Bad News & Good News on Supreme Court Decisions           The bad news: the Supreme Court of Canada ruled February 26 that physician-assisted suicide is a constitutional right, including the Orwellian argument that it’s needed for Canadians’ right to life – Canadians will commit suicide earlier while they still can unless they know it can be done later by a physician. Amy Hasbrouk, director of the Canadian group Toujours Vivant – Not Dead Yet has patiently explained to the press how the ruling feeds lethal discrimination against people with disabilities; we covered her previously, reacting to a similar lower-court ruling.                 The good news: on January 29, the Supreme Court of India ordered internet search engines to stop all ads on prenatal sex determination – common preparation for sex-selection abortion of females. These (unlike other abortions) are illegal in India, but widespread enough to cause an alarming gender imbalance.         Even better news: the impact was apparently dramatic and immediate, for both India and Nepal, if the story from AsiaNews is correct:  “A significant drop in female foeticides has been recorded in the two Asian countries . . . The doctors who work in clinics along the Nepal-India border . . . confirm that the number of patients seeking sex selection operations or abortions has declined.” We’ll see if that’s a one-week blip or is sustained.     ^^^^^^^ Speaking Truth to Large Roomful of Power           A pregnant member of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade crashed the UK's annual arms industry dinner. See the YouTube video. She complained about the kind of world they were creating for her unborn son, and the effects of the arms business. She asked them to reconsider their professions. From the story at RT: “After making her way to a microphone undetected, Anne Marie O'Reilly expressed concern her unborn child would face a world where arms dealers profit from human suffering and bloodshed. The anti-arms activist’s unexpected intervention left the crowd somewhat stunned.”     Photos: Left, at the event. Right, a clearer photo of Anne Marie O’Reilly from a 2012 speech           We have no idea what her stand on abortion is, but speaking up on behalf of the life-long welfare of currently unborn children is always to be admired, and she chose an especially important forum to do it.   ^^^^^^^   Philosophers Do Seamless Shroud on Abortion and Torture           Michael Cook has written an excellent article called The Torture-Abortion Nexus, in which he details a couple of academics who have in the past explained that killing fetuses can be justified and who have also explained how torture can be justified. Cook describes how the reasoning is similar.         As usual with online articles, note the comment section. The more consistent-lifers comment, the better.      ^^^^^^^   Quotation of the Week La Verne Tolbert, Ph.D. Former Planned Parenthood Board Member Knows the Truth         During the course of my five-year tenure, we received a lot of literature. Most discussed population control and the concern for the growing number of people in the world – poor people in the United States and in developing countries. . . . I soon understood why the full name for this organization was Planned Parenthood World Population. I struggled with the question, “Which population are they trying to control?” As a Black woman, the question kept coming back to me like a boomerang. I wondered why abortion was more necessary for my ethnic group, why this organization fought so hard to give us this particular “right” when the rights for better education, better jobs, and better housing seemed paramount.

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