Way to go prayer warriors!  Your prayers are a powerful force in the battle to stop the killing of innocent human life. Here are some heartening and disheartening Michigan statistics:
       >       The number of abortions in 2005 (25,209) and 2006 (25,636) is down 47.8 % since 1987.
       >       The number of women who are having abortions for the first time is also decreasing.
       >       Unfortunately, the number of women with two or more abortions is increasing.
                From these statistics we see the need to focus our prayer on women who are using abortion as birth control, while continuing our prayers for those young women who seem to be receiving the truth about life in the womb.               

Keep up your prayers for our Supreme Court Justices, especially Justices Souter and Kennedy who are Catholic.  This year, Justice Kennedy voted with the four conservative pro-life justices to uphold the federal ban on the heinous practice of partial birth abortion.  Praise God for this victory! 

                The latest battle is raging over the use or nonuse of fetal stem cells for research, therapy and transplants.  What one does not read in the media is that as a consequence of using these embryonic stem cells, the fetus dies.  In addition, no cures or advancements are known to have taken place by using these stem cells.  Instead, tumors and death have occurred in patients that have been injected with these stem cells.  A man in China injected with fetal stem cells died when hair, bone and skin began to grow in his brain; the undifferentiated stem cells became deadly tissue. Also, it is now known that there are huge profits to be made on patents by drug companies and grants received for work with embryonic stem cells.  As in abortion, the dollar speaks louder than the sanctity of life for some people.  Pray against this greed and hardness of heart. 

                 On the other hand, advancements are being seen in using adult and umbilical cord stem cells.  There are more and more documented cases in which people are receiving relief from cancers, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular problems, ocular, neural diseases and injuries, blood conditions, liver and bladder disease, and other metabolic diseases.  In some cases, the doctors are using the patients’ own stem cells found in various places in the body including the nose. In Michigan this year, legislation was passed to create a statewide public network of cord blood stem cell banks for therapy transplant and research. This places the emphasis on using sources other than embryonic stem cells.  This is huge.  Keep on praying!!!!!!!!!

                There is a possible referendum on embryonic stem cell research coming up for popular vote in Michigan next year. Our Catholic governor supports this type of research. Be alert, pray, know the truth and be ready to defend your position.

                 If you remember, the last two articles the bulletin contained about abortion asked all to pray sacrificially for this area.  In this type of prayer, the one praying offers up all the small inconveniences and pain and discomfort of each day for an end to abortion, while at the same time asking God to forgive and immerse in His mercy those in positions of authority (like the Governor, legislators, judges) who back abortion.  Now the Lord is taking us a step further and asking us to pray and fast on the first Friday of each month for the entire next year.  This would bring us through an election year with probably far reaching effects on this issue of abortion.  The Lord is also asking us to go to confession on or near that first Friday.  In the NOW Word the Lord asks us to put on His robes of righteousness. We can obey that word by praying and fasting and going to confession on the first Friday.  I believe that as He promises in the NOW Word, we will be restored body, soul, mind, and spirit as we walk in this new direction.  Here are the dates of the first Fridays so you can place them on your calendar for the next year: