LIFEAlerts

LIFEalerts – Abortion

Abortion

World – Country and U.S. state-wide developments on abortion

Here is a list of abortion legislation developments that took place in February this year. Goldsmith becomes 19th city in Texas to ban abortion within its limits. Tennessee state introduced a bill in which allows fathers to prevent an abortion. South Carolina state Governor signed into law that abortions are banned when the baby’s heartbeat can be detected but was blocked by planned parenthood lawsuit. South Dakota’s bill that requires doctors who deliver babies after a failed abortion attempt is to give them the same care they would any other baby was signed into law. Arizona, Florida and Northern Ireland are advancing similar legislation to end abortion up to birth for babies with disabilities which include down’s syndrome, cleft lip and club foot.

Australia has launched a bill to protect babies born alive after a failed abortion. Indiana House Lawmakers showed overwhelming support for a bill that is heading to the senate which would ensure that mothers receive information about their unborn baby’s development and the abortion pill reversal procedure before going through with an abortion. Arkansas passed a bill that bans abortions unless it would save the mother’s life and is heading to the Republican-controlled state House, which is expected to approve it as well.

Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Article 5, Article 6, Article 7, Article 8, Article 9.

LIFEalerts – LGBTQ+ Issues

LGBTQ+ Issues

USA – Round up on LGBT issues

In February the following developments on LGBT issues took place. In Oregon a federal judge rejected a lawsuit by a transgender woman (biological male) who accused the private pageant corporation of discrimination for denying him the participation rights. Mississippi Senate joined eleven other states who are considers banning transgender athletes from competing in Girls’ Sports. In the UK a bill aimed at referring to pregnant women as person instead of mother was rejected by the House of Lords. Article 1, Article 2, Article 3.

USA – Sen. Rand Paul cites medical research and recent UK High Court decision on medical interventions for gender confused minors.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) questioned nominee for assistant health secretary Rachel Levine about her position on gender-affirming care for minors. This 4-minute clip shows the exchange as Sen. Paul asks questions citing medical research and the regretful experiences of former transgender persons who were failed by surgical intervention as well as the recent UK High Court decision to ban puberty blockers for minors.

USA – Doctor Exposes Transgender Propaganda

Dr. Michael Laidlaw an Endocrinologist from California explains the devastating effects that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical modifications can have on children’s developing bodies. (3-minutes watch)

LIFEalerts – Sexual Exploitation

Sexual Exploitation

South Africa – Seven things everyone should know about Human Trafficking

Number one the problem is enormous. Victims are estimated 24.9 million.  Human Trafficking is not about movement.  The essence of Human Trafficking is coercion. Traffickers are motivated by money.  Anyone can be a trafficking victim.  Traffickers vary their tactics.  We need to put traffickers in jail not their victims.  There is hope traffickers can be stopped. The world is not powerless to stop traffickers. Using vetted specialized investigative units that receive peer-to-peer training from embedded experts, traffickers can be identified, arrested, prosecuted, and jailed.  This frees victims to recover without fear that their trafficker will return.  Caring for survivors without stopping traffickers only ensures that the trafficker will continue to create more victims who will need survivor care. Full Factsheet

LIFEalerts – Pornography

Pornography

USA – Child sex abuse survivors sue Pornhub over abuse footage

Two people who were sexually abused as minors have filed suit against Pornhub and its owner, Mindgeek, over videos of their abuse being uploaded to the popular pornography website. According to the lawsuit, Pornhub profited from these and other child pornography videos, making it culpable in the sex trafficking of two underage individuals. The complaint went on to argue that “MindGeek completely fails to control the torrent of videos available on its sites depicting children being molested, rapes of children and adults, persons who are incapacitated and otherwise unwilling participants.” These individuals join others who have gone before them and as result got credit card companies to quit liaising with Pornhub as well as millions of videos removed from their database. More

USA – Mississippi lawmakers considering bill to outlaw ‘revenge porn’

The state of Mississippi could join 46 states in punishing people for “revenge porn.” The bill, Senate Bill 2121, that passed the Mississippi Senate has set penalties for people who share intimate visual material of another person without that person’s permission and with the intent to cause harm. The material could include pictures shared during a relationship that was only intended to be seen by the recipient. It could also include images of someone being molested. The bill defines the material as photos or videos of a person’s private body parts that are exposed or engaged in sexual conduct. More

New Delhi – TikTok faces Complaints in Europe for Failure to protect children

TikTok the popular Chinese short video app, faces complaints in Europe for failure to protect children from harmful content. The bigger concern though is children and teenage users being exposed to hidden advertising and potentially harmful content on the app. The processing of users’ personal data has also been termed misleading. The Madras High Court had imposed a temporary ban on Tiktok in 2019 as it found the app hosting content related to child pornography. TikTok had informed the Court that they are using technology to ensure that obscene content is not spread via the app. The Indian government also imposed a ban on the app. More

Philippines – ISPs can’t automatically block child porn on servers

Internet Service Providers can only block websites containing child sexual exploitation materials as soon as they are flagged, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) claims. Pornography cannot be detected automatically. Lawyer Omar Sana from DICT explained the limits of ISP capabilities, especially due to conflicting laws that prevent user monitoring as well. Sana said the blocking that ISPs can do is on a domain level. This means if involved agencies can identify the domain name and/or the IP address of the malicious content, the ISPs can proceed to block it. More

USA – Man downloaded child pornography images through file-sharing service

Neil A. MacDonald, 21 who downloaded hundreds of images and more than two hours of videos of child pornography through a file-sharing service, named Mega, was sentenced to 16 months in jail. Beck said it was part of an international investigation involving a cloud-based file sharing service called Mega. Around a quarter of the images showed real children. Upon his release, MacDonald must put his name on the sex offender registry where it will stay for 20 years. MacDonald is prohibited from contacting or being around anyone under the age of 16 years of age for five years and is not allowed to use any device that connects to the internet without permission from his probation officer. More

LIFEalerts – LGBTQ+ Issues

LGBTQ+ Issues

UK – New Model for Clinicians when treating Gender Dysphoric minors

Susan and Marcus Evans are the two psychotherapists who are former employees of Tavistock Gender clinic in the UK. They presented a paper at a multi-disciplinary conference in January this year which reflects serious concerns about the transition of children before maturity. They encourage a psychotherapeutic model that provides a process of psychological exploration, in which an individual’s personality structure, beliefs, defence mechanisms, and motivations are assessed and examined in a supportive environment. This follows concerns from multiple professionals at the gender clinic, parents of gender dysphoric children, and ex-patients who regard the current “affirmative treatment” model as doing more harm. This eventually led to the High Court of England ruling that children under 16-years cannot consent to life-altering medical treatments due to immaturity.

“A rigid one-size-fits-all affirmative approach is unhelpful. Where children are concerned, we need a new model to ensure more clinically rigorous, balanced, and ethical assessment and treatment protocols. At the very least, the ordinary ethical standards of good practice must be restored to this area, as our duty, first and foremost, must always be “do no harm.”” Their proposed model concentrates on helping the child assess pain and differentiate the type, degree, and cause of pain because it can represent a helpful indication of something that needs attention. A wish to transition is often described by those who experience it as a belief that they were “born in the wrong body,” and consequently deprived of an idealized relationship with their physical self. The ideal we all have, at some level, is a self that would be loved and accepted by others, and by ourselves.

“The denial of the psychological factors influencing the desire to transition can unwittingly lead the patient and health professionals to embrace concrete, affirmative solutions, while ignoring relevant aspects of the individual’s mental-health situation and personal history.” As can be seen in “depressed patients that feel worthless and suicidal; anorexics feel too fat, and starve themselves; and obsessional patients perform rituals repetitively before other interactions.”

“A trans-identifying child can become more fixated and invested in the daydream idea, and it becomes a belief that if only they’d transition, all their problems would resolve.” Because of this, “the desire to reduce pain and anxiety by rushing into either social or medical transition needs to be resisted, as there are long-term costs that a child in a fixed state of mind is unable to imagine or understand.” More

USA – Alabama considers banning transgender drug treatment for minors

For a second time, Alabama state considers banning transgender experimental drug treatment on minors. The bill took a step forward in a hearing of the Senate Health Committee voting 11-2 approving to make it a felony for doctors to administer hormonal drug treatment that transitions people 18-years or younger who identify as transgender. Alabama is one of at least eight states where conservative lawmakers are pushing similar measures, arguing such decisions should wait until adulthood. More

LIFEalerts – IVF & Surrogacy

IVF & Surrogacy

USA – Three things people should know about egg donation

The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network feels that women who consider donating their eggs should know three things about the process before the process. Firstly, Egg Donation Often Involves Coercion because egg donation often involves poorer women providing eggs to wealthier couples. The egg donor—even when informed of known risks and potential unknown risks—is often willing to risk to her health because of financial need. Money plays a very coercive and powerful role in the market of human egg donation.

Secondly, egg donation carries health and psychological risks that often go untold because medical complications that are known, are rarely documented in the medical literature, as the individuals and organizations that are tasked with safety and oversight are also the ones who stand to profit from egg donation. The medical process required for egg retrieval is lengthy and there are known medical risks associated with each step. Risks include Ovarian Hyper Stimulation syndrome (OHSS) due to superovulation, loss of fertility, ovarian torsion, stroke, kidney disease, premature menopause, ovarian cysts, and in some rare cases, death. When an egg donor experiences harm to her health, she often feels guilty for “being so stupid” for making a decision that brought about this harm. She feels used by those she thought were professionals who cared for her. Lastly, egg donation is often eugenic because the largest sums of money are generally offered for donors of very specific educational, physical, or ethnic traits, not only perpetuating but actually incentivizing. More

LIFEalerts – Euthanasia

Euthanasia

Canada – Doctor realizes how disabled people are nudged to be euthanized

Corrina Iampen, a Canadian doctor-turned-patient after an accident left her paralyzed, who never opposed euthanasia, now feels very concerned about euthanasia and its practical application. For young and elderly patients who suddenly find themselves having to come to terms with a new disability which makes them vulnerable at this time, euthanasia can be overwhelmingly tempting, especially when good support is unavailable. Hospital staff can make disabled patients feel like a burden through their lack of interest to improve the quality of life before offering euthanasia. Corrina is also concerned about Bill C-7 which expands euthanasia in Canada especially for people with disabilities. Disability rights activists have criticized the bill calling it discriminatory to offer death to the disabled but not to people without disabilities.

She is not alone in her concerns about this expansion. In 2017, a 42-year-old man suffering from an incurable neurological condition spent more than 2 years at the London, Ontario, Hospital where he secretly recorded staff who repeatedly offering him euthanasia while his request for self-directed care were denied. In 2019, doctors were criticized for euthanizing a physically healthy but depressed 61-year-old British Columbia man. His family members said he was not of sound mind and begged him not to go through with the procedure. Another Canadian doctor, Naheed Dosani, a University of Toronto-affiliated palliative care specialist who cares for homeless people from a mobile unit, testified before the senate on February 1, saying that euthanasia is far easier to access than actual help to improve people’s lives. He said that people who’ve pursued euthanasia do so because they’ve experienced marginalization. More / Chronically ill man releases audio of hospital staff offering assisted death / Dr. Naheed Dosani Testifies at Senate on Bill C-7.

South Africa – High Court to hear terminally ill patient and doctor request for euthanasia

Susan Walter, a palliative care specialist and her patient Diethelm Harck have both been diagnosed with terminal diseases and hope to persuade Johannesburg High Court Judge Raylene Keightly to develop the law to allow euthanasia. The matter was heard on 22 February. They accuse the law as it stands and the HPCSA of impinging on their right to dignity and right to live and die as they choose. Stranger arguments have been heard in court before. The problem with their argument and accusation of Christian values being imposed is that the same values are held by the Islamic, Hinduism, and Buddhist culture, most people feel life is sacred. Usually people desperate to end their lives do not really waste time with court battles over their right to die. When looking to countries that have gone ahead of South Africa in legalizing euthanasia, it becomes clear that the practice is nothing more than legalized psychological abuse, because now the disabled, the elderly and the ones deemed to be “burdens” on a society are made to feel like they are better off dead by those grown cold at heart. Belgium’s nurses for example admit to euthanizing patients without their consent, and a wife from Texas lost her disabled husband to a doctor’s decision of euthanasia without her consent because the doctor said he wasn’t like “walking and talking people”. All this happened despite the so-called ‘safeguards’ promised by euthanasia advocates, that would prevent these concerns. If this is what happens in First world countries, what can a developing country like South Africa expect, worse? More / COVID-19 patient was black and paralyzed, so doctors decided his life wasn’t worth saving / Warning to Britain as almost half of Belgium’s euthanasia nurses admit to killing without consent

LIFEalerts – Abortion

Abortion

USA – New Study: Abortion Pill Injures more Women than FDA Reports

A team of over 30 board certified physicians spent three years reviewing thousands of pages of adverse events reports submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by abortion pill manufacturer Danco. The study was published in Issues in Law & Medicine in January this year. The study found large amounts of underreported complications. Factors that contributed to the underreporting were that 60% of surgical abortions, due to abortion pill complications, were not handled by the abortion facility, and less than half of the women who suffered complications went to the emergency room instead of getting treatment at the abortion facility. The most common complications included a failed abortion, an incomplete abortion, infection and a missed ectopic pregnancy.

“Some of the patient deaths were not known to the abortion provider until they saw the death in an obituary or were contacted by an outside source,” the researchers wrote and propose that abortion providers, hospitals, emergency departments, and private practitioners should be required to report on abortion complications. Moreover, the FDA should strengthen reporting systems because in 2016, under the Obama administration, the FDA stopped requiring Danco to report non-fatal abortion complications to the government, and the reports that were submitted lacked detail and many patients were lost to follow-up.

England de-regulated the abortion drug during the pandemic last year and saw disastrous consequences. There have been numerous reports of health and safety problems, including two women who died after taking the drugs. In another case, authorities are investigating how a woman who was 28-weeks pregnant received the abortion drugs in the mail and used them to abort her viable, late-term unborn baby. In the United States, mifepristone has been linked to at least 24 women’s deaths and 4,000 serious complications.

Because of the risk associated with taking mifepristone, coupled with misoprostol to abort unborn babies, the FDA requires abortion facilities to administer the drug in-person after an examination. Now, abortion activists are demanding that the Biden administration get rid of safety requirements for the abortion drug and allow the drug to be distributed by telemedicine, meaning the mother may never see a doctor or have an ultrasound before she takes the drug and aborts her unborn baby. Now that Marie Stopes is delivering abortion pills to South African (SA) women via Telemedicine, SA can expect similar sad results.

New Study Shows Abortion Pill is Injuring More Women Than the FDA is Reporting / Link to Study. / Study suggests abortion pill complications are underreported, and ERs are managing the majority

LIFEalerts – Alternative Medicine

Alternative Medicine

Ecuador – Police raid ‘alternative medicines’ clinic

An unlicensed clinic in the Ecuador’s capital Quito offered clients what it falsely claimed to be a $15-per-dose vaccine. The place was raided and shut down by authorities. The establishment, which was located in the south of the city, added a “vaccine” against the disease to its list of treatments and sold an estimated 70,000 doses before getting busted. What exactly the gullible recipients were injected with is yet to be determined by lab tests. The woman running the clinic claimed to be a specialist in alternative medicine, but had no formal medical degree. Ecuador has approved two vaccines – Pfizer and AstraZeneca’s. The government plans to vaccinate nine million adults for free by the end of the year. More

LIFEalerts – Sexual Exploitation

Sexual Exploitation

USA – COVID-19 Impact Exposes Millions To The Risk Of Trafficking

Although almost 50,000 victims of human trafficking were detected and reported in 2018 by 148 countries, the “hidden nature” of the crime means that the actual number of victims could be “far higher”, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said. Migrants and people without jobs were among the groups most targeted by human traffickers. “We need targeted action to stop criminal traffickers from taking advantage of the pandemic to exploit the vulnerable”. Traffickers integrate technology into their modus operandi at every stage of the process: from recruiting to exploiting victims. They saw their victims as “commodities” without regard for human dignity and rights, noting that they would “sell” fellow human beings for a price ranging from tens of dollars to tens of thousands, with large criminal organizations making the highest incomes. More

Canada – Helping women transition out of sex work

A new study called “Helping women transition out of sex work: study protocol of a mixed-methods process and outcome evaluation of a sex work exiting program” found that for women who want to, exiting sex work can be complicated by multi-traumatic symptoms and challenges related to addictions, physical and mental health problems, legal matters, housing issues, and lack of employment skills. The study focusses on evaluating the effectiveness of various exit programs in order to see if objectives are being met. Dalla (2006) identified economic instability, mental health challenges, and existing relationships with significant others as barriers to women’s successful exit out of prostitution. It also recognizes that exiting prostitution is not a straight forward process and that some women relapse a few times before they leave for good. Exit programs are there for women who desire to exit and not to force those who aren’t ready. Programs that help women exit need to address the key challenges such as housing, mental health, health and wellness, employment/vocational training/education, community and life skills, or friends and family. One such program called Exit Doors Here in Canada exists and has serves around 20-30 women a year. Study