{"id":772,"date":"2023-06-04T16:32:04","date_gmt":"2023-06-04T21:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/?p=772"},"modified":"2023-06-04T16:32:04","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T21:32:04","slug":"life-medicine-and-science-june-2023-newsletter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/04\/life-medicine-and-science-june-2023-newsletter\/","title":{"rendered":"Life, Medicine and Science &#8211; June 2023 Newsletter"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Lila Rose Slams Hookup Culture<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pro-life leader Lila Rose caught the attention of millions of people online on May 9 when she defended abstinence until marriage &amp; monogamy on \u201cWhatever\u201d a popular dating podcast. Rose, the president and founder of the pro-life organization <\/span><b>Live Action<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, offered a number of compelling arguments about marriage and sex throughout the three\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hour podcast, despite some rough &amp;\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">crude language used by panelists.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThat\u2019s where the power of love comes\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in, a love that doesn\u2019t leave, a love that\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">isn\u2019t based on feelings or desire, but a\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">love that\u2019s based on choice,\u201d Rose said.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAnd I think deep down we\u2019re all wired\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for that. \u2026 I think deep down we want a love that stays, a love that lasts, and it is possible for everyone.\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LifeNews<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, 5\/17\/23]\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Gender Confusion Everywhere<\/h4>\n<p>Is there a religious or ideological bias in those who promote the transgender idea? The American Medical Assoc., Amer. Academy of Pediatrics, Amer. Psychiatric Assoc., and Amer. Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry all have spoken out against state laws to restrict access to \u201cgender-affirming medical care\u201d for children, including both hormones and surgery. Yet none of these organizations object to restrictions of children\u2019s rights to express their self identity in the form of permanent tattoos. Many, many states have absolute bans on tattoos for children, and others have strict parental notification and consent laws. Jim Riley of Innervision Tattoo (Nevada) says he wouldn\u2019t tattoo a minor even with parental consent: \u201cOf all the people I\u2019ve tattooed in my 20+ year career, it\u2019s very common to hear the phrase \u2018I got this tattoo when I was 15 and now I hate it. Can you cover it up?\u2019 Let\u2019s face it, when we\u2019re teenagers we don\u2019t have the foresight to know what we will like when we are in our 20s, 30s, 40s, and beyond.\u201d [J. Sciortino, WSJ, 5\/15\/23]<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Education under the current administration has proposed a new rule that would generally require sports programs to allow athletes to compete according to, not their sex,\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but their <\/span><b>gender identity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Permitting any male to compete against females undermines the long-standing goals of equal opportunity for women &amp; girls. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Review<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, 5\/1\/23] <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transgender rights are among a slew of hot-button issues driving states in opposite directions. New proposals include bans on gender-affirming treatment for minors, limits on discussing gender identity in primary schools, and prohibitions on transgender\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">students competing on school sports teams that align with their identified gender. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[S. Armour, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WSJ<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, 4\/24\/23] <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Archdiocese of Portland, OR, has adopted a model <\/span><b>policy on dealing with transgender students<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: designations and pronouns should accord with biological sex; restrooms and locker rooms should be organized according to biological sex; no person should have on site or distribute medications for the purpose of gender transition; parents are the primary educators of their children and should be involved in any psychiatric or medical decisions regarding their children. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Catholic League, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Catalyst<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, April 2023]<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>He Thought Abortion Was Good Medicine<\/h4>\n<p>Dr. John Bruchalski&#8217;s book Two Patients: My Conversion from Abortion to Life-Affirming Medicine (Oct. 2022) tells his pro-life story as an OB\/GYN. At first, I adopted the mindset that abortion was good medicine for women. I grew up during the so-called \u201csexual revolution.\u201d My faith journey outside of my family and parish in the 1970s and 1980s told me that my conscience was my supreme guide and the Church could not force me to change my mind. My journey into studying the scientific taught me that what my faith taught me was backward, dangerous and a curse on women and science and medicine.<\/p>\n<p>The change came for me in early 1989. I was an OB\/GYN resident practicing so-called \u201cgood medicine.\u201d Cognitive dissidence was building up inside me. At night I was visiting a pregnancy resource center, getting to see the faith of an evangelical community rescuing women from abortion. During the day I was performing atrocities as an honorable and caring OB\/GYN. Yet medical data in our journals were clearly indicating the<br \/>\ndangerous side effects of abortion and its association with <strong>mental illness, preterm birth, and breast cancer<\/strong>.<br \/>\nBut with each abortion I performed my heart grew harder and harder, darker and darker.<\/p>\n<p>Then an honest Catholic NICU doctor, Dr. Debbie Plumb, challenged me to stop treating her patients, these babies, as tumors to be cut out and discarded. I went to Medjougorie and became a redeemed sinner. I was touched in the sacred font of Divine Mercy through the assistance of His Blessed Mother. By 1994 I had<br \/>\nfounded Tepeyac OB\/GYN. My heart was exploding in fire to share what merciful, life-affirming medicine<br \/>\ncould be with other practitioners and with patients.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than seeing fertility as something to be controlled and shut off and polluted with class one carcinogens,<br \/>\nfertility awareness is utilized fully. Rather than considering unborn children as sexually transmitted diseases, the unborn child is our second\u00a0patient. Rather than treating embryos as property to be used, children and progeny are to be unconditionally loved and nurtured. Rather than seeing the underserved as someone else\u2019s problem to be fixed and a waste of precious time, we do what we can to accompany our patients. Rather than pitting mom against her child in elective abortion, we collaborate with regional pregnancy centers. Rather than seeing a sick unborn child in the womb as a sump for pain and needless suffering and ending the life of the person\/child with that illness, we offer perinatal hospice. It is the breaking of the unity of reason with faith that led to the sterilizing tables in the 1930s, the gas chambers in the 1940s, and now to the abortion mills and chemical abortions of today. In a post-Roe world, we must continue the political and the advocacy and the scientific inquiry. We must serve human flourishing, collaborate with fertility, and not treat our children as sexually transmitted diseases to be altered or eliminated. Through God\u2019s grace, and in sacrificial relationship with others, we can provide a light in the darkness and show that the way of medicine going forward must be<br \/>\ntoward care, healing and wholeness. [Zoe Romanowsky interview, 1\/19\/23, https:\/\/aleteia.org\/]<\/p>\n<h4>Salt-N-Pepa Singer Rejected Abortion to Save Her Singing Career<\/h4>\n<p>Cheryl James of the hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa said the entertainment industry tried to pressure her to abort her daughter. In an interview, James said her daughter was one of the best things that ever happened to her. James, the \u201cSalt\u201d of the group, and Sandra Denton, or \u201cPepa,\u201d spoke about balancing their careers with raising their children even though many in the entertainment industry told them that they could not do both. \u201cYou just have to know that it\u2019s something that you\u2019re capable of handling if you want a kid and a career. And it\u2019s definitely harder. Having my girls, besides finding Jesus, is the best thing that I\u2019ve ever experienced, my kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Other celebrities have shared similar stories about the pressure female entertainers face to abort their unborn babies. Earlier this year, former Pussycat Dolls lead singer Kaya Jones told of the \u201ctrain of trauma\u201d she suffered after having three abortions as a young woman. Jones described the entertainment industry as almost like a sex trafficking ring that objectifies women and girls and, when they become pregnant, pressures them to abort their unborn babies. Later, Jones said she found forgiveness and healing in Christ. [M. Bilger, LifeNews.com, 5\/9\/23]<\/p>\n<h4>Mutilated Animals Left at Clinic<\/h4>\n<p>The FBI and local police opened an investigation after three mutilated animals were left on the property of a pro-life pregnancy center in Orlando, Florida. All of the clinic\u2019s services are free and it mostly serves minority<br \/>\nwomen. The director Bob Perron thinks the clinic was targeted \u201cbecause we don\u2019t support or refer for abortions<br \/>\nbecause we know that that hurts women &amp; their families. We are just a medical clinic trying to help moms.\u201d A doorbell camera may have recorded part of the targeting. There have been <strong>more than 60 attacks<\/strong> on pro-life<br \/>\npregnancy centers since May 2022 when it was reported that Roe v. Wade would be overturned. Yet, there have been only six reported arrests. Many Catholic churches, a maternity home, political organizations, billboards and ads, a political figure, and a memorial have all also come under pro-abortion attacks since last May. [Excerpt from Joe Bukuras, 5\/16\/23: \u00a9 2023 EWTN News, Inc. Reprinted with permission from CNA, www.catholicnewsagency.com]<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Abortion Pill Safety The FDA only requires fatal complications from mifepristone to be reported. In other words, \u201cif the woman has to go to the emergency room if she has excessive<br \/>\nbleeding, if she is in the ER on life support for days and days and days, if she recovers from that, the FDA says, \u2018Don\u2019t tell us about it. Only tell us if she dies,\u2019\u201d U.S. Sen. James Lankford said. And because of the lack of reporting, OB-GYN Dr. Donna Harrison said doctors cannot provide good information about its risks to their patients. Research indicates that emergency room doctors take care of more than half of abortion pill complications. [Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com, 5\/10\/23]<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Three Parent Baby?<\/h4>\n<p>An English Catholic bishop has denounced the first reported births of \u201cthree-parent\u201d babies in the UK as<br \/>\n\u201cdeeply concerning.\u201d Auxiliary Bishop John Sherrington of Westminster said the creation of babies by mitochon- drial donation treatment (MDT) was unethical because the process involved the <strong>destruction<\/strong> of two embryos to<br \/>\ncreate a single new life. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, the British regulator, has<br \/>\npermitted the creation of 30 babies by pronuclear transfer although \u201cless than five\u201d have been born.<\/p>\n<p>The procedure assumes that the nucleus and the mitochondria can be transferred without any consequence. Yet Paul Knoefler, a researcher and professor of cell biology and human anatomy at the University of<br \/>\nCalifornia, Davis, writes that \u201cthere is strong evidence that the mitochondrial genome, for example, \u2018talks to\u2019 the nuclear genome, and has \u2018pervasive effects on cellular and organismal functioning.&#8217;\u201d Professor David Albert Jones, director of Anscombe, said: \u201cThis is a new and <strong>unnecessary technique<\/strong> that does not add to the safety of IVF involving an egg donor, but adds further risks.\u201d [Simon Caldwell, Our Sunday Visitor, 5\/15\/23]<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>This free monthly newsletter is used by dozens of churches as a bulletin insert, and since 2013 has had over 30,000 readers. To receive each month\u2019s issue in your inbox, email Frank Tinari, Ph.D. at tinarifr@shu.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lila Rose Slams Hookup Culture Pro-life leader Lila Rose caught the attention of millions of people online on May 9 when she defended abstinence until marriage &amp; monogamy on \u201cWhatever\u201d a popular dating podcast. Rose, the president and founder of the pro-life organization Live Action, offered a number of compelling arguments about marriage and sex&hellip;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/04\/life-medicine-and-science-june-2023-newsletter\/\" title=\"Continue reading &lsquo;Life, Medicine and Science &#8211; June 2023 Newsletter&rsquo;\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeeducationcouncil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}