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Faith, Religion and Population
November 01, 2009

There is scarcely anything more tragic in human life than a child who is not wanted.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 005774

"The worst problem is to possess plenty of children with inadequate means."
...The Prophet Muhammad 012026

Planned parenthood is an obligation of those who are Christians. Our church thinks we should use scientific methods that assist in family planning.
Desmond Tutu, Former Anglican Archbishop of CapeTown 015682

"When wisdom dictates that you do not need more children, a vasectomy is permissible."
...Ayatollah Ali Khomenei 012027

"Will our grandchildren praise us for being part of the sustainability transformation? Or will they curse us for clinging to old fashioned habits that used up their heritage?"
012028

"Woe unto them that join house to house, lay field to field, till [there be] no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!"
Isaiah 5:8 - The Unbound Bible 005108

"Almost all the influential figures in the world's religions had small families," observed McGill University's Arvind Sharma at the 1999 Hague Forum. "Rama, the popular God of Hinduism, had two sons; the Bud-dha had one son; Mahavira, the last prophet of Jainism, had one daughter (if that); Confucius had one son; Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism, none. Abraham had two sons and two daughters; Moses had two sons; Jesus none. The prophet Mohammed was survived by a daughter."   011960

Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and most of Judaism and Christianity see responsible parenthood in marriage, including the use of contraception, as a moral good. Highly respected religious leaders, including two Nobel laureates, have opened the door to admit abortion in some circumstances. Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu supported the South African constitutional provision legalizing abortion. And the Dalai Lama, while generally opposed to abortion, said in a New York Times Sunday Magazine profile, "I think abortion should be approved or disapproved according to the circumstances." Indeed, in mainline Christianity, fairly widespread support exists for population stabilization (not a women's-rights issue) and for family planning and even abortion, as necessary, to save the planet.   2000   New York Times* 011961

Religion and Cairo   In the original Cairo conference, 170+ countries approved the principals, but objections came from nations with extremist religious factions, including Catholic and Islamic fundamentalists: Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Vatican; Algeria, Libya, Malta, and Sudan. Specific objections that have been raised include the Commission on Population and Development's recommendations that (a) reproductive health services should include new methods of emergency contraception, (b) abortion be made safe where it is legal, and (c) that young people have full access to sexual and reproductive health education and services.   011965

Islam


  The Muslim world has the world's highest population growth rate (3.5%/year)   January 2006   Bruce Sandquist 017491

Afghanistan: Imams to the Rescue in Curbing Maternal Mortality.   Islam does not allow the killing of the foetus but it oes not want mothers to face health risks because of constant pregnancies. Islam does not oppose delayed pregnancies if this helps the health and well-being of mothers. Religions wield strong influence among people in rural communities where high rates of illiteracy contribute to the deaths of thousands of mothers and children every year. Every year 17,000 women die due to pregnancy-related complications and one child in four does not reach his/her fifth birthday. Food insecurity and lack of access to health services are weakening the health and nutritional status of women, and multiple and short-spaced pregnancies often cause early deaths. Child marriage is also a major factor. Child marriage and forced marriage are in contradiction with Islam. The ministries of women's and religious affairs have been working to involve religious leaders to reduce maternal mortality. Dozens of imams participated in workshops in Kabul at which gender experts tried to convince them to spread the word on birth gaps and legal-age marriage. In the province of Badakhshan, which reportedly has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, such efforts have borne fruit. However, in the volatile southern and eastern provinces, where Taliban insurgents have assassinated dozens of pro-government religious leaders, preaching about family planning is a risky and unattractive job.   January 12, 2009   IRIN News (UN) 023560

Pakistan;: 800 Religious Scholars to Educate People on Family Planning.   The Population Welfare Department has trained 800 religious scholors and khateebs for family planning education. Committees had been set up to raise family planning awareness and about 3,000 male mobilisers had been registered for the purpose. Due to the lack of education people had been considering family planning a taboo, but they were now being activated in this regard. The support of religious leaders, media, poets, and philosophers is needed to overcome the increasing population. People mistreated the family planning workers in the past but this trend is now changing. Doctors have lured to rural areas with Rs 30,000 salary package. The ministry would set up free medical camps in flood-stricken areas. The population in Punjab had exceeded 80 million while the annual birth rate was 1.89%. Rs 6,062 million has been granted for the Family Planning Programme, supported by the UNFPA. About 25,000 vasectomies were registered last year, which is encouraging. Most of the family planning centres have been set up in the rural areas. Efforts are being made to improve the infrastructure and equipment.   July 17, 2007   Daily Times 021575

Indonesia;: Muslim Ulemas to Help Govt Steer Family Planning.   The National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) is drafting a handbook for Muslims to guide them in disseminating the government's family planning program. The handbook is the result of an international conference of Muslim leaders. The board's guidance is intended to invigorate family planning among Indonesian families and includes healthy timing for pregnancy and intervals between pregnancies, through Islamic teachings and values. In a society dominated by Muslims, ulemas are considered prominent figures whose views and actions are watched and followed. The handbook will cover: Islam and family planning; health for mothers and babies; adolescent reproductive health and HIV/AIDS-free families. It is expected the ulemas can create a conducive environment among Indonesians to implement the family planning program. After the guidance handbook for Muslim ulemas was completed, BKKBN would also take similar steps with leaders from other religious denominations.   July 3, 2007   Jakarta Post 021769

The Muslim World's Changing Views Toward Family Planning and Contraception.   The Muslim world has the world's highest rate of population growth and is involved in more armed conflicts than any other region of the world. Changes are taking place in the Muslim world in the status of women, and there are other evidence of slower rates of population growth in the decades to come. The extremely high population growth rates are the results of the shortage of financial capital and the degraded state of Middle East lands which causes people to use children as a social security system. The low status of women in fundamentalist-oriented Muslim societies prevent women from obtaining educations and good jobs, increasing their desired family sizes. Many Muslim Mullahs take a dim view of tubal ligation and vasectomy if not other forms of contraception. The total fertility rate in India is 3.6 for Muslims, 2.8 for Hindus, and 2.4 for Christians. The growth of Islamic fundamentalism would suggest that it is not possible. But the Muslim religion is a faith with no central doctrinal authority to serve as the "bridge" between Muslim principles and modern life that are supposed to be issued by religious scholars. In Egypt alone, thousands of fatwas are issued every month. Religious and political leaders in the Muslim world are saying there is a crisis in Islam because too many fatwas are being issued, and many of them reflect ideology more than learning. There has been an explosion of places offering fatwas, from web sites, to satellite television shows that take phone calls, to radical and terrorist organizations. The relationship between the Koran and fatwas is increasingly a matter of dispute. Some Muslim scholars view the Koran's word and ideas as fixed, others see their job as reconciling modern life with the text by bending the text to fit new circumstances. This explains the broad range of views on family planning and contraception coming from Islam's Mullahs. As public opinion shifts fatwas tend to shift accordingly. Muslims can just find a Mullah whose fatwas are more to their liking and achieve the same effect.   August 15, 2007   Bruce Sandquist's home page 021775

Family Planning Key to Afghan Maternal Deaths: U.N..   Afghanistan's maternal mortality rate of one dead mother for every 60 births would be brought down if mothers spaced their pregnancies. Afghan women have among the highest deaths from pregnancy and complications. Bringing the toll down means trained birth attendants, emergency hospital care available and family planning. Family planning is not against the rules of Islam. The principle of family planning is enshrined in the Koran which says women should nurse for two years, it was a form of family planning. Spacing allows a mother to regain her health before becoming pregnant again. The right to health, education, income and life, can be achieved by family planning. Maternal mortality rates were improving in Kabul, where some health services are available. People had to understand that violence against women, which is pervasive in Afghanistan, was not proper under Islam where women have a special position. A proper Muslim does not beat his wife.   April 30, 2007   Reuters 021102

Jamaat Opposes Sex Education in Schools.   In Mumbai, Sex education in schools is under attack. The Jamaat will seek the help of PTAs to plug any move to introduce sex education. The JIH will take the help of city-based anti-obscenity crusader Pratibha Naitthani and is in touch with 22 other organisations. Jamaat representatives demanded that the state government reconsider its decision to make sex education compulsory. The organisation plans to intensify protests by mobilising Muslims organisations. Arjun Singh, indicated that sex education will be crucial to prevent AIDS. A spokesman for the Jamaat, said that his organisation will not let the HRD ministry carry on with its plans. “Uncontrolled sexual anarchy is the reason for AIDS, why should our children be taught about sex?” According to Ghazi, sex education will leave children confused and curious. Schools will teach children everything about sex but will caution them against indulging in sex. We will not allow such moral corruption.   Karen Gaia says: The Jamaat should read the article on Sweden, published on this website just a few days earlier.   March 19, 2007   Daily News and Analysis 020661

Pakistan;: Family Planning Key to Better Life, Says Aziz.   Prime Minister Aziz contended that economic growth could only make a difference in the quality of life if society adopts promotes reproductive health and small families. "The gains of economic growth are wiped out if population continues to grow unabated." He said that sustainable economic growth was to increase per capita income. The government was accelerating the pace of development with an emphasis on rural areas, where 60% of the population lives. He said the government wanted to empower people, particularly women. If Pakistan's population continues to grow at the current rate of 1.86%, it will double in 38 years, reaching 312 million. With dwindling natural resources and scarce housing, health and education facilities would come under severe pressure from the increase in population. The government envisaged a mutually beneficial partnership between public and private organisations to educate people about reproductive health and family planning, hoping that rising investment in human capital together with a higher rate of literacy will lead us to an even lower rate of population growth. The rate of population increase has slowed but is still too fast. The latest attempt to defuse the population explosion is focused on towns and cities where industries are concentrated, and will involve not the provision of contraceptives and sex education and the appointment of trained medical staff at factories. The aim is to encourage the predominantly male workforce to adopt small family norms. The ministry has also begun educating 12,000 Muslim clerics to use their pulpits to spread the message on the benefits of having smaller families. Pakistan introduced a family planning programme soon after its independence in 1947 but social taboos and opposition from strict Muslim groups limited its success, but now things have changed and the clerics are on board.   January 23, 2007   Associated Press of Pakistan 020105

Pakistan Ruling Party Eyes Ban on Forced Marriage.   Pakistan's ruling party has introduced a bill outlawing forced marriage and practices which prevent women from inheriting property. President Musharraf has vowed to empower women as part of his vision of enlightened moderation for the Muslim country. The Bill is expected to be debated and voted upon later in the year. The bill seeks to end a centuries-old tradition of marrying women off to settle disputes between families, and marrying women to the Koran, which deprives them of a share of family property. Musharraf promised to push ahead to empower women after parliament adopted a bill curbing the scope of Islamic laws that had made it virtually impossible for women to accuse men of rape. It was passed despite fierce opposition from hardline Islamist groups. Human rights groups said the Islamic laws, introduced by a military dictator in 1979, should have been scrapped all together. Some activists and opposition politicians have accused Musharraf of indirectly promoting conservative religious parties when it has suited him.   February 13, 2007   Reuters 020301

Pakistan;: Now, Contraceptives in Mosque!.   Pakistan has decided to distribute contraceptives at mosques and involve clerics in spreading family planning awareness. Pakistan Population Planning Minister said that currently Pakistan's birth rate was 1.86%, which his ministry wanted to bring down to 1.3% by 2020.   December 19, 2006   Hindustan Times 019797

Islam Thrives as Russia's Population Falls.   The Sobornaya Mosque is one of only four in Moscow serving a Muslim population of 2.5 million. It was the only Islamic house of worship during the Soviet period, usually empty due to religious repression. Today, it overflows with worshippers on Fridays and holy days. In the Soviet period, people were forbidden from practising their religions. Now, they are embracing their faith again. Russia is in the midst of transformation. Islamic faith is thriving and if current trends continue, more than half of Russia's population will be Muslim by mid-century. Tensions are already high between the country's ethnic Russian population and the diverse group of nationalities that make up the Muslim community. Attacks on mosques are not uncommon and angry mobs have chased Chechens and other migrants from the Caucasus out of the northwestern town of Kondopoga. Spurring on the mob was Alexander Belov, head of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, an increasingly powerful lobby group. "Russia is historically a Slavic, Orthodox Christian land and we need to make sure it stays that way," he said. "Muslims, no matter what their citizenship, should be restricted from living in "traditional Russian lands." Many Russians associate Islam with religious extremists from Chechnya. Some are newly arrived immigrants from the former Soviet states of Central Asia; others are from Muslim-majority regions that remained part of Russia. Russia's Muslim communities boast higher birth rates than those of the country's Christian Orthodox, ethnic Slavs with some communities averaging as many as 10 children per woman. Since 1989, Russia's Muslim population has increased by 40% to about 25 million. By 2015, Muslims could make up a majority of Russia's conscript army and one-fifth of the country's population by 2020. If trends continue people of Muslim descent will outnumber ethnic Russians. The country's Muslim leaders look on the population spurt, and media coverage, with apprehension. The image of Muslims presented in the media is very distorted and sensing the nationalist mood, Russian authorities have begun to crack down. Four regions introduced mandatory classes in Orthodox Christianity in all schools. A new law will ban foreigners from working in retails stalls and markets next year. The growing anti-Islamic sentiment threatens to push Russian Muslims further into the arms of radicals. People who know they are Muslims but don't know what that means could be radicalized, especially if they feel excluded from Russian society. At the Sobornaya Mosque, one bearded young man, who refuses to give even his first name, anticipates a day when large chunks of Russia can be broken off into Islamic states.   December 05, 2006   The Star Russia 019659

A Bid to Bring the Female Voice to Islamic Law.   Meeting in New York, Muslim women from 25 countries began laying groundwork for the first international all-female council formed to issue fatwas, to ensure that women's perspectives on Islamic law become part of religious deliberation. The number of women sanctioned to issue fatwas is tiny. The emergence of such women, known as muftias, usually makes headlines. Governments and schools try to license who can issue fatwas, but Islam stipulates only certain prerequisites, such as knowledge of the Koran and Arabic. As a result, the ranks of unofficial authorities are deeper and the barriers to women surmountable. Advancing the idea of reinterpreting the texts has to be done, but it will be portrayed as part of "a Western cultural invasion,". The group is up against tradition. Throughout history, few Muslim women were jurists, though scholars are uncovering more, including, the prophet Muhammad's wife. Some question whether much is open to reform. Others note that fatwas are nonbinding. In Malaysia, Sisters in Islam used the Koran to rebuff efforts to exclude Muslims from a domestic-abuse law. In Saudi Arabia, an effort to push women further back at a crowded holy site was thwarted with the help of a female Islamic scholar's arguments. In the US the English translation of the Koran by a woman, finds an alternate meaning in a verse widely interpreted to give husbands authority to beat their wives. The New York gathering plans to seat the new council within a year. Drawn from diverse schools within Islam, the members will be versed in Islamic law. Islam is a religion of law, and it is important to express the principles of social justice. Today's global communications are challenging, as more Muslims seek religious opinions far and wide through the Internet. There is a sense among many Muslims that Islamic jurists are out of touch, that their guidance is not adequate to the modern world. The council has a credibility problem. Women should stand up and give their own opinions on women's issues, but American efforts to force change in the Muslim world mean reformers now must avoid links to the US. Conference attendees say a muftia council could prompt wider support for women's struggles. It's empowering for them to know that their desire to not be beaten by their husband can actually be justified in the name of Islam.   November 21, 2006   Christian Science Monitor 019514

Pakistan is Divided Over Rape Law Reform.   Gen Musharraf announced last week that he would amend the existing laws that place an almost impossible burden of proof on women bringing a case of rape. Thousands of women from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), chanted "death" to leaders of the Islamic Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance. Conservatives have announced a nationwide campaign against the Bill. But the story of Hidayat Bibi's arrest shows why Musharraf has risked taking this step. Hidayat, 45, was arrested under the Hudood ordinance after being accused of adultery by her former husband with whom she had a bitter financial dispute. The husband claimed that the couple had not divorced, and the man who leased her a house had "developed illicit relations with my wife, which is something immoral and un-Islamic". Hidayat was imprisoned in a jail in Peshawar with her two-year-old daughter for three weeks but released after a medical examination proved that she had not had sexual intercourse in recent months. Then all her relatives severed ties with her and treated her as inhuman. The new Bill proposes to transfer rape and adultery cases from the Islamic legal system to Pakistan's British-influenced secular penal code. In the case of adultery, greater evidence must be produced before a person is taken into custody; the penalties are to be reduced and the traditional Islamic principle that in an adultery case the onus of proof is on the accuser is to be enforced. Under Islamic laws women must produce four adult Muslim male witnesses to prove an act of rape. The new Bill proposes that rape cases be tried under criminal law and abide by improved evidence gathering and case assessment.. The existing law means that rapists often escape punishment. The gang rape of a nurse who refused to perform illegal abortions earlier this year was one of the cases that intensified calls for the repeal of its rape laws.   August 29, 2006   Telegraph 018560

Islam and Rape.   Women who are raped in the Muslim world - including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan - face incarceration or execution. Now, Pakistan has a chance to change this despicable practice. Most "Hudood" laws legalize the prosecution of a woman for fornication if she cannot prove a crime was committed. In Pakistan, four Muslim men must testify on the victim's behalf or she can be prosecuted for alleging a false crime. Penalties include stoning to death, lashings or prison. Pakistan's Hudood laws were enacted in 1979, in an attempt to "Islamicize" the country. In contrast to more moderate Muslim-majority countries, which have Hudood laws on the books, but essentially ignore them, Pakistan's laws have been enforced. Stonings and lashing are rare, but more than 2,000 Pakistani women now languish in jail. When Pakistan President Musharraf assumed office, he vowed to tackle the Islamic Republic's problems. But Hudood may prove one of his most formidable challenges. Pakistan's hardline Islamic parties, are vehemently opposed to repeal or revisions to Hudood. Hudood is set forth in the holy Quran. We are an Islamic nation. We cannot repeal Hudood, said Mohammed Aslam Saleemi, JI's vice president of legal affairs. "However, we are open to discussing how it is enforced and implemented. We do not believe in imprisoning women, nor do we object to those arrested on Hudood violations receiving bail." General Musharraf, who enjoys a fragile political coalition, has taken some action. Last month, he issued a presidential decree that made 1,300 women awaiting trial on Hudood violations eligible for bail. The issue is so divisive that the law ministry won't publicly disclose the full details of the amendments. According to statistics, about 80% of the more than 2,000 women currently in prison were convicted under Hudood laws. Thousands of rapes go unreported for fear of arrest and retribution. In March, 1,000 women demonstrated outside Islamabad's parliament, demanding Hudood's repeal, while some 5,000 rallied in eastern Punjab. Among the latter was Mukthar Mai, who was gang raped in 2002 by order of a village council as retribution for her 13-year-old brother's illicit affair with a woman of a higher caste.   August 01, 2006   Wall Street Journal 018304

Iran: Braving Threats, Women Demand Legal Reforms.   Iranian women activists have demonstrated to demand changes in the oppressive laws that are written into the country's constitution. The demonstrators, including women and men, are demanding an end to discrimination based on gender, as well as changes to Islamic laws that protect men at the expense of women. Under current law, women are half the value of a man. For example, four women fulfil the requirement of two witnesses. Men are permitted to have more than one wife, women cannot file for divorce, and when a divorce is granted, the husband gets full custody of the children. Wives cannot work if their husband opposes the place of employment and they cannot travel outside the country without written permission from their husbands. Girls are considered adults at age nine, and can be married. Two thousand Iranians have courageously signed their names to a statement calling for dramatic changes in Islamic law. The statement, which cannot be published in any of Iran's newspapers, appears in blogs and will be read out loud at the demonstration. Last year's protest turned violent when police resorted to the use of force. Officials warned that a formal license was required. The demonstrators referred to Article 27 of the constitution which states that peaceful protest is legal and does not require a license. The 2005 protest demonstrated against compulsory use of the hijab, chador, scarf and mantua. So far, none of Iran's 12 conservative women MPs have acknowledged the protest. Last year, the organizers of a similar event were threatened by unknown security forces. One of the security entities summoned some of the women activists and probably asked them to cancel the protest. Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to office, he has used the Islamic social base to promote his agenda and has acted against labour, student and women rights movements. Any change that would improve women's rights requires not only a change in Islamic law but a confirmation by high-ranking ayatollahs.   June 12, 2006   Push Journal 017771

Muslim Women Don't See Themselves as Oppressed.   According to a poll conducted in 2005, a majority of Muslim women believe they should have the right to vote, work outside the home and serve in the highest levels of government. In more than 8,000 face-to-face interviews, the survey found that many women in the Muslim world did not see sex issues as a priority. A majority of Muslim women said that a lack of unity among Muslim nations, violent extremism, and political and economic corruption were their main concerns. The head scarf, and garment covering face and body, were never mentioned in the answers to the open-ended questions. Most Muslim women associated sex equality with the West. 78% of Moroccan women, 71% of Lebanese women and 48% of Saudi women linked legal equality with the West. A majority did not think adopting Western values would help the Muslim world's progress. The most frequent response to "What do you admire least about the West?" was the perception of moral decay, promiscuity and pornography, the "Hollywood image" that is regarded as degrading to women. An overwhelming majority of women cited "attachment to moral and spiritual values" as the best aspect of their own societies. In Pakistan, 53% said attachment to their religious beliefs was their country's most admirable trait. In Egypt, 59% cited love of their religion as the best aspect. At 97%, Lebanon had the highest percentage of women who said they believed they should be able to make their own voting decisions, followed by Egypt and Morocco at 95%. Pakistan was lowest, at 68%. The analyst of Muslim studies at The Gallup World Poll said the new data provide fresh insight into the Muslim world. She was born in Egypt and wears a Islamic head scarf. She rejected the idea that Muslim women had been brainwashed by the dominant male culture. In every culture there is a dominant narrative, and in many cases it is constructed by people in power who happen to be men," She said.   Karen Gaia says: Family planning works well in some Muslim countries. In Bangladesh, women were educated to become health care workers and also women can hold office. In Iran, couples are educated together about birth control.   June 08, 2006   New York Times* 017714

Ghana: Islam Does Not Permit the Use of Condom.   Sheikh Osman Bawa, an Islamic scholar, cautioned youth adherents of the religion not to be deceived by the safety of the use of condom, since Islam abhors its use, whether in or outside marriage. The Muslim scholar advised Muslims to desist from extra-marital and pre-marital sex, which were violations of Islamic laws and a recipe for acquiring HIV. The Co-ordinator of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), noted that since HIV did not discriminate against a particular religion, all are at risk. Plans were advanced to decentralize the distribution of anti-retroviral drugs to all districts, while commending Muslim leaders for their efforts at educating the youth on the menace. The Regional Co-ordinator of the National Youth Council (NYC), urged Muslim clerics to discuss issues relating to HIV to increase the awareness of the prevalence of the disease. The organization aimed at educating youth on social issues to broaden their knowledge.   May 19, 2006   Age 017507

  The Muslim world has the world's highest population growth rate (3.5%/year)   January 2006   Bruce Sandquist 017491

Morocco: Women Preachers Appointed.   Morocco has appointed 50 women as state preachers as part of the government's drive to promote a more tolerant Islam. They will be able to give basic religious instruction in mosques, but will not be able to lead Friday prayers, which remain a male preserve. Since suicide bombers struck Casablanca in 2003, there has been a crackdown on suspected Islamic militants. The country has also been attempting to modernise its human rights, especially for women, while not alienating conservative Muslims. As well as teaching in mosques, the women will be able to support people in prisons, schools and hospitals. The aim is to correct the image of Islam, the religion of tolerance and pity. The ceremony was attended by Morocco's minister of Islamic Affairs who told the graduates to remain committed to their faith and the politics of the state. Morocco is indeed more moderate than many other Muslim countries.   April 04, 2006   Dhimmi Watch 017329

Iraqi Kurdish Women Voice Hopes for Constitution.   Women's rights groups in Iraqi Kurdistan have been contributing to the drafting of a regional constitution that some hope will be better for women than the national version. The main difference is that the Kurdish regional constitution is not based on Islamic law. Under Iraq's constitution, the Kurdish regional constitution will take precedence but it is expected that courts will have to iron out the differences. The national constitution was accepted last October but remains unratified because of internal turmoil. Parliamentarian Pakhshan Zangana says that using Islam as a legislative source is "basically against women's rights and democracy." However, representatives of the Women's Organization of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, which promotes an Islamic basis for legislation say that the idea that Islam is bad for women is based on misinterpretations. Mehabad Qeredaxi, advisor on equality issues in the office of the Kurdish Prime Minister, says that the current constitution of Iraq is flawed against women's rights and based on religion and tradition. If we enshrine the equality principal in the constitution we can prevent any violation against women's rights. If we can't then we hope we can have it in the Kurdistan constitution. The regional draft also deals differently with the personal status law pertaining to divorce, marriage and inheritance. However, Article 39 of the national constitution says the personal status law should be applied according to one's religion. The committee for Kurdistan, is leaning toward having one personal status law that can be applied to all regardless of religion. Chilura Hardi, head of the Khatuzeen Centre for Social Action, Women's NGO, presented the Kurdistan Constitutional Committee with a Bill of Rights for Women. The document is partially based on the Rights of Women in Africa adopted by the African Union in 2003 and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. "We took the things we wanted from those documents and expressed them in a Kurdish way eliminating the parts about abortion and homosexuality that are not appropriate, as they are subject to strong social and religious taboos. The bill of rights bans female genital mutilation, polygamy and the giving of women as brides to reconcile families in conflict.   April 26, 2006   Push Journal 017249

Pakistan: Kashmir is Important, but So is Family Planning; Clerics' Role in Family Stressed at Seminar.   Federal Population Welfare Minister encouraged women and clerics to educate people about family planning and said that since women were unaware of family planning and the hazards of early age pregnancy, the NGOs were exploiting a volatile situation on the pretext of women"s rights. Stressing the support of religious parties, the minister said that they were an integral part of the quest to control the country's population. Although a major effort was still required, the country was now on the right track. People are more open to the issue and it has become a more approachable subject. The country's population needs to be controlled to improve the standard of living. Practical steps include training school teachers, labour leaders and religious scholars about our aims. The minister said more than 3,000 clerics had been trained by the ministry and were working in various districts. The ministry aims to reduce the population growth from 1.9% to 1.3% by 2020 and the fact that the population growth was 3.3% in the 1980's indicates that the effort is fruitful. It was important for clerics to spread Islam in its proper context. People using religion to counter our efforts are only causing problems. A Hadith stating that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) wished for a large Muslim community on judgement day, is foolish, and scholars should help correct such misrepresentations. Seminars on population planning will be arranged in all provinces and a final conference will be held in Islamabad.   March 28, 2006   Daily Times 016978

Syria: Women's Group to Provide Assistance to Female Divorcees.   A Syrian NGO has launched a programme to find shelter and jobs for divorced women. The project aims to educate them, teach them skills and provide them with shelter, in order to make them independent. There were 17,000 cases of divorce in 2004. The majority of these women couldn't return to their parents' house. The divorce rate is almost 25% higher in Damascus than in rural areas, because urban women tend to be more progressive. Through the traditional perspective, women should be confined to raising children and housekeeping. Divorced women are often left with no financial means to support themselves and often without a place to live. Divorced women suffer from stigmas associated with marital separation. Divorced women aren't socially accepted. Although the government gives the mother the right to keep children until they reach 14, they are often obliged to surrender them to the father due to lack of money to care for them. A study by UNICEF showed that 85.5% of child labourers in Syria had divorced parents.      March 20, 2006   Push Journal 016859

Women's Reproductive and Sexual Rights and the Offence of Zina in Muslim Laws in Nigeria.   With the recent “Sharianization” of parts of Nigeria, new offences mostly surrounding sexuality, which has had a negative effect on women’s rights have been formed. While Muslim laws are not God given, conservative and liberal jurisprudence has prevented scholars and activists from establishing Muslim laws that protect the rights of women. In the wake of a new Sharia Penal Code in Katsina State, religious vigilantes instigated a case against a woman for having a child after divorce without remarrying. The father swore that he had not had sexual relations and was released. NGOs provided her with lawyers, safe houses, medical care, and emotional support. She also became the object of protest campaigns, which excoriated “Islamic law” as brutal and called on Nigeria’s president repeal the Sharia Acts. She won her appeal in the state Sharia Court of Appeal and was acquitted. Sharia Penal Codes were introduced in several Nigerian states in 2000. Zina, or unlawful sexual intercourse, includes adultery, punished by stoning to death, and fornication, penalized by whipping. The tensions between conservative religious politics and crude antiterrorism policies must be considered and involves local cultures containing a complicated mixture of ideologies and social practices. Human rights guarantee people their rights in their day to day lives and requires that they are respected by local cultures. But it is possible to accept the universality of the notion of rights, which are reconstructed by those whose lives are impacted by them. Many of these groups are challenging not the communities themselves, but the current definitions of culture. The introduction of Sharia in Nigeria has had more to do with political appeal, rather than religious sentiment. Both Muslim and non-Muslim women’s rights activists were concerned that Sharia would be used as a rationale to discriminate against women. The Muslim Brothers opposed Sharianization on the grounds that implementing harsh punishments without first ensuring just socioeconomic relations was not Islamic. The Sharia Penal Codes have created new offences and they recognise stoning, retributive punishments and blood fines. Nigeria is party to several international human rights covenants. The interplay between domestic Nigerian parallel legal systems of secular, Muslim and customary laws is problematic as they give differential rights on different issues. Sharia is neither God given, nor uniform through Muslim history or different communities. Muslim laws always have been subject to controversy. Muslims were not obliged to follow them if they did not believe that their reasoning from the Qu’ran and the sunnah were right. The stereotype of a single, uniform or divinely revealed Islamic law is false. However, this myth has been useful for Muslim conservatives and can by seen in Nigeria regarding reproductive and sexual rights. Most Muslim jurists agree that fertility management is permissible, and that pleasure in sexual intercourse is a right for both men and women. Despite this, the religious right in Nigeria have described fertility management as promoting immorality and have attempted to prevent it. Many groups are organising in Nigeria to establish protection for women’s rights under this new Sharianization by defending those convicted by focusing on appeals, thus buying time as well as getting closer to the higher courts, which have been historically more fair to women. These same women’s and rights groups have also sought to demystify Sharia, through seminars, workshops, training, radio and television shows. The poor have been the most subjected to harsh punishments and there have been fewer convictions of men than women for adultery or fornication. Women have clearly been discriminated against. Many Nigerians wonder why people in the West are so concerned about the life of one Muslim woman in Nigeria. The international media and protests have ignored the existence of dissent among Muslims, and have downplayed the protests and campaigns within Nigeria. Local groups must find ways to interact with and influence mass international media, to make it more accurate and nuanced. Campaigning for governments and media to support international policies that sustain economic justice and rights would give hope worldwide so that poverty and uncertainty do not continue to be conditions in which religious right sentiments find support for laws that violate rights.      March 09, 2006   Pambazuka News 016840

Tanzania: Muslims Clerics Decry Aids Without Condoms.   Officials leading the fight against HIV on the island of Zanzibar are looking at ways of engaging Muslim leaders, who are against the promotion of condom use. A local Islamic scholar said advocating the use of condoms was tantamount to encouraging pre-marital sex, and although Islam shared the burden of the pandemic, it could not support any "immoral action". Halima Ali Mohammed, an official with the Zanzibar AIDS Commission, said seeking a balanced solution was a delicate issue. "It requires a willingness ... to recognise that HIV is a threat to our society," she noted. In 2003, HIV prevalence in the general population was 0.6%.      March 10, 2006   IRIN News (UN) 016749

Women in Iraq Increasingly Attacked for Not Wearing Headscarves Death Toll Rises.   Acts of violence against Iraqi women who do not wear headscarves have more than tripled since the US invasion. Many of the attacks are carried out by family members to protect the family's "honour." "A life is being taken because of a simple piece of cloth, and someone should prevent more women from being killed by these ignorant people who believe that honour depends on what you're wearing." Eighty attacks and four "honour killings" by family members were reported in the past three years. Iraqi women who feel endangered rarely seek help because tradition prevents public authorities from getting involved in private matters. The UN has been called on to address the killings in Iraq and to include gender education in the training of police, health workers, and members of the judiciary.      March 13, 2006   Feminist Daily News Wire 016785

Bangladesh: Advocating An Islamic Perspective on Family Planning.   While imams have tacitly accepted family planning, they have never advocated long-term family planning. EngenderHealth sees discussion as crucial to its efforts to reinvigorate the use of these methods. Imams have a strong influence on people. Imams are always consulted on any kind of social or personal issue. If a political leader directs people to some issue, they treat it as political. But if an imam delivers it, they say that it is right. Dr. Maroof explains that his studies of the texts have bestowed on him an understanding of modern health and child care, gender issues, and HIV/AIDS, among others issues. According to Dr. Maroof, the roots of misunderstanding about family planning and Islam are outdated. "Most of our imams are not enlightened with modern conceptions or deep knowledge in our religion. They say, Almighty Allah will give you a child and he will be responsible for the sustenance of this child. Control of birth is in the hand of the Almighty Allah. EngenderHealth has created interactive community forums, where the imams, along with teachers, businessmen, local politicians and others, are invited to attend meetings with local providers of family planning services. The meetings are largely held in the rural areas of Bangladesh. Since their inception more than 18,000 community leaders have attended the meetings. Moulana Abdullah Al Maroof, Ph.D., has what he calls a "missionary zeal" for family planning. The esteemed Islamic scholar and deputy director of the Bangladesh Islamic Foundation is one of three authors whom EngenderHealth enlisted to co-write Family Planning in the Eyes of Islam, a book demonstrating the acceptance of family planning in the holy Qur'an.      March 11, 2006   EngenderHealth website 016906

Another School Torched in Afghanistan.   Suspected Taliban rebels set ablaze a school in southern Afghanistan. Armed men stormed into the school and set fire to classrooms, burning chairs, desks and studying materials. Three of the classrooms were totally destroyed. The attack was blamed on remnants of the Taliban regime. At about the same time suspected militants blew up a primary school in a Pakistani tribal area just across the border. More than a dozen schools have been torched in the past two months in southern provinces of Afghanistan. Several teachers and education workers have also been killed. Most of the attacks have been blamed on the ultraconservative Islamic Taliban, who barred girls from going to school or working outside of the home. The rebuilding of the education sector is a key priority for the new government, where more than 70% of people aged over 15 are illiterate. About six million children are estimated to have enrolled in schools since the Taliban fell. About 60% of primary school age are still not attending lessons.      February 21, 2006   Agence France-Presse 016571

Iraq: Women's Groups Blast.   A rise in “temporary” marriages among Shi’ite Muslims is causing concern among women’s rights activists. According to women’s NGOs more than 300 temporary marriages occur daily in Kerbala, Najaf and Basra, Iraq’s three main Shi’ite cities. The poverty, especially for women who have lost their husbands, is the main reason. According to Shi’ite religious law, unmarried women may enter into temporary marriages for hours to an entire lifetime. A payment is made around US $1,000 or the equivalent in gold. The practice, known as Muta’a, was banned during the Saddam Hussein regime. Rules governing temporary marriages differ in that only men are permitted to dissolve them. Men may also marry more than once and can have several Muta’a arrangements simultaneously. Marriage ceremonies are officiated by a sheikh and must have a witness, but do not require the presence of family. A Shi’ite cleric in Najaf, who presides over at least five temporary marriages a day, defended the practice. “We require sexual activity, but religion prohibits this before marriage,” he said. “So you can have a woman for this prospect without affecting her honour because normally she is a widow; she is not a virgin anymore.” “We’re helping these windows support their families.” The new Iraqi constitution, which guarantees freedom of marriage according to religious beliefs, has been criticized by women’s activists who want equal treatment for men and women independent of religion, ethnicity or origin.      January 23, 2006   Irin News 016243

Philippines: Local Fatwah on Family Planning Endorsed.   Drama and music marked the launch of the fatwah endorsing family planning at Lanao del Sur. A fatwah is a decree issued by Muslim religious leaders to shed light on behavior in the Islamic way of life. Community health workers dramatized how access to health facilities, particularly on family planning were difficult in far-flung and poor areas. Officials acknowledged the funding of USAID and Helen Keller International. The fatwah provides support for family planning based on principles such as informed choice and responsible parenthood. It defines family planning to be a systematic and consistent planning of the family wherein members are happy because they worship Allah of good health, better education and stable income. It also pointed out that birth control and prevention of pregnancy are really prohibited in Islam except when, the pregnancy of the mother places her in great danger because her delivery requires operation or her pregnancy will cause illness which will affect her life.      January 03, 2006   Minda News (Philippines) 016309

MiddleEast: Women's Rights - Call for Citizenship and Justice.   International organizations called on the government to protect the legal rights of women in Yemen. The workshop brought women from across the Arab world to participate. The seminar discussed the rights women should have and the role of government to implement them. The meeting followed a comprehensive study on the status of women's rights in the Middle East and North Africa that covers developments through to the end of 2003. Amat Al-Aleem Al-Soswa , Minister of Human Rights, said that countries in the Middle East and North Africa are undergoing different stages of development and women's role is vital within those societies. It is the only guarantee to realize democracy, human development, and social justice and to develop society. It aimed to create strategies for national and regional advocacy efforts, and to continue advocacy efforts, including urgent action appeals, website, coordination, and using links with existing initiatives. While women in the region have made substantial gains in education, none of the countries meet internationally recognized standards for women's rights. Women are at a disadvantage in practically every institution of society. The study notes that gender inequality is compounded by illiteracy, apathetic governments, and patriarchal traditions. The objective is to empower Arab women in the MENA region. While 16 of the 17 Arab countries enshrine the concept of equal rights, all except Saudi Arabia, women face discrimination in every aspect of life. In most countries, women cannot confer her citizenship to her children. No country in the region has laws that outlaw all forms of domestic violence. Women are largely unaware of their rights, due in part to educational weaknesses and failure by governments to engage in public education campaigns. In almost all MENA countries, women face gender-based discrimination in family codes, except in Morocco and Tunisia, family laws relegate women to inferior status within marriage and family life. With the exception of Egypt, MENA governments do not provide gender-specific mechanisms for women in the country to file complaints against gender discrimination. Several key recommendations were: women should enjoy equal status under the law in all aspects of life; family laws should ensure equal rights within marriage and family; domestic violence should be a serious crime in all instances; and legal and traditional barriers to women's participation in politics, government, and the private sector should be removed.      December 17, 2005   Yemen Observer 015939

Book: Guide to Equality in the Family in the Maghreb.   The Guide to Equality in the Family in the Maghreb is an advocacy tool for reform of the family law in Muslim socities. It outlines a social change to women's ability to make deliberate choices. Family law in Muslim societies governs every aspect of a woman's life: age and conditions of marriage, divorce, child custody, and the right to work, travel, or decide on a place of residence. Reform is crucial to women's ability to participate on equal terms in both family and public life. The Guide presents the current state of the law and proposes religious, human rights, sociological, and domestic legal arguments for reform, supported by relevant data.      November 2005   Women's Learning Partnership 015701

Indonesia: Promoting Reproductive Health Through Religion.   Obaid, the first Saudi Arabian to chair the UN body, stressed the importance of religious leaders taking part in the effort to improve reproductive health in Muslim countries. In a Muslim society a very important principle of Islam is preserving your health, which supports your thinking, analytical abilities and knowledge. The whole society has to be knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS so that people know how to act in a responsible way. All religious leaders are responsible for showing mercy, compassion and understanding. They have to speak out at every opportunity. They have to speak about HIV/AIDS and how young people should protect themselves. They have to overcome the stigma to people with HIV/AIDS as they are sick. How can the authorities and the people convince religious leaders to adopt this approach? The authorities and NGOs and the mullahs have to get together and discuss the issue openly. We have to say to them, 'Look, so many women die, and they leave the children orphaned and often children die after their mother's death. When the authorities talk to the mullahs and present real facts and evidence, they will be willing to speak out. Some mullahs refuse to talk about reproductive health issues, arguing that they have a different understanding. It is their right not to speak, but as leaders of the people, they have a moral responsibility to point out the issue that women, whom God created, are dying because of giving birth and that's not a controversial issue. Maybe, we don't give the correct messages and that's why the dialogue between the government, NGOs and mullahs should be based on information about what is happening in Indonesia. We have to respect that there are areas where religious leaders feel free to speak and some issues which they do not feel comfortable talking about. UNFPA has many conversations, with mullahs to present the facts. We try to create an environment for dialogue and discussion with the mullahs so that they receive the necessary knowledge. There is a Koranic verse saying it is not the number that matters, it's the quality of the people. And there are many examples of the Koran saying that what are wanted are good and healthy people. What good would it serve to have mosques everywhere but you let people with HIV/AIDS die? When the Prophet Muhammad was asked who is the closest person to a man, the Prophet said your mother, then your mother, then your mother, then your father. Mothers have a very special place in Islam. And if you let mothers die, then you are not giving them the honor that Islam demands.      November 20, 2005   Jakarta Post 015708

Islam Feminists Urge Gender Jihad.   Organizers of the first congress on Islamic feminism are calling for a "gender jihad." Organizer Abdennur Prado Pavon, says the struggle for gender equality involves refuting chauvinist interpretations of Muslim teachings. Prado, of the Catalan Islamic board, believes a common misconception is that women's liberation is not possible in Muslim societies. Activists are in Barcelona to discuss ways of achieving female equality. Among the delegates is the Pakistani feminist Riffat Hassan, one of the pioneers of Islamic feminist theology. Islamic Feminism argues that the inferior status of women in Muslim countries is a result of misogynistic distortions of the teachings in the Koran. Organizers want more collaboration with western feminists but non-Muslim feminists need to challenge their anti-Islamic stereotypes.      October 28, 2005   BBC News 015458

High Mortality and Malnutrition Affect Muslim Children Most Says UN Children's Agency.   In Islam states more than 60% of children will not make it to their first birthday due to disease and malnutrition. And an alarming number of over 4.3 Muslim children worldwide under the age of five die every year. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) States, and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) are joining together to "mobilize Islamic countries to accelerate progress for children." The OIC states account for a quarter of the 2.3 billion children worldwide and also have the highest mortality rates of children worldwide. "Director-General of ISESCO, Abdulaziz Othman Altwaljri says 'Investing in children and putting them at the centre of development strategies are the most effective ways to eliminate poverty and meet global development targets.'      September 28, 2005   UN News Center 015180

The Bravest Women in the World.   Women are dying for the feminist cause: in northern Afghanistan, three women workers at a microcredit organisation were stoned to death by warlords; in India, a woman social worker had her hands chopped off by a man furious because she was counselling villagers against child marriage. In Pakistan, the head of the Human Rights Commission was stripped and beaten in public after she organised a series of marathons in which women could compete. President Musharraf has since reversed his policy of allowing mixed-gender sporting activities in public. In Iraq, attacks on women have been carried out by the insurgent groups. Said a 23-year-old student: "They dropped acid on my face and my legs and cut my hair off while hitting me in the face and telling me it's for not obeying God's wish in using the veil. The leadership of al-Qaeda has said its aim is to set up a global Islamic state ruled according to sharia law; a world in which women must conceal their faces, may not work or be educated, may not go in public without a male relative; and are under the total control of men. 32% of British Muslims believed the western society is decadent and immoral and Muslims should seek to bring it to an end. But men were more likely than women to say this. The proportion of Muslim men who said they felt no loyalty to Britain (18%) was three times higher than the proportion of women who said the same. In Western countries, Muslim women tend to do better in education than Muslim men. Muslim women are more likely than men to appreciate Western democracy. Men are more likely to resent it, because our laws prevent them from controlling women. An Iraqi-Australian woman thought it funny that a friend of hers can threaten her husband she will go to the police if he attacks her. There are many reasons for the hatred Islamic extremists have for the West, but high among them is the freedom of women. The Islamists fear that Western influences will trigger an Islamic feminist revolution. The revolution has begun. Across the Middle East women are demanding their rights, challenging the interpretations of religion. At great risk women in Afghanistan and Pakistan have recently held protests against the violence towards women that exists in their cultures. Women in Iraq were holding protests against the proposed constitution which assigns laws on marriage, custody and inheritance to religious authorities. In Canada women immigrants from Muslim countries protested most about proposals to set up an Islamic court there.      August 06, 2005   The Age (Australia) 014858

Draft Iraqi Constitution Jeopardizes Women's Human Rights.   A current draft of Iraq's new constitution subordinates guarantees of women's human rights to religious Sharia law. International human rights groups, MADRE launched a campaign for the repeal of Resolution 137 which was the first attempt to legislate violations of women's human rights. As a result the resolution was defeated. However, if the draft constitution is agreed upon, it could give religious clerics the authority to inflict human rights violations on Iraqi women, including denial of the rights to freedom of movement, property inheritance, and custody of their children. In the worst instance, forced early marriage, polygamy, compulsory religious dress, wife beating, execution by stoning as punishment for female adultery, and public flogging of women for disobeying religious rules could all be sanctioned. The constitution's drafting committee may also repeal a measure that requires one-quarter of parliamentary seats to be held by women.      July 20, 2005   MADRE.org 014753

Religious Groups Oppose Family Planning Policy; Call Modern Family Planning 'un-islamic'; Pakistan's Population to Reach 357 Million by 2050, Says UN Report .   Religious organisations are against the provincial government's population planning policy, saying it is "un-Islamic". Religious parties are campaigning for larger families so that more people can join jihad. Last year the Punjab government spent Rs 25 million on advertisements on buses to raise awareness about the benefits of family planning and sent text messages to 4 million mobile phone subscribers. Religious parties have rickshaws displaying a slogan that has also been used in sermons by clergy. A spokesman for Jammatud Dawa, however, denied any link but they don't support family planning. The Holy Quran, he said, has all the answers and it is a couple's prerogative to have a big or small family. Promoting the use of condoms to avoid AIDS is encouraging people to fornicate. A leader of the Jamiat-e-Ulama-Islam-Faz, said that according to Islam, if a woman feeds her child for two years and keeps on doing it with her children to come, family planning will automatically follow. He asked, "If both children of a family die, what will happen to the parents?" Pakistan had a population of 40 million people in 1950 but it has tripled to nearly 150 million. The country has a very young population and a high fertility rate. These children and young adults will soon come into reproductive age and will produce a large number of offspring. Pakistan's population is estimated to reach 357 million by 2050.      July 27, 2005   Daily Times 014757

Nigeria: Islam is No Hindrance to Women's Child's Rights.   The Governor of Borno State said there was nothing in Islamic religion that prohibited the exercise of women and childrens rights following the recent position taken by the an apex Islamic body that some provisions of the Child's Rights Act should not be adopted by Muslim states as it conflicts with certain aspects of the religion. The Governer said no section in the Koran precluded the development of women and children. Borno is 80% Muslim, and people take advantage to manipulate and inculcate the wrong values in our people. We believe that if you educate a woman, she will educate a family and the society. We are working on a bill to redirect preachments that are geared towards creating confusion. He said women constituted 40% contributions in every election. He promised to appoint more women into political positions and initiate the bill on child's rights. Earlier, the governor was urged to identify with the Federal Government in protecting the rights of women and children, noting that negative reactions from a section of Muslims greeted the campaign. One of the provisions which has generated negative reactions is that which prohibits marriage of girls below 18. It is erroneously believed that if a girl does not marry earlier than 18, she will not be able to produce two or three children. Those who hold this belief say it is a ploy to reduce the muslim population. The inclusion of this provision in the act was linked to early marriage/teenage pregnancy and the incidence of fistula. The Speaker, assured the minister that the House would work towards the passage of such a bill as long as it does not conflict with the practice of Islam. There are no laws that we cannot pass in the house and laws guiding Christianity and Islam are from God and cannot be changed but laws made by man can be changed. He stressed that should the assembly receive such a bill it would be passed.      August 30, 2005   This Day (Lagos) 015107

Pakistan: The 11-Year-Old Wife.   Every two hours, a woman is raped in Pakistan. And every day, two women die in honor killings in a country which continues to receive military assistance and political support from the US government. While the Pakistani leader General Musharraf visits the US and receives the backing of Presdient Bush, thousands of women are routinely raped and then imprisoned under Pakistan's religious laws for reporting those rapes. According to these laws, if a woman who claims to have been raped cannot produce four male witnesses to the crime, she is beaten and whipped for having had "illicit sex". Girls as young as two are given in marriage and women are routinely beaten and tortured by their husbands' families. The mistreatment of women in Pakistan transcends all class and status boundaries. Peasant women have no rights, and middle class city residents, who recently took to the streets in Lahore to demonstrate for equal rights, have been beaten and stripped by the police under direct orders from Musharraf's government. It is time for Pakistanis to openly discuss these matters without fear of being shamed or humiliated in the West, so that the work of those courageous Pakistani women who are speaking out will not be in vain.      June 21, 2005   New York Times* 014289

UN Women's Conference Questions Link between Islam and Violence Against Women.   Are Islamic societies prone to violence against women? A Conference at the U.N. was partly a critique of the failures of Islamic societies in the treatment of women, and partly a celebration of the progress Muslim women have made. Several speakers questioned whether violence against women is worse in Islamic societies. The U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women, says violations of women's rights shows that religion is used as a tool whether in Muslim or Christian or Jewish societies. It is not any other religion but conservative forces who speak on behalf of these religions that is obstacle to women's rights. But women in Islamic countries are lagging behind in the quest for equality because Muslim countries tend to be less democratic. Across the Muslim world you find less democratic institutions. Participants stressed that the key to gender equality is education. Several women explained how important it is that women know their rights in order to stand up for them. It is not Islam, but those who interpret its teachings, that are responsible for many misunderstandings as with other religions. In all societies, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class and culture.      March 01, 2005   Voice of America 013013

Pakistan: Debating Islam and Family Planning .   In a bid to win the support of religious groups, Pakistan convened a conference of key religious leaders and scholars from Islamic communities in 22 countries. The conference discussed reducing high population growth within the framework of Islamic principles. Around 90 delegates participated in the Conference held in Islamabad. Under the perspectives of population growth and development, mother and child health, and gender equity, the idea is to have experts' views on Islamic teachings and family planning. UNFPA said the meeting had been useful in having the religious from across different cultures to discuss the issue. Religion does not forbid the use of contraceptives.      May 20, 2005   IRIN News (UN) 013752

Women Are Forging a Democratic Middle East.   Politicians, scholars and non-governmental organisations agree that social reform and democratisation will improve the status of women in the Middle East. Women are driving forward democracy as they fight for their individual rights in societies in which collective rights are traditionally more important. They are demanding change in divorce, the custody of children and economic rights, also "honour killings" and female genital mutilation. The UN development programme will outline that democracy is essential for economic and social development. If nations exclude women they will forgo the economic growth that women can generate. Political discourse is weaker in societies where women are silent citizens. In Kuwait and Saudi Arabia women are fighting for the right to vote. In Saudi Arabia some women are ready to stand as political candidates in municipal elections. Half of the registered electorate who voted in the presidential elections in Gaza and the West Bank were women. In Yemen and Egypt there are demands to include women in the political process. In Morocco women have rights in family law, while in Egypt, a woman won the right to use DNA to prove her ex-husband was the father of her son. Women in Saudi Arabia will be able to apply for driving licences. In practice, impunity for "honour killing" continues in Syria and Jordan. An initiative by the US state department to create a women's network in the Middle East so that women can learn from each other is a positive move. Female leaders in business and politics from Arab nations will meet to discuss economic rights. Where women are being denied their rights, the international community must provide support, resources and ways of integrating and linking these different campaigns.      April 04, 2005   Financial Times (London) 013375

Nigeria: Clerics Fight Measles Vaccinations.   Accusations that vaccines are part of an American anti-Islamic plot are threatening efforts to combat a measles epidemic. Government officials play down the sentiment, but all the measles deaths have been in Nigeria's north, where authorities had to suspend polio immunizations after hard-line clerics fanned similar fears. Nigeria has recorded 20,859 measles cases this year and 589 victims have died, most of them children younger than five. Southern Nigeria, which is mainly Christian, had only 253 cases, and no deaths. The anti-vaccination sentiment seems to be a factor. In 2003, Islamic clerics claimed the U.S. was using polio vaccine to sterilize Muslims or contaminate them with AIDS and ordered a boycott in messages from mosques, in radio broadcasts and door-to-door campaigning. Three state governors in the north joined the boycott that dragged on 11 months before authorities persuaded the governors to accept vaccine from Indonesia. By then the number of polio cases had risen fivefold, and the disease spread to nine other African countries and the anti-vaccine sentiment could affect the measles outbreak. Last year, there were 24,363 Nigerian measles cases from January to September. A big surge would be a blow to WHO, which had hoped to bring measles under control this year. Across Africa, measles deaths fell from 873,000 in 1999 to just more than 500,000 in 2003. Some clerics have added the measles vaccine to their campaign against immunizations. Kano's second-largest mosque said Americans "can't be killing my brothers and children in Iraq and at the same time claim to want to save my children from polio and other diseases." "We suspect a sinister motive." The State Department's spokesman, said such allegations are "crazy, outlandish, unfounded." A senior practitioner at Kano's main hospital, believes people's reservations are being overcome. A Ministry of Health official in Kano, said his office had received no reports of resistance to measles immunizations.      March 27, 2005   Associated Press 013293

Use of Condoms Un-Islamic: Pak Leader.   Pakistan's hardline cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman is opposed to the use of condoms in the name of safe sex and controlling population as he considers it "un-Islamic" and says it has encouraged unmarried young people to have sex. Rehman, the leader of the Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis-e Amal (MMA), made the comments during a meeting with Commonwealth Medical Trust (CMT). He welcomed the measures taken in promoting a reproductive health system but expressed reservations about its policies, which, he said, were "not in line with the Islamic religion and culture."      February 16, 2005   Press Trust of India 012881

Pakistan: Clerics Express Reservations on Use of Contraceptives.   Clerics have expressed reservation on the use of contraceptives as they restrict reproduction and conflict with Islamic injunctions. Some clerics have called for separating married HIV patients from their spouses although NACP officials said it would be a social boycott of infected people. Sources said the clerics were not impressed by the NACP standpoint. Clerics said if a person committed ‘adultery’ and was infected with the virus, he/she did not have the right to deceive his/her family and there were no guarantees that using contraceptives would avoid transmitting the disease. NACP observed that it was difficult to determine whether an individual was infected through sexual intercourse, a contaminated syringe or unscreened blood. The NACP prepared an information kit for the clerics, which covered HIV among young people, the diseases transfer from mother to child and HIV reduction measures. The text was revised to suit Islamic ideologies and by taking into consideration Pakistan’s unique characteristics.      June 01, 2005   Daily Times 012579

Iranian Artist Portrays Inner Strength of Female Muslims.   Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered after his film about violence against women in Islamic societies aired on Dutch television. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the ex-Muslim and liberal Dutch politician who wrote the film script, has received death threats. The U.S. frequently invokes the repression of women as a reason for its fight against radical Islamic fundamentalism. Many Islamic regimes associate women's rights with Western imperialism. Some scholars argue that Islam is no more repressive of women than other religion. Their critics accuse them of hiding behind cultural relativism when it comes to the abuse of Muslim women, from rape and incest to "honor killings" as punishment for adultery. There is the emerging idea of a Qur'an-based Islamic feminism, seen as a dead end by those who believe that the only way to guarantee women's rights in Islamic society is to get religion out of government. Over the past decade, Italian born artist Neshat has earned acclaim for her photographs and videos that show how strong these women are. "Fervor," which was made in 2000, is the third part of a trilogy of video installations by Neshat that began in 1998. One of the lessons of 9-11 is the need for American understanding of Islam. Neshat, a product of both cultures, was born in Iran in 1957, moved to the United States in 1973 to attend the University of California. When she returned to her native country the Islamic Revolution of 1979 had ushered in sweeping changes. "During the Shah 's regime, we had a very open, free environment," the artist explained. "When I went back, there seemed little color. All the women (were) wearing the black chadors that are to protect men and women from sexual temptation. "Fervor" establishes the film's theme of desire. The two become part of a crowd filing into a meeting hall, where men and women are seated on separate sides of a curtain. The scene was inspired, Neshat said "by public Friday prayers in Iran, where masses of men and women come together, but sit separately." In Iran, Neshat said, "you're not supposed to make eye contact with the opposite sex. On a daily basis, the resistance you sense from the women is higher than that of the men. The women are the ones who are repressed, and, therefore, they more likely to resist and ultimately to break free.      December 28, 2004   Kansas City Star 012530

A Ramadan Recipe for World Health.   According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature people are consuming 20% more resources than the earth can produce. The “ecological footprint”, a measure of environmental sustainability, of the North American is seven times that of an Asian or African. We are spending nature’s capital faster than it can regenerate and this indicates a 35% decline in ecological health since 1970 - including widespread water and air pollution, land degradation and habitat destruction. From 1970 terrestrial land and sea species have plummeted by 30% and freshwater populations by 50%. This has led to social and health costs that are plaguing consumers. While Americans are richer and fatter, they are not much happier. Financial debt, the stress associated with working and the ways consumption replaces time with family and friends indicate that more is not always better. The key health costs are smoking, obesity and time pressures. Medical expenses related to smoking cost the US more than $150 billion in 1999 and contributes to 5 million deaths across the world. Several Muslim scholars are declaring smoking to be unlawful. A second cost tied to rising consumption is obesity and an estimated 65% are overweight in the US and is associated with consumption and sedentary lifestyles across the world. There is a trend among South African Muslims to cook healthier. A resurgence of interest has also led to the rediscovery of the benefit in the Ramadan diet of ending the fast with water and dates. The third cost is the time pressures of modern living while time spent with family and friends is decreasing. Ramadan proves that, with effort, one can stop smoking, eat less and spend more time with one’s family. It is inconceivable that money be poured into sport and entertainment while people are dying of hunger and thirst. It is unjust that millions should face starvation, when their countries are exporting cash crops such as coffee, cocoa, pineapples and timber to satisfy consumer appetites. Ramadan offers Muslims the opportunity to control their appetites, share with the needy and spend time with their families. One of the key aims of Ramadan is to build consciousness and self-control and this recipe must be put to the test in individual lifestyles as well as the broader society.      November 23, 2004   World Watch 012198

In the original Cairo conference, 170+ countries approved the principals, but objections came from nations with extremist religious factions, including Catholic and Islamic fundamentalists: Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Vatican; Algeria, Libya, Malta, and Sudan.

Specific objections that have been raised include the Commission on Population and Development's recommendations that (a) reproductive health services should include new methods of emergency contraception, (b) abortion be made safe where it is legal, and (c) that young people have full access to sexual and reproductive health education and services.012031 Religion_Islam`M



Iran's Family Planning Program is Succeeding .     June 1998   Popline 012030

Ayad Al-Qazzaz,   CSU Sacramento: Muslims are now at 1 billion and will double to 2 billion in 30 years. Muslims have varied cultures. Family planning is permitted and often encouraged. 4/98   April 1998   012029

Uganda: Family Planning Cause of Fewer Baganda Kids.   People in Buganda region registered the lowest population growth for 10 years. N. Uganda produced the most babies. Population in the north is growing at 4.6%, the eastern region 3.5% the western region 2.9% and Buganda 2.7%. Buganda's population grew by 1,781,645, an increase of 36%. Mubajje said Government and development agencies should not agitate for fewer children but devise means to enable people to create more income to lead better lives. The Government should address the fears on reproduction as Islamic scriptures support procreation and believers should produce more children.   Note: Islam does not necessarily support mindless procreation. See WOA!!s section on Religion.   October 2002   New Vision (Uganda) 004179

Muslim Heads Back Family Planning.   Muslim leaders in Mindanao have issued an edict, or fatwah, in support of the government's reproductive health campaign. The edict will be distributed and adopted in the Visayas. It encourages Muslims to practice family planning as one way of improving their way of life. This edict is an offshoot of ICPD's advocacy on family planning which includes birth spacing and use of contraceptives, as a solution to mitigate poverty.      September 11, 2004   The Freeman 011582

Pakistan: Debate Heats Up Over Controversial Ordinance On Islamic Law.   Islamic conservatives in Pakistan's parliament are criticizing President Musharraf for a debate on a series of Islamic laws, which are based on an interpretation of the Koran and was introduced in 1979 by Pakistan's former dictator. Human-rights groups have been complaining about inequalities that came into effect under the Hudood Ordinance. One example is that a woman rape victim in Pakistan must obtain court testimony from four "pious" male Muslim witnesses to prove her case and if she fails to do so, she is liable to prosecution for adultery. The punishments include a public whipping or death by stoning and has led to an increase of rape cases. Another law concerns blasphemy against Islam and calls for the death penalty. The secretary-general of the Islamic alliance said that Musharraf is under pressure from the West and they will block any effort to alter the 25-year-old Hudood Ordinance, everything will be done to resist the ideology of secularism.      May 19, 2004   010645

Philippines: Muslim Religious Leaders Support Family Planning.   200 Muslim clerics met at the Marco Polo Hotel in the Philippines and agreed that family planning was important. They issued a fatwah to Muslim communities where about 55% of women wanted to practice family planning but were afraid that Islam would not allow it. No vasectomy or ligation but the fatwah allows the use of legal contraception approved by a Muslim physician. The country's Muslim clerics have a more liberal view of population control than the Catholic Church. While Muslim leaders agree on family planning, they have been divided on the methods to be adopted. In the latter part of 2003 a massive research, using the Koran, arrived at a common stand on birth control. The Grand Mufti of Egypt said he too was for population control. It is hoped the fatwah would help in reducing the mortality rate of infants and women in the region. 200 to 300 women die each year in Northern Mindanao from pregnancy-related illnesses. Some 55 babies born every year die at birth. With one of the highest birth rates in Asia, the Philippines will add 1.6 to 2 million people this year, raising it to 84 million. The country's population could explode to 170 million in less than 30 years, that will trap millions of Filipinos in poverty. 40% of Filipinos live below the poverty line. Population control has taken a back seat in the election, with the front-runners, President Macapagal-Arroyo and Fernando Poe Jr., campaigning mainly on pledges to fight corruption and enforce law and order.      March 12, 2004   Philippine Daily Inquirer 009999

Osama Bin Laden's Got a Point.   This article is the full text of Osama bin Laden's online "letter to the American people" that appeared on the internet in Arabic and has since been translated and circulated by Islamists in Britain. Among his perhaps more legitimate claims are: We are fighting and opposing you because: "You attack Muslims in Palestine; you attacked us in Somalia; you supported the Russian atrocities against us in Chechnya, the Indian oppression against us in Kashmir, and the Jewish aggression against us in Lebanon .. You steal our wealth and oil at paltry prices because of you international influence and military threats .. Your forces occupy our countries; you spread your military bases throughout them; You corrupt our lands, and you besiege our sanctities, to protect the security of the Jews and to ensure the continuity of your pillage of our treasures .. You have starved the Muslims of Iraq, where children die every day. It is a wonder that more than 1.5 million Iraqi children have died as a result of your sanctions, and you did not show concern. Yet when 3000 of your people died, the entire world rises and has not yet sat down." Bin Laden claims "Islam is the religion of Unification of God, sincerity, the best of manners, righteousness, mercy, honour, purity, and piety. It is the religion of showing kindness to others, establishing justice between them, granting them their rights, and defending the oppressed and the persecuted. It is the religion of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil with the hand, tongue and heart. And it is the religion of unity and agreement on the obedience to Allah, and total equality between all people, without regarding their colour, sex, or language." Bin Laden calls upon Americans to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling's, and trading with interest. He says: "Your law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts. Behind them stand the Jews, who control your policies, media and economy. ... You are a nation that exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools calling upon customers to purchase them. You use women to serve passengers, visitors, and strangers to increase your profit margins. You then rant that you support the liberation of women. .. You have destroyed nature with your industrial waste and gases more than any other nation in history. Despite this, you refuse to sign the Kyoto agreement so that you can secure the profit of your greedy companies and*industries. .. Your law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts. .. Your policy on prohibiting and forcibly removing weapons of mass destruction to ensure world peace: it only applies to those countries which you do not permit to possess such weapons. As for the countries you consent to, such as Israel, then they are allowed to keep and use such weapons to defend their security. Anyone else who you suspect might be manufacturing or keeping these kinds of weapons, you call them criminals and you take military action against them. .. You are the last ones to respect the resolutions and policies of International Law, yet you claim to want to selectively punish anyone else who does the same. Israel has for more than 50 years been pushing UN resolutions and rules against the wall with the full support of America. .. In America, you captured thousands the Muslims and Arabs, took them into custody with neither reason, court trial, nor even disclosing their names. .. We call upon you to end your support of the corrupt leaders in our countries."      November 24, 2002   Guardian (London) 009446

Aftermath of War: Iraqi Women Worry About Losing Liberty.   Saddam Hussein's secular Baath Party afforded women freedoms not known in Muslim countries. Women make up 55% of Iraq's population and for years held level ground with men and made up a large percentage of the professional class. Iraqi women could vote, be free to choose whom, or whether, to marry, retain custody of their children after divorce, inherit property equally with their brothers and drive. In the mid-1990s, Saddam began catering to Islamic fundamentalists. Some women say growing poverty prompted them to turn to religion. Others say peer pressure led them to wear a hijab. Now even in Baghdad, women who leave their hair uncovered are in the minority. Most are wearing the hijab. Among Iraq's liberated women, there is concern that a power vacuum could give rise to fundamentalism. In Shiite strongholds calls are increasing for Iraq to become an Islamic state that would mean the establishment of Muslim law. Even women with a conservative religious outlook said they would not support a government that made them second-class citizens.      May 17, 2003   The Atlanta Journal and Constitution 006685

Iran Plan to Remove Inequalities Blocked.   Iran's hardliners blocked a move to remove legal and social inequalities against women. The conservative Guardian Council rejected a bill binding Iran to the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The council ruled the measure was against Islamic law and oblige Iran to accept un-Islamic laws. The bill won overwhelming support in parliament. Iran's legal system enshrines unequal rights in divorce, custody, inheritance and blood money. Senior clerics criticised reformists for endorsing the campaign. A hardline cleric addressed a letter, calling the motion "illegitimate" for "imposing cultural and social patterns" of the west. Women claimed the bill could allow opposite sexes to mingle in public baths and swimming pools. Under the present law, men and women are segregated for activities that require loose covering of hair and body. The embattled reformists, face declining popularity for failing to meet demands for reform, had expected the bill to be blocked. But the main intention was to challenge conservatives and demonstrate the obstacles they presented to reforms.      August 13, 2003   Financial Times (London) 007644

The Vatican


The Holy See is a Church, Not a Country,   says the the Catholics for a Free Choice. The Holy See has had the status of a country in the U.N. and has been abusing it. A coalition of more than 100 international women's, religious, and reproductive rights groups launched the See Change Campaign to challenge the Vatican's power at the U.N.-and to downgrade its status from a nonmember state to a traditional NGO. It is the only only religious body to enjoy "nonmember state permanent observer" status. The Vatican has fought the morning-after pill for rape victims; opposed any mention of female condoms; advocated replacing "rights" with "status"-as in "respect for women's status" instead of "respect for women's rights," and is against confidential sex counseling for adolescents and for a reconfirmation of parental rights. One its most extreme positions is the prohibition on the use of condoms for protection against sexually transmitted diseases, even for married couples in which one partner has HIV.   1999   012032

Bill to Increase Access to Contraception is Dividing Filipinos.   A story is told of a poor woman in Manila who felt she could not afford more than the three children she had and tried to cause a miscarriage by jumping down the stairs. That failed, and a boy was born. With the next two pregnancies she tried unsuccessfully to terminate them using an herbal concoction with the first and Cytotect, the abortion pill, in the next. She was barely able to buy vitamins for their youngest child, let alone send more than two of their older children to school. Abortion is illegal in the Philippines. Birth control is available to those who can afford to pay for them through the private medical system, but 70% of the population is too poor and depends on heavily subsidized health care. In 1991, prime responsibility for delivering public health services shifted from the central government to the local authorities, many of which have made birth control unavailable. New legislation before the Philippine Congress, called the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act, would require governments down to the local level to provide free or low-cost reproductive health services, including condoms, birth control pills, tubal ligations and vasectomies, and would also mandate sex education in all schools, public and private, from fifth grade through high school. A government survey found that only half of Filipino women of reproductive age used birth control of any kind, and the Guttmacher Institute says that 54% of the 3.4 million pregnancies in the Philippines in 2008 were unintended, with 92% resulting from not using birth control and the rest from birth control that failed. Those unintended pregnancies contributed to an estimated half-million abortions that year, despite a ban on the procedure, which often leads to an unsafe abortion. A Representative in the Philippine Congress says there is a need for a check on population growth, which is growing at more than 2 percent annually, in the interest of national welfare. "Unbridled population growth stunts socioeconomic development and aggravates poverty." The main opposition is the Roman Catholic church and affiliated lay organizations, which say the proposed law would legalize abortion. Proponents of the bill are optimistic, and hope it can be passed before the current Congress adjourns in June.   October 26, 2009   New York Times* 024212

EU Presses for Immediate Passage of RH Bill in Philippines.   A European Union top official in the Philippines, Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, asked Congress to immediately pass the controversial reproductive health bill, saying that the absence of an effective framework for reproductive health is "anti-poor, anti-women, anti-children, and anti-development." "The poor are paying the highest price, both individually and collectively." He said that the EU alls for the effective implementation of a comprehensive national family planning policy, which would promote access to family planning method. In the Philippine House of Representatives, Bill 5043 - or "An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development" - is currently pending. The Catholic Church has opposed the measure, saying it would promote abortion.   May 14, 2009   GMA News TV 023951

Thailand: Your Holiness, Meet the Condom King.   In Bangkok, Soi 12, is a street off the main drag. Here it's easy to forget Bangkok's reputation as a destination for sex tourism. Then you see the sign for Mechai Viravaidya's restaurant: Cabbages and Condoms. Mechai, known locally as the Condom King, has been a vocal proponent of condom use for years, later, as HIV infection spread, as a weapon in the war on AIDS. Mechai was minister of tourism, and instrumental in the promotion of Thailand's 100 Percent Condom Campaign, which has been credited with the country's decline in the rate of HIV infection. In a visit to Africa the pope took a position against condom use as a tool in AIDS prevention. "You can't resolve it with condoms, it increases the problem." The pope underscores the position that rejects condoms as artificial contraception, and that marital fidelity and pre-marital abstinence are the key weapons against HIV. In Third World and developing nations, those are hollow concepts. With 22 million people infected in sub-Saharan Africa, altering the trajectory of the disease will require far more than philosophical suggestions. The pope is right, distribution of condoms will not resolve the crisis. Perhaps his visit to an area that saw three-quarters of all 2007 AIDS deaths will convince him that fidelity, abstinence and education won't do it, either. Broad-based efforts incorporating the promotion of condom use and education on sexual health offer the best chance to rein in the pandemic.   March 20, 2009   The Dothan Eagle 023733

Vatican Changes Pope's Mind on Condoms and AIDS in Africa; Contraceptives Only 'Risk' Aggravating Epidemic.   The Pope told reporters on his trip to Africa that AIDS is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and the distribution of condoms aggravates the problems. Taken aback by outrage worldwide, the Holy See altered the remark to read that condoms "risked" aggravating the problem. By introducing the word "risks" the message was softened. In addition he had not said that reliance on condoms "risked" aggravating the problem, as the amended version had it, but rather that it "even aggravated it" or, as some media translated it, "increased" it. The papal spokesman, continued to defend the Pope's remarks saying that he was continuing the line taken by his predecessors. He said the Pope maintained that the distribution of condoms was "not in reality the best way" to tackle AIDS. The Pope's speeches and homilies as released by the Vatican are normally regarded as sacrosanct. The US-based Catholics for Choice welcomed the change as an admission that the Pope was not infallible on the issue and was willing to acknowledge his mistakes. The vast majority of Catholics use condoms to protect themselves and their partners against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.   Karen Gaia says: Two Catholic countries, Spain and Italy, have birth rates of around 1.5. I doubt if they are using abstinence.   March 19, 2009   The Times 023747

Pope Visits Africa, Reaffirms Ban on Condoms.   Pope Benedict XVI refused to soften the Vatican's ban on condom use as he arrived in Africa for his first visit as pope. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it. The pontiff reiterated the Vatican's policy on condom use. He intends to uphold the traditional Catholic teaching on artificial contraception, but his remarks were among the first times he stated the policy explicitly since he became pope nearly four years ago. He has assembled a panel of scientists and theologians to consider the question of whether to allow condoms for married couples, one of whom has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.   March 2009   CNN 023627

Op-Ed on The Pope vs. the Pill.   Forty years ago Pope Paul VI provoked the greatest uproar against a papal edict when he reiterated the church's ban on artificial birth control. Catholics have frequently groused about papal rulings but never before July 25, 1968 had opposition been so immediate, so public and so widespread. The Humanae Vitae held that the twin functions of marriage to foster love between the partners and to be open to children are so closely related as to be inseparable. That meant a resounding no to the pill. Letters claim that the encyclical Humanae Vitae suffers from a lack of humanity. Forty years ago, Pope Paul VI could and did choose to disregard the recommendations he solicited from Catholic couples and physicians; recommendations based on the real, human experience of marital love. That a group of celibate men can leverage the faith to enforce this ban, and continue to cause needless anguish among decent people throughout the world is no accomplishment. Decisions about having children should be freely made by couples. Religious teachings that ignore human rights cannot be justified by either overpopulation or underpopulation.   November 23, 2008   New York Times* 023375

U.S.: Planned Parenthood Responds to O'Malley.   Planned Parenthood responded to criticism from the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston who said that Obama "is possibly in the pocket of Planned Parenthood, which was a racist organization to eliminate the blacks, and it's ironic that he's been co-opted by them." The response alleges that the cardinal is out of step with Catholics and has said that the some of the church's teachings are "countercultural, and the church could do better persuading rank-and-file Catholics of its teachings". Planned Parenthood responded "It diminishes Cardinal O'Malley's credibility when he attacks Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood for views and services his own members overwhelmingly support. If he is going to opine on politics, it would be good for them to understand why their messages didn't stick with their primary audience.   November 20, 2008   Boston Globe 023367

Philippines: Church Official Says Bishops Need Not Have to Undergo Sex Education Program.   A Catholic Church official rebuffed a proposal for prelates to undergo a sex education program, saying bishops have knowledge on the matter. The Church has long been giving sex education to Catholic schools and these bishops have been presidents or owners of these schools. However, compared to the sex education being pushed by pro-Reproductive Health bill lawmakers, the sex education being given by the Catholic Church focuses on human sexuality. One of the principal authors of the controversial bill appealed to the bishops to undergo orientation on reproductive health and observe sex education sessions that the program seeks to institutionalize. What the bills hopes to do is inform young Filipinos about the dangers of irresponsible sex, to give mothers choices on how they wish to manage their families and avoid unwanted pregnancies, and prevent the death of hundreds of Filipino women because of abortion. The CBCP in their statement entitled 'Standing up for the Gospel of Life' said that House Bill 5043 is unacceptable in its present form.   November 20, 2008   Age 023363

Op-ed: to Be Truly Pro-life, the Vatican Should Lift Its Contraception Ban.   The Vatican banned all artificial methods of contraception and, at that time, the Irish government bent its knee to the church. That changed but the church's ban has not. On the 40th anniversary of that day in 1968 Pope Paul VI confirmed a total ban on modern family planning methods. Many believed the teaching would change, but he removed the Birth Control Commission from the main debates of the Second Vatican Council in an apparent attempt to control its findings. His successor expanded the commission to include five married women. The commission found that many of the scientific and theological underpinnings of the ban were faulty or outdated. But conservative members of the commission held firm. The hearts and minds of the conservative bishops were swayed by the testimonials from married couples who explained the realities of attempting a healthy sex life without the aid of contraception. The vast majority of the commission voted to permit contraception. Sadly, the pope took a political decision and adopted a minority report of the few members who opposed change. The ban has been disastrous in the developing world where Catholic hierarchies hold significant sway, especially in Latin America and the Philippines, obstructing good policies on family planning and HIV prevention. Catholics support the use of contraception, and those who can access it use it. It would enable millions more families to make informed decisions if the church lifted this ban - not to mention the impact it would have on HIV prevention. The bishops talk on promoting a culture of life but do not respect the reality of people's lives. It would be compassionate and just for the church to change this fatally flawed teaching.   July 29, 2008   The Irish Times 023345

Australia: Pope Issues Tough Warning Over Pop Culture, Environment.   Pope Benedict XVI warned Catholics in Australia of the perils of pop culture and pillaging the earth's resources. The pontiff told hundreds of thousands of pilgrims that "something is amiss" in modern society. "Our world has grown weary of greed, false idols and piecemeal responses, and the pain of false promises," the pope said. He told youths from around the world, that humanity was squandering the earth's resources to satisfy its appetite for material goods. The pope spoke poetically of his 20-hour flight to Australia, saying the views from his plane evoked a sense of awe. But the pontiff told his audience that the planet's problems were easier to perceive from the sky. We come to acknowledge that there are scars, erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources. Prime Minister Rudd. The pontiff hailed Prime Minister Rudd's apology to Aborigines for past injustices. "Concrete steps are now being taken to achieve reconciliation based on mutual respect," Benedict said. There was confusion over whether the pope would deliver an apology to Australian victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergymen. Benedict indicated to journalists on the way to Australia that he would apologise but a Vatican official raised doubts over the issue. The pope later toured the city in his bullet-proof "popemobile".   July 18, 2008   AFP 023187

Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty; Contraceptives, Rejected by Government, Are Unaffordable for Many in Majority-Catholic Nation.   A fast-growing segment of the Philippine population is the very poor people with large families. There is a compelling link between family size and poverty. It increases in lock step with the number of children, as nutrition, health, education and job prospects all decline. Birth and poverty rates here are among the highest in Asia. And the Philippines, where four out of five of the country's 91 million people are Roman Catholic, also stands out for its government's rejection of modern contraception as part of family planning. The government has supported only what it calls "natural" family planning. No government funds can be used to buy contraceptives for the poor, although anyone who can afford them is permitted to buy them. Local governments can also buy and distribute contraceptives, but many lack the money. Distribution of donated contraceptives in the government's clinics ends this year, as does a contraception-commodities program paid for by the US. For years it has supplied most of the condoms, pills and devices used by poor Filipinos. "Family planning helps reduce poverty," President Arroyo said in a 2003 speech that detailed her approach to birth control. But she said then and has since insisted that the government would support only family planning methods acceptable to the Catholic Church. Women not wanting to get pregnant, Arroyo advised, should buy a thermometer and recording charts and abstain from sex when they are outside the "infertile phases of the monthly cycle." Arroyo, 61 with three grown children, said in 2003 that when she was a young mother, she took birth control pills. She later confessed to a priest. Health workers fear retaliation and harassment from officials in the national and city government, as well as from the Catholic Church. In 2005, Catholic bishops announced they would refuse Communion to government health workers who distributed birth control devices. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines declined requests for comment on its family planning policies. "Chemical agents and gadgets that make up the contraceptive methods of birth control have caused damage in family relationships, disrupting the unity and openness that build family life, and even the hideous murderous act of abortion," said Archbishop Paciano Aniceto. In recent weeks, public alarm over the soaring price of rice has focused attention on the fast-growing population. Despite increasing rice harvests, farmers here have been unable to keep pace with domestic demand. In 1970, the population was about 36 million and growing at about 3% a year. But with an aggressive family planning program that provides the poor with free contraceptives, Thailand has reduced its population growth rate to 0.9%. In the Philippines, the rate has declined sluggishly to about 2.1%. There are now about 26 million more people in the Philippines than in Thailand. The Philippines produces 16 million metric tons of rice a year and needs to import 2 million tons. If the Philippines had pursued what Thailand has done, the Philippines would be a net exporter of 3 million metric tons. The Philippines could have lifted 3.6 million more people out of poverty if it had followed Thailand's population growth. The evidence from across Asia is that good population policy contributes to significant poverty reduction. There appears to be widespread public support in the Philippines for modern contraceptives. About 90% of respondents supported government funding of contraceptives for people who cannot afford them. Poor families have more unwanted pregnancies than richer families. The problems the poor face will increase sharply this year as the Philippine government and USAID end the distribution of donated contraceptives. The government's plan for "contraceptive self-reliance" anticipates that condoms and other products will be available in shops or will be given to the poor by local governments. But access to contraceptives will be restricted for most of those who cannot pay and for many who might be willing to pay. Abortion is illegal , but a 2006 study found that there were about 473,000 a year, which accounts for about a third of women with unwanted pregnancies. About 80% of abortions had complications requiring medical treatment. The natural method to control population growth does not work. USAID has increased its budget, from about $12 million to about $15 million a year, to provide technical assistance to 700 local governments and "to help the private sector to grow the market" for contraceptives.   April 21, 2008   Washington Post 022987

In the Philippines, Less of What Women Want.   The surge in food prices is beginning suggest that population growth is an important factor, especially in the Philippines. The country's population growth rate of 2% annually stems in large part from governmental hostility to modern contraception. It's hard to believe that in 2008 a government would try to quell the use of contraceptives. Most women and their partners could use these devices, and most sexually active people in wealthy countries take their availability for granted. The Philippines' government follows respectfully the dictates of the Catholic hierarchy, which has condemned modern contraceptives. Health organization staff asked not to be named because "they fear retaliation and harassment from officials in the national and city government, as well as from the Catholic Church." Maria Susana Espinoza lives with her husband and children in a squatter's hut in a garbage dump by Manila Bay. She hoped to have just two children but only learned details about contraception after her fourth child. Ancient fears of sexuality and of women's control over their own childbearing still operate in some places. As food and energy prices rise, the world's fertility rate ought to be falling. Since women can't postpone conceptions just by wishing, however, pregnancies happen despite their best intentions.   May 08, 2008   Providence Journal-Bulletin (Rhode Island) 022988

90 Million Filipinos.   According to a census an additional 1.7 million babies will be born in the Phillipines in 2008, at the current population growth rate of 1.94%. The current population level puts the Philippines in 12th place in terms of population worldwide. The good news is that the growth rate seems to have slowedbut not fast enough to ease the strain on national and family resources. Each fertile Filipina is expected to give birth to at least three babies in her lifetime. China has been implementing a one-child policy to stem the growth of its population. In many affluent societies, population growth has been in the negative figures for years. These countries are experiencing growth through migration, as in the US. The decrease in population growth rate is mostly due to individual choice in this country. The government has failed to put in place a population management campaign, mostly because of opposition from the Catholic Church. The Arroyo administration's failure to implement a population control program is par for the course. All previous administrations that attempted to control population have bowed to the Church's stand against all forms of contraception. Even the US government has all but accepted defeat. After 30 years of supporting programs to slow population growth, Washington announced that it was sending its final shipment of contraceptives to the Philippines. The Department of Health has given up as well, saying that contraceptive distribution programs will now be paid for by the local governments that can afford them. Only localities that can't pay for population control programs will be subsidized by the national government. For some reason, few politicians have dared to challenge the Catholic hierarchy when it comes to population policy. Advocating a population control program will lead to lost votes, despite the waning influence of the Church in nearly all other aspects of daily life. Many politicians have used the "pro-life" tag even without real "pro-choice" opposition, muddling the situation even further. The only champions of choice are underfunded NGO's that support women's rights. And not all do so openly, not even the large party-list groups, who fear a backlash from the Church. The devolution of contraceptive distribution programs could change the population policy in the years to come. Local governments, especially those affluent enough to ignore the Church and its power to influence the vote, could provide the breeding ground, as it were, for a national population control policy. Local governments see the cause-and-effect relationship of population and poverty. Local officials need to provide jobs, health services, education and other benefits that the cash-strapped national government simply cannot subsidize. It will take an enlightened local official who is willing to take the political risk of saying that a realistic population policy is required, and back that up with sustained funding for contraception. Then, perhaps other localities will implement their own population control campaigns. Ninety million Filipinos is a lot of people to feed, shelter and educate. If the Church and the national government will not do it, somebody elsesomeone not beholden to the Catholic vote, if it truly existswill.   Karen Gaia says: The only complaint I have about this article is the use of the the term 'population control'. It has negative connotations that seem to contradict the purposes of the pro-choice proponents.   January 08, 2008   Manila Standard Today 022497

Anti-abortion Bill Imperils Italy's Governing Coalition.   The Vatican is backing an Italian opposition proposal to make it harder to end pregnancies, threatening to open new divisions in Prime Minister Romano Prodi's coalition. The proposal was welcomed by the current and previous heads of the Italian bishops' conference and Mr. Bondi has called to ban abortion after the 90th day of pregnancy. The call has gained support among conservative Catholics across party lines, threatening to undermine efforts to unite the nine-way coalition.   January 05, 2008   New York Times* 022484

Pope Calls for Increased Efforts to Fight the Spread of AIDS.   The Pope is calling for intensified efforts to stop the spread of HIV, asking all people of good will to multiply their efforts to stop the disease, to oppose the scorn that often strikes those affected and to take care of the sick, especially children. The Pope said he is spiritually close to those who suffer as a result of HIV-AIDS, as well as to their families, and that he offers prayers for them all.   Ralph says: Why not use his common sense and provide condoms? It is easier to pray for them instead.   November 28, 2007   Canadian Press 022337

Italy;: AIDS Message Takes on Pope by Breaking C-word Taboo.   A film director has broken a national taboo by making a series of AIDS awareness advertisements using the word "condom". A government-backed TV commercial aimed at helping Italians to overcome their embarrassment in asking for contraceptives. Previous campaigns have avoided mention of condoms in the Catholic nation, which records 4,000 new HIV cases each year. Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholic pharmacists to avoid dispensing contraceptives and pregnancy terminating drugs. The latest adverts have put the administration on a collision course with the Vatican. One shows the airport chemist's shop, where a young man is trying to summon up the courage to ask for condoms. His girlfriend, impatient with his shyness, marches up to the counter and asks for them. An older couple waiting for a flight follow suit, and the chemist is suddenly inundated by passengers clamouring for condoms. Ambra Angiolini, a well known actress and TV host, will remind viewers of the "terrifying statistics" of AIDS infection. She told the Corriere della Sera that many young Italians thought of AIDS as "something that has passed, like smallpox, and which people don't catch any more". The Health Minister said that the Pope had the right to "urge young people to be sexually responsible" but had "no business telling professionals such as pharmacists what to do".   November 23, 2007   The Times (London) 022326

South African Bishop Defies Vatican on Condoms.   There are so many women here with stories of pain. Bishop Dowling heard them, and he did the right thing: distributed condoms. But he won't keep quiet, no matter how closely Rome watches, and so that risk is ever present. Freedom Park is 5,000 shacks made of salvaged scraps of tin propped up cheek by jowl. It has no electricity, no water and the streets turn to impenetrable ooze in the rain. This is just one of a half-dozen squatter camps that are home to 100,000 people. The men work in the mines for a year or two, and leave their families at home. They don't earn much, but make reasonable wages, enough to buy female company when they get lonely. "The only way to eat is boyfriends," explained Thembi Maboyana, 38, she came here as a girl of 15. It's the ideal environment for the spread of HIV, nearly half of women here test positive. Not long after Kevin Dowling was made bishop of this diocese 16 years ago, he started making trips to the camps. In one shack after another, he heard the same stories. He found pregnant women in the last hours of their lives lying on the damp, dirt floors; their babies would be born dead or die after a week or two. The diocese in 1996 started a small called Topologo clinic in a shipping container. It has grown to include a school, a day care, a skills-training centre, an ARV clinic that provides life-saving drugs to people with AIDS, and a hospice for those who can't be saved. Teams of outreach workers visit the sick, counsel new patients and urge people to protect themselves from the virus. How? "They must use condoms." And that is how the bishop wound up in the opposite corner from his church. The Vatican forbids the use of condoms in any circumstance; it says the sole way to protect oneself from AIDS is abstinence and fidelity in marriage. Bishop Dowling says that doctrine has no relevance in Freedom Park. "Abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in a marriage is beyond the realm of possibility here," he said. "The issue is to protect life". And to deny the millions of Catholics who live in AIDS-ravaged East and Southern Africa the use of condoms is to contravene the basic pro-life message of the Church, he said. The papal nuncio informed him that his views were unacceptable. Then the bishops' conference condemned his words and claimed: condoms were "an immoral and misguided weapon" in the fight against AIDS and not permitted in any circumstance. A while later, they went even further, saying condoms might actually increase the spread of AIDS by encouraging people to have more sex. The Tapologo project offers women training in beadwork and crafts and bread-making. But it won't be a solution to the poverty and joblessness. Nor will the cultural mores that leave women powerless. Bishop Dowling is in favour ending those things, but it won't happen fast. He hadn't wanted to be a bishop and despite his defiance, the Vatican has not asked him to resign. Bishop Dowling said he has had a groundswell of support. There are many who admire his stand, and other priests and nuns who quietly give out condoms across the region. Bishop Dowling rarely leaves home without popping in to the hospice, yet there is a terrible tension between his commitment to his work and his deep connection to his Catholic faith.   April 07, 2007   Globe and Mail 020830

Religion Vs Make Love, Not Babies.   My grandfather, son of an Irish immigrant, was excommunicated from the Catholic Church when he married my grandmother who was not Catholic. When I joined the Navy at 18 my best buddy was Catholic. He told me the Pope was "infallible" which made me question could any human be "infallible". My "god" is Mother Nature. An old knarled oak is one of my sacred places. My community designated the biggest, most twisted, oldest OAK (Quercus agrifolia) with a plaque which reads: The Bill Denneen Coast Live Oak. "I went to the woods because I wished to live there. It could be said I worship the SUN, an ancient Oak, the natural world and Point Sal. Does the Catholic Church thus call me an atheist?? Pope Benedict XVI in his second encyclical states:" A world without God is world without hope". Does his reference to "God" include my "Mother Nature", doubt it. Another area of conflict between the Pope and I is with the current "population explosion". We have added 5,000,000,000 to this planet since I was born. Ignoring this problem will not make it go away. The Pope has no objection to keeping people alive as long as possible and this has caused the average life expectancy to double in the past century. This is the basic cause of the "population explosion". If everyone died at 40 [average] like they did in 1900 instead of living to be 80 now there would be no "population explosion". The Pope is opposed to reducing the birth rate with contraception. The Pope & I are about the same age. He choose to be "celibate" which to me as a biologist is abnormal. I guess the only time Catholics should have penis-vagina sex is for babies. I favor "recreational" sex as long as it doesn't produce unwanted babies or spread diseases. The Pope was celibate as a youth and now he wants the whole world to be that way. Europe has a birth rate equal to the death rate. Even Italy which is 97% Catholic has a birth rate so low they are not even replacing themselves. It took Homo sapiens 2 million years to reach our first billion in about 1800 but only about a century to add the second billion in 1927. We have now "exploded" to almost 7 billion. Improved nutrition and health care has resulted in humans living longer and longer. The Catholic Church does not object to prolonging life but objects to contraception. A group praying in front of Planned Parenthood in Santa Maria are opposed to not only abortion but also to contraception - they are against condoms, IUD's, vasectomies, tubals, and even sex education . All local hospitals are Catholic and do not offer any of the above.-----why??. Margaret Sanger, who did the ground work that established Planned Parenthood Federation with clinics throughout America, was arrested innumerable times and was constantly harassed. "Abstinence Only" ignores basic biology and is a waste of money. Males & females are attracted to each other. The goal of Planned Parenthood is for every baby to be born wanted, planned and loved. It is tragic that over half the all pregnancies in the US are unintended. My favorite bumper-sticker is: MAKE LOVE NOT BABIES.   December 23, 2007   Bill Deneen 022446

Philippines;: Bishops Reject Birth Control.   The Catholic Church will stand firm in its position against the use of contraceptives, the Bishops in the Philippines said. Archbishop Lagdameo said no matter how many surveys claim the increasing support for family planning methods, the Church will never waver in its support for natural methods to plan families. Surveys favoring contraceptives will not alter the Church's position. The use of birth controls would not change the objectives of the moral law on contraceptives. A US-based organization claimed that the support for contraceptive use should serve as an indicator for the Church to reconsider its stand. The group cited a survey by the Catholics for Free Choice showing that 77% of Filipino Catholics believe that using condoms is pro-life because it saves lives by preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Msgr. Quitorio downplayed the result of the local survey. He also belied reports that condoms prevent the spread of STDs. In Thailand for example, he said, the more they use condoms, the more the AIDS become widespread. He said that statistically, there is no proof that condoms can prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.   Ralph says: The church should require it's priests to know mathmatics   December 14, 2007   Manila Standard 022409

Pope's Appeal to Allow Pharmacists to be Conscientious Objectors.   The Pope told an international conference that pharmacists should be guaranteed the right to conscientious objection in cases where medicines they distribute can block pregnancy, provoke abortion or assist euthanasia. Health Minister Livia Turco said that the Pope could not tell professionals such as pharmacists what to do. Benedict did not mention any specific drugs but appeared to refer to the morning after pill. It is available only by doctor's prescription in Italy. He also referred to RU-486, which is available on an experimental basis in some Italian hospitals. It blocks the action of hormones needed to keep a fertilized egg implanted in the uterus. The head of pharmacists' professional group Federfarma, said that by law pharmacists had to distribute medicine prescribed by a doctor. While some politicians defended the Pope's right to speak his mind and the right of pharmacists to be conscientious objectors, others criticized him. The Church teaches that artificial birth control, abortion and euthanasia are wrong. Italian media interviewed pharmacists who are practicing Catholics. Some said they were obliged to put aside their personal beliefs and sell the prescribed medicine, while others said they preferred to ask a colleague to do so. US family planning groups support wider access, but conservative and religious groups have argued that easy availability of the pill promotes promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases.   October 30, 2007   Reuters 022174

U.S.;: Catholic Bishops Offer Voting Guide, Allowing Some Flexibility on Issue of Abortion.   The nation's Roman Catholic bishops approved principles intended to guide Catholics in choosing whom to vote for but leaving the door open for them to back candidates who support abortion rights. That broad consensus might help the church avoid the fissures that occurred in 2004, when some conservative Catholic groups issued voter guidelines that identified abortion as "non-negotiable" and a group of bishops touched off a debate about whether Catholic candidates who back abortion rights should be denied Communion. Past documents allowed Catholics to vote, in certain cases, for candidates who support abortion rights.   November 15, 2007   New York Times* 022275

Philippines;: Manila Promotes Natural Family Planning.   The government of the Philippines has decided to follow the Catholic Church and promote natural family planning (NFP) methods. The plan is part of the Family Planning Month launched by the Commission on Population. Its objectives are promoting responsible parenting in couples and encouraging men to be responsible partners. The Commission wants to educate at least 4.2 million couples nationwide between 2007 and 2010. Responsible parenting classes are expected to mobilise a critical mass of parents. Rural barangay (village) health workers will recruit married couples to join responsible parenting classes. The regional director of the Commission said that whilst people are familiar with the use of condoms, vasectomy and tubal ligation, they are not much aware of natural family planning methods. For years the Filipino government has tried to reduce population growth. On occasions this has led to conflict with the Catholic Church. This time state and Church are on the same side. Mgr Pedro C. Quitorio III, spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, said that the “Church welcomed” the government's effort.   August 14, 2007   Asia News 021758

Brazil's Lula Says Abortion Issue Cannot Be Ignored.   President da Silva said on the eve of a visit by Pope Benedict to Brazil that abortion was a public health issue. He was personally opposed to abortion but because of Brazil's social conditions, some pregnant women needed help and the state needs to treat this as question of public health. Pope Benedict has denounced abortion and birth control as immoral. Abortion is illegal in Brazil but at least two hundred thousand abortions are performed each year. Brazil's new health minister called for a plebiscite on abortion earlier this year. "If we had good family planning and sex education, we would not have the number of unwanted pregnancies" Lula said. Brazil has the world's largest Catholic population but Protestant groups have been making inroads for decades.   May 08, 2007   Reuters 021152

Cardinal Faults Amnesty on Abortion.   A Vatican cardinal said that Roman Catholics shouldn't contribute to Amnesty International because it calls for access to abortion services under certain circumstances. The organization adopted a policy urging governments to ensure access to abortion services for women in the case of rape, incest or when pregnancy represents a risk to the mother's life or health. Cardinal Renato Martino, criticized the policy, saying it represented a betrayal of ensuring human rights around the world. The consequence will be the suspension of any financing to Amnesty on the part of Catholics. Amnesty said it had never received any financing from the Vatican or Roman Catholic organizations. Amnesty's statutes specifically say that the London-based organization is independent of any other group. The group said it recognized that women and girls were victims of gender-based violence and bear the consequences of the abuse. Amnesty says it decided to make the policy so it could address abortion as it relates to ensuring the health for women and fighting violence against women. The statement from Martino's office was carried by the official Vatican Radio but omitted a key phrase in which Martino says even individual Catholics should withhold financing for Amnesty. A Martino spokesman said that the cardinal fully meant that individual Catholics should suspend donations to the group.   Karen Gaia says: A lot of people are going to have trouble believing that Amnesty International does the work of the devil. This is where the Catholic Church may have stepped into a cesspool, blinded by its arrogant belief that it has the only access to the ear of God.   June 13, 2007   Associated Press 021369

Philippines;: More Want Church Out of Family Planning Talks.   Fourty four percent of Filipinos said the Church should not participate in what family planning methods couples should use. The majority of Bicolanos, Pampanguenos and Western Visayans share the view. Three out of 10 (33%) believe the church must have a say. A plurality of those aged 45 to 54 hold such view. About 23% are undecided. Half of those surveyed believe rapid population growth hinders development. About 92% of Filipinos believe it is important to plan one's family. Nine out of 10 (89%) said the government must allocate funds for family planning. Three out of four Filipinos will support candidates who are in favor of a government budget for family planning. The influence of the Church has been waning through the years so the candidates must not be afraid of the religious block. The Roman Catholic Church advocates only the natural family planning like abstention. The Church must reassess its stance on population. If we are to follow the teachings of God, He will not let our people continue to suffer and be deprived of basic health services. UNFPA said development in the country would be "virtually impossible" unless the country's population growth is addressed. Four babies are born every minute or almost two million a year. About 10 women die every 24 hours from pregnancy and child birth. Half of all pregnancies are unwanted. Fewer pregnancies lead to lower maternal mortality, improved child survival and more opportunities for women. Families with fewer children are better able to invest in the health and education of each child.   April 18, 2007   BusinessWord (Philippines) 020950

Childfree in the Third World.   by Bill DenneenPope Benedict is visiting Brazil, the most populous Catholic nation in the world and speaks out strongly against abortion. The way to reduce abortions is by contraception and I urge Catholics in Brazil to do whatever Italians (97% Catholic) are doing to decrease the need for abortion. Their birth rate is so low they aren't even replacing themselves. I doubt if it is 'abstinence only'. It is estimated that the number of illegal abortions in Brazil is between 1 million and 2 million with many maternal deaths. The Pope & I are about the same age and abstinence is no problem at 80, but is abnormal at 20. The "church" should catch up with the times and adopt a policy of, "make love but not babies".   Ralph says: Hurrah!!! Plain common sense at last.   May 15, 2007   Bill Denneen 021184

Philippines;: Candidates Told: Heed People's Call on Birth Control Or Else.   In the Philippines candidates should heed the people's call for action on family planning. A survey indicates 8 out of 10 Filipinos deem it important for candidates to include family planning. In the latest survey, 52% say that a candidate's support for family planning will lead to victory. The country is faced with overpopulation, hunger, and poverty, and we are calling on all candidates to prove their allegiance to the people of this republic by following our call. The Catholic Church has urged not to support candidates promoting reproductive rights and family planning. Filipinos don't want the Church interfering in this decision between couples. 44% of Filipinos think the Church should not participate in the issue of family planning, against 33% who think the Church should.   April 16, 2007   Philippine Daily Inquirer 020905

Philippines;: Church Urged to Rethink Stand on Family Planning.   Population advocacy groups urged the Catholic Church to re-assess its stand on family planning and reproductive rights. A survey said that nearly 9 out of 10 Filipinos think that the government should allocate funds for family planning and 44% of Filipinos think that the Church should not meddle in the issue. Only 33% said the Church should step in. People are suffering from poverty and need basic health services and the will of our people should prevail. The Catholic Church should let the people have their choice of methods in planning their family. The UNFPA representative to the Philippines said it is organizing a press conference to determine the candidates views on population, reproductive health, and family planning. The Philippine Legislators' Committee on Population and Development Foundation Inc. welcomed the survey results. The survey also said that nearly eight of 10 Filipinos 76% say it is important for a candidate to include family planning in his/her program of action. Survey results prove the Filipino people's demand for a clear and decisive national policy on family planning and proved that candidates gain when they include population and reproductive health in their platform. The survey shows that four babies are born every minute, almost two million a year while 10 women die every 24 hours from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. 1.43 million a year of all pregnancies in the Philippines are unintended; one-third of these, about 473,000-ended in abortions.   April 18, 2007   Manila Standard 020957

Leak Prompts Fear Over World Bank Health Policies: Madagascan Contraception Targets Deleted, Critics Say Managing Director Said to Have Links to Opus Dei.   Juan Jose Daboub, the World Bank's managing director, ordered staff to remove all references to family planning from its country assistance document for Madagascar. He is the former finance minister of El Salvador and has close ties to the Catholic church. Specific targets relating to contraception were also deleted. The original draft committed the bank to increase contraception uptake from 14% in 2004 to 20%. The British secretary, Hilary Benn, who has backed efforts to improve the reproductive health of women in the developing world, said he was very concerned. The World Bank has championed the reproductive rights of women, which are considered critical to their health, status and economic progress. There are 75 million unplanned pregnancies around the world each year, a third of which end in unsafe abortions. Mr Daboub's intervention was revealed through a leaked email from the country programme coordinator at the bank. Sources within the region are concerned that other health documents may also have been tampered with. High-fertility countries with AIDS epidemics in Africa are vulnerable to restrictions in family planning services. The board which contains representatives from governments including the UK, did not spot the changes. Family planning organisations are concerned that a new global health strategy may also ditch reproductive health strategies. It omits specific references to family planning, but talks about education. A statement from the bank said: "Mr Daboub says he recognises that his job is to execute policies, independently of what his personal views. Wolfowitz, the bank's president, claimed there is no change: "Reproductive health is crucial to what I have said over and over again is a major part of the development agenda."   April 16, 2007   Guardian (London) 020898

Survey: Most Filipinos Want Contraception .   The unbending opposition to artificial birth control by the Catholic Church in the Philippines is out of touch with popular sentiment. The high birth rate in this Catholic country is stunting economic growth, and straining health and education programmes. A poll found nine out of 10 respondents want the government to fund family planning programmes offering artificial methods of contraception. 75% would support candidates backing such a move. Governments have steered clear of challenging the bishops. The administration of President Gloria Arroyo, a staunch Catholic, is closer to the Church's doctrine than any other government over the past 20 years. The administration advocates 'responsible parenthood' - keeping family sizes to levels household incomes can support. Previous governments have followed a policy of informed choice, but the present one is focused on natural family planning. There are difficulties in promoting condom use in some colleges, and some pharmacies and supermarkets refusing to stock condoms, on religious grounds. Women seldom ask for information on natural birth-control methods, most want to go on the Pill; it's cheap and easy to use. The natural method is too hard to follow. There is little sense among Filipinos that they are unfaithful Catholics for ignoring the Church on this issue. During the 1998 election, bishops urged churchgoers not to vote for former movie star Joseph Estrada, whose mistresses, fondness for whisky and love of gambling appalled the Church. Mr Estrada won. Over half of married women in the Philippines between 15 and 49 practice no form of birth control, 36% use modern birth-control methods, and the rest natural family planning. A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said the doctrine opposing contraception is based on faith and morals. Some clergy are questioning whether such an inflexible doctrine is suitable for the Philippines. But the official line follows the Vatican.   April 23, 2007   The Straits Times (Singapore) 021006

Eu Parliament Slams Croatia's Church-backed Sex Education .   The European Parliament slammed a proposed Church-backed sex education program in Croatia, saying it encouraged discrimination. The EU parliament voiced "concern regarding the potential implementation of a reproductive health and sexual curriculum." The program "supplies medically inaccurate and information about sexual health and family planning as well as about contraceptive methods," read the letter. The deputies warned the curriculum was "gender-biased and features negative attitudes towards homosexuality, thus contradicting Croatian laws." The program is backed by the Roman Catholic Church and is in line with Vatican teaching that there should be no sexual relations outside marriage, no safe sex, and no homosexuality. It needs the health ministry's approval in order to be introduced in schools. Local NGO's have urged authorities to reject the program because it was not based on scientific research. Croatians have sex for the first time at an average age of 17. Almost 90% of Croatia's population of 4.4 million are Roman Catholics.   April 25, 2007   Agence France Presse 021048

Condom Debate Flares in Brazil Before Pope Visit.   Brazilian officials and the Roman Catholic hierarchy are exchanging angry words over condom use and sex education. Cardinal Eugenio Sales, in O Globo criticized government programs promoting condom use. "It is precisely because of this decadence that we cannot close our eyes and promote exactly what should be avoided." Policies to prevent AIDS are not 'sex promotion'. Abstinence and self-control are personal matters and cannot serve as a basis for public policy. Brazil's government gives away tens of millions of free condoms as part of its AIDS prevention program, which has succeeded in keeping infection rates low. The program encourages condom use. Most of Brazil's 185 million people are Catholic, and the Church is against birth control and sex outside marriage. The simmering tensions between Church and state reached a new level when the President accused the church of hypocrisy. He said the government would give out condoms and teach people how to use them.   March 13, 2007   Reuters 020429

Mexico;: Mexico City Debates Abortion Measure.   Mexico City legislators are debating a bill to legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. The bill is supported by the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, and it could be approved in the coming months. The Roman Catholic Church and officials with the conservative National Action Party have promised to block the proposal. They claim it violates articles in the Constitution protecting life. The National Pro-Life Committee argued that it would encourage more women to terminate their pregnancies. Under current Mexico City law, abortion is only permitted if the pregnancy endangers a woman's life or if the woman has been raped. Proponents say these restrictions force women to seek abortions outside the law. Wealthier women travel to the US, poorer women must have back-street operations. About 90% of Mexicans consider themselves Roman Catholic, but many have liberal views on issues such as abortion and homosexuality.   March 16, 2007   Associated Press 020465

Pope: Europe's Demographic Trends Give Impression Continent Losing Faith in Future.   Europe seems to be losing faith in its future, Pope Benedict XVI said, citing the continent's population trends. "One must unfortunately note that Europe seems to be going down a road which could lead it to take its leave from history," the pontiff said. In countries like Italy, where many married couples have one or no children, the population is expected to shrink dramatically unless the birth rate increases rapidly. Immigrant populations have generally kept the birth rates from decreasing even more. "You could almost think that the European continent is in fact losing faith in its own future," Benedict said. The pontiff noted differences give the impression that "various chapters of the European project have been written without taking into adequate consideration the expectations of the citizens." The Vatican had campaigned vigorously to have Christian roots cited in the EU constitution, but drafters rejected the idea. The constitution itself was voted down by France and the Netherlands in 2005. Italian Premier told the bishops that he had worked "long and silently to introduce the reference to Christian roots in the European Constitution." Benedict said Europe should be on guard against "that practical attitude, which systematically justifies compromises on essential human values." Such an attitude could wind up "denying Christians the very right to intervene as Christians in the public debate," Benedict said. Italian church leaders recently urged Catholics to declare themselves conscientious objectors to avoid any role in policies which contradict the Vatican, including abortion and proposed legislation to give many legal rights to unmarried couples, including same-sex ones.   March 24, 2007   Associated Press 020697

Catholic Leaders Criticize New York City for Distributing 20 Million Condoms.   Roman Catholic leaders have criticized NY City's efforts to deliver 26 million condoms in the city. City officials have unveiled the official condom, and plan to track the programme through a survey, which polls 10,000 residents by telephone. NY City distributes about 1.5 million condoms monthly, at no cost to organizations, health clinics, advocacy groups, bars, restaurants, nail salons, nightclubs and prisons. The Catholic Cardinals criticized the programme, calling it an immoral "anything goes" policy that degrades society. They said the only way to protect against HIV and other STI's is through abstinence before marriage and fidelity among married couples. Mayor Bloomberg said that although he believes young people should wait until they are adults before having sex, the health department has to "work with the real world of people."   February 20, 2007   Kaiser Network 020327

Brazil Handing Out 10 Million Condoms Ahead of Carnival.   Brazil's Health Ministry will distribute 10 million condoms ahead of Carnival in an effort to fight sexually transmitted diseases. The AIDS prevention campaign will also include broadcast radio and TV ads. The joy that comes with Carnival must be accompanied by some precautionary measures. Roman Catholic Bishops Conference criticized the government's decision. A survey showed that nearly a third of young Brazilians did not use a condom the last time they had sex because one was not available or they could not afford one. About 15 million condoms have already been distributed this year. It is estimated that 600,000 Brazilians are HIV positive. The has one of the best programs for combatting AIDS. The government provides free anti-viral treatment.   February 11, 2007   Associated Press 020240

Rwanda to Launch Campaign Promoting Family Planning Programme.   Rwanda plans to promote contraception and family planning to control the country's population growth and stabilize its economy. The population, which is made up of subsistence farmers, has quadrupled during the last 50 years. Rwanda has 8.8 million people, and Rwandan women have an average of 6.1 children. If fertility rates are not slowed, the population will double by 2030. Rwandan officials were reluctant to promote population control after the 1994 genocide, because it would offend the survivors, who believed they had a right to replenish what they had lost. The comprehensive population control programme aims to cut Rwanda's birth rate by at least 50%. It would require everyone who visits a health centre be counselled on family planning. Women would be offered free contraception, including Norplant II, and all schools would offer sex education courses. The Catholic Church has avoided politics because some priests, nuns and lay workers took part in the 1994 genocide.   February 12, 2007   Kaiser Network 020257

U.S.;: Abortion Foes' New Rallying Point: Contraception.   A vocal group of Christian conservatives is arguing to mount a concerted attack on contraception. Their voices were raised at an unusual anti-abortion meeting that drew 250 people to condemn artificial birth control. Experts assailed contraception on the grounds that it devalues children, harms relationships between men and women, promotes sexual promiscuity and leads to falling birth rates. Conservative leaders are watching to see if the anti-contraception rhetoric gains traction. Of interest is how closely evangelical Christians are willing to align themselves with Catholics on the issue. That alarms abortion-rights advocates, who warn that birth control could become a battleground: The best way to reduce abortion is to make sure contraception is widely available. What's likely, experts suggest, is a chipping away at access to contraceptive services including cuts to federal programmes that pay for birth control. Meanwhile, 91% of Americans agreed that couples should have access to birth-control options. The main argument is that chemical contraception causes abortion and if we believe life begins at the moment of conception, we have to defend it against chemical attack. Another argument against contraception, is that it harms relationships between men and women. There is disagreement over making contraception an ideological and political target. Anti-abortion organizations have long adhered to a strategy of making abortion their focus to maximize political success.   September 24, 2006   Chicago Tribune 018843

Church Bars Raped Women From Pill.   Under church policy, sexually assaulted women who seek help at Catholic hospitals cannot be referred to centres that supply morning-after pills. Another fertility centre has been told to move out by the Catholic buyers of the hospital where it is based. Catholic Health Australia, says direct referral of raped women to centres that offer the morning-after pill "should only occur if steps have been taken to exclude pregnancy". Catholic spokesmen defended the policy as a logical and ethical extension of the church's opposition to the morning-after pill,. But Melbourne GP and medical broadcaster Sally Cockburn said she was "blown out of the water" when she read the policy. "They have no right to make us follow their point of view. The NSW Rape Crisis Centre, said it was standard practice for a raped woman to be offered the morning-after pill. Catholic-controlled health organisations control more than 70 hospitals in Australia. Canberra's John James Hospital bought by a Catholic-controlled organisation had begun withdrawing services to the Canberra Fertility Centre, which was based on its premises. Catholic organisations ran 21 public hospitals around the nation they would have to follow the ethics policy. Health workers in Catholic hospitals "are not prevented from giving information" about abortion, the morning-after pill or any other treatment. Staff are not permitted to directly refer women to abortion services. Bishop Anthony Fisher said the ban was a logical extension of the church's position on use of the morning-after pill.   January 11, 2007   The Australian 020022

Australia;: Fed: Disagreement Over Controversial Pregnancy Helpline.   Pro-choice and pro-life groups clash over the Australian government's decision to involve Catholic agencies in a helpline for women with unplanned pregnancies. The groups will put together a manual including information on abortion risks, state laws and government support for parents. The two Catholics denied a conflict of interest, while Health Minister Abbott said the helpline would be monitored for impartiality. But a coalition of pro-choice groups, said this would not prevent pro-life activists misleading women. It condemned the decision to award the $15.5 million tender to a consortium that included Catholic agencies. The health minister believes it is okay to lower the abortion rate by giving women biased information. But Right to Life Australia said the government should be commended for taking steps to reduce the country's high abortion rate.   January 03, 2007   Agence France Presse 019944

Australia;: Greens Condemn Govt Funding Church Pregnancy Counselling.   The Greens in Australia say the Catholic Church should not have a government contract to supply pregnancy counselling because it could not provide independent advice. The government should reconsider its $51 million contract to the Catholic church, which opposes abortion. Mr Abbott said Family Planning Western Australian had been selected to develop a training package for the help line counsellors, which would reinforce their skills in non-directive counselling.   January 02, 2007   AAP Newsfeed 019902

Philippines;: Catholic Bishops Defend Natural Family Planning Advocacy.   The Catholic Church has a strong advocacy which shows when there are bills in Congress concerning life and family. The bishop was reacting to criticisms of bullying government into scrapping policies intended to reduce the population. The Arroyo administration's population policy "has been flip-flopping, due to unwarranted subservience to the Catholic Church." Some critics claim that the Church's policy against population control is inadvertently abetting poverty. At the "present" growth rate of 2.36%, the country's population could balloon to 100 million in the next five or six years. The real culprit is that economic progress and government programs are not reaching the grassroots, it is claimed. There's still no food on the table and many people still can't find jobs.   January 09, 2007   Philippine Daily Inquirer 020009

Philippines;: Arroyo's Population Policy Described as Harmful.   Benjamin De Leon, a presidential adviser on social development in the Ramos administration, said the natural family planning policy assumes that Filipino couples will not have sex if the woman is fertile. A national population program based purely on abstinence, is totally unrealistic and not normal. A more aggressive family planning program was needed for the country's economy to move ahead. It can only lead to an explosion of unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Scandals in the Catholic Church show that some priests find it difficult to practice abstinence. How much more can they expect from the average Filipino? About 250 Filipino children, less than five years old, die every day because their parents are too poor to provide their basic needs. Fifty-two percent of married Filipino women do not practice any form of family planning. More than three million young Filipinos, 15 to 24 years old, engage in premarital sex. Seventy-four percent do not use any contraceptive. About 400,000 unsafe abortions are done every year in the Philippines. Government officials stress the population policy of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to promote natural family planning but not methods such as condoms, IUDs (intra-uterine devices), pills, tubal ligation, and vasectomy. The Arroyo administration will not spend a single centavo on artificial/modern family planning methods.   January 06, 2007   Philippine Daily Inquirer 019879

Argentina;: Morning-after Pill Gaining in Latam Despite Church.   In Buenos Aires, public hospitals offer the emergency contraception free and Argentine lawmakers are pushing to extend this service nationwide. Despite resistance from the Roman Catholic Church, governments are making emergency contraception available in much of Latin America. The Catholic Church considers the pill a chemically induced abortion. But the morning-after pill is gaining acceptance in Latin America as people ignore traditional church teachings on sexuality.   January 08, 2007   Reuters 019877

Latin American Governments Attempting to Boost EC Access.   Governments across Latin America are attempting to increase access to emergency contraception. Chilean President announced a policy to distribute EC at public hospitals at no cost; Mexico has required EC to be distributed at all public hospitals; and Peru has offered it at no cost. Public hospitals in Buenos Aires, Argentina, also offer EC at no cost, and a bill pending would expand the service nationwide. Argentine Catholic bishops have urged to reject the bill, as an "an assault on human life" that would violate the country's constitution. EC has gained more acceptance throughout Latin America as people ignore traditional Church teachings on sexuality. This is a process of evolution in which reproductive rights are increasingly seen as people's rights.   January 09, 2007   Kaiser Network 020007

Vatican May Relax Rules on Condoms.   Experts advising the Pope have suggested that married couples could use condoms when one of the spouses is HIV positive or a drug user. There was no question of reversing the basic doctrine. There are almost 40 million people living with HIV, with Uganda experiencing a rise from a 5.6% among men and 6.9% among women in 2000 to 6.5% and 8.8% respectively. Last year Pope Benedict blamed contraception for a breakdown of sexual morality and said that abstinence and marital fidelity were the only effective way to prevent the spread of HIV. Cardinal Barragan said that the spread of AIDS is something that worries the Pope, but that "no response from the Church can be one that encourages a libertine sexual attitude". Some Catholic liberals have described condoms as the lesser evil. They are in a minority, in the current conservative Vatican climate.   November 23, 2006   Times (UK) 019559

Philippines;: Natural Family Planning Programme Launched to Replace USAID Services.   The Natural Family Planning (NFP) programme of the Pilipino government is the government response to the impending pullout of support from the US Assistance for International Development (USAid. NFP would try to fil the gap caused by the withdrawal of USAid, who provided family planning supplies. The administration is emphasizing natural family planning methods (NFP) as the main type of contraceptive services to manage the fertility rate. The government does not allow the purchase of oral contraceptives. The allocation to be used for artificial family planning paraphernalia was re-channelled to to NFP, the only method supported by the Church. In 2005, there were 56,449 individuals using family planning, the majority artificial methods. Of this figure, only 818 were using natural family planning methods.   December 19, 2006   BBC News 019817

Blair Tells Vatican to 'Face Up to Reality' on Condoms.   Tony Blair told religious leaders to drop their opposition to condoms to help the transmission of HIV. Blair said: "If we have a ban from religious hierarchy, then you discourage people from doing it to protect their lives." The Vatican says abstinence is the best way to tackle HIV, but, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, said the use of condoms was "a lesser evil" where one partner had HIV. The Vatican has been heavily criticised for its stance on sex and homosexuality. The UK would increase the number of condoms distributed in the developing world. He went on to say: "The real key is education about two things: educating people about sex when they are young, but making sure that if people are sexually active, then they are taking protection.   December 05, 2006   The Independent 019663

After Decades of Opposition, Vatican View on Condoms Begins to Shift.   Pope Benedict XVI's "health minister" is understood to be urging him to accept that the prevention of AIDS by barrier contraception is the lesser of two evils. The recommendations have to be reviewed by the conservative Vatican department responsible for safeguarding theological orthodoxy, and then by the Pope himself. The rethink could save millions of lives around the world. Organisations in the fight against AIDS have been pressing the Vatican to change its stance on condoms. Last year the head of HIV/Aids at the WHO initiated talks with the Vatican. The Mexican cardinal who heads the papal department responsible for health issues, has completed the first stage of the review. He did not reveal its conclusions. But is known to favour reform and it was likely that he had come out in support of using condoms in marriages where one of the partners was HIV-positive. An Italian newspaper reported that the Vatican would "go from prohibition to the definition of cases in which it would be possible to use prophylactics to avert fatal risks". Some 40 million people are reckoned to be HIV positive and AIDS is claiming around 8,000 lives a day. The experience of Roman Catholic missionaries in the developing world has been the driving force behind the current rethink. But the Pope left open the possibility of a change in the church's stance. The 1987 document declared that the Roman Catholic church could never agree to the use of contraceptives in homosexual relationships or by men and women who were not married. In recent years, the case for condoms as a defence against AIDS has been taken up publicly by several Roman Catholic leaders. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, said earlier this year that a married person with HIV was "obliged" to protect his or her partner from the disease. The Pope's decision could be announced as early as next February, on the 20th anniversary of the publication of Donum Vitae.   Karen Gaia asks: can someone tell me why homosexual couples would want to use contraception? Protection against disease, I can see, but birth control I cannot.   November 23, 2006   Guardian (London) 019551

Vatican Cardinal: Chastity Fights AIDS.   Cardinal Barragan, who heads the Vatican office for health care, said that it was not known if the Vatican would issue a document about the use of condoms. But, he said the request for the study "shows the desire of the pope" to battle AIDS. The Vatican study on condoms only deals with married couples in which one partner has HIV. Barragan reiterated church teaching saying individuals must "have the courage to proclaim clearly chastity". The Church opposes the use of condoms as part of its teaching against contraception. It advocates sexual abstinence and faithfulness between husband and wife as the best ways to combat the spread of HIV. But several leading churchmen such as retired Milan Cardinal Martini, say condoms were the "lesser evil". Other cardinals have rejected the idea that condoms could be used, contending they may help spread AIDS through a false sense of security. A senior adviser to UNAIDS said that, in Ghana, married women were three times more likely to be infected than non-married women. There is a concern that the messages need to be changing, to higher risk populations targeting homosexual active men and intravenous drug users.   December 21, 2006   Associated Press 019782

Experts Condemn 100,000 Deaths a Year From Abortions.   Millions of women need better access to contraception to prevent deaths from unsafe abortions. Family planning, contraception, is a basic need in reproductive health. About 123 million women do not use contraceptives, with some unaware of their availability or benefits. Ten to 30% of maternal deaths are caused by abortions, most from illegal procedures. Of 46 million abortions carried out yearly, 20 million were clandestine and generally unsafe. Religion plays a dominant role in Asia such as Muslim Indonesia or the predominantly Catholic Philippines. Governments have to overcome opposition to contraception from religious leaders. A report is expected to show that progress on preventable deaths in women was unacceptably slow. Maternal mortality is a very serious problem.   November 05, 2006   Xinhua General News Service 019360

Vatican Calls World to Ecological Conversion Aimed at Sustainability.   Archbishop Celestino Migliore stressed that the international economy is directly connected to global environmental health and that time is running out to make the changes needed. The environmental consequences of our economic activity are now among the world's highest priorities. It is becoming clearer that if the world's life support systems are spoiled or destroyed irreparably, there will be no viable economy for any of us. He criticized the tendency of national policy makers to view ecological issues as external or marginal to economic considerations. In a word, the world needs an ecological conversion so as to examine critically current models of thought. All nations must do much more to stop and reverse current trends in consumption and pollution. Archbishop Migliore called for investment in clean technology, to diminish the impact of air and sea transport pollution. Noting that one in six of the world's population is affected by growing desertification and drought, Archbishop Migliore called for coordinated international actions to reverse this alarming phenomenon. Desertification results from the demands of increased and shifting populations. The nuncio also called for agrarian reform and rural development in combating hunger and poverty, in promoting sustainable development and food safety, in guaranteeing the promotion of human rights.   October 26, 2006   Catholic Online 019229

Vatican Concludes Study on Condoms.   The Vatican has concluded a study on the use of condoms in the fight against AIDS. The document was drafted with the help of scientists, theologians and other experts. Now the dossier is being studied and then it will go before the pope. The Roman Catholic Church opposes the use of condoms as part of its overall teaching against contraception and saus that sexual abstinence as the best way to combat the spread of HIV. But several leading churchmen have spoken out on the issue as the Vatican has come under increasing criticism for its position. Some say that condoms were the "lesser evil" in combatting the spread of AIDS. Others, however, have rejected their argument.   November 21, 2006   Associated Press 019527

Chile Teens' Sexual Health Sparks Storm.   Chile's president Michelle Bachelet is finding herself caught between international criticism for the country's slow progress on reproductive rights and a domestic backlash against her efforts to change. Many in the UN expressed alarm over Chile's strict abortion laws and high rates of teen pregnancy. Chile reports that almost 14% of Chilean women are mothers by 14 and 40,000 babies are born to women younger than age 19 every year. Chile announced regulations that aim to change those statistics by allowing the distribution of the emergency contraception pill free in public health clinics for women 14 and up. But in a country still socially conservative, the plan ignited a storm of opposition. The Court of Appeals ordered the government to stop providing emergency contraception to teens 14 to 18 without the consent of their parents. The government is appealing the ruling. Efforts to provide emergency contraception have faced legal battles across Latin America. The issue remains controversial in Chile, with recent public opinion polls showing slightly more opposition than support. Some opponents suggest emergency contraception could increase teen pregnancy rates by creating a sense of security. The government says its new regulations also include initiatives to educate young people about their sexual health and aim to cut teen pregnancies by 45% by 2015. The furor comes on the heels of a backlash over the government's intention to ratify a controversial optional protocol of the international women's rights treaty, called CEDAW, ratified by Chile in 1989. It was scuttled by the Senate during a special legislative session in January 2002. The main arguments were that it would "hand over" national sovereignty to an international body, which would then have the power to permit abortion on the country. Ratifying the protocol would allow Chilean women who believe their rights are being violated, to bring their case before an international tribunal. All forms of abortion are illegal in Chile, even if the life of the mother or the fetus is in danger. The number of illegal abortions are between 160,000 and 200,000 per year. Chile's minister for women was explicit in her reply that there are no plans to liberalize Chile's abortion laws. The U.N. criticisms have been interpreted as international pressure, touching off a fear that ratifying the optional protocol would strip Chile of its sovereignty. Bachelet has made ratifying the CEDAW protocol a priority. But that was before the emergency contraception pill controversy erupted. The combination of these two issues may now put a dent in her efforts to advance her lauded women's empowerment agenda, which includes free child care for working moms, anti-discrimination legislation and affirmative-action laws to increase political representation.   September 21, 2006   Women's Enews 018790

Secular Groups Losing Funding Amid Pressure; Religious Right Wields Clout.   CARE has supplied the famed CARE packages to Europe's starving masses after World War II, and its work with the poor has been celebrated by US presidents. So the group was thrilled when it received a major contract from the Bush administration to fight AIDS in Africa and Asia. But religious conservatives contended that the $50 million contract was being guided by an organization out of touch with religious values. CARE's $50 million contract is being replaced with a $200 million program of grants to faith-based providers, overseen by USAID. The outcry by religious conservatives, followed by accommodation by the administration, has been replicated on numerous occasions at USAID. Secular groups have seen an overall drop in funding. The former head of the White House's faith-based office acknowledged that he fought to shift aid to faith-based groups. Under pressure USAID promoted groups favoring abstinence as preventing AIDS, despite a review panel's determination it was not suitable. USAID required groups to sign an anti-prostitution pledge. The Brazilian government refused to sign and lost a $40 million grant. AIDS consumes about half of the global health budget, much of which is overseen by USAID. US policy has long supported condom use. But some religious conservatives say condoms actually increases AIDS by promoting sexual activity. Others say the only sure way to stop AIDS is by teaching abstinence. The administration sought to resolve the controversy by endorsing a three-pronged strategy of abstinence, faithfulness, and, when appropriate, condoms. Under a bill approved by Congress and signed by Bush, one third of the administration's $3 billion international AIDS prevention budget must be spent on programs promoting "abstinence until marriage." Meanwhile, the administration was also buying hundreds of millions of condoms for distribution overseas. But some leaders of the religious right felt that any program involving condoms is inappropriate, and focused their anger on USAID. The administration had hoped to avoid fights with religious conservatives by putting people in charge of USAID with strong faith-based ties. A private briefing on Capitol Hill prompted more than two dozen members of Congress to sign a letter demanding that more money go to faith-based groups. They complained that government funding for faith-based groups was being "delivered by anti-American, anti-abstinence, pro-prostitution, and pro-drug use groups." Representative Henry Waxman, wrote to the Bush administration that the approval "raises questions of political cronyism." Population Services International, a secular group failed to get a grant, worries that it lost because of its history of condom distribution. Before, the amount of money available for HIV and AIDS internationally was very small so a lot of people weren't interested. Now it is very big and suddenly people are interested in the billion dollars. One of the biggest sources of money to faith-based groups comes from the Bush administration's AIDS initiative, with much of the money having been funneled through USAID. Some of those who have lost funding under the Bush administration, say the abstinence budget has been used as a political payout to faith-based supporter. At times it turns into a political slush fund for organizations that are ideologically aligned with the administration. But Dr. Mark Dybul, who oversees PEPFAR, said funding decisions are made on merit, but he considers faith-based groups to be crucial partners. But he also said that until recently there was too much reliance on condoms. The USAID official who oversaw the CARE program said he did not favor conservative groups. And all groups are treated equally in the funding process. The Globe survey indicated that 98.3% of funds went to Christian-led faith-based groups. A centerpiece of the religious right's agenda for USAID is a law that requires any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to adopt a policy against prostitution. While few, if any, aid groups support prostitution, many expressed concern that the US policy was so broad and would obstruct their outreach to sex workers. In some countries, half of all prostitutes are infected with the AIDS virus. The Justice Department advised USAID that the law was unconstitutional. Brazilian government, which lost $40 million, said the pledge would undercut its most successful anti-AIDS strategies, persuading sex workers to use condoms. Some organizations that refused to sign the pledge have filed suit against the federal government, saying the pledge violated its First Amendment rights. To some conservative faith-based leaders, however, the plaintiffs are symbolic of what's wrong with US policy. A judge declared that the Bush administration had altered its stance on the pledge due to political pressure.   Karen Gaia says: another attempt by the religious right to impose their 'beliefs' on others. What has shown to have worked in the past is now being undermined. There is no evidence that the use of condoms increases sexual activity. No one believes that prostitution is good, but neglecting sex workers is a head-in-the-sand approach that will surely lead to more unprotected sex, not less. Imposing Anglo-Saxon Christian morals upon other cultures will only work against efforts to protect women and children from sexually transmitted diseases.   October 09, 2006   BBC News 018998

Chile;: Morning After Pill for Everyone - for Free.   The Chilean government decreed that all public health centres must provide birth control, including emergency contraception, to adolescents and women over the age of 14 -- a measure that immediately drew the ire of the Catholic Church and the right-wing opposition parties. President Michelle Bachelet, a pediatrician, asked the Health Ministry to expand the distribution of emergency contraception. Any teenage girl over the age of 14 will now be able to directly ask her doctor for a prescription for birth control, without authorisation from her parents, and the contraceptives must be provided free of charge by the public health system. The most controversial aspect is that it not only covers traditional birth control methods, but also emergency contraception. The WHO clarifies that emergency contraception will not cause abortion. But archbishop of Santiago said it was a blow to marriage, the birth rate, and the Chilean family. Several mayors from right-wing opposition parties rejected the decree, and threatened not to respect it. In response, Barra warned that the new decree was "compulsory." Marta Ehlers, of National Renovation party (RN), said she she would not permit the distribution of emergency contraception pills, even if it is mandatory. The government says the measure is aimed at curbing the rise in unwanted and teen pregnancies and illegal abortions, the Catholic Church argues that (limited) sex education is needed rather than free birth control. Conservatives fear this could further reduce the birth rate which dropped from 2.5 children per woman in 1983 to 1.9 in 2003. Rojas said "The measure is health-related, and should be approached from that angle. International experience shows that this does not lead to an increase in promiscuity." Sales of the morning after pill are legal today, but only those who can afford the pill have access to it and it is fair to give all Chileans access to the entire range of birth control methods. In Chile, 14 of every 100 young people are sexually active by the age of 14. According to the Health Ministry, the number of adolescent girls and women obtaining birth control from the public health system climbed from 600,374 in 1990 to 1,087,743 in 2004 -- an 81% rise in 14 years. Emergency contraception is now legally available in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.   September 03, 2006   InterPress Service 018592

Kenyan Catholics Support Condoms More Than Other Faith Groups.   In this East African country where 1/3 of the population is reportedly Catholic, and 1/5 of citizens are suffering from HIV/AIDS, more than three quarters of Kenyans support condom use for family planning and prevention against sexually transmitted diseases, a report that comes as a shock to Kenya's Catholic hierarchy. One third of the adult population feels that religion's role has not changed, but another third believe its influence over morality is waning. A majority of Kenyans support the Church's role in politics and believe that the Church should be more involved. The new Catholic Archbishop of Kenya's coastal city of Mombassa is advocating the use of condoms among HIV-positive married couples; a contradiction to Catholic teaching which prohibits condoms, saying infected couples were a unique situation. With some counseling, and this is something we don't tell everyone, you can ask couples to use condoms. Catholics form the majority of the 800,000 Kenyans infected with HIV, and obliquely some accused the Church for the rise of infections. Polling results indicate that if infections are rising among Catholics, the result may be the consequences of ignoring the Church's teaching on chastity and fidelity in favor of condoms, which have been proven to be far less than 100% effective at stopping diseases. Kenya's bishops, under the leadership of Kenya's Primate have advocated chastity and fidelity that has worked in Uganda to cut the rate of AIDS/HIV in contrast to their neighbors whose infection rates increase despite millions of dollars spent on sex education and condoms.   September 05, 2006   Kenya London News 018594

Kenya;: Majority of Catholics Support Use of Condoms.   More Catholics support use of condoms than followers of other faiths. More than three quarters of Kenyans support condom use for family planning and prevention against sexually transmitted diseases. Attendance at church and other religious meetings is dropping. A third of the adult population feel that religion's role in upholding social morals has not wavered or changed, an equal number think its influence is waning. More than a third of Kenyans were unhappy with the role of religious leaders in politics and a majority want them to play a more significant role. Only 17% feel the Church should avoid politics. On homosexuality, majority said the act is against religious teachings. Although most Kenyans are opposed to abortion, there are varied opinions on when it should be permissible and should be permitted - particularly when the mother's life is in danger or in case of pregnancies resulting from rape. A quarter of the population believe that the decision should rest with the affected woman. There has been debate that if abortion was legalised, the number of street families would decline.   August 21, 2006   The Nation 018522

Catholic Church in South India Tells Flock to Have More Babies.   Roman Catholic leaders in southern Indian are urging their followers to have more babies because of the dwindling percentage of Catholics. Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil wrote that members of the community need to "lead a life rooted in Christian values and beliefs." The letter said "there has been a growing feeling that children are a nuisance to pleasurable life." A church spokesman, "The Cardinal has serious concerns on the falling population of Christians in Kerala." Kerala is home to about 31 million, and the percentage of Christians has declined 3% 1991 and 2001. Church leaders attribute the decline to a lower birth rate among Christians.   August 06, 2006   Age 018380

Pope Visits Spain, Flash Point for Church-state Tensions.   Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Spain to register the church's opposition to gay marriage and Europe's slide into secularism. Nowhere in Europe are tensions higher between church and state. Mr. Zapatero greeted the pope at the airport, as did King Juan Carlos. Benedict, on his third trip outside Italy since becoming pope was in Valencia to attend a conference on the family. The visit is scheduled at 26 hours. But the While Valencia gave the pope a rousing welcome, gay groups have protested the visit. Benedict's comments seemed aimed at expressing the church's view that marriage must be between a man and a woman. "We want" he said "to make people understand that it is a man and a woman who are made for each other and made to give humanity a future. His message ranged from urging parents to avoid bickering and to love their children, to an appeal for governments to "reflect on the evident benefits" of happy and peaceful families. Although Spain has a strong Catholic tradition, it has been moving away from the church. A survey showed that 8% of Spaniards considered themselves Catholic, yet only 1% attended Mass regularly. This drift has been a concern for Benedict - made more important in Spain as a touchstone for Catholics in Spanish-speaking countries in South America.   July 09, 2006   New York Times* 018003

Ignorance Leads to Teenage Pregnancy in Kenya.   Many teenage pregnacies in Kenya are blamed on lack of information and traditions that inhibit discussions of sex with children. More than 25% of Kenyan girls between 15 and 19 are either pregnant or mothers and 85% of all 15- to 19-year-olds and 72% of those between 20 and 24 do not use contraceptives. 70% of all adolescents engage in unprotected sex. About 1,2 million Kenyans are HIV positive and about 1,5 million people have died of HIV since 1984. It is taboo in African society to talk about sex. The situation is more dramatic in slums due to lack of access to sources of information and parents never discuss sexual issues with their children. Parents normally think it's not the right time. Most parents don't talk about sex to their children they are shy and feel it's the work of the teachers. But religious edicts play a significant role in suppressing openness in matters of sexuality in classrooms, Sunday schools and churches. Schools lack curricula on sex education and only 1% of the health facilities have youth-friendly policies. The churches are not adressing the issue of youth sexuality, they are institutions of social change and should be in the first line to adress these issues. The local chapter of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America decried opposition from the Catholic church to the introduction of sex education in Kenyan schools. The Catholic church ensured that sex ed has died.   July 11, 2006   Age 018039

Pro-Lifers Against Buffett-Gates Alliance.   Warren Buffett's alliance with Bill Gates won widespread praise, but anti-choice activists assailed the donors for their support of Planned Parenthood and international birth-control programmes. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to which Buffett has pledged the bulk of his $44 billion fortune, devotes the majority of its funding to combating disease and poverty in developing countries. Less than 1% has gone to Planned Parenthood. "The merger of Gates and Buffett may spell doom for the families of the developing world," said a Roman Catholic Priest who is President of Human Life International. A former Planned Parenthood President, said she was appalled by the harsh attacks. The foundation founded by Buffett, came under fire from some anti-abortion groups in the 1990s after it gave $2 million to fund clinical trials of RU-486. Susan Buffett was eulogized after her death in 2004 as a champion of women's reproductive health. The Gates Foundation is a patron of reproductive-health programmes, funding research to improve birth control. Planned Parenthood, has received $34 million from the Gates Foundation out of a total of $10.5 billion worldwide. The Gates Foundation stipulated that its gifts to Planned Parenthood not be used for abortion services. At the 2003 annual shareholders meeting, anti-abortion activists cited Microsoft's support for Planned Parenthood in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the company from contributing to charities.   Karen Gaia says: Family planning saves women's lives and helps protect their health and, by spacing births, the health of their babies, thus providing a better quality of life for families.   June 30, 2006   Push Journal 017948

Vatican Condemns Contraception, Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage.   The Vatican has been lashing out against contraception, abortion, in vitro fertilization and same-sex marriage. The 57 page document was issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family, whose head, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, is a strong opponent of the use of condoms under any circumstances. Gay activists condemned the paper as an attack against modern life, freedom and social redemption. Many of the practices have been widespread in Western nations for decades. Several countries have legalized gay marriage and others permit civil unions. However, many US states have outlawed same-sex marriage. The Vatican's document summarized traditional Roman Catholic Church positions. The document did not mention the debate within the Vatican on whether the church should permit condoms to battle AIDS when one partner in a marriage has the virus. Lopez Trujillo sparked controversy when he said condoms don't prevent AIDS and may help spread it. The Vatican insists sexual abstinence is the only way to fight AIDS. Several other Cardinals have argued that the use of a condom within a marriage would be the lesser evil. The new document reaffirmed the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae" that stated the Vatican's opposition to contraception and noted, couples have been limiting themselves to one or two children. The document condemned in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and the use of embryos. Of abortion, it said that it is a violation of the right to life which is the right of every human being from the moment of conception. An Italian lawmaker and president of the activist group Arcigay, condemned the document as "grotesque." He said the European countries that give legal recognition to unmarried and gay couples have done so with great benefit to society.   Karen Gaia says: it's too bad that the Catholic Church feels that it must impose its morals on everyone. We all have our own morals, thank you.   June 07, 2006   Push Journal, 07/Jun 017713

Controversial Rhythm Method Study Revealed.   A British study suggests the Roman Catholic approved "rhythm method" may kill more embryos than other methods of contraception. The "rhythm method" relies on abstinence during the most fertile period of a woman's menstrual cycle and it may owe its success to the fact that embryos conceived on the fringes of the fertile period are less viable than those conceived toward the middle. Two to three embryos will have died every time the rhythm method results in a pregnancy. Anti-abortion rights activists who equate global oral contraceptives to chemical abortion are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths of unborn children, every year. If all oral contraceptive users converted to the rhythm method, they would cause the death of millions of embryos.   Karen Gaia says: if this is true, it makes one wonder who is the one that listens to God?   May 25, 2006   United Press International 017574

Divorces Rising in Catholic Europe; Portugal, Italy and Spain Have Highest Rate of Increase in Divorces Over the Past Decade.   Divorce has been increasing everywhere in Europe, but nowhere more so than in the Roman Catholic countries. Portugal, Italy and Spain, have registered largest percentage increase. Portugal: Divorces rose 89% from 1995 to 2004. Italy: Up 62%. Spain: Up 59%. These nations are catching up to the pace of breakup seen elsewhere on the continent. Southern Europe has lagged behind the north in legislation, programs and attitudes that assist the family. Women get little support in the workplace, and child care options are more limited. Stable families headed by married couples have been taken for granted in nations such as Italy, Spain and Portugal with none of the resources, financial assistance, laws and economic benefits that help families in crisis. Strict adherence to Catholicism's tenets has been on the wane for many years. People get married, get divorced and still go to church. The gap has widened between the numbers of Catholics in Southern Europe who declare their faith and those who practice it. Nearly 88% identifying themselves as Catholic believers in God, but only 33% attend Mass every Sunday. About two-thirds disagreed with Vatican positions opposing divorce and assisted fertility. Women have more freedom, demand more from spouses than their grandmothers and are putting jobs ahead of marital bliss. They can end unhappy unions with less stigma.   May 24, 2006   Los Angeles Times (US) 017564

Condoms 'are Acceptable' Say Most UK Catholic Priests.   Two-thirds of Roman Catholic priests in England and Wales believe that the use of condoms could be acceptable. In a survey 65% said that they thought it morally defensible to use condoms to curb the spread of HIV. A further 43% said that it was time for the Catholic Church to "rethink" its stance on contraception. The findings follow statements made last weekend by the Archbishop Emeritus of Milan, that in the fight against AIDS "the use of condoms could be construed, in certain situations, as a lesser evil". The comments caused uproar among conservative Catholics. Pope Benedict XVI has said that the use of condoms is "morally inadmissable". The beliefs of clergy in England and Wales are increasingly veering away from those of the Catholic hierarchy. The survey of 100 priests found that the majority agreed with Cardinal Martini's comments while almost half believed it was time for the Church to rethink its position on contraception. The size of the majority is bound to cause concern within the RC Church, which has been struggling for years to reconcile its standpoint on contraception with the spiralling problem of AIDS in Africa. Pope Benedict has ordered a commission of scientists and theologians to prepare a statement on condom use and the spread of the virus. Many of the clergy questioned insisted on remaining anonymous. One priest said: "On a pastoral level, we can turn a blind eye to certain things and treat each individual case on its merits. Another of those questioned said that, as a clergyman, he was "disciplined to follow the Vatican line, but as a private individual my opinion is that the use of condoms is a lesser evil". A third added: "We've backed ourselves into a corner. In this situation, you are preventing evil." A number of those questioned said that the use of condoms within the confines of a marriage where one spouse had contracted the virus was morally acceptable. The Rev Alan Burbidge, worked with AIDS sufferers in Zambia in the early 1990s. "I agree that the use of condoms is a lesser evil than the spread of AIDS," he said. Cardinal O'Connor, the spiritual leader of Catholics in England and Wales, has made clear his opposition to using condoms instead promoting the Catholic sexual ethic of monogamy, fidelity and abstinence. Asked to rate Pope Benedict's first year in office on a scale of one to 10, the majority gave an average score of 8.9. A spokesman for the Catholic Communications Network said that they did not comment on surveys.   April 30, 2006   Telegraph 017288

Catch-22: Condoms - If Catholics Use Them, They're Sinning, If They Don't, They Could Die.   The author gets angry mail from devout Catholics every time she writes critically about the Catholic church. This is understandable. But there is a role for critical evaluation of the tenets of faith in the face of reality. Faith must inform our daily life or it is of mental assent, not of action. But if it doesn't, our faith is detached from reality. Consider this reality: The explosion of AIDS, particularly in Africa - due to male promiscuity and the tradition of female availability to husbands - is a death sentence for monogamous wives, who are infected by their husbands. Add to that being a devout Catholic wife: You're not allowed to use a condom because the by-product of condoms is pregnancy prevention. And pregnancy prevention is considered "intrinsically evil" according to the Catholic catechism. Now critical assessment and comment recognizing this reality - death to devout monogamous women - is coming from high ranking Catholic officials. The retired archbishop of Milan said the use of condoms among wives seeking to avoid getting AIDS from their infected husbands is a "lesser evil." The cardinal from Belgium calls sex by an infected person without a condom a sin, since that person is violating the commandment "thou shall not kill." He also said women have a right to insist that their infected husbands wear a condom. His views aren't popular among other cardinals, but the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that you can be convicted of aggravated assault if you have HIV/AIDS, don't tell your partner, and have unprotected sex.   April 30, 2006   Toronto Sun (Canada) 017287

Archbishop Believes Condoms Are 'Commonsense' in the War on AIDS.   Mario Conti, Archbishop of Glasgow, supports lifting the ban on condoms for married couples where one partner had AIDS. But not for for contraception. Pope Benedict XVI is thought to be on the brink of sanctioning a change. The Archbishop said he supported the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers which has prepared a study on the use of condoms to fight AIDS which awaits approval by the Pope. While conceding that Catholics who oppose any restriction on the use of condoms have an argument. He had raised the issue before but had got "stick" from people within the Church. However, he added: "It is not contraception, you are using the condom as a sheath against the spread of infection, but that is not an infallible means of preventing infection and the Church must be careful not to encourage something that can result in the death of of people." AIDS has infected about 40 million people and the Church has been criticised for its unyielding stance. There have been growing calls to permit the use of condoms on the grounds that it is a "lesser evil". The Pope asked the Vatican Council to examine the issue and their report supporting the new position is now being reviewed. Only the pope has the authority to change the Church's position. A spokesman for Avert, the international AIDS charity, welcomed Archbishop Conti's comments. She said: "For a country where there are a high percentage of AIDS sufferers and 70% of the population are Catholic, this could make a huge difference. Archbishop Conti argued that sectarianism could remain Scotland's shame for at least another generation. The archbishop's arrival in 2002 brought him face to face with the sectarianism that he believes scars Glasgow. He said: "I was surprised by the extent and viciousness of it. I had seen it before, an antipathy towards things Catholic, but I hadn't seen it manifest in quite so vicious a manner. Priests weren't to make a public fuss about it, but I believed in naming and shaming and encouraging the discussion of these issues."   May 04, 2006   The Scotsman (UK) 017331

Vatican 'May Relax Condom Rules'.   The Vatican is preparing to publish a statement on the use of condoms by people who have AIDS. Pope Benedict XVI asked the Vatican's council for health care to study the issue. The Vatican says abstinence is the best way to tackle HIV/Aids, but a retired archbishop backed the use of condoms for married couples to prevent AIDS transmission as a lesser evil. The issue is one of the most controversial among Catholics, and the Church has been criticised for its position, especially in African countries stricken by HIV. Benedict XVI asked for a study on the use of a condom by those afflicted with AIDS, and those with infectious diseases. The Vatican has made no official comment.   April 24, 2006   BBC News 017243

Facing AIDS Epidemic, Bishop Says Condoms Okay for Some.   Some Catholic bishops are allowing church clinics to hand out condoms to infected people to slow an AIDS epidemic on Australia's doorstep. If one of two partners is infected, then it is wise to provide condoms, said Bishop Gilles Cote who heads the Daru-Kiunga diocese in Western Province. Rome bans the use of condoms outright. Some church workers on the epidemic frontline see things much differently. As, Cote said: "We also have a law - you should not kill. "If you are infected and don't protect yourself, you will give the sickness to the other one," he said. "We don't promote (the use of condoms). "When it's needed, OK, but we don't spread them (condoms) to everybody. If the government wants to do it, OK." PNG has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the Pacific with heterosexual transmission the main driver. Around 2% of the four million population are feared HIV-positive. Australia's development agency, AusAID, promotes condom use even though some Christian leaders say it promotes promiscuity. Within the Catholic Church in PNG, some bishops are stricter on condoms than Cote. "Even in Rome they disagree among themselves," Cote said. PNG minister Puka Temu told an HIV Prevention summit that church groups should put aside their biases and give 100% support to condom use. His call sparked angry retorts from church leaders who said that Temu was asking the churches to act against their consciences. It was incorrect to claim condoms would solve the problem and churches could not be expected to become agents for dispensing condoms, Sarego said. Anglican Bishop Fox said his church supported condom use but Temu's statement was "unfortunate" because it did not recognise the diversity among churches. Some fundamentalist pastors regularly preach that HIV/AIDS infection is punishment from on high for having extra-marital sex.   March 30, 2006   AAP (Australia) 016985

Papua New Guinea Catholics Object to Condom Call.   Papua New Guinea's Catholic Church says a government minister's call for churches to support condom use to combat HIV is asking them to ignore their beliefs. Lands Minister Dr Puka Temu said that church groups should give 100% support to condom use. But Bishop Sarego said Temu was asking them to act against their consciences. Heterosexual transmission is the main driver of PNG's epidemic with HIV at more than 12,000 cases. About 2% of the population is HIV-positive and Sarego said unfaithful partners spread the infection. The virus also spread when moral values were ignored among unmarried youth, Sarego said. He sais it was incorrect to claim condoms would solve the problem. Anglican Bishop Fox said his church supported condom use and Temu's statement did not recognise the diversity of views among churches. Last year, AusAID-funded condom promotion campaigns in PNG sparked angry calls from some church leaders that such programs only encouraged promiscuity. Prime Minister Somare said the government recognised the role of the churches in fighting the HIV epidemic, particularly through their reach into PNG's remotest communities.      March 14, 2006   AAP (Australia) 016778

Philippines: Church Adopts Tough Stance on Birth Control.   The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has adopted a "shock-and-awe" policy to keep its flock away from artificial birth control. The CBCP began imposing the policy amid a clamor in Congress for the passage of the Responsible Parenthood and Population Management Act of 2005. Catholics who support the use of birth control devices or artificial methods of family planning would be denied rites. The CBCP said "The Catholic Church believes we need to shock the faithful, scare them and discipline them like children," Authored by 51 lawmakers, HB 3773 is fast gaining popularity in the House of Representatives and has been approved by the House committee on women. The House leadership has openly endorsed the passage of the bill after Speaker Jose de Venecia said he is in favor of adopting nontraditional solution to the fast-growing population. Former CBCP president Archbishop Fernando Capalla issued a pastoral letter to denounce the government's campaign for family planning and reproductive health care. The bishops, priests and nuns have aggressively engaged in phone barrage campaign convincing the lawmakers to withdraw their support for the bill. The uncompromising stand of the Church is that natural family planning, through the Rhythm and Billings methods, is the only "godly way" of limiting the size of a family. The use of birth control devices such as pills and condoms is a sin, as far as the Church is concerned. The shock and awe campaign brought the CBCP into a head-on collision course with the lawmakers, local government officials, health officials and advocates of family planning. The CBCP should be alarmed that the population has reached 84 million and is growing annually at the rate of 2.36%. Four babies are born every minute, only eight of 100 are planned, 20 are unwanted and some 400,000 fetuses are aborted every year. The CBCP knows that the poorest of the poor are those with large families and most of them do not have access to information on natural and artificial methods and birth control devices, the least the Catholic Church could do is offer a solution to the runaway population. The decision to deny a Catholic of religious rights is left to the priests and bishops, who base their decision on the report to be made by assigned lay leaders who would check on the community. In Bukidnon, the Commission on Population (Popcom) reported that priests managed to get hold of the list of women who availed of IUD from the municipal health office. The women were summoned by the priests and told them to have their IUD removed or they will be denied communion. At least 34 of the 48 women heeded the priests. Church leaders may be "overdoing" the implementation of the "shock and awe policy." Some "overzealous" laity and community leaders went as far as checking on the list of those who avail of modern family planning method from the health centers. Dr. Arlene Felizarta, Surigao City health officer, said she had six patients who backed out of vasectomy procedure after they were discouraged by the Church. The indigent patients were told that they would have to give up the homes built for them by a Church-backed nonprofit organization. One of the patients already has 11 children and he and his wife are still in their 30s. The wife has still many reproductive age years ahead of her. Will the Church also feed, clothe and send these many children to school?      February 20, 2006   Manila Standard 016521

U.S.: Protestants Endorse Family Planning.   Protestant bishops have taken a bold stand on artificial birth control and endorse family planning bills because they will solve the unchecked population growth and help bring down poverty. The Protestant bishops support the policy allowing couples to choose when and how many children to raise. They also endorses the use of birth control devices and tubal ligation for women and vasectomy for men. By spacing the pregnancy, the mother's reproductive health is protected and the child in the womb will be healthier. Contraceptives "do not kill life because these do not destroy fertilized eggs but prevent fertilization and when egg is not fertilized, life has not begun. No life is taken away," Abortion is being done because of unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. In the Philippines, 473,408 women undergo abortion annually, because the government has not done its part to provide information and access to family planning. Of the number, 80,000 of these women die of complications. Both the mother and child can be saved by passing this bill. One of three pregnancies in Metro Manila result in abortion. Although contraceptive use has increased from 40% in 1993 to 47.8% in 1998, unmet need for contraception still remains at a little over 50%. Filipino women who resorted to induced abortion could not avail modern family planning because of the high cost of contraceptives, the stigma attached to the methods of service, the devolution of health services to local government, which discourage the use of modern family planning, and misconceptions about modern family planning. The government has yet to come up with a national policy on family planning, prompting the local governments to adopt their own ordinance according to the local executives' whims. Lawmakers are batting for a national policy that will make sex education a mandatory part of the curriculum from grades 5 up to high school. Under the proposed law, schoolchildren will be taught about safe sex, responsible parenthood, abstinence before marriage and the use and application of condoms, pills and other contraceptive devices and natural family planning methods. But the Catholic church branded the proposal as "promiscuity." The bishops wanted the sex education to be done by the parents and assigned five prominent bishops to lead the rallies against the bill. The stand of the Church is that only natural family planning is the only "godly way" of limiting the size of a family. The majority of 12.8 million married women in the Phillipines have a high "unmet need" as their fertility rate of 3.7% overtakes their desire for 2.7%. Most women desire two to three children but they give birth to more than three, even five children due to lack of access to contraceptives. 10 women die of pregnancy and childbirth-related causes daily.      February 22, 2006   Manila Standard (Philippines) 016569

Abortion Agreement with Vatican May Deny Freedom.   The agreement about the right to conscience, to be signed by Slovakia and the Vatican, probably denies the principles of freedom, democracy and respect to human rights advocated by the EU. The draft gives the right to reject acts in conflict with Christian principles to any Slovak. Doctors may refuse to be involved in abortion. Lawyers say that if law allows for abortions, the state must ensure that they are "accessible" to any woman. The daily highlights an alternative solution: a doctor who refuses abortions should inform the patient about another doctor or clinic where it can be carried out. However, the Vatican agreement does not include the right to the information. As many as 70% of Slovaks are Catholics. The European experts say the agreement may discriminate against the people of other denominations but it is not in conflict with human rights as defined by international agreements. The Vatican has agreements with other countries but they mostly do not include the conscience clause and none of these agreements takes precedence over the constitution in these countries. If the agreement is passed by parliament, the state will not be entitled to ask church hospitals to make abortions, artificial insemination or prescription of contraceptives. Teachers would be allowed to refuse to teach sexual education and employees would not be allowed to punish the employees who refuse to work on Sundays for religious reasons. The conscience clause is not to be applied if it may threaten human lives or health. Anyone can refuse the national service, experiments with human organs and embryos, euthanasia, human cloning and sterilisation for religious reasons. Slovakia pledged to introduce the rules in 2000 by its Treaty with the Vatican, but some politicians and NGOs are against it.      December 28, 2005   Czech News Agency 016065

NYC Plans to Design Official Prophylactic; Marketing to Expand Free Condom Program.   New York City, which distributes more than 1 million free condoms a month to combat the spread of diseases, plans to design its own condom packaging. The condoms would not be available for several months. San Francisco, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington are among other cities that provide free condoms to the public. In New York City, 92,000 people have HIV or AIDS. It is the city's leading cause of death among people 35-44. The city needs to do more to make sure young people know how to use condoms. It's not worth anything if you're not sure how to use it. Head of the Catholic League calls the plan "mindless and morally irresponsible." The city should be telling people that only abstinence is sure to prevent sexually transmitted disease, he says. The Catholic League, a lay organization, has campaigned against condom use. It says they are not reliable. Condoms are distributed through more than 500 community agencies and at 16 city clinics.   Karen Gaia says: it is time that religious groups stop imposing their morals on others. There are many that think that having protected sex is not wrong. Who are we to pass judgement upon them? Sometimes condoms do fail. However, it is much better than having unprotected sex. Let us educate people about the pitfalls of having sex, but let's not make this into an enforcement of a particular religion's morality.   February 16, 2006   USA Today 016419

Family Planning Row in Guatemala.   A power struggle has erupted in Guatemala over a family planning law. The law was vetoed by President Berger, but congress decided to enact it unilaterally. The legislation requires the government to promote the use of contraceptives and provide sex education classes. Guatemala has one of the highest birth rates in Central America, and infant mortality and malnutrition are among the highest in the region. After revoking the presidential veto, congress ordered the publication of the bill in the official state gazette. The government claimed this was "irregular" because only 80 legislators voted against the veto. President Berger and representatives of the Roman Catholic Church have vowed to present legal challenges. The Archbishop of Guatemala City, Rodolfo Quezada Toruno, said the bill was a "culture of death" and compared the effect of contraceptives with that of "bullets". Representatives of women's groups who had gathered outside the congress building welcomed the rejection of the presidential veto.      February 02, 2006   BBC News 016378

Pope Urges Renewed Respect for All Life.   Pope Benedict XVI urged the faithful to develop a new respect for life even when it is "sick or damaged." Benedict stressed the need to protect all human life and cited the late Pope John Paul II who delivered the most forceful condemnation of abortion, artificial contraception, euthanasia and experimentation on human embryos. The description "sick or damaged" life in the church's teaching refers to situations in which life is in particular need of being defended, including deformed fetuses, the severely disabled, terminally ill patients or people in vegetative states. Benedict said people today wrongly think that modern man is the master of life when he is only the custodian. Life depends on God and without God, life disappears, he said. The Italian bishops' conference has said Italian voters should consider issues such as abortion in determining which candidates to vote for. Abortion up to the end of the third month of pregnancy was legalized after a long battle between the Vatican and secular forces. Recently, the abortion pill RU-486 became available in parts of Italy on an experimental basis. The bishops' conference renewed its fight against abortion and RU-486, turning abortion into a campaign issue. Benedict told Italian officials that doctors should not give the abortion pill because it hides the "gravity" of taking a human life.   The Pope ıs entitled to his opinion as long as he does not interfere with the lives of people of other faiths and beliefs, and as long as he does not impose his morals on other people. Besıdes, until 1869 the Catholic Church maintained that life commenced 40 days after conception.   February 08, 2006   Associated Press 016354

US Arizona: Bishop Calls Almost All Birth Control Sinful.   Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted says that birth control is sinful. Fargo Bishop Samuel Aquila announced that the Diocese would require couples who plan to marry in the church to take a course on natural family planning. Aquila was named bishop in Fargo five years ago. Olmsted argued that a "marriage itself is gravely harmed" when a couple uses birth control and marital infidelity increases. He said "the use of contraceptives is always morally evil, and many of them have harmful side effects as well." About 2,000 couples a year are married in churches in the Phoenix diocese. The key point, Olmsted argued, is that married couples should be open to children. However, he doesn't explain how avoiding childbirth through natural family planning fits into that. A Scottsdale obstetrician-gynecologist said long-term health effects from the birth-control pills and similar methods are virtually nonexistent. The American Academy of Family Physicians said that when couples are diligent, natural family planning is 90% to 98% effective, comparable to the pill. It added, however, that it appears to be less effective in actual practice.   Natural family planning is fine for practising Roman Catholics. It will not prevent all births, but it will probably cut the birth rate. The Roman Catholic church should not impose its morals on other people. There is nothing wrong with have a childless marriage. Also, many people see nothing wrong with having a non-married relationship. Fidelity is valued by many people regardless of whether they are religious, regardless of whether they are married, regardless of whether they have children, and regardless of whether they use contraception.   January 9, 2006   Press 016129

Pope Attacks.   Pope Benedict launched a denunciation of irresponsible sex and a "culture of death" that he said pervaded the modern world. He compared the wild excesses of the Roman empire to 21st century society and urged people to rediscover their faith. Benedict did not spell out what he meant by a "culture of death," but the phrase was a rallying cry of John Paul who used the term to define abortion and artificial birth control. Benedict suggested that people had become objects to be traded, picked up and discarded at will. It was the first time since he became Pope that Benedict has ignored the prepared text of his homily, sent to the media beforehand, and instead spoken at length off the cuff. The official speech focused on the significance of baptism, which marks the admission of a person into the community of Christians.      January 08, 2006   Reuters 016109

Philippines: Arroyo Backing Church on Birth Control.   Catholic President Arroyo has assured that her administration would promote only natural family planning methods. Arroyo said she would follow the Churchs stand and she objected to the cafeteria method wherein family planning choices are varied and readily available. She said she would abide with the doctrine of the Church. The Church rejects the use of artificial contraceptives and other methods that promote abortion and promiscuity. Reproductive health activists said Ms Arroyo and the Catholic Church should wake up to the population and reproductive health nightmare that the country is in now. An umbrella group of nongovernment and peoples organizations is fighting for the passage of HB 3773, and said the bill was the only way for a comprehensive national population management and responsible parenthood program.      December 20, 2005   Philippine Daily Inquirer 015955

Eu Challenges Vaticans Draft Abortion Treaty: Pope Proposes Conscience: Opt Out for Slovakia: Lawyers Warn of Breach of Unions Obligations.   A legal panel has attacked a draft treaty between Slovakia and the Vatican that would have restricted medical treatment such as abortions and IVF. The group warned that the treaty could place Slovakia in breach of its obligations as a member of the EU. The treaty would allow healthcare workers in hospitals founded by the Catholic church to refuse to perform abortions or carry out fertility treatment if they believe such work conflicts with their faith. The EU group said religious organisations should have the right not to perform activities that would conflict with beliefs. But it added: It is important the exercise of this right does not conflict with the rights of others, including the right of all women to receive medical services or counselling without discrimination. Approximately 70% of the population in Slovakia is Catholic and there is a risk that the right to exercise objection of conscience in healthcare will make it impossible or difficult for women to receive advice or treatment. Pope Benedict XVI is keen to extend the Vatican's influence across eastern Europe. Pope Benedict tried directly to influence members of the convention drawing up the ill-fated EU constitution to demand that the constitution refer to a Christian God. This failed and campaigners welcomed the findings by the EU panel. The draft also discriminated in favour of Christians in certain areas to the detriment of those of other faiths or none.   Ralph says: Just another reason we must maintain separation of religion and governance.   January 05, 2006   Guardian (London) 016090

Philippines: Catholic Church Should Be Declared Security Threat .   The Phillipine Catholic Church should be declared a threat to national security for derailing a population bill, a lawmaker said. Albay Representative Edcel Lagman has filed House Bill 3773 that seeks to promote family planning and freedom of choice. Catholic Church authorities have opposed the bill, which they say promotes artificial means of contraception. Lagman denied this, claiming that his bill promotes population management, not control. The country's population growth should be considered a national threat as it was expected to grow to 111 million by 2016. During the time of former president Corazon Aquino, a study was made and everyone agreed at that time that that there was a need for population management.      November 22, 2005   Philippine Daily Inquirer 015733

No Babies? Italy Blames Its 'Mamma's Boys'.   Italians are not having many children, and the Roman Catholic Church sees this as a crisis. Pope Benedict XVI beatified a woman known as “Mamma Rosa,” who lived in the early 20th century and raised 11 kids. But while the pope praises couples who have several children, most Italian families limit themselves to one and the pope’s pleas have revived the question of why Italians have so few children. Part of is that Italian society no longer follows the Vatican. In pharmacies and grocery stores racks of condoms are placed next to the cash registers and Italians buy them despite the frowns of the church. The latest report from the Italian Statistical Institute shows that 40% of men between 30 and 34 live with their parents for many reasons. Stagnant incomes, lack of affordable housing, education and employment. But whereas Anglo-American society views an adult male living at home as peculiar or inadequate, Italians think it’s normal. Many of the guys who live at home pay lip service to independence, but admit that they enjoy the best of both worlds. They feel free to frolic sexually and take frequent vacations, but enjoy coming home to find their favorite meals on the table and their clothing cleaned, pressed and hanging in the closet. Because the average Italian salary is not high, they would have very little disposable income if they had to maintain their own home. Living at home they tend to contribute little or nothing. The Roman Catholic Church is unhappy with this picture and the pope called on governments to encourage parents who chose to have more kids. But his words aren’t stirring the population. There were 10,000 fewer marriages in 2004 than in 2003, for a total of 250,000, in a country of 58 million people. The average age of the father of a first child here is 33, and when 35 year olds marry they are 80% less likely to want children. These numbers reflect a society that is becoming more less religious, more self-centered and the fewer the children, the more Italian mothers seem to cling to them for as long as they can.      November 14, 2005   MSNBC 015703

Philippines: Church Supports GMA on Use of Funds for Natural Family Planning.   Pro-life advocates lauded President Arroyo for urging the use of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for reproductive health projects and also to promote the natural family planning method called the Billings Ovulation Method (BOM). Archbishop Paciano Aniceto said Arroyoas government was able to prove that they have the same view. Mrs. Arroyo said that funding by the UN for reproductive health shall be dedicated to train married couples in a natural family planning technology. The Archbishop said through the use of BOM, married couples achieve pregnancy or spacing of the birth of children. Couples will be able to learn to practice discipline while communication between husband and wife is enhanced. As couples master the practice Aniceto, said, there is no more need for the country to import contraceptives. Reports showed that the government imported about P2.5 billion worth of contraceptives. The Church called on the legislators for a moratorium on attempts to legislate population control measures in Congress.      November 04, 2005   Manila Bulletin (Philippines) 015541

Philippines: Women Swarm Office for Tubal Ligation .   When Mayor Rodrigo Duterte announced on a TV program that he was giving out cash to women and men who opt for tubal ligation and vasectomy, he was entering the battleground between the Church and state. Tubal ligation remains a no-no in the country’s predominant Catholic Church and so is vasectomy. Social officers later reduced the amount to P3,000, saying that P2,000 will be spent for the operation and medical expenses. The main social service and health offices were forced to dispatch the applicants to the districts, to get rid of the crowd. While the government blames high birth rate for the low economic growth and rising poverty, the Catholic Church has been opposing moves to curb population growth through artificial family planning methods. Duterte’s quick-fix solution may clash with the Catholic Church’s stance but health and social workers say it is a way of addressing poverty. Only the poorest of the poor can avail of the incentive. City Hall targets only 500 this year but she believes that the city’s tubal ligation and vasectomy program will have a long-term impact on the city’s population growth rate, one of the highest in the country. She hopes that the program will be included in next year’s budget. Nothing has been heard yet from Davao’s Catholic hierarchy. But Fr. Edgar Tuling said it is not as much the ballooning population as the unequal distribution of wealth that has been causing poverty and suffering. The Church has been encouraging the rich to share their resources to the poor. Poverty and economic difficulties have been among the reasons most women opt for tubal ligation. The men have been shying away from vasectomy because of fear of being castrated and other misconceptions. Aware of the double standard in gender relations, health practitioners are inclined to believe that vasectomy is the more effective way of controlling population growth. Women continue to swarm health and social service offices even weeks after the announcement. The government’s tubal ligation program only caters to women 45 years and below, but some of those who came are as old as 52.   The question must be asked: will there be enough money to go around to equalize the disparity of wealth if the poor keep having unwanted babies?   October 09, 2005   Inquirer News Service 015401

Even in Catholic Philippines, Youth Drifting Away From the Church.   The Philippines is struggling to maintain young people's interest in the Church. While it still wields influence over this nation, Catholic dogma on contraception and divorce is causing a less conservative younger generation to shun the Church. Some 800,000 young people from around the world are expected to descend on Cologne for World Youth Day next week, billed as combining youth culture and prayer. The Philippine Church is sending a delegation of 350 people, most of them middle class teenagers and a number of priests. It is the high birth rate attributed to Catholics in the older generation that is responsible for much of the apathy towards the Church. Young Filipinos want more than their parents' generation, have more ambitions and are more assertive on social issues such as contraception and divorce. The rector of the Don Bosco Technical College, with about 4,000 students in Manila said that the Church was failing to adapt to the changing attitudes. Most of our Church people do not comprehend the new culture brought about by the digital and Internet age. A survey in 2002 found 45% of young Catholics seldom attend services. The teachings of the Church have an influence on their lifestyle. A recent report found young Catholics were divided when it came to faith. We have young people who live their faith but there are those who are baptized Catholics, yet remain nominal in their faith. Society is more permissive and the young find themselves the target in the world of marketing. The sad thing is that the greater number of young poor people are getting marginalized. We have to do a lot more.      August 11, 2005   Agence France-Presse 014914

Children Debate Vatican's Stance on Contraception.   The Vatican's stance on contraception was discussed by 120 school children from around the world. They held workshops at which the issues of climate change and Africa were also discussed and the children came up with a number of interesting ideas that will be handed to Prime Minister Tony Blair. The youngsters felt the Vatican was a "major problem" over its stance on safe sex, which had consequences for HIV and population growth.      July 04, 2005   Press Association (UK) 014439

Vatican Criticizes Catholics on Communion.   The Vatican singled out divorcees who remarry and Catholic politicians who support abortion in criticizing the faithful who continue to receive Holy Communion. The lament came in a document that details abuses of the the Eucharist to be developed during the global synod. The paper suggests that Latin be used during international liturgical gatherings so all priests can understand the proceedings, and that parishes use more Gregorian chants to prevent profane types of music from being played. The document laments the fact that fewer Catholics are going to Mass on Sundays in some countries; only 5% attend and fewer are going to confession. As a result, many Catholics are living in mortal sin when they receive Communion. Catholics can repent confessing to a priest. The receiving of Holy Communion by those who are divorced and civilly remarried is a common occurrence. There was one priest for every 1,797 Catholics in 1978 compared to one priest for every 2,677 in 2003. In one section, the document criticized the faithful who support Catholic politicians who back policies contrary to church teaching. Some Catholics do not understand why it might be a sin to support a political candidate who is openly in favor of abortion or other serious acts against life, justice and peace. The issue was highlighted after Archbishop Raymond Burke said he would deny the Eucharist to John Kerry, a Catholic who supports abortion rights.      July 07, 2005   Associated Press 014475

Pope Benedict XVI Chastises Europe in Book.   The pope said that the RC Church will not mount a futile campaign to overturn laws permitting abortion. Benedict also explores what it means to be Christian in "The Europe of Benedict: In the crisis of cultures." Ratzinger last updated it a day before Pope John Paul II died, yet the book covers many of the themes Benedict has focused on in his two months in office. The role of Christianity in Europe and the need to respect life from conception to its natural death. He acknowledges it would be easy to accept that abortion is a legal right in much of the continent. But he concludes that when man loses the respect for life, he ends up "losing his own identity." "Accepting that the rights of the weakest can be violated means that you accept that the right of force prevails over the force of rights." Yet Cardinal Ruini told a panel discussion at the book launch that the Church wasn't about to campaign to overturn abortion, since it wouldn't succeed. The issue has been raised in Italy following the success of a Vatican-backed campaign to doom a referendum that would have relaxed Italy's controls on assisted fertility. Benedict takes as a starting point the decision of EU to exclude a reference to Europe's Christian roots from the proposed EU constitution. The Vatican had campaigned to have the reference included in the charter, partly to stem increasingly empty churches often hostile to religion.      June 21, 2005   Associated Press 014303

Population Kills; to Survive, Africa Must Reduce Its Birth Rates.   The UNPF notes that a woman's risk of dying from maternal causes is one in 19 in Africa, one in 132 in Asia, one in 188 in Latin America, compared with one in 2,976 in the developed nations. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of AIDS and the lowest life expectancy for many reasons. Substandard educational opportunities, squandering of natural resources, tribal ethnic and religious conflicts, government corruption and failure to meet the challenge of overpopulation account for Africa's deplorable socioeconomic state. The world's population is increasing by some 80 million yearly and 90% is Africa, Asia and Latin America. In much of Africa the population has tripled in the past 50 years and will triple again in the next 50, as almost 50% of the sub-Saharan population is under 15. Overpopulation in Third World countries has overwhelmed any possibility of their extricating themselves from the socioeconomic morass, regardless of other measures to combat poverty. Of the $15 billion in foreign aid our president offered Africa, $5 billion was earmarked to promote abstinence until marriage. This policy has yet to show a change in the sexual behavior of U.S. teenagers and can hardly be considered a population control measure. From 1958 to 1961, China experienced the worst famine in world history and Chairman Mao realized that future famines would be measured in billions dying from starvation. A 10-year trial of voluntary family-size restriction was unsuccessful, and in 1970 Mao decreed the limitation of family size to one child using the world's most comprehensive contraception program and enforced abortions. The New York Times described China's policy of enforced abortions as an "act of official inhumanity". China's leaders were more aware than her critics of the threatened civil disintegration. In only two generations, China emerged from a Third World country to an economic powerhouse. It all started with population control measures. The leaders of the world's largest religious body have remained unresponsive to sub-Sahara Africa's need to reduce the birth rate. Pope John Paul II assured the populace that population growth was in the grand plan of a "divine providence" that should be "welcomed" rather than "resisted." He further postulated that Africa's sick and starving masses were "poor only in an economic and material sense. In a moral sense, poverty means wealth." The developed world's strategy of combating poverty by relieving the debts of the poorest nations will fail to solve the problem as surely as it has failed in the past.   The author suggests a China-like policy, but today China is turning to voluntary methods, contraception instead of abortion, and more reproductive health.   July 07, 2005   San Diego Union-Tribune (US) 014519

US North Carolina: Pharmacists Can Face Legal Action for Saying 'no' .   The North Carolina Board of Pharmacy adopted a policy in April of 2005 that states that a pharmacist can decline to dispense a prescription based on moral issues, but he or she then refer the patient to a pharmacist who will dispense the drug. Emotions run high on the topic, with a mix of pharmaceuticals, sex and two kinds of morality. We need to settle on a definition of terms. A woman is pregnant when a fertilized egg attaches to the wall of the uterus. Preventing the fertilization or the attachment is standard contraception accepted by everyone with the exception of the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican accepts the rhythm method, which uses the timing of intercourse to avoid ovulation. Dislodging and expelling the fertilized egg from the uterine wall is abortion. Contraception is not abortion. Emergency contraceptive products prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine wall and a woman can avoid pregnancy by consuming this product after intercourse but prior to the egg attachment to the uterine wall. Missed birth control pills or rape can produce an urgent need for emergency contraception that should be administered within 72 hours of intercourse. The only drug which causes an abortion is RU 486 and this product can be provided only by a physician. A pregnancy could result when a pharmacist declines to dispense a prescription for an emergency contraceptive and fails to refer the patient to another source for the product. This pharmacist could have liability for the tort of "wrongful conception,". Damages could include medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of wages and emotional distress, but not the cost of raising the child. If the pregnant patient decides to have an abortion, it is possible that the pharmacist could also be liable for that expense. It is possible for pharmacists to decline to dispense prescriptions for contraception, but such an act may have serious consequences.      June 13, 2005   The Herald-Sun (NC) 014071

Italian Fertility Vote Collapses.   An Italian referendum on relaxing fertility laws has failed to reach the figure necessary for it to be valid. About 24% of Italian voters cast their ballots and turnout is thought to have been affected by a call for abstention made by the Catholic Church, as well as voter apathy. The law currently prohibits sperm and egg donation, and bans screening embryos for disease. It limits the number of embryos created for each treatment to three, all of which have to be implanted at the same time. The legislation also forbids embryo research. The Catholic Church was likely to step up its stand against biomedical research and fertility treatment. The only government figure to campaign actively for the change in the law voiced concerns that a comprehensive defeat would endanger Italy's laws on abortion as a number of the issues overlap. Italians legalised divorce and abortion in two landmark referendums seen as symptomatic of the declining influence of the Catholic Church.      June 13, 2005   BBC News 014035

Vatican Convenes Conference on Giving Pastoral Care to Prostitutes, Condoms Discussed.   The Vatican delved into ways of providing pastoral care to prostitutes and victims of human trafficking, and using condoms to guard against AIDS. The issue arose during a discussion sponsored by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerants. Participants, most of whom were helping prostitutes, said they do whatever is necessary. On condoms, we look at it in different ways. Maybe one day there will be a change within the church, a nun from the Netherlands, said, adding that many religious people working in the field follow the practice of, "Your Bible in your left hand, your common sense in your right hand." She and other participants praised the Vatican for getting involved saying the church has been absent from a field that has exploded in recent years. The Vatican had a lot to learn about the issue, the title of the conference, "Meeting for the liberation of women of the street" was demeaning to women forced into prostitution or trafficking. Most international meetings speak of victims of sexual exploitation. Many Nigerian women are unable to leave their pimps because they fear they or their families will be retaliated against at home, and believe in voodoo, and their pimps use their belief to threaten them. The aim of the meeting was to determine the best ways to help women with concrete proposals for the church to follow.      June 21, 2005   Associated Press 014277

Uganda: Back Condom Use, Museveni Urges Catholic Leaders.   Ugandan President called on the Catholic Church to drop its opposition to the use of condoms as they are one of the primary ways of fighting the spread of HIV. This is not to support immorality, but to recognise the weakness of those we live with and help them to live a healthy life. In sub-Sahara Africa, an estimated 25.4 million people are living with the disease. Two bishops had told reporters that the church would not accept condom use or financial aid from atheist NGOs to fight HIV. Their comments came in the wake of criticism that his government was abandoning condoms as a means to fight HIV/AIDS in favour of abstinence. The president said the church also should instil morals in the region's youth, as this would mitigate the spread of HIV. The bishops commended efforts to control the HIV pandemic, specifically institutions that encourage abstinence and fidelity. Uganda has won accolades for its fight against the pandemic, which has brought HIV prevalence rates down from over 20% in the 1980s to about 6% in 2004. The country has used a strategy popularly known as "ABC", or "Abstinence, Be faithful and use Condoms", to fight the disease.      June 15, 2005   IRIN News (UN) 014125

  Catholic Church officials the world over have campaigned against condoms, even in places like Africa, where HIV and AIDS are taking an immense toll on human life and health. Some top church officials have gone so far as to assert that condoms actually cause AIDS. Mexican Archbishop Norberto Rivera Carrera, for example, demanded in 1997 that condoms carry warning labels stating, "Use of this product is harmful to health." In 1996 in Kenya, where 1 million of the country's population of 26 million are HIV-positive, Cardinal Maurice Otunga ceremoniously burned boxes of condoms and safe sex pamphlets in front of a crowd. Religion News Service   1997   Religion News Service 011433

Mormanism


U.S.: Utah May Be One of Fastest-Growing States.   The Census Bureau said that Utah's population is expected to increase 56%, or 1.2 million people, between 2000 and 2030. Nevada and Arizona are expected to double in population, and a gain of 80% is projected in Florida and almost 60% in Texas. In Utah at least 70% of the 2.2 million residents are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the church's emphasis is on big families. Utah's fertility rate is 2.56 - the highest in the nation. The state also has the nation's highest average of people per household, 3.13, and the lowest median age, 27.5. Its 65-and-older population has climbed 27% in the past 10 years, and will rise another 28% in the next decade. Retiring baby boomers are moving to Utah, often drawn by the red-rock beauty of the southern part of the state. Benefits include: outdoor activities, five national parks within short driving distance, theater, concerts, a new hospital, and attractive housing prices. New subdivisions astride Utah's Wasatch mountain range are creeping closer to the hills framing the Salt Lake Valley. Florida, California and Texas will account for 46% of the nation's growth between 2000 and 2030, with each gaining more than 12 million residents. The highest population growth - 88 percent - is projected in the South and West, according to the Census.      May 15, 2005   013630

Mormon Reasons for Pill Avoidance.   A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life included an article on natural family planning by a Mormon physician who does not prescribe contraceptives because of her belief that "the pill could act as an abortifacient" and "any form of contraception had detrimental effects on marriages."   November 1, 2000   First Things 011974

Educate The American Life League


  The president of American Life League, Ms. Judie Brown concerning the Educate Bill Gates Web Site at www.billgateseducate.com, a site that is full of misinformation in an attempt to convince Bill Gates not to spend $17 billion on third world family planning and health. American Life League seems to think that family planning cannot be accomplished without abortions and doesn't realize or denies that family planning prevents abortions. Bill Gates says he does not pay for abortions.   1999   012034

Evangelical’s Focus on Climate Draws Fire of Christian Right.   Leaders of Christian groups have sent a letter urging the National Association of Evangelicals to force its director in Washington to stop speaking out on global warming. They are not convinced that global warming is human-induced or that human intervention can prevent it. They accuse the director of diverting the evangelical movement from more important issues, like abortion and homosexuality. This underlines a struggle between conservative Christian leaders, whose priority has long been sexual morality, and challengers who are pushing to expand the evangelical agenda to include issues like climate change and human rights. The letter says, “that Cizik and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time.” Those issues, are a need to campaign against abortion and same-sex marriage and to promote the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children. Mr. Cizik has long served as one of the evangelical movement's agenda-setters. He said last year that he experienced a profound “conversion” on the global warming issue after listening to scientists at a retreat. Evangelicals have recently become a significant voice in the chorus on global warming. In interviews, some signers of this latest letter said they were wary of the global warming issue because they associated it with leftists, limits on free enterprise and population control, which they oppose. What is being done here, is a concerted effort to shift the focus of evangelical Christians to these issues that draw warm and fuzzies from liberal crusaders.   Karen Gaia says: it's time to stop calling it population control, because there is no 'control' about it. It is all supposed to be voluntary, which works much better than 'control'.   March 06, 2007   Washington Post 020595

More Than Nine Out of 10 Americans, Men and Women Alike, Have Had Premarital Sex.   More than 9 of 10 American men and women have had premarital sex. This is normal behavior for the majority of Americans, and has been for decades. The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews with more than 38,000 people in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002: 99% had sex by age 44, and 95% had done so before marriage. Even of those who abstained from sex until 20, four-fifths had had premarital sex by 44. The likelihood of Americans having sex before marriage has remained stable since the 1950s. The study found women as likely as men to engage in premarital sex. Among women born between 1950 and 1978, at least 91% had premarital sex by age 30, while among those born in the 1940s, 88% had done so by age 44. This calls into question the government's funding of abstinence-only- until- marriage programs. It would be more effective to provide young people with the information they need to be safe once they become sexually active. A conservative group which strongly supports abstinence-only education was skeptical of the findings. "The numbers are too pat." An organization promoting abstinence-only education contended that increasing numbers of young people were open to remaining chaste until marriage.   Karen Gaia says: It should not be anyone's business if sex is conducted between two consenting adults. Yes, we should encourage our young people to save sex until they are emotionally mature and ready for a loving, long-lasting relationship. But we should not withhold comprehensive sex education, health care, and disease prevention, and contraception based on some antiquated religion's attempts to impose their morals on the rest of us. Most of these moralistic conservative religions are based on the concept of sin and guilt instead of instilling self responsibility.   December 19, 2006   Xinhua General News Service 019810

India;: Church Steps in to Advocate Safe Sex.   With the state reeling under drug use and HIV, a church in Manipur has taken a decision to step in and advocate safe sex, condom use and harm reduction behaviour, a move expected to make HIV interventions reachable for high risk groups. The Evangelist Baptist Convention Church (EBC), has decided to use the pulpit to talk about safe sex, HIV and drug use. The decision has been left to the pastors of individual churches with 15-16 agreeing to talk about HIV every Sunday. The organisation has so far not been talking about condoms and needle exchange among drug users. Use of condoms and syringes is not permitted, but we have to check on reality. The EBC has introduced a module on HIV training in Grace Bible College for those aspiring to be pastors. Under EBC initiatives, the last Sunday of every November is celebrated as AIDS Awareness Day. The Church caters to spiritual aspects but cannot neglect drugs and HIV. Almost three families out of four are affected by drug use and HIV. The state has been adversely impacted by drug use, ethnic conflict, insurgency and poverty. About 24% of the IDUs (intravenous drug users) and 11.4% female sex workers in Manipur are HIV positive. However, 50-60% of IDUs tested positive for HIV. A high prevalence of HIV in IDUs has led to its spread to the general population through the sexual route. An IDU may have multiple sexual partners.   December 23, 2006   Statesman 019869

American Life League: USAID Responsible for AIDS Epidemic, AIDS Orphans; Genocide Hidden in AIDS Relief Package .   [Can you believe this?] "For the past few decades, funding for condom distribution abroad has fueled the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus," said the American Life League, attacking Clinton's $54 million HIV/AIDS relief program for Africa-a program titled "Leadership and Investment in Fighting an Epidemic," or LIFE. "AIDS mortality has skyrocketed over the past decade and a half, concomitant with USAID's massive condom distribution campaign. ... by occasioning promiscuity under the false guise of 'safe sex,' condom distribution has created genocide in the name of AIDS relief. .. By USAID's own admission, over one billion condoms have been provided to men, women and adolescents throughout the developing world over the past few decades."   2000   PR Newswire 011442

American Life League: Ted Turner the Racist Strikes Again! .   According to ALL President Judie Brown, "Ted Turner's personal population agenda is dead set against brown, black and yellow people," apparently because Turner compared Mexicans who cross the Rio Grande border to an "army of thousands of men", in statements made before a group of teenagers attending the National 4-H Congress in Atlanta. "He must not be reading about the impending population implosion the world is facing," Brown said. "In every aspect, there has never been a better time in the world's history to raise a family with many children. (Several inaccuracies in Ms. Brown's statement, including the misinterpretations of Turner's remarks, would merit a letter to Ms. Brown at to help her in her 'education'. Be polite.)   December 03, 1999   PRNewswire 011441

A Response to ALL's Ms. Brown, David Pimentel, Professor of Agricultural Sciences, Cornell University Writes: .  
"Certainly, all of us desire freedom to reproduce. However, while we are protecting our freedom to reproduce, we are losing our freedoms from malnutrition, hunger, poverty, pollution, and disease. In addition, we are losing our freedom to enjoy our natural environment. Adding nearly a quarter million people daily to the world's population reduces everyone's freedom -- now and for the generations of the future."   2000   011440


Another letter to American Life League president, Ms. Judie Brown:
Dear Mrs. Brown,

While doing a search on Bill Gates I happened across your Website: .

I am certain you are aware that this Website cherry picks its materials. Unfortunately, they do not stand up to peer review evaluation. Most have been discredited and the balance are overly subjective.

I want to say at the onset that most people will take great exception to the statement that the purpose of your organization is "to save lives." Mrs. Brown, your enthusiasm may be heartfelt, but clearly misplaced. It is hard to imagine the toll of misery and number of deaths that have resulted from the pro-life efforts. If organizations such as your's promoted family planning as vigorously as their Life agenda, abortions would have almost been totally eliminated. In fact it is quite probable they wouldn't have a cause and the need for these organizations would have disappeared.

You write that philanthropist funding organizations striving to better the human situation by promoting family planning are doing it a disservice. You write,

  • frightening development
  • population control
  • bamboozled by population controllers
  • scientific evidence
  • shreds every claim
  • these untruths
  • part of a major multimedia educational project

    Resolving overpopulation is a complex undertaking. If the world and each of its nations are to reach a point where numbers, resources, and biological systems are in balance, the growth of the human population must first be brought to a halt and then reduced. The challenge is how to address the issue of our burgeoning populations and provide for their welfare on a sustainable basis while maximizing biological diversity and minimizing environmental degradation. Unfortunately, the American Life League agenda doesn't appear to take these issues seriously.

    Some examples:

    • It required until soon after the year 1800 for the world's population to reach one billion; in 1927, 2 billion; 1960, 3 billion; 1974, 4 billion; 1987, 5 billion; and now, in only 12 years, 6 billion.
    • More than at any time in history, today the world has two billion poor and one billion in abject poverty with little hope of a positive outcome.
    • Almost half of the current six billion people are under the age of twenty-five and entering their reproductive years.
    • Today, over half a billion people have little fresh water and water tables are falling on every continent; the continued mining of fossil water will diminish its availability and increase its cost. Many nations, including the developed nations such as the U.S. suffer growing water shortages; major rivers such as the Colorado are already exhausted before reaching the seacoast.
    • Today, over 550 million people in China do not have enough water; two thirds of China's cities have water shortages; rivers are running dry; the Yellow River since 1985 has been running dry every year; lakes have disappeared.
    • The UN states that over thirty percent of the world's population will have serious and persistent water shortages within fifty years.
    • Species in lakes and rivers declined at a rate of six percent annually between 1990 and 1995.
    • The world's fisheries peaked in the mid 1980's and been in decline since; four major fisheries are lost and irrecoverable while eight or so are barely holding on; the remaining handful are in decline but could be saved.
    • In the last twenty-five years the number of ocean species declined by thirty percent.
    • Almost one third of the planet's animals were lost between 1970 and 1995.
    • An estimated 30,000 species go extinct every year; two mammals every month. From the Sumatran and Siberian Tigers to the Black rhinoceros to the Keys Deer and the Manatee, the larger animals are extremely threatened and unlikely to survive in nature because human population growth devours their living space.
    • Deforestation and desertification is occurring at an unprecedented rate. The rainforest of Brazil and much of Kenya and many areas of Africa are being reduced to barren deserts. If natural recovery is possible, it will require centuries.
    • Currently, food shortages are critical, with more than three billion humans malnourished; today there has never been so many; perhaps as many as 40,000 die each day, mostly children, due to malnutrition and diseases; in the early 1970's it was 'only' 10,000.
    • Per capita world grain production peaked in 1985.
    • Globally, cropland per person has dropped by half since 1950.
    • World oil production will peak within ten years, even assuming finding large new oil reserves.
    • U.S. oil production peaked in 1970; today the U.S. imports about 65% of its oil creating a third world debtor nation outlook. The U.S. has already used up 75% of its total recoverable oil and in 1999, U.S. oil production reached a forty year low. Recognizing the desperate situation the U.S. is already using its military might to preserve access to oil. This is frightful in its own right, but even more significantly, it is indicative of its political reluctance to re-define its future direction. The U.S. certainly needs no more people.
    • Because of the unprecedented changes required, it is probable the growing tensions will create social and governing problems on a world scale.

    As the above poignantly demonstrate the American Life League program needs to understand that a number of factors require balancing. How the planet reaches the balance point of human carrying capacity or even an optimum level, while providing for all other life is the issue.

    The important issue is one of sustainable, or better, optimal population level, and of providing for future generations. I keep thinking about the future for my children -and your's, and those elsewhere and how decisions we make today will determine their future; or if they will have a future. It's a serious bet you're making.

    Sincerely,
    Dell Erickson


    012035 Religion_ALL`M

    Dear Ms. Brown,   Great website! You do the pro-life cause a great service by putting babies ahead of the environment. Unfortunately, babies need the environment to live as well. You seem to have all the answers about global warming, species extinction, and population growth. Are you willing to bet your children on the fact that you've got it right? I'm not.

    If you don't believe that population growth is a problem, would you like to ride around with me here in Atlanta where urban sprawl reaches 100 miles wide? Or, would you rather go with me to Tanzania where everyone is dirt poor and many kids are starving? Are you going to blame that on bad distribution of resources?

    Is it honorable to force women to have unwanted children, just so the babies can starve in the streets? Does that make you a better Christian for supporting such a cruel way to die?

    From all your research, you must know that the issue isn't about space or food supply -- it's about carrying capacity. It's about our ability to live on this planet without diminishing the quality of life for the next generation. It's about good stewardship, and it's about responsibility.

    In your zeal to push your pro-life cause, I'm afraid you've forgotten about everything else. I'm glad you have Julian Simon featured on your web site, as it immediately removes all credibility to your cause.

    I hope you will reconsider what it means to be alive in this world. You have a warm house and plenty to eat, so for you it's easy to judge. For millions of other humans, it's not so easy. So, tell them to keep having lots of children, and we'll see what happens.

    Todd Daniel
    Powder Springs, Ga.

      011977

    Pimentel's Answer to Judy Brown   Judie Brown reported an impending population implosion, and implied that the world population was stabilizing to the point that we do not have too many people in the world. Unfortunately, Brown presents less than half the story. It will take about 70 years before the global population stabilizes, even if we adopt a plan of only 2.1 children per couple starting tomorrow. The total number of people will more than double before it stabilizes, because of population momentum, or the young age structure.

    Some populations in Africa have a median age of 16 years. Similarly, if China is able to limit the number of children per female to one, China's population will add a population equivalent to that of the U.S. in about 30 years. In both of these examples, it is the young age distribution and the large number of females who will be at reproductive age that create the population problem.

    Some people believe that the U.S. population has stabilized. To the contrary, the U.S. population has doubled during the past 60 years. Based on the U.S. Bureau of Census rate of growth, the U.S. population will double again within the next 75 years and will reach 540 million people. The U.S. adds nearly 3.5 million people to its population each year. For each person added to the U.S. population, about 5 acres of land are needed for food production, urbanization, and highways.

    Based on a recent joint statement made by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and 57 other nations' academies of sciences, serious imbalances already exist between the level of world population and the basic resources that support human life. Shortages of food, fertile land, water, energy, and biological resources now exist throughout the world.

    The World Health Organization reports that at present more than 3 billion people are malnourished, the largest number ever reported to experience serious food shortages. Per capita grains, which make up 80%-90% of the world's food, have been declining for nearly two decades because of shortages of cropland, fresh water, and fertilizers.

    Much fertile cropland has been removed from production as humans have expanded throughout the earth for housing, industries, and roads. Through continuous cultivation, soil erosion has damaged cropland to the extent that nearly one-third of the world's cropland was abandoned during the past 40 years. These activities have left us with substantially less cropland to plant, just at a time when food supplies must be increased to feed more people.

    Pure water is another resource declining as populations expand. Crop production requires enormous amounts of water. For instance, 120-1200 gallons of water are needed to produce one pound of grain. Because food harvests must be increased, current water supplies must be stretched. Increased numbers of cities, towns, and industries sharing water supplies are further stressing our water supplies. For example, 7 U.S. states and Mexico take a share of the water in the Colorado River. By the time that the river reaches the Gulf of California, the river is nothing but a trickle because 99% of its total water has been consumed.

    Large quantities of fossil fuel in the form of fertilizers and pesticides are used to power farm equipment and are essential for U.S. food production. Approximately 400 gallons of oil equivalents per American are used in the U.S. food system. The United States is currently importing more than 60% of its oil. The U.S. Department of Energy and others project that in about 15 years, we will be importing approximately 100% of the oil we need. How will the United States pay for oil imports after the U.S. population doubles to 540 million in a few decades?

    Environmental degradation is partly due to population growth and is causing a rapid increase in infectious diseases in the world. Even in the United States, deaths from infectious diseases have increased 58% during the last decade!

    Certainly, all of us desire freedom to reproduce. However, while we are protecting our freedom to reproduce, we are losing our freedoms from malnutrition, hunger, poverty, pollution, and disease. In addition, we are losing our freedom to enjoy our natural environment. Adding nearly a quarter million people daily to the world's population reduces everyone's freedom -- now and for the generations of the future.   December 08, 1999   David Pimentel, Professor of Agricultural Sciences, Cor 011990

    American Life League: USAID Responsible for AIDS Epidemic, AIDS Orphans; Genocide Hidden in AIDS Relief Package.   [Can you believe this?] "For the past few decades, funding for condom distribution abroad has fueled the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus," said the American Life League, attacking Clinton's $54 million HIV/AIDS relief program for Africa-a program titled "Leadership and Investment in Fighting an Epidemic," or LIFE. "AIDS mortality has skyrocketed over the past decade and a half, concomitant with USAID's massive condom distribution campaign. ... by occasioning promiscuity under the false guise of 'safe sex,' condom distribution has created genocide in the name of AIDS relief. .. By USAID's own admission, over one billion condoms have been provided to men, women and adolescents throughout the developing world over the past few decades."   Didn't the Catholic Church inhibit the use of condoms until the epidemic was well under way? How can only one billion condoms (many of them never used) distributed between a billion young couples in the third world over several decades possibly promote any significant degree of promiscuity? What should they do - the millions of wives who need protection from AIDS because of the acts of errant husbands?   July 17, 2000   PRNewswire 012037

    American Life League: Ted Turner the Racist Strikes Again! .   According to ALL President Judie Brown, "Ted Turner's personal population agenda is dead set against brown, black and yellow people," apparently because Turner compared Mexicans who cross the Rio Grande border to an "army of thousands of men", in statements made before a group of teenagers attending the National 4-H Congress in Atlanta. "He must not be reading about the impending population implosion the world is facing," Brown said. "In every aspect, there has never been a better time in the world's history to raise a family with many children. (Several inaccuracies in Ms. Brown's statement, including the misinterpretations of Turner's remarks, would merit a letter to Ms. Brown at to help her in her 'education'. Be polite.) December 3, 1999 PRNewswire   December 3, 1999   PRNewswire 012036

    CIRTL - Another Critic - This time Warren Buffet, who has given millions for population, is the target.

    Catholics For a Free Choice012040 Religion_ALL`V

    Religious Reproductionists
    (not just Pro-Life, but Pro-Birth)


    Nigeria: State Outlaws Condom Advocacy.   It is now illegal to encourage the use of condoms in Nigeria's Anambra State. The state government has also banned the advocacy and distribution of other forms of contraceptives. "Instead of teaching children how to use condoms they should be taught total abstinence," the state commissioner for health, Amobi Ilika said. Many sociologists, family planning and AIDS support groups disagree. More than 3 million people, 3.9% of the adult population, are living with AIDS in Nigeria. The rate is rising by 300,000 people a year, according to a joint UN program. Condoms are available throughout Nigeria because the federal government, in partnership with family health organisations, has programmes to distribute and sell them. Many religious groups back condom use, having recognised that abstinence has failed to yield the desired results. Anambra State has a history of political instability and violence and is now making "a desperate attempt to uphold morals". Commissioner Ilika also railed against abortion. He said. "All fetuses must be allowed to live no matter the circumstances that led to the pregnancy, even rape." He added that medical practitioners in the state will face stiff penalties if they are caught carrying out any 'anti-life' activities. "The state government will withdraw the license of any medical personnel who flouts this directive".   April 07, 2008   UN Integrated Regional Information Network 023052

    U.S.;: The Quiet Campaign Against Birth Control.   Mitt Romney set out to convince anti-abortion leaders he was their candidate. He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and supports teaching only abstinence. But Mr. Romney was acknowledging something more. He implied an opposition to the birth control pill and a willingness to scale back access to contraception. He defines life as beginning at conception. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists defines pregnancy as starting at implantation. Anti-abortion advocates want pregnancy to start at the moment sperm and egg meet. They'd like you to believe that the birth control pill prevents that fertilized egg from implanting in the womb. Romnwy told the crowd he had some practice redefining contraception and had vetoed a bill that gave young girls abortive drugs without prescription or parental consent. To the anti-abortion movement, contraception is the ultimate corruptor. And so candidates seeking the support of anti-abortion groups must offer proof they are anti-contraception too. Brownback, Republican of Kansas, co-sponsored a bill to de-fund the largest contraception provider, Planned Parenthood. John McCain has voted against taxpayer-funded contraception programs and reports that his adviser on sexual-health matters is Sen. Tom Coburn, who leads campaigns claiming condoms are unsafe and opposing emergency contraception. Another candidate, Rep. Tom Tancredo, says emergency contraception uses a woman's body to dispose of the child instead of a doctor. The new wave of anti-contraception activism makes it much easier for politicians to appease the anti-contraception base. The candidates for the Right to Life endorsement are doing their best to avoid directly answering mainstream voters simple questions on the subject.   August 21, 2007   The Baltimore Sun 021821

    US Agrees Not to Fund Abstinence Programme.   In response to a claim that government funds were used for Christian proselytizing, the government agreed to stop funding The Silver Ring Thing programme which won't be eligible for more funding unless it ensures the money won't be used for religious purposes. The programme, related to a Christian ministry based in Pittsburgh has received more than $1 million in federal funding during the past three years. In The ACLU complained that the ring given to teenagers was inscribed with a Biblical verse exhorting Christians to refrain from sexual sin and group members testified how accepting Jesus improved their lives. The organization said teenagers can chose between religious or secular programmes.      February 27, 2006   Push Journal 016643

    Ban Family Planning, Abortion: Puri Sankaracharya.   Sankaracharya of Puri Swami Nischalananda Saraswati advocated a ban on abortion and family planning. He alleged that family planning measures were proving to be the bane of Hindus who would 'become a minority quite soon if these practices continue'. The Sankaracharya said that 'self-control' was the best process and 'not abortion or family planning measures'. He demanded that Ganga Sagar, a place of Hindu pilgrimage, be declared a holy place like Haridwar, and that the Left Front government in West Bengal should respect the sentiments of the Hindus and take steps to ban non-vegetarian food at the holy site.   Karen Gaia says: I guess he thinks India's rapid population growth is sustainable and does not lead to povery and depletion of resources.   January 23, 2006   Press Trust of India 016195

    Tanzania: Catholic Bishops Oppose Teaching of Condom Use.   Roman Catholic bishops in Tanzania have condemned as "unacceptable" a new science syllabus for primary schools that incorporates the teaching of proper condom use. Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, the archbishop of Dar es Salaam, said "Teaching children, some as young as 12 years old, the use of condoms is disastrous." The disputed syllabus is a section that lists means of preventing the spread of HIV. The Episcopal Conference has remained steadfast in its opposition to condoms, despite the fact that at least two million Tanzanians are HIV positive. The Conference said the church was obliged to defend the dignity of human beings and, had to speak out. However, Halima Shariff, an official of the Tanzania AIDS Commission said: "The clerics say the only way to check further spread of HIV/AIDS is to abstain from sex or having a single partner, but what do you do with those who cannot manage to abstain or stick to a single partner?"   How is there human dignity in the pain and suffering of AIDS and having no parents due to AIDs?   January 10, 2006   News (UN) 016136

    U.S.: Conservatives Step Up Activities Overseas.   U.S.-based conservative groups are engaged in abortion and family-planning debates overseas. U.S. advocacy groups are now waging their culture war worldwide as they try to influence other countries' laws and wrangle over how U.S. aid money should be spent. Pro-lifers feel there's an opportunity to stop the U.S. government from promoting abortion and sex education and population control in the Third World. NGOs have been the playground for the leftist activists, and it's only been during the Bush administration that there has been an opportunity to be on a level playing field. Liberal activists acknowledge that U.S. conservatives have gained clout overseas and intimidated some foreign advocacy groups because of their influence on Bush administration policies. The Bush administration has implemented foreign-aid restrictions demanded by the religious right. At issue are conservative allegations that the U.N. agency contributes to coercive abortions in China. Several prominent U.S. groups are helping prepare for a World Congress of Families in Poland in May 2007. The chief organizer said U.S. conservatives view Poland - where the new president staunchly opposes abortion and gay marriage - as a rare holdout throughout the European Union. In Peru, the Population Research Institute contended that two local groups had violated U.S. policy by using American funds to promote legalization of the morning-after pill. Both groups were warned, and one will have to return some funds. Women's rights activists plan to seek to end Colombia's status as one of three Latin American countries prohibiting all abortions. Several U.S. conservative groups have been helping rally opposition to family-planning legislation in the Philippines. American conservatives have supported Bush policies emphasizing abstinence in overseas HIV/AIDS prevention programs. U.S.-based groups focusing on abstinence have received grants for work in Africa, in some cases drawing criticism that political ties overcame their lack of expertise. With Bush as president, they feel empowered and have been particularly active in Latin America.   The Population Research Institute is an ultra conservative group that is opposed to most forms of contraception and seeks to prove that population growth is not a problem.   January 14, 2006   Associated Press 016181

    Women's Rights Fading in U.S.?.   In 1920, U.S. women won the right to vote but other rights are in peril. The right to birth control and abortion is under ceaseless attack by religious conservatives. Roe v. Wade has been chipped at by parental-notification and consent laws, 24-hour waiting periods and other requirements. Two-thirds of states deny abortion coverage to needy women. Abortion providers are found in only 13% of counties nationwide. Since 1993, antiabortion zealots have killed seven abortion physicians, clinic workers and volunteers as part of the campaign against abortion rights. Foes of abortion are targeting the right to contraception. Efforts to make emergency contraception available over-the-counter nationwide have stalled. A majority of states do not require insurance companies to cover contraception. As a senior legal adviser to President Ronald Reagan, Roberts once endorsed a controversial service for aborted fetuses as "an entirely appropriate means of calling attention to the abortion tragedy." The lack of women's status and value is clear from the Democratic capitulation on Roberts' nomination. Senators should be objecting to Roberts on the basis that his appointment would ensure only one female justice on a court of nine. The Canadian Supreme Court, has four women justices out of nine. Why should U.S. women, be so underrepresented on our nation's high court?      August 26, 2005   Detroit Free Press 015063

    U.S.: Role of Religion in US Politics under Question.   While the US is robustly secular in its separation of church and state, George W. Bush is not exceptional among presidents in using religious themes to explain his policy. It has been a constant theme of presidents that the US has a mission to transform the world, and represents the forces of good over evil. More recently the tendencies of the early Protestants have been joined by conservative evangelicals who have lobbied for a greater Israel and defended Christians against persecution. But the furore over Ms Schiavo seems to be turning inward to emphasise the "culture of life" that smacks of hypocrisy and double-standards: The Pope's opposition to the Iraq war and capital punishment were ignored by the US. Religious ideology is driving US health policy abroad. Global abstinence, not condom use, has become the main anti-Aids policy. Even church members fear that the Republican party, has overstepped the mark. John Danforth - an Episcopal minister, former Republican senator and former UN ambassador recently attacked his party for allowing its traditional principles to become secondary to the religious right's agenda. He said the party had ultimately "become the political extension of a religious movement".      April 08, 2005   Financial Times (London) 013385

    Religion Reproductionists   Some religious groups encourage their members to have as many children as possible. They do not believe in chemical means of birth control, but most do not have any religious objections to fertility timing, abstinence, and delaying of marriage. These religions usually teach that God will send down an apocalypse which will wipe out almost everyone except those that believe they same way that they do. Therefore, it is important for them to increase their numbers. They brush aside the conclusion that God seems to indiscriminately allow children of all types to die from malnutrition, disease, genetic defects, ect, because of the lesson of Job; it is a test of their 'faith'. They frequently will not listen to statistics and will liken efforts to slow population to Adolf Hitler's programs, and will call detractors 'agents of Satan'. Many have become convinced that the physical love between a man and a woman and the consequential procreation is sacred, and that most means of birth control are 'unnatural'. They overlook the fact that modern medicine, improved water purity, and modern farming practices, which have decreased the infant mortality rate, are man-made and also not natural. Many believe that a human embryo is to be held in the same regard as full term infant, even though it looks and behaves pretty much like a chicken embryo until further along in development.   Karen Gaia 011984

    Chris Smith and the Religious Right   In his op-ed column, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) wrote that President Clinton vetoed a foreign policy bill "because he objected to a provision restricting U.S. support for foreign organizations that promote abortion around the world." Rep. Smith misled readers--the bill President Clinton vetoed would prevent women from receiving lifesaving family-planning services.

    According to a 1996 report from one of the few U.N. organizations Mr. Smith supports--the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)--almost 600,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth each year; 75,000 die attempting to abort an unwanted pregnancy themselves or with the help of an untrained provider. These deaths render at least 1 million children motherless every year, and for every woman who dies, 30 more incur lifelong injuries.

    Recently, UNICEF joined the World Health Organization and the U.N. Population Fund in calling on nations to commit themselves to reduce maternal deaths. At the top of their action list was ensuring access to family planning. If Rep. Smith truly cared about the life and health of women and children, he would do everything in his power to ensure that both groups have access to food, education and primary health care, especially family-planning services. With a single word, Rep. Smith could sit in Washington and save 1.6 million lives.   November 1999   Planned Parenthood 011986

    Human Life International .  
    "There is no overpopulation crisis anywhere in the world." "Contraceptives are the stepping stone for abortion". "Use of contraceptives often leads to divorce." Says the Pill, Norplant, and Depo-Provera cause non-surgical abortions. "There are actually between 300 and 1000 abortions per minute globally."   Hard to believe since the net world growth rate is about 2.8 per second, or 170 per minute! We'd be standing on each others' heads if this was true and people stopped using contraceptives!   2001   012041

    Religious Leaders Speak Out on Sexual and Reproductive Health


    Church Sex Education Program Preaches More Than Abstinence; Our Whole Lives Takes Broader Approach Than Other Faith-based Classes.   Our Whole Lives, a product of Unitarian-Universalists and the United Church of Christ, has proved popular at both churches, each has trained more than 1,000 teachers. Unitarian and United Church of Christ youths will lobby their congressional representatives for more money for comprehensive sex ed programs in public schools. Our Whole Lives stresses of abstinence, also includes birth control, safe sex practices and sexual orientation. These are done within the context of a loving, committed relationship. Only one family has ever opted out. In another case, the parents took the materials home and taught the course themselves. Many say the misinformation that abounds in the schoolyard mandates a pre-emptive approach. Although 15- to 24-year-olds make up a quarter of the nation's sexually active population, they account for nearly half of all new sexually transmitted infections a year. People are going to develop sexually whether ready for it or not. One of its goals is to open communication, so that children can chat comfortably with parents about intimate issues. The state requires schools to give only HIV/AIDS education, once in middle school and once in high school. A 2004 California law calls on schools that do offer broader sex ed to make sure the courses are medically accurate, age-appropriate and free of religious ideology. In choosing to teach about condoms and contraception, the state passed up millions of dollars the federal government makes available to abstinence-only programs. More than half of Americans believe that teaching teens how to obtain and use condoms does not rush them into sex. A survey found nearly two-thirds of adults and more than three-quarters of teens calling on faith institutions to do more to help prevent teen pregnancy.   March 27, 2007   Contra Costa Times (US) 020717

    The Rome Declaration:   Religion Counts, an interfaith group of religious scholars, experts, and leaders, met in Rome in January and issued a declaration in support of the International Conference on Population and Development. The declaration asserts that, "People of faith readily recognize many of the values and principles in the concepts and commitments in the ICPD Programme of Action because they resonate with moral convictions that are deeply rooted in the heart of religious traditions." The group is composed of Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, and Christians--Protestant and Roman Catholic--from more than twenty countries.

    The Rome Declaration states, "Sexual and reproductive health are of significant religious concern as integral components of human well-being. Reciprocity and mutuality in relationships is the appropriate moral and ethical foundation for policies related to sexuality. Both women and men must exercise responsibility in their sexual behavior. Most faith communities accept modern forms of contraception and family planning, and even where there is official religious condemnation the evidence suggests that a great many adherents make use of artificial contraception without a sense of being unfaithful to their traditions. Sexual and reproductive heath care, including education and access to comprehensive health services, should be available to all women and men."

    "People with HIV/AIDS have human dignity that must be respected. There is no justification for stigmatizing them. Religious leaders and teachers have a particular duty to dispel the myth that AIDS is a punishment from God....Those who value life should support access to services that prevent the transmission of HIV. The world's religions are compelled to assert their most fundamental teachings on the sanctity of life by advancing comprehensive sexuality education, assertive positions on the use of condoms, confidential HIV testing, and support for those affected by the disease."

    "The world's faiths...share common moral sensibilities. The different traditions highlight complementary values. In many indigenous faiths there is a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between human beings to the earth; in Hinduism a great appreciation of diversity and tolerance; in Buddhism a deep understanding of suffering and compassion; in Confucian teachings a powerful awareness of reciprocity and duty in human relationships; in Taoism an enduring emphasis on harmony and balance; in Judaism a profound regard for the sanctify of life; in Christianity a rich understanding of charity and mercy; in Islam a boundless devotion to equality and justice."

    These values are splendidly expressed in the Programme of Action adopted in Cairo....The conference articulated a new approach to the positioning of health and education as central components of human development replacing a prior concentration on fertility regulation and population control. Finally, the ICPD acknowledged over-consumption in the developed world as both socially unjust and ecologically damaging.

    The declaration was organized by the Park Ridge Center for Health, Faith, and Ethics, and Catholics for Free Choice. "Far too often in the age of the soundbite, it is only the most extreme and most conservative religious views that grab the headlines," said Larry Greenfield, Research Scholar of the Park Ridge Center. "Religion Counts gives the mainstream majority a voice on issues that greatly concern people of faith from every part of the world." A delegation of 25 members attended the recent ICPD forum at The Hague and the group will be represented at the forthcoming PrepCom in New York.   1999   011987

    The Presbyterian Church.   The 202nd General Assembly (1990) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) adopted policy on climate change, which among other things: called upon the United States to take the lead in addressing global warming, urged "firm international agreements for steady and substantial reduction of the gases causing climate change"; recommended that the U. S. government undertake serious measures to increase energy conservation and efficiency and "to accelerate the transition to an economy based upon renewable, safe non-polluting, affordable energy"; and called for assistance, including technology transfers, to help developing countries achieve much needed energy sufficiency while minimizing pollution.

    The 210th General Assembly (1998) urged ratification of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, which sets specific targets for greenhouse gas reductions; and, in "Hope for a Global Future: Toward Just and Sustainable Human Development" called "for Presbyterians and other Christians to lead the way to a reconceptualization of the 'good life', one that, in accordance with our Christian and Reformed Heritage, is less materialistic and more frugal"; and, recognizing "the formidable problems that substantially reduced consumption ... would pose for an economy geared to growth," called "church members, economists, politicians, and citizens to wrestle with the issues of fashioning economic arrangements that affirm global solidarity and participation by all in sustainable sufficiency".

    The 210th General Assembly (1998) reaffirmed existing policies on population and , in view of "the compelling need now for fewer births, "called for "encouragement and support, respect and honor" to be accorded to couples "who choose not to conceive children" as well as to those who choose to conceive.   1999   011989

    Religion and the Environment


    U.S.;: Global Warming Film Unites Preachers and Politics.   With a new documentary "The Great Warming" as their campaign tool, a coalition of religious leaders, environmentalists and businesses are spreading copies into churches around the country. The aim of the screenings is to turn the conservative Christian constituency into a voting block united behind making the reduction of greenhouse gas. In the past, white evangelicals have been largely Republican and the environment a Democratic issue. The movement by faith communities has become more active on environmental issues over the last several years. More than 70% of people of faith believed global warming was occurring. But the movement to turn that into a political power base on global warming is only now getting under way. "The Great Warming" starts in the U.S. in October. The plan calls for more than 500 sermons on global warming. Many conservative political and business groups challenge the conclusions as faulty and alarmist, and say efforts to rein in CO2 emissions will hurt the economy. "Great Warming" backers claim scientific data and growing public concern. And many businesses are recognizing action is needed.   September 12, 2006   Reuters 018701

    U.K.: Christians Draw Swords on Climate.   Stop Climate Chaos brings environmental groups such as Greenpeace together with Christian agencies, asking the government to cut Britain's greenhouse gas emissions, and to ensure overseas aid is invested in clean technologies. The group plans to expand into faiths other than Christianity. It brings together voices to ask for definitive action on climate change. Its key demands are: The UK to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions, cut CO2 by 20% by 2010 and commit to an EU-wide greenhouse gas reduction target of 30% by 2020. The UK government has made climate change a top international priority, global warming capped at a rise of 2C above pre-industrial levels, which requires that global emissions to be declining by 2015. The government must invest in low-carbon technologies and clean energy and provide assistance to the developing world to adapt to climate change. The government says that the national 20% target is unlikely to be met, as emissions have risen. The involvement of Christian groups may bring a new moral dimension to climate change. Christians should be involved with all of God's creation, not just people. The idea that Christians have a duty to campaign on climate change is well established in the US. Christians compose 40% of the Republican party and are beginning to say that this is an important issue. The Religion and Technology Project has produced a liturgy on climate change, and took part in a silent protest outside Gleneagles, where leaders concluded a climate agreement. Caring for God's Planet, endorsed a concept under which all countries would limit greenhouse gas emissions in an equitable manner. Religious groups in Britain have confined themselves to pointing up the problem and urging individuals to change lifestyle rather than political lobbying.      September 1, 2005   BBC News 015100

      I'm not sure it's necessary to choose between faith and science to solve our problems. I rely on science, but I notice that more and more of the people who rely on faith are joining us in concern about nature. Here in the U.S., the Bible is finally being noticed as a strongly pro-environment document. Isaiah warns of overpopulation with his "Woe unto those who set field beside field and house beside house" - Isaiah 5:8 and Noah is told by God not to fill the Ark with humans, but to save "every creeping thing." Here we find the world's very first Endangered Species Act. Even before there are people, God tells all the other living things go forth and multiply, and that is the opposite of the extinction we see taking down one species after another today. We learn in the Bible that God made people in God's own image, but look again, because in Genesis God says we are made of dust. The Bible is earthy, not focussed only on Heaven. It even tells us of our obligations to the rest of Life, and in Revelations we find this: Now is time.......for destroying those who are destroying the earth. I forget now where it is, but at one point in the Bible God says something like this: I brought you into a fruitful country, but you made it a wasteland. I'm working on a book. Of its eight chapters, one is about the strongly pro-nature face of the Bible, and it briefly mentions other religions and philosophies that stress the great importance of nature. More and more American religious leaders are taking that view of Christianity. I prefer the scientific approach to reality, but when it comes to the environment, religion and science aren't really very far apart. I think we find the basic solution for ourselves by taking the path to a human population of, for example, two billion people. Six billion is just too many of us. Nothing can save us from the huge weight of our numbers.   December 2002   Lance Olson 011436

    The Greening of Evangelicals; Christian Right Turns, Sometimes Warily, to Environmentalism.   Despite wariness toward mainstream environmental groups, a growing number of evangelicals view stewardship of the environment as a responsibility mandated by God in the Bible. In October, the National Association of Evangelicals leaders adopted an "Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility" that emphasized every Christian's duty to care for the planet and the role of government in safeguarding a sustainable environment. Signatories included highly visible, opinion-swaying evangelical leaders and some are to meet in March to develop a position on global warming. Last fall, Christianity Today, an influential evangelical magazine, said that "Christians should make it clear to governments and businesses that we are willing to adapt our lifestyles and support steps towards changes that protect our environment." Polling has found a consensus among evangelicals for strict environmental rules. In 2000, about 45% supported environmental regulations but jumped to 52% last year. The political clout of evangelicals has increased as their cohesiveness in backing the Republican Party has grown. The latest statements and polls have caught the eye of environmental organizations who are attempting to make alliances with the Christian right on issues such as global warming and the presence of dangerous toxins in the blood of newborn children. Leaders of the major environmental groups spent an entire day trying to figure out how to talk to evangelicals. While evangelicals are open to being good stewards of God's creation, they believe people should only worship God, not creation. But the evangelicals have a stereotype of environmentalists who worship trees. Evangelicals don't know many environmentalists and have the idea they have strange liberal, pantheist views. The way to bring evangelicals on board as political players in environmental issues is to make arguments that tie problems of global warming and mercury pollution to family health and the health of unborn children. Even for green activists within the evangelical movement, there are landmines. One faction called dispensationalism, argues that the return of Jesus and the end of the world are near, so it is pointless to fret about environmental degradation. Unusual weather phenomena have captured the evangelicals and made many more willing to listen to scientific warnings. Many evangelicals find it difficult to criticize the president who has the moral authority of the presidential office and a record of standing on moral issues like abortion.      February 06, 2005   Washington Post 012794

    Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the billions who are its victim.
    -Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968

    012042 Religion_Environment`M

    Religion and Science   I'm not sure it's necessary to choose between faith and science to solve our problems. I rely on science, but I notice that more and more of the people who rely on faith are joining us in concern about nature.

    Here in the U.S., the Bible is finally being noticed as a strongly pro-environment document. Isaiah warns of overpopulation with his "Woe unto those who set field beside field and house beside house" and Noah is told by God not to fill the Ark with humans, but to save "every creeping thing." Here we find the world's very first Endangered Species Act. Even before there are people, God tells all the other living things go forth and multiply, and that is the opposite of the extinction we see taking down one species after another today. We learn in the Bible that God made people in God's own image, but look again, because in Genesis God says we are made of dust. The Bible is earthy, not focussed only on Heaven. It even tells us of our obligations to the rest of Life, and in Revelations we find this: Now is time.......for destroying those who are destroying the earth. I forget now where it is, but at one point in the Bible God says something like this: I brought you into a fruitful country, but you made it a wasteland.

    I'm working on a book. Of its eight chapters, one is about the strongly pro-nature face of the Bible, and it briefly mentions other religions and philosophies that stress the great importance of nature.

    More and more American religious leaders are taking that view of Christianity. I prefer the scientific approach to reality, but when it comes to the environment, religion and science aren't really very far apart.

    I think we find the basic solution for ourselves by taking the path to a human population of, for example, two billion people. Six billion is just too many of us. Nothing can save us from the huge weight of our numbers.   November 2000   Lance Olson 012039

    Invoking the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in the Quest for a Sustainable World.   World Religious institutions are supporting the environmental movement as religious people begin to partner with advocates of sustainable development. The past decade has seen a growing number of meetings by the two communities. The two groups must overcome mutual misperceptions and divergent worldviews, which have historically kept them apart. Secular environmentalists worry about the history of religious involvement. Religious institutions have perspectives on the role of women, the nature of truth, and the moral place of human beings that diverge from those of environmentalists. Misperceptions and misunderstandings persist, but engagement is growing. Religious people would do well to favor sustainability, and environmentalists would gain by appealing at an emotional/spiritual level.      March 15, 2003   World Watch Institute 005827

    Faith and Simple Living


    Alternatives for Simple Living.   Known widely as simply Alternatives, the group Alternatives for Simple Living was founded in 1973 as a non-profit organization dedicated to equipping "people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly and celebrate responsibly." An active and progressive group dedicated to leading an international fight against consumerism, Alternatives has focused on rescuing Christmas from the clutches of big business, who they believe "usurp our holy day" and "exploit people and the environment."   1999   011991

    Religion News


    Indonesia: Discrimination Over Access to Reproductive Health.   Unmarried women have been discriminated against by lawmakers in a health bill with religious overtones. This bill, which precludes them from reproductive health treatments, and which requires a recommendation from a religious panelas a requirement for approving abortions in life-threatening pregnancies or for rape victims - will replace the 1992 Health Law, which does not regulate reproductive health. "The bill is a step backwards from the current Health Law." In Jakarta, many sexually active unmarried women have found it difficult to get professional advice about reproductive health without having to face judgmental medical workers. There is concern that there would be more bureaucratic procedures in hospitals to access reproductive health. The legislation would increase the psychological trauma rape victims suffer. Especially as the provided period only allows for abortions in the first six weeks of pregnancy, which is basically unrealistic because in this period, women are often not aware of their pregnancy. In Mahayana teachings, abortion is considered murder. One woman said: "For me, giving birth to a human without being able to be fully responsible for them is also a sin."   July 25, 2009   Jakarta Post 024100

    Religious Group Attacks Religion in U.S. Health Care.   A coalition of religious leaders took on the Catholic Church, the U.S. Supreme Court and the administration with a plea to take religion out of health care in the US. Last week's Supreme Court decision outlawing a certain type of abortion demonstrated that religious belief was interfering with personal rights and the U.S. health care system in general. The group said it planned to submit its proposals to other church groups and lobby Congress and state legislators. Concerns are being raised in religious communities about the ethics of denying services. The group also complained about Catholic-owned hospitals that refuse to sterilize women, refuse to let doctors perform abortions and do not provide contraception. Doctors, pharmacists and nurses are also increasingly refusing to provide essential services on moral or religious grounds. The government is codifying these refusals, through legislation and the recent Supreme Court decision, where five Catholic men decided that they could better determine what was moral and good. The group includes ordained Protestant ministers, a Jewish activist, an expert on women's reproductive rights and several physicians. Health care decisions ought to be made freely, based on medical expertise and individual conscience. Allow doctors to use best medical practices, providing comprehensive counseling on sexual or reproductive health and honor advance directives -- including "do not resuscitate" orders. Refusal to provide health care would be balanced by alternate service delivery so that no one would be victimized when another exercises his/her conscience.   April 24, 2007   Reuters 021049

    Religion; the Combat of America's 'culture Wars' Takes Place Within Political Parties Instead of Between Them .   There has been no polarization of the public into liberal and conservative camps," the Pew Research Center said. Two-thirds of poll respondents supported finding a middle ground when it comes to abortion rights, a solid majority. About 31% want abortion generally available, 20% want to impose some restrictions, 35% want to make it illegal with few exceptions, and 9% want it banned. On abortion rights, stem cell research, gay marriage, adoption of children by gay couples, and availability of the "morning-after" pill, most Americans did not take consistent stances. Only 12% took the conservative position on all issues, while 22% took the opposite stance. The bulk of Americans had mixed opinions. About 56% opposed giving gays the right to marry, 53% favored allowing gays to enter into legal agreements for the same rights as married couples.   August 04, 2006   New York Times* 018355

    Ideology Only.   A report by an investigative arm of Congress, finds that efforts to stem AIDS are undermined by the insistence of the administration that a large portion of the funds be used to emphasize sexual abstinence. Because of an amendment to the law financing AIDS efforts, 33% of prevention funds must be used for abstinence-until-marriage and fidelity programs. That limits the money for strategies to combat AIDS, including the condom. The stress on abstinence ignores the situation in countries like India or Russia, which have exploding H.I.V. problems stemming from the intravenous use of drugs and prostitution. The result is abstinence overkill, with some countries having to cut spending on effective prevention strategies. With no intervention, a pregnant woman with H.I.V. stands a chance of infecting her infant, a possible death sentence because, without treatment, some 60% of infected children die by their third birthdays. Treatment with antiretroviral drugs can reduce the risk of transmission by up to half.   May 13, 2006   New York Times* 017434

    U.S.: Republicans Split Over Religion's Growing Role in Their Party.   Republicans, who have profited politically from faith and family values, are finding those issues dividing the party. Economic conservatives and secular Republicans complain their message is being drowned out by Christian conservatives. On the other side, "values" advocates say they have provided the party with crucial support, when they mobilized religious conservatives to help re-elect President Bush. Such concerns are turning Republican tensions over the role of religious conservatives into an election-year split. Former governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman has started a political action committee to elevate issues such as government spending and health care. Representative Davis said too much focus on abortion and gay marriage may weaken Republican support where economic matters and other issues count more. Ten years ago, small-government Republicans outnumbered religious-values voters by as much as 20% to 25% but now their numbers are almost equal. The schism in the party is whether or not you believe God's Law should be used to set public policy. Conflict between religious and moderate Republicans will intensify ahead of the 2008 presidential election. In a complaint the accusers said Russell Johnson of the Fairfield Christian Church and Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church violated a provision of the tax code barring political advocacy by churches and other nonprofits. The IRS said it was stepping up enforcement of the ban on political advocacy by tax-exempt groups amid an increase in the amount of money such organizations are spending on political campaigns.   March 28, 2006   Bloomberg (US) 016961

    Bangladeshi Couples Hold Dowry-free Weddings at Islamic Gathering.   Some 100 couples were married in a mass wedding ceremony in Bangladesh, during the world's biggest annual Islamic event after the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The three-day World Muslim congregation was due to end Sunday with organisers estimating it had attracted at least four million devotees, including 101 couples who married without dowry in accordance with the rules of Islam. But disputes over dowry are frequently cited as triggers for violence against women. The mass wedding ceremony, however, was attended by only the grooms and the brides' guardians who had arranged the matches. Arranged marriages are common in Bangladesh although the majority of couples do meet before their weddings. For the next few weeks the grooms will be taught by their religious leaders how to lead a good conjugal life according to Islamic law. Then they will meet their brides for the first time. Some 22,000 troops were deployed at the festival. At least 28 people including four suicide bombers have been killed in the attacks since August. The Biswa Ijtema is organised by a group launched to encourage Muslims to follow Islamic tenets in their daily lives. Secular Bangladesh, a nation of 140 million people, is the world's third largest Muslim-majority country.      January 29, 2006   Agence France-Presse 016300

    U.S.: Christian Groups Find New Allies at USAID.   Bonicelli, the former dean of academic affairs at Patrick Henry College - a small fundamentalist Christian college - was appointed by the George W. Bush administration to oversee USAID programmes. His responsibilities "will focus on the rule of law and respect for human rights; promoting genuine and competitive elections and political processes; development of a politically active civil society; and implementing a transparent and accountable governance." A posting at the Herescope blog argued that his ties to Patrick Henry College made the selection significant "because USAID has been a major player in the 'transformation' of the African continent". Here scope is organised by Discernment Ministries, Inc because they had become "deeply concerned with a radical shift away from the authority of Scripture". In December 2002, a Centre for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was established at USAID, like the others created at more than a dozen other U.S. agencies. Christianity Today interviewed a former missionary doctor to Zimbabwe and Zaire who was appointed by the Bush administration as head of global health for USAID. Ashe was asked about the policies regarding AIDS in Africa, and to comment on the work Christian evangelical groups were performing there. A posting on the website of USAID says "Community and faith-based organisations have a critical role to play in the provision of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment. This makes them an invaluable asset in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Pres. Bush proposed spending 15 billion dollars fighting AIDS and in Africa over a five-year period. He told a Philadelphia audience: "I think our country needs a practical, effective and moral message. We need to tell our children that abstinence is the only certain way to avoid contracting HIV. The administration announced 100 million dollars in new grants for abstinence-focused programmes. One of the projects listed among USAID partnerships with faith-based organisations appears not to have turned out so well. Swaziland has one of the world's highest HIV rates. According to USAID, trained pastors talk to their congregations about abstinence until marriage, fidelity to one's partner, and reducing stigma. Unequal treatment of women contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS, so he challenged pastors to make clear that men and women are created equal. In 2004, The New Republic's Andrew Rice reported that the World Christian Encyclopedia noted that while 17 million Africans attended Pentecostal churches in 1970, that number had jumped to "more than 125 million and demographers predict that the continent's Christian population will nearly double by 2025. Politically, that's good news for the Bush administration which, since its war on Iraq, has lost more friends than it gained. USAID is in a position to help ensure that evangelical faith-based organisations, steeped in the reactionary politics of the Christian Right, receive a lion's share of money from Bush's Emergency Plan.      January 18, 2006   InterPress Service 016203

    U.S.: Zealots Find Risk of Death Preferable to Teenage Sex.   A cure for cancer has run afoul of the morality police. A vaccine prevents human papilloma virus, known as HPV which HPV is sexually transmitted. Conservatives object to putting it on the list of immunization shots that girls receive before puberty fearing that protecting a girl's health in this way could encourage promiscuous behavior. Never mind that cervical cancer strikes more than 10,000 women each year and kills more than a third of them. The subtext of the morality-police is that the risk of death is an acceptable penalty for premarital sex. Prompted by a similar controversy over whether the FDA should approve over-the-counter purchase of "morning after" pills, a study was conducted last year to see if more access to the drug would affect sexual behavior. Results showed that improving access to the emergency contraceptive does not increase unprotected sex or sexually transmitted diseases. By opposing the vaccination of girls against HPV, social conservatives are saying, `If people have sex outside of what we say is permissible, they're going to get punished.' Girls aren't likely to change their sexual behavior because of a vaccine. Getting cancer later in life is a terrible price to pay for making a bad decision as a young adult.      January 22, 2006   San Jose Mercury News 016068

    India: Hindu Women Urged to Stop Using Contraceptives; the More Babies the Better, Says Nationalist Leader.   Calcutta Hindus have been urged by their representative body to stop using contraceptives so that India remains a Hindu-majority nation. Hindu couples should produce at least three children that runs counter to a "two-child norm" aimed at keeping a cap on growth in the world's second most-populous nation. Mr Sudarshan said: don't practise birth control. We are instituting awards for women who produce 10 children. These remarks stem from the fallacious theory that Muslims and Christians are breeding faster than Hindus. According to a 2001 census however, Hindus account for an 80.5% of 1.03 billion Indians. India's Muslim community is 13.4% of the population, Christians 24 million and Sikhs 19 million. The ruling Congress Party called the National Volunteers' Force chief's remarks anti-national and irrational. India's leading population expert said that between 1991 and 2001, the Muslim community's growth rate has declined at a greater rate than the Hindus. The All India Democratic Women's Association accused Mr Sudarshan of "communalising the electorate". "Are women reproductive machines for serving the Hindu nationalist agenda? Mr Sudarshan has contempt for a woman's rights over her body, her well-being and health".      November 21, 2005   South China Morning Post 015706

    Ukraine Faces Population Crisis.   Fertility in Ukraine reduced twice for the last years, with the divorce rate 160-165 thousand annually. As a result, more than 150 thousand children live with one parent only and is not compensated by second marriages. The number of families which do not want to have children due to social, financial or psychological reasons, increased for the last years. As a result, there is population decrease and worsening of its qualitative characteristic. This is the result of state education. Socialism teaches equality between men and women. It's from Carl Marx - it's not natural and is against the Bible. A man and a woman have a different role in the family. It is the result of economic policy of Ukraine and low living standards plus the minimum care from the state. Women are not going back to the kitchen and why should they. Biblical or not- who cares - especially if you're not Christian. Get over it. Birth rates will continue to fall until men take an equal active role in the day to day caretaking of their children and household chores.   Interesting opinion, we offered it here to understand various attitudes towards population and women's equality.   October 20, 2005   For_UM 015428

    Abortion Still Supported; Despite Decades of Debate on Subject, Pew Poll Shows Majority of Americans Endorse It, with Restrictions .   A new poll shows that 65% of Americans support the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, but almost three-quarters favor restrictions. The abortion issue is of most interest to people at the extreme left and the extreme right. People in the middle have a more complex and ambivalent view: They support a woman's right to have an abortion, yet they favor many of the reforms. For the first time, the study found that a narrow majority of Americans (53 percent) favors civil unions that would give gay couples many of the legal rights as married couples, even though they continue to oppose gay marriage. The survey shows growing support for stem cell research among all major religious groups - with the exception of white evangelical Protestants. About a third of white evangelicals support the research, compared with 70% of mainline Protestants, 61% of white Catholics and 77% of nonchurchgoers. For liberal Democrats, no issue facing the Supreme Court rivaled abortion. Conservatives and white evangelicals ranked the rights of detained terrorist suspects 69% and permitting religious displays 68% nearly as high as abortion 75%. Large majorities in all religious groups and about two-thirds of nonchurchgoers told pollsters they believe girls younger than 18 should receive parental consent before an abortion. The poll found less agreement on allowing women to obtain the "morning after pill" without a prescription, with 52% in favor, and 37% opposed.      August 05, 2005   Newsday 014827

    The Methodist Church.   The Population Institute is an international, non-profit organization that seeks to reduce excessive population growth in order to achieve a balance between world population and a healthy environment. The institute was established in 1969 by the United Methodist Church and is located in Washington, D.C.   2002   013317

    The Bride was 7; in the Heart of Ethiopia, Child Marriage Takes a Brutal Toll .   There are, according to child-rights activists, an estimated 50 million young teen or preteen girls whose innocence is being sacrificed to arranged marriages, often with older men. While humanitarian campaigns have focused attention on childhood AIDS in Africa, female genital mutilation and child labor, one of the underlying sources remains ignored. Child marriage was only denounced by the U.N. as a human-rights violation in 2001. Early pregnancies are the leading cause of death for girls age 15 to 19 in the developing world and medical relief groups believe that 2 million women are living with fistulas, from bearing children much too young. Untreated they can be fatal, and survivors are usually left incontinent. Often treated like servants, young brides are subject to beatings by their husbands and in-laws. Thousands of girls end up in the sex trade, through organized trafficking rings or by drifting from abusive marriages into street prostitution. Child marriage pries millions of young girls out of school and cheated of education, are condemned to lives of ignorance and poverty. According to UNFPA, 49 countries face a child bride problem. The epicenters of child wedlock are sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where cementing clan ties through marriage, a preoccupation with bridal virginity and fear of contracting AIDS are strongest. Ethiopia has started prohibiting early marriages yet the tradition is hard to stamp out. Among Ethiopia's rural Amhara people 82% of brides are underage. But virtually every little girl is already spoken for. Amharaland has the highest child marriage rates in the world, in some corners of the highlands, almost 90% of local girls are married before 15. And because daughters rarely inherit fertile lands, keeping them at home and feeding them are considered a folly. Better to marry them off quickly, to strengthen family alliances for the lean times. Parents push their daughters into wedlock before puberty because they fear the onset of menstruation may be mistaken for premarital sex. And the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has long played a role in early matchmaking encouraging marriage before 15, declaring that this was the age of the Virgin Mary at the Immaculate Conception. In Ethiopia, education is mandatory for both sexes until the 6th grade. But many families keep girls at home to tap their farm labor. Parents also fear for their daughters' virginity at the mud-and-wattle schoolhouse 3 miles away. Child-rights workers agree that education is the most important key unlocking the prison of child marriage. Schoolwork also gives her body time to mature before the rigors of childbirth. Convincing parents of the benefits of schooling works better than just banning child marriage. In countries such as India, secondary education has slashed child marriage rates by up to two-thirds. And across the developing world, girls who complete primary school tend to marry four years later and have two fewer children. Conservative parents distrust education as most pupils never want to go back to the farm and be their mother-in-laws' slaves. In Addis Ababa, a metal structure towers over the houses, a multistory homeless shelter made from stacked shipping containers. It is a training center for escapees from early marriages. Countless runaways end up mired in the sex trade. The plagues of HIV and child marriage go hand in hand throughout the developing world. Research shows that because their husbands are often sexually experienced and possibly carrying the virus already, child wives are more at risk of AIDS than single girls. The infection rates of child brides are even higher by the folk belief that sex with virgins can cure AIDS. A girl's highest function is to produce boys, quickly and often. Starting at 14, an Amhara girl will give birth every year for 15 years and be left with seven surviving children. For millions of child brides, initiations into sex can be traumatic. Among the minority Gurage people, brides are softened up with purgatives and fasting, and their fingernails clipped. The groom forces himself on his weakened wife and she is expected to resist. A 14-year-old schoolgirl shot dead her rapist and would-be husband with a rifle and was acquitted of murder, to the astonishment of the conservative public. In a hospital in Addis Abbaba there is the reek of feces, urine with disinfectant from the patients, women and girls whose reproductive tissues have been ripped apart by too-early childbirth. For every one of the 1,200 girls who are operated on yearly for fistulas there are at least 10 others left untreated. 2 million women worldwide suffer the devastating ailment. Husbands and families disown them. They end up as beggars or hermits.      December 12, 2004   Chicago Tribune 012395

    Faith-Based Parks? Creationists Meet the Grand Canyon.   At a park run by creationists near Pensacola, visitors are informed that man coexisted with dinosaurs and accommodates the creationists' view that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. Among the exhibits is a long trough filled with sand and fitted at one end with a water spigot. Above the trough is a sign reading "That River Didn't Make That Canyon." and when visitors open the spigot, the water cuts a gully through the sand, supposedly demonstrating how the Grand Canyon was created, practically overnight, by Noah's flood. Some four million people annually visit Grand Canyon National Park, and in Park Service (NPS) affiliated bookstores, they can find literature informing them that the great chasm runs for 277 miles along the bed of the Colorado River and was formed about 4,500 years ago, a consequence of Noah's Flood. This is the ill-informed premise of "Grand Canyon, a Different View," on sale at the bookstores. The head of the Geologic Resources Division of the Park Service sent a memo to headquarters urging that the book be removed as it is not based on science, but on religious doctrine. But when Grand Canyon National Park superintendent attempted to block the sale he was overruled by NPS headquarters, and that a high-level policy review would be launched and a decision made by February, 2004. So far, no official decision has been announced.      November 21, 2004   012161

    Druggists Refuse to Give Out Pill; Say Their Religion Forbids the Use of Contraceptives.   Some pharmacists refuse on moral grounds to fill prescriptions for contraceptives and states have proposed laws that would protect such decisions. Mississippi enacted a statute that allows health care providers, including pharmacists, to not participate in procedures that go against their conscience. South Dakota and Arkansas had laws that protect a pharmacist's right to refuse. Ten other states considered similar bills. The American Pharmacists Association has a policy that druggists can refuse to fill prescriptions if they object on moral grounds, but must make arrangements so a patient can get the pills. In Madison Wisconsin, a pharmacist faces disciplinary action for refusing to transfer a woman's prescription for birth-control pills to another druggist or to give the slip back to her because of his religious views. The House of Representatives passed a provision that would block federal funds if they make health care workers perform, pay for or make referrals for abortions. While some pharmacists cite religious reasons, others believe life begins with fertilization and see contraceptives as capable of causing an abortion. A Texas pharmacist at an Eckerd drug store wouldn't give contraceptives to a rape victim. The American Pharmacists Association says it is rare that pharmacists refuse to fill a prescription for moral reasons and less common for a pharmacist to refuse to provide a referral. Medical workers, insurers and employers increasingly want the right to refuse certain services. In Wisconsin, a drive is underway to revive a proposed law that would protect pharmacists who refuse to prescribe drugs they believe could cause an abortion or be used for assisted suicide.      November 09, 2004   Push Newsfeed 012101

    Unchecked Epidemic.   Early in the epidemic, world leaders were slow to act because AIDS was seen as a gay man's or foreigner's disease. Since then, AIDS has claimed 17.5 million lives, and 37 million people are living with AIDS. Women and girls account for 60% of new infections in Africa and a vaccine is years away. Organizers of the 15th International AIDS Conference were forced to cancel a summit of world leaders because only Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni accepted the invitation. We need leadership, especially from the United States, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. The Bush administration has committed $15 billion over five years to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean but all of that money isn't going into the UN Fund, as the administration favors abstinence-only programs over those that endorse condoms in addition to abstinence. Bush isn't willing to risk alienating his conservative constituency, for whom condoms are a horror. The administration announced it will withhold congressionally approved funding of $34 million for the UNFPA because the administration claims that the fund abets forced abortions in China - a claim that has been discredited.      July 21, 2004   United Nations Population Fund 011014

    God, Satan and the Media.   Nearly all of the news business is out of touch with 46% of Americans who call themselves born-again Christians. America is experiencing a religious revival like those that have periodically swept America in the last 300 years. President Bush doesn't believe in evolution and a poll shows that 48% of Americans believe in creationism, only 28% in evolution. Acording to a recent Gallup poll, 68% believe more in the devil than evolution. There are negative consequences to this religious influence. Evangelicals' discomfort regarding sex has led to policies that lead to more people dying of AIDS, more pregnancies and abortions. Fundamentalist Christianity is racing through the developing world and the boom is among charismatic Pentecostalists. One of the deepest divides in America today is the gulf of suspicion that separates evangelicals from secular society, and policy battles over abortion and judicial appointments will aggravate these tensions further. Both sides need to display some of the wisdom of Einstein, who wrote "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."      March 04, 2003   New York Times* 005665

    Philippines: Catholic Church Praises Arroyos Natural Family Planning Campaign.   The Roman Catholic Church welcomed efforts by the government to spearhead an extensive campaign to promote natural family planning methods. The government admitted that it is advocating natural family planning in accordance to the Catholic Churchs encouragement. The campaign targets 20% of couples within five years. The health department has allotted P150 million for the program. Meanwhile, the last shipment of contraceptives purchased by the United States Agency for International Development for the Philippines arrived in Mandaluyong City. USAID is gradually reducing its condom shipments as part of an effort to build the countrys self-reliance in providing contraceptives to Filipino couples. USAID is also set to cut back its supply of pills, IUDs, and injectables to the country until 2006. Reduced amounts of each type of contraceptive will be channeled directly to government clinics for poor couples.      March 04, 2003   Push newsfeed 005674

    Dioceses Fight N.Y. Over Contraceptive Law.   Roman Catholic dioceses in New York are suing to block a new state law that requires them to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives. New York is the 20th state to require coverage of contraceptives. Churches and seminaries would be exempt but not Catholic schools, hospitals and social service agencies. New York exempts only institutions whose primary purpose is teaching religious values. The plaintiffs seek a court injunction to exempt them from the requirement. A similar lawsuit in California, is pending before California's Supreme Court. Advocates say religious-affiliated hospitals and other institutions employ and serve people of other faiths, accept public funds and must abide by the same laws as secular institutions. Bush had campaigned on expanding the role of religious groups in using federal dollars for social services. But Democrats objected to provisions that would exempt religious-based charities from anti-discrimination laws. In challenging the New York law, the Catholic Church is arguing that its health care is part of its religious ministry.      January 06, 2003   USA Today 005198

    Catholic Bishops Share Responsibility for Spread of HIV/AIDS.   All 100,000 Catholic hospitals and 200,000 Catholic schools and social service agencies are prohibited by local bishops and Vatican policy from providing condoms to HIV/AIDS patients, clients or students. 10 million people with HIV/AIDS who are "treated" by the Church have no access to condoms from their caregiver. This unnecessary transmission of HIV/AIDS is caused by a church that neither educates HIV/AIDS patients about how to save lives nor provides them with the means to do so. Even our priests and bishops have difficulty following church teaching on abstinence. For such people to tell ordinary people in desperate circumstances that they cannot use condoms to prevent the spread of a deadly disease is to preach a culture of death.      December 2002   The Washington Times/Catholics for a Free Choice 001574

    Gotta Have Faith.   The Bush administration has removed barriers between church and state, insisting that the new policy isn't to allow government-funded proselytizing. George W. Bush is careful to speak in favor of faith in general. Last spring Tom DeLay, soon to be House majority leader, said he was on a mission from God to promote a "biblical worldview" in American politics. Mr. DeLay suggested that the Columbine school shootings tragedy occurred because our school systems teach our children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized out of some primordial mud and that Charles Darwin kills people. Don Nickles, is aligned with the religious right. Mr. Ashcroft gives every appearance of placing his biblical worldview above secular concerns about due process.      December 2002   005028

    New Moral Order?.   President George W. Bush wants support for the globalization of Bush family values. This president was born again at age 39, and he speaks against abortion for his faith. He withheld funding from agencies that discuss abortion and seems prepared to export just-say-no abstinence to sex outside marraige. At a U.N. Session, Washington sought to make abstinence the centerpiece of sex education. The administration lost that battle, but it set the tone for other fights. Members of the Congress challenged a $65 million grant to the Population Council because it is a provider of abortion and reminded the agency that abstinence remains priority in the battle against sexually transmitted diseases. This push represents a narrow conception on the part of the Christian evangelical right-wing who do not have a monopoly on morals. Tony Blair is a religious man, whose beliefs explain his support for the wars of Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. He said that it's best to keep politics separate from your beliefs. The American president campaigned unashamedly as a man with "Jesus in my heart," rescued by Christianity from his wayward youth. With Bush, the world will have to contend with a leader with a global reach that extends beyond anybody else's.      December 2002   Newsweek 004929

    Catholicism.   Your site on religion is very one sided with respect to Catholicism and ignorant in many areas with regards to understanding for their actions. If you are going to insult my faith you should research yourself properly instead of taking isolated quotes and stances that you don't understand and shooting them down. Catholicism does support family planning. You seem to have overlooked that point. They also support adoption. Putting out inflamatory statements you think you can fool or convince the average reader with is in very poor taste. Eric Laake ??@aol.com   October 2002   004200