious power. The power is in love’s paradox, something about finding ourselves by losing ourselves in bonds that demand everything of us—even as those bonds also brings us life’s highest fulfillment...

To read the entire speech:

http://www.worldfamilypolicy.org/archives/2007/WarsawWCFTalkFinal.051907.pdf

archives/2007/WarsawWCFTalkFinal.051907.pdf

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FEATURED NEWS ARTICLES

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1. Some doctors refuse services for religious reasons

By Laura Parker, USA TODAY, August 2, 2007

Doctors are becoming more assertive in refusing to treat patients for religious reasons, expanding the list of services they won't provide beyond abortion to include artificial insemination, use of fetal tissues and even prescribing Viagra.

The shift is prompting a new round of debate in courts and state legislatures over the balance between protecting the constitutional right to religious freedom and laws prohibiting discrimination.

More than half the states in the past two years have debated expanding legal protections for health care providers, including pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for the "morning after" pill. Two states have passed them.

"We've wound up with statutes that are incredibly broad," says Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin law professor who studies bioethics. She says the use of fetal tissue in the development of chicken pox and measles vaccines also has become an issue.

Most disputes arise out of beginning-of-life and end-of-life issues, such as assisted suicide. No doctor is required to perform particular treatments.

The collision between religious freedom and rules against discrimination occurs when physicians perform procedures selectively, offering them to some patients but withholding them from others, says Jill Morrison, legal counsel to the National Women's Law Center.

This year in a case generating wide interest, the California Supreme Court will hear a first-of-its-kind lawsuit: fertility treatment denied to a lesbian.

To read entire article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-08-02-doctorsrefusals_N.htm

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2. Florida Marriage Amendment Moves Full Speed Ahead

by Jennifer Mesko, Citizenlink, August 3, 2007

Residents seek to prevent redefinition of the sacred institution.

John Stemberger, head of the Orlando-based Florida Family Policy Council, is confident that, starting next fall, traditional marriage will be secure in his state. Twenty-seven states have amended their constitutions to protect traditional marriage.

Stemberger is leading Florida4Marriage.org, which is working to put a marriage amendment on the November 2008 ballot.

"This summer we have received thousands upon thousands of new petitions into our headquarters," he wrote to supporters Tuesday. "While we do not have an exact count, we believe we are well within striking distance of completing the petition goal but not quite there yet."

Petitions can be submitted to Stemberger through Sept. 1. He estimates he has about 650,000; 611,009 signatures are required.

The proposed amendment "protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."

To pass, it must receive 60 percent of the vote. Stemberger is confident that can be done.

To read entire article:

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000005190.cfm

Related Article: Vermont Commission Studies Same-Sex Marriage

by Jennifer Mesko, CitizenLink, July 31, 2007

The leaders of the Vermont House and Senate have appointed a commission to ask Vermonters whether the Legislature should allow same-sex couples to marry, The Associated Press reports. The volunteer commission will hold public hearings and is scheduled to complete its study by the end of April and report to the Legislature.

In 2000, the Legislature passed a law that allowed same-sex couples to enter into civil unions. Vermont's citizens have not forgotten that difficult debate, said Jenny Tyree, associate marriage analyst for Focus on the Family Action.

"It's no surprise that those who fought for civil unions are now pushing for same-sex 'marriage' in Vermont," she said. "For most same-sex 'marriage' advocates, civil unions are just one step along the path toward changing marriage for everyone.

"Their viewpoint seems to be that marriage is just a legal term that can be changed easily, but this view denies that across human civilizations, marriage exists for one purpose – to give children the gift of two biological parents."

To read entire article:

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000005159.cfm

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3. Telling kids homosexuality 'innate' challenged

WorldNetDaily.com, August 1, 2007

A public school district board's decision to teach homosexuality is innate and anal sex is just an alternative will be challenged in court after officials in Maryland refused to address concerns raised by parents.

Officials with the Thomas More Law Center told WND the issues are too important to ignore.

The curriculum, developed in-house by the Montgomery County Board of Education, not only is inaccurate, but it could expose children to life-threatening diseases by failing to provide sufficient warnings about alternative sexual behaviors, according to Edward L. White III, trial counsel with the Law Center who is handling the case.

"This curriculum is full of factual inaccuracies and runs counter to sound educational policy," he said. "It should not be taught in the public school."

White said parents also should be alarmed by the teaching of "sexual variations."

"The students are introduced to anal sex, which has a much higher risk rate of [various] infections," he said. "It's endangering the lives of students."

"It's not the school system that's going to be taking care of them," said White. "It falls on parents, because the school did not do its job."

Several local organizations protested to the local board and then the state education board. They asked that the material at least include a warning about anal sex that was issued by the Office of the Surgeon General and the National Institutes of Health, but their requests were denied.

That leaves the program material, "the result of pressure by homosexual advocacy groups," subject to a legal challenge, the Law Center said.

To read entire article:

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56960

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4. House Bill Guts Abstinence Education, Pro-Life Provision

by Jennifer Mesko, CitizenLink, August 1, 2007

Democrats sneak destructive measures into children's health legislation.

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a bill to reauthorize the federal health program for children. But tucked into H.R. 3162 are two dangerous provisions — one that could lead to more state-funded abortions and one that essentially hands abstinence funding over to Planned Parenthood.

In 2002, the Bush administration issued a regulation that defined a "child" as being from conception to 18 years of age, a regulation that is known as the "unborn child rule." This regulation allowed states the option of covering the health care of the preborn child and has the benefit of covering the pregnant woman's health care as well.

"The new House bill changes the program to cover health insurance for a 'pregnant woman,' rather than cover the child in the womb," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC). "This would undermine the 'unborn child rule' and could possibly allow funding for abortions in those states that include abortion as part of their Medicaid health coverage for women."

Citing the exclusion of "coverage for certain unborn children and their mothers" and numerous other issues, the president indicated today he would veto the bill if it made it to his desk in its current form.

David Christensen, director of congressional affairs at FRC, said: "The federal dollars wouldn't necessarily be used to do the abortion, but it's freeing up states to perform these other services, including abortion, with their own state money."

To read entire article:

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000005168.cfm

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5. CWA's Barber highlights downside of criminalizing teen sex

Jim Brown, OneNewsNow.com, July 31, 2007

USA Today reports several states are relaxing laws that punish teens who have consensual sex with underage partners -- and one pro-family activist is concerned that the trend is unintentionally giving ammunition to opponents of mandatory prison sentences for adult sex offenders.

The newspaper says governors in seven states have signed bills in the past two months that mean no prosecution for some teens or no requirement to register as a sex offender. For example, the state of Indiana decriminalized consensual sex among teenagers in a dating relationship if they are within four years' age difference.

Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues at Concerned Women for America, acknowledges that criminalizing teen sex is a "touchy" issue.

"Although statutory rape by any definition needs to be illegal [and] needs to be against the law, I can see where there is a need, in some instances -- specifically with regard to consensual teen sex -- where they may need to be looked at on a case-by-case basis to determine what an appropriate sentence is," says Barber.

To read entire article:

http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/07/cwas_barber_highlights_downsid.php

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COMING EVENTS

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NINTH WORLD FAMILY POLICY FORUM

July 7 - 9, 2008

Provo, Utah

Sponsored by the World Family Policy Center, Brigham Young University. Participation and attendance at the Forum is by invitation only. For further information, contact Sarah Stewart 801-422-5192

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Note: The Featured Articles 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 (www.worldfamilypolicy.org)

J. Reuben Clark Law School

Brigham Young University

Acting Managing Director: A. Scott Loveless

Newsletter Editors: Joy S. Lundberg and Gary B. Lundberg

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