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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 28, 1983
PAGE 11
newspapers carried pictures of men disposi � g of a mound of
fetuses, possibly as many as
2,000,
found .!!! formaldehyde 1n
California. Their presence there remains a mystery, but, though
they were being hauled off like trash, they looked strikingly
like babies to me.
The case of Roe vs. Wade opened the court system to a never-ending stream of
interpretations.- The NEW YORK TIMES of January 13, 1983 took note of a
recent one:
Perhaps more ominous, Roe vs. Wade gave rise to the "wrongful
life" theory of legal actions, which is enjoying increased accep
tance in Federal and state courts. This development gives the
parents of a handicapped child the right to sue the doctor who
attended the pregnancy when they can show that he should have
discovered the defect so that an abortion could have been ob
tained. The resulting pressures on physicians encourage infan
ticide as doctors seek to avoid potential financial liability for
children whom they "negligently" caused to be born alive.
In his five minute Saturday radio program on January 22 (the anniversary of
the Supreme Court decision), President Reagan once again announced his per
sonal desire to reverse the pro-abortion edict. But arrayed against him
are such pro-abortion lobbies as the National Abortion Rights Action
League, as well as the newly liberalized House of Representatives. There
is probably little that he can do.
Peace (of the Grave) Brought to Vietnam
Only five days after the momentous Supreme Court decision on January 27,
1973, the United States and North Vietnam reached accord on the Paris Peace
Agreements.
But there was to be no peace.
The pact merely secured
America's ungraceful exit. The South Vietnamese and other Indo-Chinese
were consigned to their brutal fate at the hands of a determined aggressor.
The U.S. Congress shortly pared back its promised U.S. military aid to the
Saigon government and eventually--and very shamefully--cut it off alto
gether.
In one of the greatest understatements ever made, an AP dispatch on January
27, 1983 (the tenth anniversary date) said that "the agreement•.• failed to
live up to expectations particularly for the American-backed government in
Saigon."
Americans seem·somehow to think that their nation can simply walk away from
assumed obligations to allies such as the Vietnamese and the Shah of Iran,
and as probably will happen to nations in Central America, without even
tually paying a horrible price themselves.
Looking back at that fateful day of peace-without-honor, Edwin N. Luttwak
wrote in the January 23, 1983 issue of the LOS ANGELES TIMES:
Ten years ago this week••.the United States signed the Paris
Peace Agreements and consigned the peoples of South Vietnam to
their fate, the protracted agony that continues still in the open
boats of the refugees•.••