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August 2010 Issue

Pro-Lifers Outnumber Pro-Choicers

Americans described themselves as more pro-life than pro-choice on abortion for the second straight year, according to a recent Gallup Poll.

The survey showed 47 percent of Americans consider themselves pro-life, while 45 percent say they are pro-choice, Gallup reported May 14.

Gallup referred to the results — first evidenced in May 2009 — as the "new normal."

"While the two-percentage-point gap in current abortion views is not significant, it represents the third consecutive time Gallup has found more Americans taking the pro-life than pro-choice position on this measure since May 2009, suggesting a real change in public opinion," Gallup's Lydia Saad wrote. "By contrast, in nearly all readings on this question since 1995, and each survey from 2003 to 2008, more Americans called themselves pro-choice than pro-life."

Last May, Gallup's polling showed 51 percent of adults said they are pro-life, while 42 percent identified themselves as pro-choice. It was the first time a majority of Americans had called themselves pro-life since Gallup began asking the question in 1995. Until then, no poll had shown more than 46 percent of Americans saying they were pro-life.

In July 2009, the Gallup poll showed a 47 to 46 percent advantage for the pro-life identification over the pro-choice one.

The survey also found an increase in pro-life sentiments since 2005-06 among Republicans, independents who lean toward neither political party, Americans under 30 years of age, and adults from 50-64.

Baptist Press

Adult Stem Cell Success

British and Indian doctors have transplanted a new windpipe, or trachea, into a ten-year-old boy using his own non-embryonic, or adult, stem cells.

It marked the first time such a procedure has been performed in a child and the initial case of an entire trachea being transplanted, the UCL Institute of Child Health in Great Britain reported.

The transplant was conducted for a boy who has a rare congenital condition named Long Segment Tracheal Stenosis, which refers to a diminutive windpipe that will not develop. "It is like breathing through a straw and is a life threatening condition," according to the institute.

Doctors stripped a donated trachea of the donor's cells and injected stem cells from the boy's bone marrow into the trachea shortly before implanting it in the boy, the institute reported March 18.

Using the boy's own stem cells prevents possible problems with transplant rejection. Use of non-embryonic stem cells does not harm the donor.

The case is another success for non-embryonic stem cells, which have produced therapies in trials for at least seventy-three ailments in human beings, according to Do No Harm, a coalition promoting ethics in research. Embryonic stem cell research, which results from the destruction of human embryos, has yet to generate successful treatments in human beings.

Baptist Press

SBC Calendar

AUGUST 2010

Social Issues Sunday - August 1

Student Evangelism Day - August 8

Church Music Emphasis Week - August 15-21

SEPTEMBER 2010

Single Adult Sunday - September 5

Anti-Gambling Sunday - September 19

Discipleship Rally - September 20

OCTOBER 2010

Cooperative Program Emphasis Month - October 1-31

Soul-Winning Commitment Day - October 3

World Hunger Sunday - October 10

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