THE REVVED UP RELIGIOUS RIGHT

americanprogressaction.org

THE REVVED UP RELIGIOUS RIGHT

Highly respected former Republican senator and ordained minister John C. Danforth pointed out, "There is only one argument against
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/18/AR2005051802138.html)
stem cell research, and that is meeting the demands of the religious
right." Danforth's observation is correct; the religious right is set to
do battle over this legislation. The U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops " condemned the legislation
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/18/AR2005051802138.html)
," saying that such a measure would " encourage large-scale destruction
(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a32SMdqSFgoo&refer=us)
of innocent human life."


In a letter to House leaders, the Conference's
chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities wrote, "I urge you in
the strongest possible terms to oppose all destructive and morally
offensive proposals of this kind." He continued on to declare that
"government has no business forcing taxpayers to become complicit in the direct
destruction of human life at any stage." The supposed controversy
behind using such cells -- that "embryos must be destroyed to retrieve the
cells" -- ignores the fact that if not used for research, "the embryos
... would otherwise be discarded
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/19/politics/19stem.html) by fertility
clinics." Still, the legislation's opponents are doing some serious
organizing. Proving a child is never too young to be used in their agenda,
one of their demonstrations will be "a Capitol Hill appearance by
babies
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/18/AR2005051802138_2.html)
who were 'adopted' as embryos."