Right to Life continues fight

Election articles ... from the 11/01/2002 Compass: • On the record with Wisconsin's candidates for governor • Editorial: Time to vote • Eye on the Capitol: Let's debate state job cuts before election from the 10/25/2002 Compass: • Part seven -- Environment and agriculture from the 10/18/2002 Compass: • Part six -- Criminal Justice and Corrections • Eye on the Capitol: Faithful Catholic citizens called to get involved in elections from the 10/11/2002 Compass: • Part five -- Budget Shortfalls and Taxation from the 10/04/2002 Compass: • Part four -- Health Care from the 9/27/2002 Compass: • Part three -- Help for Families from the 9/20/2002 Compass: • Part two -- Human Life and Dignity from the 9/13/2002 Compass: • Part one -- Intro. and overview • Helping faithful Catholics decide

Next week's election results will help determine if two bills Wisconsin Right to Life supports will become law, said the organization's executive director, Barbara Lyons, during a visit last week to Green Bay.

"It looks as though the Assembly will remain strongly pro-life," Lyons said. "We have the opportunity to pick up some Senate seats, which would be very nice because we've had a lot of difficulty moving bills through the State Senate."

She said the governor's race is also key because he is the one who will sign or veto legislation after it passes. That's why, she said, Wisconsin Right to Life's political action committee endorsed Gov. Scott McCallum.

Wisconsin Right to Life will push two bills next year, Lyons said.

• Human Embryo Protection Act, protecting living human embryos from intentional destruction. It also would prohibit: the creation of human embryos for destructive research; the use, sale or transfer of any cells or tissue obtained by destroying a human embryo; and all human cloning. The legislation would apply to both public and private concerns.

• Prohibit public funding of pregnancy programs for organizations that engage in abortion-related activities, including providing or promoting abortions, making abortion referrals directly or through an intermediary.

Concerning the Human Embryo Protection Act, Lyons said advocates of embryonic stem cell research have made it appear "if you could just do embryonic stem cell research we could all walk into paradise hand-in-hand disease-free in another week or so."

The truth about embryonic stem cells is there are numerous problems, which if solvable, are still years away, she said. These include how to get the cells to stop growing so they don't become tumors.

Meanwhile, adult stem cells continue to show amazing potential, she said. For example, "when they inject them into either a laboratory animal they are experimenting on or into a person, they seem to know where to go. So, if the brain needs repair, they say, 'I think the brain needs repair so I'll zip on up to the brain.' It's almost like a homing quality."

And because people can use their own adult stem cells there's no problem with rejection, unlike embryonic stem cells, Lyons said, plus "no one has to die" to procure adult stem cells.

Lyons is pleased by continuing drops in the number of abortions in Wisconsin, going from a high of 21,754 abortions (29 abortions for every 1,000 live births) in 1980 to 10,925 abortions (16 abortions for every 1,000 live births) in 2000.

She attributed the success to all the collective "pro-life efforts from the local chapters educational efforts, to the pregnancy help centers, to the laws that we've passed that have an impact on how abortion is looked at -- the Woman's Right to Know Law, the parental consent -- to the television advertising we do. All of those things work together to help achieve this goal."

Betty Tassoul of the Green Bay chapter of Wisconsin Right to Life also credits the decrease to an emphasis on sexual abstinence.

Lyons also is encouraged by a new study out of Berkeley, Calif., "that found that teenagers were more conservative on school prayer and abortion than their parents."

Lyons said Wisconsin Right to Life plans to increase its efforts in the African-American community in Milwaukee, where 25% of abortions occur. But, she said, it will not be easy because Planned Parenthood is entrenched in minority communities.

While there's no current threat to legalize euthanasia in Wisconsin, Lyons said there's a continuing need to educate people about the issue, which is often portrayed as a right or as a way to save money while helping the terminally ill.