Newspaper Page Text
o
The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 21 No. 18
Thursday, May 5,1983
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EVEN BETTER THAN LAST YEAR! was the
description of the 1983 Archdiocesan Youth
Rally, which last weekend drew close to 800
participants to the Marist gymnasium for two
days of community building. Even lunchtime was
a celebration, the folks pictured above will agree,
as they share a spot on the Marist grounds for
Saturday’s noon repast. (More photos p. 9)
Following Abortion
"Live Birth" Babies Face Long Odds
BY GRETCHEN REISER
“Live births” -
babies born pre-
maturely following an
abortion attempt - face
very long odds against
survival, according to
information gathered
from some specialists in
care for premature
infants.
The sophisticated
technology and care
available in neonatal
units cannot substitute
for a mother’s womb in
providing the proper
environment for very
immature infants, a
neonatologist at
Crawford Long
Hospital in Atlanta
said. Dr. Ann Critz,
who is in charge of the
hospital’s nursery and
specializes in care of
the newborn, said the
best care available
typically can only help
premature babies that
are at least 26 weeks
old. “The key is the
gestational age” of the
premature baby, she
said.
Dr. Critz said that
typically a baby of less
than 26 weeks’
gestation has not
developed air sacs in
the lungs that would
permit use of a
ventilator to help
breathing and the
intestinal system is not
sufficiently developed
to allow nourishment
of the baby by
intravenous feeding.
“Our methods are
such that they just
aren’t any good for
(babies of) less than 26
weeks,” she said,
adding that something
like an artificial womb
would be needed to
oxygenate the lungs of
the baby and an
artificial placenta
would be needed to
nourish the baby.
While 26 weeks’
gestation is about the
minimal time needed in
the womb before the
intensive care of
medicine and science
can possibly take over,
“live births” seemingly
occur earlier in the
pregnancy.
Abortions in the
second trimester of
pregnancy, which is
through the 24th week,
have sometimes
resulted not in the
death of the baby, but
in a “live birth” -- a
phenomenon which has
come to be called “the
dreaded complicaton”
in abortion medicine
around the country.
The Georgia Bulletin
reported April 28 on
state death certificates
filed between 1980 and
1982 which showed 14
“live births” had
occurred at Midtown
Hospital, an Atlanta
facility specializing in
abortions and
performing them
through the second
trimester of pregnancy.
The death
certificates indicated
that the babies had
lived anywhere from
less than half an hour
to 13 hours.
Statistics on
(Continued on page 6)
War And Peace
Pastoral Passes
BY JIM LACKEY
CHICAGO (NC) - The
U.S. bishops gave
overwhelming approval
May 3 to an historic
pastoral letter on war and
peace. The final vote was
238-9.
The vote on the
pastoral, titled “The
Challenge of Peace: God’s
Promise and Our
Response,” came after two
days of discussion at a
special meeting in Chicago
and after consideration of
515 amendments.
The bishops accepted
174 of those amendments,
more than 100 of which
were of non-controversial
nature. Many of the
remaining 341
amendments were
withdrawn after the
committee which drafted
the pastoral indicated
opposition to their
inclusion in the text.
As approved, the
pastoral:
- Fundamentally rejects
any war except as a last
recourse and rejects or
strongly questions the
morality of any form of
nuclear war;
- Repudiates the arms
race and calls for an
immediate, negotiated halt
to new nuclear weapons
systems;
-- Categorically
condemns any form of
counterpopulation warfare
and expresses deep
skepticism whether a
nuclear exchange can be
kept within the limits of
moral acceptability;
- Calls the initiation of
nuclear warfare “morally
unjustifiable,” urging
NATO to move rapidly
out of its first-use policy;
-- Urges non-violent
solutions to conflict and
stresses that the avoidance
of war involves a
comprehensive positive
effort to promote peace,
ranging from improved
structures of international
(Continued on page 7)
Picketers Arrested
At Midtown Hospital
BY MSGR. NOEL BURTENSHAW
Three picketers were arrested while parading
outside Midtown Hospital on Ponce de Leon
Avenue last Saturday.
According to Kyle Holland, one of the three
arrested, police took the three to jail without good
reason. “We were picketing as we do every
Saturday,” said Kyle, a member of Maranatha, a
non-denominational campus group who show up at
Midtown each weekend. “The police arrived and
after speaking with the security guard, asked Shelby
Luse, Lloyd Gilcreast and myself to step into the
squad car. He was real nice, but said it was time for
the courts to settle this.”
The three were taken to the city jail and were
released after being detained for 10 hours. “The
officer said we would be held for about 45
minutes,” said Kyle, “but that’s not the way it
turned out.”
According to the records of the Atlanta Police
Department, the three were charged with disorderly
conduct. A hearing was to take place on Thursday,
May 5.
Midtown Hospital is an abortion clinic in which
14 live births took place over the last three years.
The Georgia Department of Human Resources
issued death certificates for the 14 babies bom at
the hospital.
Asked to give details of what occurred, Kyle
(Continued on page 7)