Yuku free message boards

No individual person is perfect. No system of government is perfect because it is made up of imperfect individuals. However, in the U.S. two party system, there is no room for idealism. If you don't side with the party who has the most things going for it, you aid the other party. Third party candidates are ALWAYS spoilers. They sap support for the party who has a chance to win.

If you are truly conservative and have values for the traditional Church and its notion of what constitutes family, then the only practical option is to commit wholeheartedly to forging the Republican Party platform and working for change from the inside.

In a perfect world, I could vote my Catholic conscience. When I was younger and more idealistic, I have thrown my vote away by indulging myself. I voted for who most closely espoused what I believed in. The "write-in" vote by a grassroots effort might evoke emotions of the white hats of good overcoming the black hats of evil. Parties other than the Democratic or Republican Party getting on the ballot gives the illusion that anything is possible. It nurtures a false hope. Even using the third party in an election to raise consciousness for favored issues is no longer realistic.

As virtual campaigning is already underway for the 2008 Presidential election (it has become nonstop and will be that way henceforth), deception for tricking swing voters (the perpetually undecided) has been escalating. Hillary Clinton has made overatures to this demographic by stating that she dislikes abortion. Call it variations on the theme of her husband's "safe, legal and 'rare'" gambit. Flash back to only last Spring when she mounted the podium SCREAMING in a shrill voice, "Mr. Bush, get your hands off my body" - or a more specific body part - along with her radical feminist companions. She, like 2004 Catholic candidate, John Kerry, is whoring for votes by deception.

On the Republican side, John McCain, with his "compromise" which postponed filibusters, is said to have endeared himself to voters for being more centrist. Fracturing what resolve and agreement that exists in the Republican party by compromising with Democrats hurts the country. We have always been taught that compromise is the best way for conflict resolution. I believe the time for compromise is over. The time for polarization has come, but not polarization within the Republican Party. Using what we have to work with - the two party system, one has to pick the best horse (the lesser of two evils, if you will) and ride it. By emphasizing differences within the Republican party, one aids and abets the Democratic Party. The CULTURE OF DEATH as it has manifested itself in the Democratic Party platform to include Abortion Rights, Homosexual "Rights", Euthanasia, Fetal Stem Cell Research and Cloning is the CLEAR worst of two evils.

John Lofton, by billing himself as a "recovering Republican" would like you to see Peroutka's American View. Like the Democrats, they divert your attention to what they call the "Unconstitutional War" in Iraq. Even though the Holy See did not approve of the war, the war does not equate to the urgency or priority of the other Culture of Death issues which the Democratic Party supports.

The Protective Effects of Childbirth

Note: This is part I of a two-part article that originally appeared in
The Post-Abortion Review.

One of the population controllers' favorite techniques is to portray pregnancy as dangerous, burdensome and demeaning to women. Some have labeled it an "epidemic," or a "disease."1 At a Planned Parenthood conference, for example, one speaker described abortion as an "effective treatment" for "the number two sexually transmitted disease" unplanned pregnancy.2

But population control zealots have failed to prove that pregnancy is, in fact, harmful to women. Indeed, a number of studies point to the opposite conclusion: that pregnancy generally benefits women's health. Yet these studies have been virtually ignored by the medical community and the secular media. According to researcher Thomas Strahan:

"One relatively unexamined issue is the important role that childbirth and lactation play in the overall health of a woman. The failure of the body to experience these events appears to cause malfunctions which frequently result in health problems later in life, including possible increased risks from various types of cancer."3

As this article will show, full-term pregnancy has been shown to reduce women's risk of disease, improve their mental health and improve the outcome of their future pregnancies.

REDUCING THE RISK OF CANCER

According to national health statistics, approximately one in eight American women will have breast cancer in her lifetime. Each year, an estimated 175,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, and 43,500 women die from it.3 These numbers have led in recent years to a nationally-publicized campaign to educate women on breast cancer prevention and treatment.

What is seldom, if ever, emphasized in public discussions on preventing breast cancer is the fact that having a full-term pregnancy has been linked to a decrease in breast cancer risk the earlier the better. A major study of 250,000 women from around the world found that those who have their first child by age 18 have only about one-third the risk of breast cancer faced by women whose first birth occurs at age 35 or later.4

Another large study published in 1989 by the Centers for Disease Control examined data from eight population-based U.S. cancer registries and found that lactation also plays a role in reducing breast cancer. The more children a woman had and the longer the duration of breast-feeding after birth, the lower her risk of developing breast cancer.5

Pregnancy and childbirth have also been linked to two other diseases that affect women: ovarian and endometrial cancer. Studies have shown that women who have never had children are twice as likely to develop ovarian cancer which takes the lives of about 14,000 American women each year compared to those who have given birth.6 As with breast cancer, the more full-term pregnancies a woman had, the lower her risk of ovarian cancer.7

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "Childbearing is the most important known factor in preventing ovarian cancer, suggesting that hormones play a role in its development." Several studies have also shown that having few or no children is also a risk factor for endometrial cancer.8

ACHIEVING HEALTHY PREGNANCIES

Having a previous full-term pregnancy can also improve the outcome of subsequent pregnancies. For instance, one study found that women with more children experience less intense pain during subsequent deliveries than women with no or few children.9 Another study found that women with two previous pregnancies have 22 percent less risk of retained placenta and/or postpartum hemorrhage during subsequent deliveries compared to women with only one previous pregnancy.10

Hypertension (high blood pressure) is experienced by 10-12 percent of pregnant women in the U.S. Eclampsia (convulsions caused by hypertension) and pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure with edema or abnormal protein in the urine) are the leading causes of pregnancy-related maternal death in the western world, with 50-60 percent of those deaths caused by cerebral hemorrhage brought on by hypertension.11

Studies have found, however, that women who have had a previous pregnancy have a lower risk of pre-eclampsia in subsequent pregnancies than women who are experiencing their first pregnancy (incidently, women with a previous abortion have a higher risk of both pre-eclampsia and eclampsia).12 Two other studies also found that women have a reduced risk of hypertension with each succeeding birth.13

Among American women, ectopic pregnancy is the leading cause of pregnancy-related maternal death in the first trimester.14 One study found that women who had carried a previous pregnancy to term had half the risk of ectopic pregnancy as women who had no previous deliveries.15 Conversely, other studies have found that women with a history of abortion have an increased risk of subsequent ectopic pregnancy compared to women who had previously carried to term.16

~~~

This article was originally printed in The Post-Abortion Review, Vol. 9, No. 2, April-June 2001. Part II will appear in the next issue of the Elliot Institute News.

Citations

1 11 Million Teenagers: What Can Be Done About the Epidemic of Adolescent Pregnancies in the United States (New York: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 1976); and "Disease of Unwanted Pregnancy," Time, 84, Sept. 15, 1967.
2 W. Cates, et. al., "Abortion as a Treatment for Unwanted Pregnancy: The Number Two Sexually Transmitted Condition," Advances in Planned Parenthood, 12(3):115-121, 1978.
3 T. Strahan, "Childbirth as Protective of the Health of Women in Contrast to Induced Abortion - I. Breast, Ovarian and Endometrial Cancer," Assoc. for Interdisciplinary Research Bulletin, 12(2):1, Jan./Feb. 1998.
4 B. MacMahon et al., "Age at First Birth and Breast Cancer Risk," Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 43:209-221, 1970.
5 P.M. Layde et al., "The Independent Associations of Parity, Age at First Full Term Pregnancy, and Duration of Breastfeeding with the Risk of Breast Cancer," J. Clinic Epidemiology, 42(10):936, 1989.
6 "Cancer Facts and Figures - 1993," American Cancer Society as quoted in T. Strahan, "Women's Health and Abortion - II. Risk of Premature Death in Women from Induced Abortion: Preliminary Findings," Assoc. for Interdisciplinary Research Newsletter, 5(2):5-6, Spring 1993.
7 Strahan, "Childbirth as Protective of the Health of Women in Contrast to Induced Abortion - I. Breast, Ovarian and Endometrial Cancer," op. cit., 4.
8 "Cancer Rates and Risks, U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services," National Institutes of Health Publication No. 85-691, 3rd Edition (1995).
9 G. Fridh, et. al., "Factors Associated With More Intense Labor Pain," Research in Nursing & Health, 11:117-124, 1988.
10 M.R. Hall, et. al., "Concomitant and repeated happenings of complications of the third stage of labor," British J. Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 92:732-738, July 1985.
11 B. Kwast, "The hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: their
contribution to maternal mortality," Midwifery, 7:157-161, 1991.
12 D. Campbell, et. al., "Pre-eclampsia in second pregnancy," British J. Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 92:131-140, 1985.
13 Strickland, et. al., "The relationship between abortion in the first pregnancy and development of pregnancy-induced hypertension in the subsequent pregnancy," American J. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 154:146-148, 1986; and D.A. Savitz and J. Zhang, "Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension in North Carolina, 1988 and 1989," American J. Public Health, 82(5):675-679, May 1992.
14 T. Strahan, "Childbirth as Protective of the Health of Women in Contrast to Induced Abortion - IV. Reproductive Complications and Infections," Assoc. for Interdisciplinary Research Bulletin, 13(1):8, July/Aug. 1998.
15 F. Parazzini, et. al., "Risk Factors for Ectopic Pregnancy: An Italian Case-Control Study," Obstetrics & Gynecology, 80:821, 1982.
16 C. Tharaux-Deneux, "Risk of Ectopic Pregnancy and Previous Induced Abortion," American J. Public Health, 88(3):401, March 1998; J. Daling, et.al., "Ectopic Pregnancy in Relation to Previous Induced Abortion," JAMA, 253(7):10051008, Feb. 15, 1985; and A. Kalandidi, et. al., "Induced Abortions, Contraceptive Practices and Tobacco Smoking as Risk Factors for Ectopic Pregnancy in Athens, Greece," British J. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 98:207-213, Feb. 1991.





New Study Finds Having More Children Protects Women From Cancer

A study published in the medical journal Twin Research and Genetics has found that women who have children have a reduced risk of developing certain types of cancer, and that the risk is further reduced with each pregnancy.

Researchers from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia studied medical data for more than 1.2 million Swedish women who had given birth between 1961 and 1996. Women who had more children had a lower risk of developing breast, uterine, ovarian, and colorectal cancers than women who had fewer children.

The authors noted that it appeared that "an increase in the hormones produced during pregnancy are protecting against cancer," but scientists have not figured out why. The study found that women who had children earlier in life had a lower rate of breast cancer than women who delayed pregnancy.

Other studies [see article above] have also found that pregnancy and childbirth offer women protection against certain cancers. The authors of the new study said that doctors should be aware of the cancer risks so they can provide more frequent cancer screening for women with fewer or no children.

The study was initially designed to study cancer risks in women who had twins, since they are exposed to different hormone levels than women who have single pregnancies. While the researchers did find lower cancer rates among mothers of twins, it was not enough to be considered significant, they said.