REALity Volume XXXVI Issue No. 6 June 2017
Despite what you are told by the mainstream media (MSM) there is much good news to report on the culture wars. Many individuals, both in North America and around the world, are ignoring the left’s propaganda, and are, instead, showing a remarkable resistance to it.
We can’t begin to provide you with a comprehensive report on the positive developments in the culture wars world-wide because they are so extensive. We can, however, provide a few examples of this resistance which have gone unreported. The MSM either deliberately ignore it or misreport this news in order to give the impression that the left has won the culture wars. It has not.
Some of these positive stories include:
1. Abortion
(i) Abortions has hit a record low in the United States.
The pro-abortion research group, the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York, states that abortions in the U.S. decreased 14% between 2011 and 2014. These are the lowest numbers since 1975, two years after the US Supreme Court brought in abortion on demand in Roe v. Wade.
The decline has been accurately attributed to state laws passed in recent years, such as:
• Sixteen US states ban abortions performed on the unborn child when it can feel pain.
• The Alabama Supreme Court unanimously recognized the personhood of unborn children.
• Alabama is the seventh state to allow wrongful-death-actions before the pre-born child becomes viable.
• Oklahoma requires restroom signs to help women find abortion alternatives. This applies to hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and public schools.
• Iowa has approved a bill to allow women to sue the abortionist for emotional grief after abortion.
• Arkansas passed a law in January, 2017 making it a crime to perform a dismemberment abortion for any other reason than to save a mother’s life. In 2015 Arkansas passed a law banning “web-cam” abortions, whereby doctors prescribe abortion pills by phone or video conference, without the patient being present. Five other states have also banned web-cam abortions.
• Minnesota passed a law banning the funding of abortions.
• Missouri passed a law stopping the sale of the body parts of aborted babies.
• Indiana passed laws protecting parental rights stopping secret abortions on teenagers.
(ii) Paraguay passed a law upholding the right to life of human beings from conception to natural death. President Cartes of Paraguay stated he would not bow before the pressure of international agencies (the UN) to undermine the rights of the unborn and the family.
(iii) 76% of the abortion clinics that were operating in the US in 1991 have closed. In 1991 there were 2,176 surgical abortion facilities in the US. Today there are 517.
(iv) The abortion rate in the nation of Georgia has diminished by 50% from 2005 to 2010. The Georgian government encouraged births by giving parents of a third child a subsidy of $600 and one of $1,200 for a fourth child.
(v) Abortions in Italy hit the lowest point in 2015 since the country legalized the procedure almost 40 years ago. There was a 9.3% drop in abortions from 2014 which was a continuation of a decade long decline.
(vi) In January 2017 more than 50,000 individuals across France gathered for the March for Life in Paris. This March for Life is the largest pro-life demonstration in Europe.
(vii) March for Life in Berlin, Germany drew the largest crowd yet in September, 2016. The march was organized by 13 pro-life groups in Germany. These marches began in 2008, with growing numbers of participants each year.
(viii) The US House of Representatives voted 238 to 183 to end domestic taxpayer funding for abortions by all federal departments, agencies and programs
2. Same-Sex Marriage
(i) Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto removed legislation to amend the constitution to create homosexual marriage after months of repeated massive marches of hundreds of thousands of Mexicans flocking to pro-family demonstrations. This led to a massive electoral loss for the President’s ruling party in June, 2016.
(ii) In December, 2013, a South Korean Appeals Court rejected same-sex marriage.
(iii) Tens of thousands of people marched in Paris in October, 2016 to call for the repeal of a law allowing homosexual marriage.
(iv) The legislature in South Australia defeated same-sex marriage.
(v) A three million signature petition against same-sex marriage in Romania has led to a proposed amendment to the Constitution.
(vi) Poland is one of seven countries in the EU whose constitution bans same-sex marriage and the Polish President Andrzey Duda announced on, January 25, 2017, that Poland’s constitution would not be changed.
3. Euthanasia
(i) Euthanasia was prohibited in the US state of Ohio and in South Africa.
(ii) The Australia Medical Association (AMA) released a statement in 2016 that doctors should not be involved in euthanasia, and called for greater investment in palliative care.
4. Pornography
(i) The House of Commons in Canada unanimously voted, in December, 2016 to direct the Health Committee to examine the public health effects on children, women and men, of the ease of access to and viewing online of violent and degrading sexually explicit material. The study will commence in February, 2017 and will be completed by the summer of 2017.
(ii) The US publication “Cosmopolitan”, which includes sexually explicit articles, was banned from a supermarket chain’s check-out lanes. This decision was made by Marsh Supermarkets – a chain of produce markets and convenience stores with 72 locations in Indiana and Ohio.
(iii) The Hilton Worldwide Hyatt Hotels, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), and Starwood Hotels no longer offer on-demand, hard-core pornography to guests.
5. New Medical Technologies
(i) The European Parliament, claiming that surrogacy is “exploitation of the female body and reproductive organs” invoked a ban in 2015 against surrogacy.
(ii) In October, 2016 the forty-seven member Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) rejected (for the third time) legalizing surrogacy throughout Europe. 110,000 citizens in Europe signed a petition requesting that PACE condemn all forms of surrogacy as being against the best interests of children.
6. Freedom of Religion
(i) The State of Massachusetts’ anti-discrimination law which provides for public “accommodation” for homosexuals, lesbians and the transgendered, was declared by the State Human Rights Commission as not applicable to religious institutions.
7. Other Good News Items
(i) In India, its Supreme Court has ordered the closure of all sterilization camps as well as compensation to women and their families for such procedures.
(ii) The Congress in Chile has killed a proposed measure mandating the distribution in all the nation’s schools of a sex education book that advocates gender ideology and contains a graphic description of perverse sexual acts.
8. Planned Parenthood
(i) The Tex Mex style restaurant, “Chili’s”, had been donating 15% of its receipts to Planned Parenthood. Because of backlash, this arrangement has been discontinued.
(ii) Macy’s Department Store has been a corporate contributor to Planned Parenthood. It has now ended its relationship with Planned Parenthood and will no longer donate to it. Macy’s joins AT&T, Coca-Cola, Ford and Xerox in publicly distancing themselves from Planned Parenthood.
(iii) The Iowa State Legislature passed a bill, by a 30-to-20 vote, denying funding for abortions provided by Planned Parenthood and other clinics that facilitate the termination of unborn life.