National News briefs

International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Church is Nov. 9

CANEY, Kan. (FBW)—The Voice of the Martyrs is offering information and resources for its International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church slated for Nov. 9.

Included in the IDOP resource kit is a video, The Communion of Saints Under Fire, which includes the testimonies of 10 persecuted Christians; a prayer guide "Around the World in 50 Minutes;" a prayer postcard about Li Ying, a young Chinese Christian serving a 15-year prison sentence for her role in publishing a Christian magazine; snapshots of stories feature in VOM newsletters; the ABC prayer poster, Grace in Their Eyes: Narratives of the Persecuted Church; a collection of five dramatic readings; a special newsletter; a package of church bulletin inserts; and a Pray Around the World activity.

For more information or to order any of the items, please call The Voice of the Martyrs order line at 800-747-0085, or go to their online bookstore at www.persecution.com.

Partial-birth abortion ban passes; awaits president's signature

WASHINGTON (BP)–The U.S. Senate approved a ban on partial-birth abortion Oct. 21, sending such a prohibition for the first time to a president who supports the measure.

Senators voted 64-34 for the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act, completing congressional action on a bill that has twice before gone to the White House but been vetoed, both times by former President Clinton. Senate passage came after the House of Representatives gave final approval to the bill Oct. 2 in a 281-142 vote.

President Bush has promised to sign the bill into law.

Bush’s signature will outlaw a procedure that has been a focus of much of the abortion debate during the last decade. The method, named "dilation and extraction" by a doctor who helped develop the procedure, normally consists of the delivery of an intact baby feet first until only the head is left in the birth canal. The doctor pierces the base of the infant’s skull with surgical scissors, then inserts a catheter into the opening and suctions out the brain. The collapse of the skull provides for easier removal of the baby’s head. This typically occurs during the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy.

When it becomes law, the ban will mark the first time Congress has restricted a particular method since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

New Down syndrome test could increase abortions

WASHINGTON (BP)–A new combination of tests on pregnant women has increased the likelihood more Down syndrome children will be aborted.

A recent study of more than 8,200 women at a dozen medical centers in the United States showed two blood screenings and an ultrasound test can work together to identify most Down syndrome babies near the end of the first trimester of pregnancy, according to an Associated Press report.

The new tests will enable pregnant women to choose abortion earlier, according to Ronald Wapner, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.

That is not an advantage, pro-life bioethics specialist Ben Mitchell told Baptist Press.

"A couple of problems plague the new tests," said Mitchell, associate professor of bioethics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in suburban Chicago. "First, it moves us farther down the road to seeing children as chosen for their genetic condition rather than given to us for their nurture and care. Second, the tests target embryos – the most helpless of our children – for destruction."

Blood tests normally performed in the United States are unable to detect Down syndrome before about 20 weeks into a pregnancy and then identify as much as 75 percent of babies with the condition, according to AP.

The new combination – which includes two blood screenings, an ultrasound and the mother’s age – identified the condition 85 percent of the time at about 12 weeks in the study, the AP reported. Nine percent of the time, the combination erroneously diagnosed an unborn baby with Down syndrome, according to the report. The New England Journal of Medicine published an article on the study in its Oct. 9 issue.

The combination of tests recently studied in the United States already is used in England, Israel and several other countries, the AP reported.

Medical use of marijuana gets Supreme Court nod

WASHINGTON (BP)–The U.S. Supreme Court has given a boost to the campaign for the medical use of marijuana.

The high court has announced it will not review a lower court opinion that blocked the federal government from punishing doctors who recommend the use of marijuana to patients. The justices’ action, announced without comment, means doctors in California and other western states may continue to advise use of the drug under state laws without Washington threatening to revoke their licenses to prescribe federally controlled substances.

The Supreme Court’s decision Oct. 14 not to take up the case, Walters v. Conant, effectively upholds in the Ninth Circuit a 2002 ruling by that circuit’s appeals court. A three-member panel upheld last October a California federal court’s permanent injunction barring the federal government from revoking or threatening to revoke a doctor’s license to prescribe drugs if he has recommended marijuana use.

Both the Northern District Court of California and a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the federal policy violated First Amendment free-speech rights in the doctor-patient relationship.

Because of the high court’s refusal to review the decision, the injunction remains in effect in California and the other eight states in the Ninth Circuit. Six of the other eight states have laws permitting the medical use of marijuana: Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Two states outside the Ninth Circuit allow medical marijuana use: Colorado and Maine.

Complaint dropped against judge who posed for ad

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–A complaint filed with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct has been dismissed involving a judge who appeared in advertisements for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, according to a seminary spokesman.

Tarrant County Judge R. Brent Keis, a master of arts in lay ministries student at the Fort Worth, Texas, seminary, appeared in his judicial robe in an April 2002 advertisement in The Fort Worth Star- Telegram. That advertisement, which contained only a photo of Keis, promoted the seminary’s study programs for laypeople.

Keis was informed by the judicial conduct commission in February 2003 that he had made a mistake by appearing robed in the advertisement. After the ads appeared in Houston and San Antonio papers in May, Keis was summoned to appear before the commission Oct. 8. That complaint was dismissed.