By Julie Godfrey Miller
Catholic Herald
WRL director: Pro-life cause making progress
SUPERIOR -- The executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life thinks the pro-life movement is making progress in Wisconsin. During a visit to the Catholic Herald Barbara L. Lyons said, "We have seen just some tremendous surges in public opinion to the pro-life position. The pro-abortion rhetoric of the past is dead. People don't listen to that any more."
Abortions are down. Lyons said, "We've seen a dramatic decrease in Wisconsin. We are so fortunate. They are kind of down nationally, but they are really down in Wisconsin,"
Lyons added that Wisconsin is way ahead of neighboring states, with far fewer abortions and far fewer abortion providers. Wisconsin has six abortion clinics, while Minnesota and Michigan each have about 21.
One big factor is the strong women's right to know act in Wisconsin. Lyons said the number of abortions dropped significantly in the year following its passage. Minnesota just passed a similar law, and Lyons hopes there will be a similar decrease in abortions in Minnesota.
Lyons said, "Another really good sign is that young people are very pro-life, and that's our own research based and also substantiated by (information) coming out of Berkeley, Calif., and Stanford University. They're hardly bastions of pro-life support, and they are finding the same thing."
As reasons for the change in abortion statistics and in attitudes toward abortion, Lyons cited the influences of new technology and the public's increased knowledge, gained from public education programs on fetal surgery and ultrasound.
Lyons also discussed various pieces of proposed or pending pro-life legislation in Wisconsin. One important item on the pro-life agenda is the Human Embryo Protection Act which is in the process of being introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature. The bill would protect embryos from intentional destruction and also facilitate adoption of embryos that have already been created.
"I think that is important because people hear things like President Bush's decision two years ago (to prohibit funding research involving destruction of human embryos) and they don't realize that all that covers is public funding. It doesn't cover what's going on in the private sector." The proposed bill would apply to health care providers in both the public and private sectors.
Lyons said, "The argument (against protecting the embryos) is, 'Well, what are we going to do with all these embryos being created. ... Why not get some good out of them.' That's a real common argument that people buy. 'Yeah, that sounds good. They're just in the freezer. You can help other people by destroying those embryos. Nobody wants them anyway.'"
That implies two things, Lyons said. First, if you are not wanted, you can be destroyed; and second, you can be be destroyed for a potential good to someone else.
The bill would also regulate in vitro fertilization, limiting the number of embryos that can be created. Lyons said that currently doctors can create as many as the couple wants. "They could have a hundred created. There is no regulation," Lyons said.
This bill is particularly important for Wisconsin, Lyons said, because the university is a major center for embryonic stem cell research. The bill would outlaw cloning, including cloning a human embryo specifically for the purpose of being killed for research purposes.
Lyons said there is a also another cloning bill, Assembly Bill 104 and Senate Bill 45, which could be voted out of committee this summer and could possibly be on the floor of one body of the Legislature in the fall. The bill prohibits both reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning.
In reproductive cloning, embryos are created with the intention of implanting one in a woman's body. Lyons said people are appalled by that, but at least the embryo that is implanted is being allowed to live. But reproductive cloning also creates extra embryos. Lyons said it took over 277 embryos to create Dolly, the first cloned sheep. All the extra embryos were destroyed in the process.
Therapeutic cloning creates embryos to be killed and used for research.
Lyons mentioned an aspect of therapeutic cloning that many people do not hear about. To produce enough embryos for research, millions of human eggs would be needed. Lyons said it could result in women selling their eggs and undergoing dangerous procedures for harvesting the eggs.
"The manipulation of the human person and the unnaturalness of the whole thing is just very scary," Lyons said.
Another very new piece of legislation, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, is expected to have public hearing in August. The purpose of the bill is to guarantee that every infant born alive, regardless of his or her stage of development, will have full rights under Wisconsin law. The protection would apply to all babies, even those born as a result of an abortion.
Lyons said that at some hospitals no medical treatment is given if a live birth results from an abortion attempt. Treatment is not required because no live birth was intended.
Lyons said there are also cases where premature infants are not treated because they may have disabilities. "It would be a situation where you are not basing the decision not to treat on sound medical judgment, like the babies lungs are too small the there is nothing that can be done," but on social factors.
There is a 2002 federal Born Alive Infant Protection Act, but, Lyons said, that applies only to Federal facilities.
On another pro-life issue, Lyons said, "Representative Frank Boyle has again introduced a bill to legalize (assisted suicide). It is going absolutely nowhere," Lyons said. Boyle, a Democrat, represents Assembly District 73, which is in the far northwest corner of the diocese.
Editor's note: In her interview with the Catholic Herald, Lyons mentioned two new Web sites. For a wealth of information on euthanasia and assisted suicide go to www.nightingalealliance.org. There is also a new teen Web site with an anti-abortion message. It can be found at www.gravityteen.com.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2003