Abortions rise in Asia

MOSCOW - Abortions are rising in Russia again and the declining economy is being blamed. Twice the number of children are being aborted than are born alive. According to available data, nearly 40 per cent of Russian abortions result in complications which require antibiotics or hospital treatment.

Abortions are also on the rise in Vietnam, where a growing number of teens are using it as a method of birth control. Vietnam reported a one-year total of 1.1 million abortions recently - four times the target figure set by the government. The cost of an abortion in Vietnam is $4.35.

Abortuary to open

HOBART, Australia - A controversial Queensland abortionist plans to open an abortuary in the city of Hobart in April. Peter Bayliss, 71, is known for having a long history of performing abortions, and for involvement in court cases relating to abortions. Last year, he was suspended from practice for three months by the Queensland Medical Assessment Tribunal after it found him guilty of misconduct through an omission which resulted in a patient suffering severe brain damage during an abortion in 1994.

In 1985, 54 police officers raided his Brisbane Greenslopes Fertility Control Clinic while he was performing an abortion. The same year, Bayliss and his anesthetist Dawn Cullen were charged with unlawfully using force to procure a miscarriage, and Bayliss with having done grievous bodily harm to the woman.

Looser abortion law in Brazil

BRASILIA - A new abortion law in Brazil has lessened the punishment for illegal abortions, and expanded the exceptions for which abortions are allowed. The punishment for abortion will be reduced from one to three years, to nine months to one year. Meanwhile, judges will be permitted to suspend punishments and legal abortions will be performed for "genetic defects that make (the) life of the fetus non-viable."

In Bogota, Colombia, the UN's Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women has demanded that Colombia legalize abortion. Although the country is in the midst of cleaning up after a recent earthquake, CEDAW has urged the country to open the door to further carnage by legalizing abortion.

Sex-selection abortions increase

PING YU, China - The ultrasound scanner has led to the purging from China's population of between 500,000 and 750,000 unborn girls every year, recent statistics show. The imagery that identifies birth defects also allows sex-selective abortions, which have become common in the countryside, where sons are in higher demand.

Although China has outlawed sex screening for a decade, it remains as accepted as the rickety mini-truck delivering big green cabbages, and as unremarkable as the older women who monopolize the central village yard every Sunday with folk dancing. "If a girl is the first baby, they won't have an abortion. If it's the second, they will," explained Jin Heyin, 49. "I know many people who do this. Medically, it's very safe now."

In Ping Yu, as in most of rural China, birth-control regulators have tried to assuage the peasants' ire over the 1979 "one child" regulations by adopting an unstated "one son" policy instead. The marriage of science and tradition has bloated to 1.04 million a year the estimated number of "missing girls."

Abortion numbers rise ‘relentlessly'

LONDON - The number of abortions is growing relentlessly in England and Wales, but experts cannot agree on the reasons. New figures published by the Office of National Statistics show that more abortions were carried out in each quarter of 1997. A total of 179,700 legal abortions were recorded in England and Wales in 1997. Full figures for last year are not yet available but the rise has continued in the first three quarters of 1998.

Opinions about the reasons for the rise range from pressure to have sex and loss of moral values in British society, to a loss of stigma over having an abortion, to a reduction in the provision of dedicated "family planning" services, to ignorance and the continuing effects of a birth-control pill scare.

Women paid not to have abortions

MILAN, Italy - City councillors have approved a plan to pay women not to have abortions. The council plans to provide pregnant women in financial difficulties with handouts for three years after the birth of a child.

Those opposing the plan included ex-Communists, a former neo-Fascist and several members of Silvio Berlusconi's free-market Forza Italia ("Come on Italy") party. But Mr Maurizio Lupi said: "This is not a crusade against abortion but the affirmation of a valid principle which all administrations ought to respect - the defence of life."

The council's decision came against a background of mounting alarm over the implications of Italy's low birth rate. The number of births per woman of child-bearing age is the lowest in the world and there is concern that the future workforce will not be big enough to support the country's growing army of pensioners.

One in four babies aborted in Korea

SEOUL - One out of four children conceived by Korean women of child-bearing age is aborted, says a researcher. Lee Sam-sik, of the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, said in his report on the nation's abortion rate that married women aged between 15 and 44 become pregnant an average of 2.99 times. However, 0.77 times, the children are aborted.

Under Korean law, abortions are not allowed except for a few cases, including when the parents have hereditary mental diseases; when the pregnancy was caused by rape or other illicit relationships; or when the pregnancy is feared to endanger the mother's health.

The survey also showed that the respondents underwent their first abortions at the age of 26.3 on average. The infant mortality rate resulting from stillbirths, miscarriages and abortions was 1.05 times on average among the surveyed women, or 35 per cent of the total pregnancies.

Venezuelan leader is pro-life

CARACAS - At ceremonies marking his inauguration to the Venezuelan presidency recently, Hugo Chavez described himself as pro-life. After a Mass celebrated for the event, President Chavez told Roman Catholic archbishop Velasco that he had expressed before Pope John Paul II his "conviction that human life and human dignity must be defended and protected from the moment of conception." Chavez, in a speech given as he was taking office, also referred to God as "the true Commander-in-Chief."

Professor criticizes UN forum report

THE HAGUE - Following a United Nations youth forum held Feb. 6-7 in The Hague, Richard G. Wilkins, a professor of law and the director of the non-governmental organization Family Voice, said the report of the forum did not accurately reflect the views of world youth. "Moreover, many of the recommendations in the report directly conflict with widely held religious norms," he said. Wilkins added that the conduct and outcome of the Hague Youth Forum portend an attack on basic moral values on a massive scale.

"Although both the youth and NGO forums were attended by numerous global NGOs, the participant list for both events was managed by the secretariat of the United Nations Population Fund," he said. "This highly manipulative selection process could hardly produce a group of attendees which accurately reflected world opinion."

He noted that the very first recommendation for action called for instruction before the end of primary school on sexual and reproductive health and rights. "Comprehensive sexual education in schools should be mandatory at all levels," he quoted the report as saying. "This should cover sexual pleasure, confidence and freedom of sexual expression and orientation."

Cardinal's pro-life initiative a success

GLASGOW - A pro-life initiative by Scottish Catholic cardinal Winning is reported to have already saved the lives of 87 unborn children - 41 girls and 46 boys. His program, established a little over a year and a half ago, offers financial support to pregnant women.

A spokesman for the cardinal said Winning was "overwhelmed" by the success of the scheme. "What we are doing is providing choice to people who feel they didn't have any choice," said the spokesman. "All of the women have kept their children and none of them regrets it."

Cleric urges some legal abortions

CAIRO - An Islamic imam has called on the Egyptian government to legalize abortions where unmarried victims of rape are concerned. Sheik Nasr Farid Wasel's proclamation was the first such by an Islamic leader in Egypt. Abortion is currently illegal in Egypt except in cases where the life of the mother is in danger. Although Wasel's statement wields no legal authority, he is considered to be a widely respected figure in Egypt.