|
�
... preventive or abortifacient?
HELP! CALL 911 ... IT�S AN EMERGENCY!
Yes, that�s right. We were so stupid we
didn�t have a condom. My mother will have a fit if I make her a
grandmother before she�s 36.
Oh, I forgot, I don�t need to bother with
911 ... I�ll just call Planned Parenthood and they�ll help me get
rid of this �emergency� in no time. No worries ... No problems!
When an unnamed junior at Blair High School in Silver Spring,
Maryland was interviewed in December 2000 for her high school newspaper,
she didn�t use these exact words, but she did admit the first thing
she did was get in touch with Planned Parenthood to get her out of her
�emergency.�
Calling the incident "an entirely negative experience," she
said she hated feeling she could not tell her parents, but they would
"have totally freaked out if they knew."
Of course, a quick call to Planned Parenthood took care of everything
and, she said, she "had no serious side effects" after taking
Emergency Contraception Pills (ECPs - also called
"morning-after-pills") following her sexual encounter.
No serious side effects?
Perhaps she had none, but if the consequence of the sexual
promiscuity of those two children resulted in a fertilized egg trying to
implant itself inside the womb, she succeeded in killing a tiny human
being with those ECPs!
While this sexually explicit high school newspaper article actually
detailed two different students� use of "emergency
contraception" pills, one must wonder how many other such incidents
go unreported. Since the National Pro-Choice and Planned Parenthood
websites claim that seven in ten females, age 12 and older, are sexually
active but don�t want to become pregnant, the likelihood is great that
this is not an uncommon practice.
Easy access, no consequences touted
Easy access to ECPs, along with strong encouragement to use them,
through such organizations as Planned Parenthood, Advocates for Youth
and National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, minimize
the horrors of such activity and make it seem the right thing to do.
These supporters claim their use and application are widely
misunderstood ... that use of emergency contraceptive pills does not
promote or encourage sexual activity. Nor, in their eyes, do these pills
cause abortions ... they simply prevent pregnancy.
And, with an estimated 900,000 teen pregnancies a year, their message
certainly falls on eager ears.
Freshman Congresswoman Melissa Hart (R-PA) and Senator Jesse Helms
(R-NC) are working to change all this.
Citing a report from the Congressional Research Service Rep. Hart
reported that at least 180 of 1200 high school health clinics in this
country actually distribute "morning-after pills" to students.
According to Prolife Legislative reports, (www.nchla.org/leg/report.pdf)
there is no federal statute at this time prohibiting the distribution of
the "morning-after" pill in schools. In addition, the reports
state "courts have determined that state parental consent statutes
do not apply to the distribution of contraceptives in federal
programs."
Despite House and Senate approval in 2000 of an amendment prohibiting
the use of federal funds to distribute or prescribe postcoital emergency
contraception in elementary and secondary schools, the amendment was
dropped on conference committee at the insistence of the Clinton
Administration.
Subsequently, Sen. Helms introduced the Schoolchildren�s Health
Protection Act (S. 74) on January 22, 2001, and it was placed on the
Senate�s legislative calendar. This measure would have prohibited the
use of federal funds for ECPs in elementary and secondary schools to an
"unemancipated minor" without written parental consent. In
May, he offered the text of S. 74 as an amendment to the Education for
Students and Teachers Act (S. 1). On June 7, 2001, Sen. Sam Brownback
(R-KS) was added as a cosponsor to the amendment, but it was never
brought up for consideration. Rep. Hart had intended to offer a House
version of the Helms Amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act (H.R. 1),
but was asked by House leadership not do so at that time.
No further action was taken on the proposed amendment. On February
27, 2002, however, Rep. Hart introduced the Schoolchildren�s Health
Protection Act (H.R. 3805) as a freestanding bill.
To date, the measure has 57 cosponsors and has been referred to the
Committee on Education and the Workforce. Through an agreement with the
U.S. House leadership, the Schoolchildren�s Health Protection Act will
be voted on in the House this year. However, both the House and Senate
bills need additional cosponsors to build pressure and awareness for
this critical issue.
Meanwhile, as we await further action,
taxpayer dollars continue to pay for some school clinics to make
available ECPs to minors with no parental consent or accountability.
And, pro-abortion groups are targeting the Hart and Helms bills for
defeat while promoting their own bills which would establish a public
education and awareness program relating to emergency contraception.
Indeed, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Louise McIntosh Slaughter
(D-NY) are sponsoring identical bills that, if passed, will effectively
force the Center for Disease Control to encourage the use of ECPs. The
proposed bill S. 1990, called the Emergency Contraception Education Act,
"directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through
the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to
develop and disseminate to the public, information on emergency
contraception. [It] requires that the Secretary, acting through the
Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration,
develop and disseminate to health care providers information on
emergency contraception. [It further] requires that the information
disseminated to health care providers include at a minimum: (1)
information describing the use, safety, efficacy, and availability of
emergency contraception; (2) a recommendation regarding its use in
appropriate cases; and (3) information explaining how to obtain copies
of information from the CDC. The bill was cosponsored by Sen Barbara
Boxer, 3/6/2002; Sen Maria Cantwell, 3/6/2002; Sen. Jon Corzine,
3/6/2002; Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, 4/18/2002; Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton,
4/18/2002; and Sen. James M. Jeffords, 5/7/2002.
No more federal funds for distribution of ECPs
With such a power-packed group of senators backing The Emergency
Contraception Education Act, it is imperative that God-fearing men and
women across this nation take a stand by initiating grassroots support
for the Hart-Helms bills which will if passed, at the very least,
prevent federal money from being poured into school clinics for the
purpose of making ECPs available to our children.
Every Christian in America should be concerned about this issue, and
show that concern by contacting elected officials to tell them to
support the Schoolchildren�s Health Protection Act and defeat the
Emergency Contraception Education Act.
When legislators hear from their constituents en masse, they realize
their next election could be at stake if they don�t pay attention.
Take time to let them hear from you!
For more information about ECPs you may review the following
websites:
Focus on the Family
������� Pro-abortion
lawyers
������� Emergency
Contraception
What Pastors can do
Become Proactive
Pastors, it is time to become proactive. The longer we
stand
back without acting, the greater the probability of
failure.
Should our teens be subjected to the Emergency Contraception
Education Act, which requires the Center for Disease Control to
encourage the use of ECPs?
Of course, the answer is a resounding "NO!"
Nonetheless, proponents continue their battle to indoctrinate America�s
youth through legislation which would systematically encourage
promiscuity and the types of behavior that will lead them into risky
situations. Their message to teens is loud and clear: If you [teens]
will simply educate yourselves about contraceptives and use them, or use
the ECPs if you forget your condoms, everything will be okay and you
won't have to suffer any serious consequences.
If this is not the message you want the youth in your congregation to
be "educated" by, it is time to "Stand up! Speak up! And
refuse to give up!" until this battle is won.
First, begin with an email to your Senators and Congressional
Representative. Email addresses are available at these websites: http://www.senate.gov/
and http://www.congress.org/
Follow up your own emails by encouraging everyone on your email address
list to do the same. Then, fax, write or telephone these
representatives, asking for support for the Hart-Helms bills and against
the Murray-Slaughter bills.
Next, educate your congregation. Tell them that 15 percent of the
1200 American schools with clinics are now giving out the Emergency
Contraceptive Pills, or as they are commonly known, "the
morning-after-pill." Remind your congregations that the purpose of
a school is to educate our children, not encourage promiscuity while
creating a false sense of security. Remind them that, notwithstanding
the possible prevention of pregnancy, these
"morning-after-pills" do absolutely nothing to protect anyone
from sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes and syphilis and
gonorrhea and pelvic inflammatory disease and chlamydia, genital warts,
and AIDS.
Most importantly, remind them
that all the camouflaged rhetoric about safety
from unwanted pregnancies completely ignores the real truth: When God
creates something, He creates it with purpose and design. His purpose
for mankind is that we should be sanctified, that we should avoid sexual
immorality and control our bodies in a way that is holy.
1 Thessalonians 4: 3-5 "It is God's will that you should be
sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you
should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and
honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know
God."
Ephesians 5:3 "You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or
greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a
greedy person is really an idolater who worships the things of this
world. Don�t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the
terrible anger of God comes upon all those who disobey Him." � |
