Daily Archives: November 23, 2008

My Church, My Government

Condemned to Die: Abortion in Latin America

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“In this profession, we see all kinds of things, like people using witchcraft, to whatever pills they can get their hands on,” said a doctor, who charges about $45 to carry out abortions in women’s homes.

He spoke on condition that his name not be used, because performing an abortion in Colombia can lead to a prison term of more than four years.

“They open themselves up to incredible risks, from losing their reproductive systems or, through complications, their lives,” the doctor said.

Such arguments have done little to sway an anti-abortion movement that is largely led by influential leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.

clipped from www.nytimes.com
PAMPLONA, Colombia – In this tradition-bound Roman Catholic town one day in April, two young women did what many here consider unthinkable: pregnant and scared, they took a cheap ulcer medication known to induce abortions. When the drug left them bleeding, they were treated at a local emergency room – then promptly arrested.
Latin America holds some of the world’s most stringent abortion laws, yet it still has the developing world’s highest rate of abortions – a rate that is far higher even than in Western Europe, where abortion is widely and legally available.
Four million abortions, most of them illegal, take place in Latin America annually, the United Nations reports, and up to 5,000 women are believed to die each year from complications from abortions.
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My Government

‘Off-Grid’ Couple Fight Power Company

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Corporate tyranny at work in my book. What the corp wants the corp gets. Life has become all about making the corporation survive rather than the corporation serving us.
clipped from www.istockanalyst.com
Nov. 18–ROCKBRIDGE, Ohio — Charles and Melanie Ogle have lived happily off the power grid for 17 years in their solar-powered log home perched on a ridge in the Hocking Hills.
They don’t want or need electric lines, but it seems that a power line is about to be strung outside their house anyway.
The Ogles are fighting a plan by American Electric Power to take some of their land by eminent domain to build an overhead electric line to power a telecommunications tower that the utility is building about 1,500 feet south of their house.
A judge already ruled that the project is a necessity and that the company has the right to take their land.
The Ogles rejected AEP’s offer of $4,000. It’s not about the money, the couple said. It’s the principle.
AEP says it needs to build the 350-foot telecommunications tower so its workers can communicate with each other by radio in the hills. Construction has started.
The Ogles say the line should be built underground.
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