Pro-Life News in Brief

By Liz Townsend

Pennsylvania School District Bans Abortion Referrals by Employees

Responding to a lawsuit against a neighboring district, the North Penn School District in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, adopted a new policy April 19 asserting that employees and contractors "shall not become involved in obtaining an abortion for any . . . student." The school district is only the second in the nation to approve such a regulation.

"We are an academic facility . . . not a clinic," Donna Mengel, chair of the school board committee that initially approved the policy, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I don't want to see our role expand in the area of social issues."

The committee began discussing the policy in November 1999 after the parents of a 17-year-old student, who obtained a secret, out-of-state, second-trimester abortion without their knowledge, sued neighboring Hatboro-Horsham School District. Howard and Marie Carter alleged that their daughter Stephanie, then 17, got an abortion at a New Jersey clinic in May 1998 at the urging of William Hickey, the guidance counselor at Hatboro-Horsham High School.

The family also charged that Hickey used the school district's bank accounts to cash checks from the baby's father to finance the abortion, provided excuses so Stephanie could skip school, and drew her a map to the New Jersey clinic, according to the Associated Press.

Pennsylvania's 1989 Abortion Control Act requires teens to notify their parents before an abortion or appear before a judge to bypass the requirement. New Jersey has no parental notification requirement.

The school district settled the case by paying the Carters $20,000 in damages and issuing a directive banning school personnel from encouraging, assisting, aiding, or abetting a student in obtaining an abortion, according to The Record.

"This case sent a message to the rest of the school districts in Pennsylvania that parents won't tolerate school employees circumventing state law," Mary Beliveau, legislative director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, told NRL News after the settlement was announced.

The North Penn School District policy specifically encourages students to involve their parents in any abortion decision.

"It is innocuous enough, but it holds weight," school board member Terry Prykowski told the Inquirer. "We send them to their parents, which is where they should be."

Hospital Sued for Woman's Death during Abortion of Down Syndrome Baby

A Milwaukee hospital is being sued for medical malpractice by the widower of a 35-year-old woman who died in September 1995 after chemicals intended to kill her unborn baby were instead injected into her bloodstream. The trial before a Milwaukee County Circuit Court jury began April 24 and was expected to last two weeks.

According to attorney Patrick Dunphy, Linda Boom of Bayside, Wisconsin, discovered that her unborn baby had Down syndrome and decided to get an abortion, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Fourth-year resident Karen S. Watson began to abort the three-month-old unborn child at Sinai Samaritan Medical Center on September 21, 1995, according to the Journal Sentinel. Watson injected abortifacient chemicals into Boom, who immediately complained of pain and said she was "burning up all over," Dunphy explained as the trial began.

Daniel Gilman, Watson's supervising doctor, took over and injected still more chemicals into Linda Boom's body, the Journal Sentinel reported. Boom died 36 hours later from fatal heart damage caused by the abortifacient drugs, according to an autopsy performed by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office.

The case is doubly tragic because Linda Boom died while aborting a baby with a nonfatal condition. Dunphy told the jury that "in Linda's mind, Down syndrome meant no life," according to the Journal Sentinel. To those who know people with Down syndrome who are living full and happy lives, Dunphy's explanation of Boom's point of view is all too common.

"If Dunphy is right about an allegation of malpractice, he is right to seek redress," wrote Journal Sentinel columnist Mike Nichols. "He is also wrong, however, in how he goes about it. He is perpetuating a perspective that people with Down syndrome, and their parents and families, can only fear."

Abortion on Demand May Be Legalized in Switzerland

Voters in Switzerland will decide in a national referendum whether or not to legalize abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The referendum will be held during the next national election, which may not take place for several years.

Currently, women in most Swiss cities can abort their babies only if an independent doctor - - not the abortionist - - states that the abortion is needed for medical reasons, according to CNN.com. Estimates are that about 12,000 abortions are performed in Switzerland each year, Swissinfo reported.

The new law, which was passed by the National Council on a vote of 107-69 and the Council of States with a 22-20 vote, removes the independent medical evaluation requirement during the first 12 weeks. Women would still need to be told the medical risks and alternatives before an abortion is performed, according to Swissinfo.

The Christian People's Party, which is one of the four parties that make up Switzerland's coalition government, strongly supported keeping the independent counseling regulation. After parliament passed the bill, the party announced that it would gather the 100,000 signatures necessary to hold a referendum vote.

Party president Adalbert Durrer told CNN that the new law offers "totally insufficient protection of the unborn life."

Abortion Death Ship Comes Closer to Launch

Plans for a ship that will abort unborn babies while moored in international waters, bypassing pro-life laws of sovereign nations, continue to move forward. Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, the Dutch abortionist and coordinator of the foundation responsible for the death ship, told ABCNews.com that the funding for a test run is already in place.

Gomperts added that the foundation, called Women on Waves, intends to buy, prepare, and test sail the ship before the end of spring. The ship, to be called the Sea Change, will be outfitted with a mobile "treatment room," which is currently being built, where abortions will be performed as the ship is moored 12 miles offshore in international waters.

According to most interpretations of international law, countries have jurisdiction over their own ships on the high seas, so any abortions that take place on board ship in international waters must comply with the laws of the country where the ship is registered. The ship will be registered in the Netherlands, where abortion is legal.

Some experts, however, believe that this interpretation of international law may vary in different countries. "This will certainly raise questions," Gomperts told ABCNews.com. "It has never been done before and there are complex jurisdictional issues."

Soon after plans for the death ship were first announced last year, government and religious officials in Malta, where abortions are illegal, spoke out forcefully against the idea. Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi said in a radio interview that the plan was "horrendous," Reuters reported.

Gonzi added that "criminal action would be taken against anyone organizing or helping to arrange" abortions in the international waters around Malta, according to Reuters. The island nation's Catholic bishops released a statement condemning anyone involved with these "heinous murders."

Gomperts said that her abortion ship would continue to operate despite judicial challenges. "It might come to court, but we have a very strong case," she told the Christian Science Monitor. "We are not intending to commit any crime because we will be outside territorial waters when we perform the operation, and in international waters, abortion is not a crime."