The Abortion-Breast Cancer Link 
An excellent article by Joe Gelman in the Los Angeles Daily News (9/28/97), "Findings linking cancer to abortions a well-kept secret," makes the point that the findings of one of the most in-depth studies ever conducted on the issue, published by the widely respected British Medical Associations Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, show that there is a "remarkably consistent, significant positive association between induced abortion and breast cancer incidence. The increased risk is seen in . . . studies from around the world, in populations with the widest imaginable differences in ethnicity, diet, and socioeconomic and lifestyle factors." So, how has the feminist establishment reacted to these findings? Stone silence or denial by some and an active campaign to discredit the findings by others. Dr. Janet Dailing of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, commenting on the politicization of the issue by the feminists, said, "Maybe I'm naive, but I believe that whatever one's position on abortion, surely both sides can agree to let objective science speak for itself, without infesting what should be objective research with politics."

Florida Mother Cannot Be Charged in Murder of Unborn Baby 
A pregnant woman cannot be charged with murder or manslaughter for shooting herself in the abdomen to kill her fetus, Florida's Supreme Court ruled on October 30. In the unsigned ruling, Florida's high court said an expectant mother cannot be criminally charged with the death of her child resulting from self-inflicted injuries during the third trimester of pregnancy. The court noted that opinions by earlier courts have held that a third party -- but not the mother -- can be held criminally liable for causing injury or death to a fetus. (The Washington Times , 10/31/97)

Pro-Life Congressmen Demand Investigation of Chinese Organ Transplants 
U.S. Representatives Linda Smith (R-WA) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) have sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno demanding that she investigate possible U.S. involvement in the harvesting of organs from Chinese prisoners. A news release issued on October 17 by Rep. Smith said: "According to an October 15 ABC news report, the organs used are sold for profit through an international organ-harvesting black market. According to the ABC report, prisoners in Chinese jails are tested for matches as potential organ donors. An international network dealing in black market human organs procures buyers. When a buyer is found, Chinese prisoners are executed and the organs are harvested for transplant According to the three month ABC investigation, hospitals that extract the prisoners' organs are run by the People's Liberation Army. The report states that U.S. laws were violated when buyers were procured in the United States

Catholic Bishop Calls for Renewed Friday Penance 
Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit has called for Catholics to reestablish the practiceof abstaining from meat on Fridays as penance for allowing "a culture of death" to arise in the United States. Responding to the recent defeat in Oregon of a measure that would have repealed a law allowing physician-assisted suicide, Bishop Maida told The Detroit Free Press (11/7/97), "In the scriptures, whenever there were huge problems like this, our Lord always suggested prayer and fasting."