World Family Policy Center Newsletter

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FEATURED NEWS ARTICLES

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1. Children at higher risk in nontraditional homes

Abusive-boyfriend syndrome part of broader trend, experts worry

Douglas C. Pizac, Associated Press

MSNBC, Nov. 18, 2007

NEW YORK - Six-year-old Oscar Jimenez Jr. was beaten to death in California, then buried under fertilizer and cement. Two-year-old Devon Shackleford was drowned in an Arizona swimming pool. Jayden Cangro, also 2, died after being thrown across a room in Utah.

In each case, as in many others every year, the alleged or convicted perpetrator had been the boyfriend of the child's mother — men thrust into father-like roles which they tragically failed to embrace.

Every family is different. Some single mothers bring men into their lives who lovingly help raise children when the biological father is gone for good.

Nonetheless, many scholars and social workers who monitor America's families see the abusive-boyfriend syndrome as part of a broader, deeply worrisome trend. They note an ever-increasing share of America's children grow up in homes without both biological parents, and say the risk of child abuse is markedly higher in the nontraditional family structures.

“This is the dark underbelly of cohabitation,” said Brad Wilcox, a University of Virginia sociologist. “Cohabitation has become quite common, and most people think, 'What's the harm?' The harm is we're increasing a pattern of relationships that's not good for children.''

To read entire article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21838575/

........................

2. Marriage Brings Stability, Economic Well-Being

CitizenLink, November 13, 2007

Heritage Foundation research shows benefits of traditional families.

Married couples, when compared to their single or divorced counterparts, are more likely to own homes and stocks, and attain affluence, according to researchers at the Heritage Foundation. They also discovered married households earn $12,000 more annually than cohabiting couples and are less likely to default on bills. Spokeswoman Christine Kim said that's because married couples work for the future.

“Married people are planning ahead and thinking about having children, and that may impact home ownership," she told Family News in Focus. "There are a lot of things going on that would suggest that marriage would have an impact on economic well-being.”

Jenny Tyree, associate marriage analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said marriage brings stability to both husband and wife.

“Married men tend to make more money than single men," she said. "That affects not only them, but their children, who are much less likely to experience poverty. In contrast, a cohabiting couple does not have a marriage commitment and are less likely to be fully invested in each other's lives. Consequently, they have less of a reason to plan a future together.”

To read article:

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000005910.cfm

....................

3. Child care bridges two worlds

Employers open the door to on-the-job parenting

By Kathleen Burge

Boston Globe, November 14, 2007

SOMERVILLE - One recent morning at the offices of Farm Aid, as managers sat around a long table and talked business, Shailagh Heneghan got cranky.

She squirmed. She grumbled. She made sure everyone knew her displeasure. And so the staff did what they often do at Wednesday meetings: The associate director of the 22-year-old organization held Shailagh. Then the campaign director tucked her under his arm in the football hold. Finally, the operations director lifted Shailagh into her arms.

"We sort of did pass-the-baby," said Wendy Matusovich, Shailagh's mother and Farm Aid's resource development director.

When Matusovich returned to Farm Aid's Somerville headquarters from her maternity leave earlier this year, she did not return alone. With the blessing of her bosses and the agreement of her 11 co-workers, she brought Shailagh, now 6 months old, to share her office. While the baby slept in her car seat or gazed at a black-and-white dangling mobile, Matusovich did her work, sending e-mails, talking on the phone, attending meetings.

Farm Aid, the nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting family farmers, is joining a wave of employers experimenting with "parenting at work" policies that allow workers to bring their children, including infants, into the office. The practice blurs the line between office and home life, and is designed to help parents balance the delicate juggle of those two worlds.

An increasing number of employers are also allowing parents to bring children to work when regular child care falls through - when schools are closed or a nanny calls in sick. A national survey this year by the Virginia-based Society for Human Resource Management found that the number of respondents in offices with policies for those emergency child-care situations increased from 22 to 29 percent over the past year.

To read entire article:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/11/14/child_care_bridges_two_worlds/

........................

4. Unborn to be defined as 'persons'?

Colorado proposal would use loophole Blackmun created in 'Roe'

WorldNetDaily.com, November 14, 2007

Pro-life activists in Colorado have cleared a major hurdle in preparing an initiative for the 2008 election that would grant personhood to the unborn and create a possible confrontation to the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that created abortion rights.

The state Supreme Court has granted permission for supporters of Colorado for Equal Rights to move forward with collecting the estimated 76,000 signatures needed to put the issue on the state election ballot.

It would grant personhood to the unborn from the moment of fertilization, meaning state and local laws protecting any individual life would be applied to the unborn. It targets a loophole U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun created when he wrote the original abortion opinion.

He concluded: "(If the) suggestion of personhood [of the preborn] is established, the [abortion rights] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment."

Several other states also are pursuing the same arguments, either through legislative efforts or, such as in the cases of Georgia and Colorado, through a process that would allow citizens to move forward with protections for the unborn.

To read entire article:

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58675

Related Article: Catholic voters warned on abortion

by Rachel Zoll, The Washington Times

November 15, 2007

BALTIMORE (AP) — Roman Catholic voters and lawmakers must heed church teaching on abortion or risk losing their eternal salvation, U.S. bishops said yesterday.

"The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life is always wrong and is not just one issue among many," the bishops stated. "It must always be opposed."

The bishops didn't recommend specific policies or candidates in the 2008 election and emphasized "principled debate" is needed to decide what best promotes the common good. But they warned Catholics that their votes for politicians and laws affect more than just civic life.

"Political choices faced by citizens have an impact on general peace and prosperity and also may affect individual salvation," the bishops stated. "Similarly, the kinds of laws and policies supported by public officials affect their spiritual well-being."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly adopted the statement, "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," as they ended the public session of their fall meeting.

To read entire article:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071115/NATION/111150076/1001

Related Article: Congress Urged to Defund Planned Parenthood

By Melanie Hunter

CNSNews.com, November 16, 2007

The nation's largest pro-life group is calling on Congress to stop giving taxpayer dollars to organizations that perform abortions by passing one of two bills designed to ban the funding of abortion.

The Title X Family Planning Act (S.351) sponsored by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), or the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 4133) sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), would deny federal family planning funds to non-hospitals that perform abortions, with narrow exceptions.

"Taxpayer funds should not be given to organizations that are the backbone of the abortion industry, such as Planned Parenthood," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of National Right to Life.

"These bills do not call for a reduction in family planning funding, rather they prevent abortion providers from receiving tax dollars," Johnson added.

The "Mexico City Policy" prohibits taxpayer funds from funding private, foreign family-planning organizations that perform or actively promote abortion, so a similar policy should be adopted domestically, the NRLF said.

"It makes no sense to guard taxpayer funds from being used by abortion performing and promoting organizations abroad but at the same time provide millions to the biggest abortion provider in the United States," said NRLC Executive Director David O'Steen.

According to its 2005-2006 annual report, Planned Parenthood performed nearly 20 percent of all abortions in the U.S. That's 264,943 abortions in 2005. It received $305.3 million in government grants and contracts.

To read entire article:

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200711/CUL20071116c.html

.........................

5. In Italy, hard to get the kids to move out

By Erica Alini

Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 15, 2007

The government is proposing incentives to get the nearly two-thirds of 30-somethings living with parents to set up shop on their own.

Rome - To many Italian moms, it does not make a difference if the child they are kissing good morning is 3 or 30 years old. But to the government, it does – and officials want young adults booted out of the parental nest.

"We want the bamboccioni to move out," Finance Minister Tommaso Padoa Schioppa recently said, using a term that evokes grown babies still attached to mamma's apron strings.

With fewer job options than their American peers and less generous welfare benefits than their European counterparts, nearly two-thirds of Italians between the ages of 30 and 34 are still sleeping in their childhood bedroom. Besides fostering stereotypes of spoiled youths, that figure has serious consequences for the country's demographic balance. Without a house of their own, the young stay single, delay starting a family, and depress the country's birthrate, already below replacement levels.

"The problem," says Alessandro Rosina, who teaches demography at Catholic University in Milan, "is not just that Italy's birthrate of 1.3 is one of the lowest in Europe, but that is has been stable at that level for too long."

Now Italy's center-left government is proposing a ¤999 ($1,431) yearly tax credit on rents for people ages 20 to 30, hoping that will encourage young adults to start living on their own and start a family. But experts say the measure, though encouraging, is not enough to undo cultural and economic factors keeping young men and women at home.

The 1960s, says Mr. Schioppa, produced a generation of parents who are letting their kids enjoy freedom without giving up the comforts of freshly washed linens and homemade lasagna.

"Young Italians have found a new formula for la dolce vita," writes journalist Beppe Severgnini on his popular blog, "Italians." But, he adds, it is also a matter of "unconfessed egoism of the parents," who encourage the kids to stay at home as way of postponing the solitude of retirement.

Intergenerational solidarity is a factor driving the development, says Professor Rosina. Parents expect help themselves when mama and papa grow older. In fact, even if they do move out, many Italians save a room for when parents may not be as independent.

To read entire article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1115/p07s02-woeu.html

.....................

6. U.S. Sets Record in Sexual Disease Cases

Earthlink.net, November 13, 2007

ATLANTA - More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year - the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday.

"A new U.S. record," said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr. of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More bad news: Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a "superbug" version resistant to common antibiotics, federal officials said Tuesday.

Syphilis is rising, too. The rate of congenital syphilis - which can deform or kill babies - rose for the first time in 15 years.

"Hopefully we will not see this turn into a trend," said Dr. Khalil Ghanem, an infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University's School of medicine.

The CDC releases a report each year on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, three diseases caused by sexually transmitted bacteria.

Chlamydia is the most common. Nearly 1,031,000 cases were reported last year, up from 976,000 the year before.

The count broke the single-year record for reported cases of a sexually transmitted disease, which was 1,013,436 cases of gonorrhea, set in 1978.

To read entire article:

http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20071113/47392f50_3ca6_1552620071113-424738653

Related Article: In the casual-sex culture, abstinence is a message that desperately needs to be heard.

by Devon Williams, CitizenLink, Nov. 16, 2007

College campuses across the country are reporting rising numbers of sexual assaults, date rapes and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). There is also evidence that the “hook-up culture” on campuses — casual sexual activity with no strings attached — is affecting students’ mental health. Federal health officials released a report this week showing that the U.S. last year hit a record high of more than 1 million cases of Chlamydia — a record.

On Tuesday, the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Cardinal Newman Society hosted a conference, “Modest Proposals,” to address the sexual climate, specifically on college campuses. It featured a panel of chastity all-stars who have written books that address the problem of sex on campus and seek solutions beyond more condoms and more STI testing.

One panel participant, Dawn Eden, director of the Cardinal Newman Society’s Love and Responsibility Program and author of the book The Thrill of the Chaste, talked with CitizenLink about the sexual climate and the importance of chastity.

To read entire article:

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000005936.cfm

.............

7. World faces choice on human cloning: U.N. study

Nov 11, 2007

OSLO (Reuters) - The world faces a stark choice between banning cloning of humans or preparing ways to protect them from potential abuse or discrimination, a U.N. study said on Sunday.

Experts at the U.N. University's Institute of Advanced Studies said it would only be a matter of time before scientists manage to clone a human if governments do not impose a ban.

"Whichever path the international community chooses it will have to act soon -- either to prevent reproductive cloning or to defend the human rights of cloned individuals," said A.H. Zakri, head of the Institute, which is based in Yokohama, Japan.

"A legally-binding global ban on work to create a human clone, coupled with freedom for nations to permit strictly controlled therapeutic research, has the greatest political viability of options available," the study said.

Negotiations about an international ban on cloning collapsed in 2005 because of disagreements over whether to permit research cloning, also known as therapeutic cloning, to help treat diseases such as diabetes or Alzheimer's.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSHO17489720071111

..........................

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

COMING EVENTS

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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

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

If you do not wish to receive a copy of WFPC News you may unsubscribe

by sending an email to listserv@listserv.byu.edu. The subject should be

left blank and the body should read, "unsubscribe wfpc-news".