United Nations Study Calls for Stop to Organ Trafficking, Ban on Practice
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A new international convention is needed to prevent trafficking in kidneys and other organs and potentially life-saving tissues and cells, according to a joint study by the United Nations and the Council of Europe released Tuesday. The study calls for international experts to agree on a definition that is recognized worldwide of what constitutes "trafficking in organs, tissues and cells." Carmen Prior, the public prosecutor of Austria and a co-author of the study, said the definition should be incorporated into an international convention that would include measures to prevent the crime, to protect and assist donors, and to prosecute the traffickers — "especially intermediaries and brokers and doctors and medical staff involved in such activities." The study stressed that trafficking in human beings for the purpose of removing an organ is a small part of the wider problem of organ trafficking. It said exploiting a living person to get an organ is already a crime under a U.N. protocol and a Council of Europe convention against human trafficking, but there is currently no international legal instrument against trafficking in organs, tissues and cells.

Italy Sees Abortions Decline in New Official Govt Figures, Fertility Rate Rises
Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- Each year the Italian Ministry responsible for health presents a report to Parliament on abortion trends. Data presented a few weeks ago by Undersecretary Eugenia Maria Roccella of the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Policy brings encouraging news: Abortions have continued to decline among adult women and minors, and an overwhelming percentage of Italian doctors refuse to perform abortions. According to the latest report, in 2008 there were 121,406 abortions in Italy, of which about 80,000, or two-thirds, were performed on Italian women and one-third on foreign women residing in or coming to Italy. The latter were primarily from Eastern Europe. The share of foreign women having an abortion has risen steadily from 10.1 percent of the total in 1998. The number of abortions last year declined by 4.1 percent, and were 48.3 percent below the peak year of 1982 when 234,801 abortions were registered. Available data show that Italy’s abortion rate among minors is one of the lowest: It was 7.5 percent in 2007 compared with 25 percent for the United Kingdom and 19.5 percent for the United States. In 2007, approximately 70 percent of doctors in Italy refused to perform abortions, up dramatically from 58 percent in only 2005. Like nearly all developed countries, Italy’s fertility rate is below replacement – when women bear an average of 2.1 children – and under the 1.5 EU average. The fertility rate reached its low point of 1.19 in 1995 but has been inching up since then.

Spain to See Hundreds of Thousands at Pro-Life Rally Against Abortion in Madrid, Spain (LifeNews.com) -- Hundreds of thousands of people are expected at a mass rally in Madrid on Saturday to condemn plans by the socialist government to expand the nation's abortion laws and shut parents out of the process. The proposed new legislation in the overwhelmingly Catholic country would allow women as young as 16 to undergo an abortion without parental consent. "We could get more than a million people" at the demonstration, said Olimpia Garcia, a spokeswoman for CONCAPA, a Catholic federation that is one of the organizers. She said 42 Spanish anti-abortion and Catholic associations are bringing their supporters from across the country to the protest in the Spanish capital, which is also backed by 235 organizations in 45 countries. The protesters, expected to include former conservative prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, will march about 1.5 kilometers (one mile) across central Madrid carrying banners reading "For Life, Women and Motherhood" and "Women Against Abortion." Another anti-abortion organization, HazteOir (Make Yourself Heard), predicted it would be "the biggest demonstration in the history of Spanish democracy."

Pro-Life Advocates Complain GOP Backing Pro-Abortion Scozzafava in New York
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Leading pro-life advocates are upset that the national Republican party and leadership are backing pro-abortion New York congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava over pro-life conservative candidate Doug Hoffman. Pro-life blogger Michelle Malkin writes, "The NRCC is using conservatives’ money to back a radical leftist and attack a bona fide, viable conservative candidate for Congress in a safe Republican district. Gingrich has endorsed the radical leftist. Now comes word from CQ that the Republican National Committee has made a “six-figure transfer” of funds to the NRCC to support Scozzafava. In addition to Scozzafava’s radical leftist record that I outlined this morning, Scozzafava is the proud recipient of the Margaret Sanger Award from New York family planners. Way to go, Beltway GOP establishment. You have been asking movement conservatives to give you money ... and you use that money to fight Doug Hoffman, a viable, bona fide conservative candidate in the race who is closing the gap in the polls. The GOP establishment: Always, always its own worst enemy." The Club for Growth, SBA List, CWA and former GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson and others have lined up behind a truly mainstream and viable candidate — Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman.

European MPs are Brainwashing Students Against Pro-Life Stance on Lisbon Treaty
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- The following comments come from John Smeaton, the director of SPUC, the British pro-life group: Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are calling for compulsory school-lessons to combat opposition to the Lisbon treaty, including claims that the treaty could result in abortion bans being over-turned. The calls are being led by the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) bloc and by Mario David, a Portuguese MEP. David said, "All the debates about the constitution and then the Lisbon Treaty showed a great deal of lying, cheating and mistrust about the EU. In Ireland people were told there was going to be abortion across the EU, that young men would be conscripted into a European Army. This was a bunch of lies." Smeaton responds: Tightly-argued and expertly-researched legal arguments were put by pro-lifers as to the possible impact of the Lisbon treaty upon abortion laws in Ireland and other EU member-states. To dismiss those arguments as lying and cheating is absurd. It is also untenable, as organs of both the EU (such as the European parliament and European Commission) and the Council of Europe (such as its parliamentary assembly) have many times voted against pro-life and pro-family values, acting outside their own remits. It is no wonder that many pro-lifers mistrust the European institutions. Anthony Ozimic, SPUC communications manager, has also commented: "It would be a totalitarian abuse of power to use the school system to brain-wash pupils into rejecting the well-founded concerns by pro-life groups regarding the Lisbon treaty."

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