NATION - school vouchers in Florida; teen pregnancy rate falls; ban on human embryo experiments; other current issues

National Catholic Reporter, May 14, 1999

Florida backs statewide school voucher plan

The Florida legislature, with both chambers under Republican control for the first time in 130 years, gave final approval April 30 to the nation's first statewide program to allow students to attend private schools -- both secular and religious -- at taxpayer expense.

The plan has been a top priority of Republican Gov. Jed Bush, a convert to Catholicism. Under the plan students in Florida's worst public schools will be eligible for vouchers of about $4,000 a year to help pay private school tuition regardless of family income.

Opponents of the plan have threatened to sue in an effort to sink a program they argue violates constitutional separation of church and state laws. They also maintain it will injure the state's public school system.

The plan would rate Florida schools based on student performance. Students at schools given an "F" will be eligible for the vouchers. About 170 of Florida's 3,000 public schools are expected to fall into the failing category.

The Florida Senate passed the voucher plan 25-15 Friday, the last day of the state legislative session. The House approved it 70-48 two days earlier.

Teen pregnancy rates continue to decline

Teen pregnancy, birth and abortion rates continued to decrease in 1996, the Alan Guttmacher Institute reports.

Between 1995 and 1996, the teenage pregnancy rate, including births, abortions and miscarriages, dropped 4 percent from 101.1 to 97.3 pregnancies per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 19. The teen birthrate declined 4 percent and the abortion rate declined 3 percent.

Since its peak in 1990, the pregnancy rate has dropped 17 percent.

The institute, a nonprofit group focusing on reproductive health research, released the new data April 29.

Most of the decrease in the overall U.S. pregnancy rate is due to steep drops in the early 1990s in the pregnancy rate of sexually experienced teenagers. The institute attributes most of the decline to slight increases in sexually active teens using contraception, teens using long-acting, highly effective methods and modest reductions in failure rates of those using oral contraceptives and

condoms.

"Many groups want to take credit for the drop in teenage pregnancy, but the credit truly goes to the teenagers," said Jacqueline E. Darroch, vice president for research at the institute based in New York and Washington.

Congress asked to keep ban on embryo experiments

Congress must not allow its ban on federal funding for human embryo experiments to be circuvented by a "morally and legally deficient" interpretation from the Department of Health and Human Services, a Catholic pro-life Spokeswoman said.

Gall Quinn, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, criticized the interpretation in an April 28 letter to all members of Congress.

Quinn said the National Institutes of Health, which is part of the Health and Human Services department, was preparing draft guidelines for research that requires the harvesting of stem cells from human embryos, despite the ban on federal funding for human embryo experiments that has been in each Labor/Health and Human Services appropriations bill since 1995.

The department's interpretation of the ban "is morally and legally deficient and should be repudiated by Congress," Quinn said in her letter.

Rally challenges Princeton appointment of Singer

More than 250 demonstrators, including the head of the National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities, lined the sidewalks in front of Princeton University to protest the appointment of Peter Singer as the tenured chair at the university's Center for Human Values.

The demonstration and rally was organized by Princeton Students Against Infanticide, an umbrella organization for several student groups, formed by Christopher Benek, a graduate student at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Although Singer is known in the United States as a leader in the animal rights move. ment through his book Animal Liberation, it is his views on human rights, especially his justification of infanticide and euthanasia for the disabled, that have drawn growing opposition.

The April 17 rally drew national and local leaders of both the disability and antiabortion movements, politicians, students and alumni of the university.

Michigan House rejects call for vote on new death penalty

The Michigan House has rejected a measure calling for a public vote on reinstating capital punishment.

On a voice vote April 21, the House rejected an attempt to put a measure on the November 2000 ballot asking voters to reverse the state's constitutional ban on capital punishment, in place since 1846.

The Michigan Catholic Conference had called for the resolution to be rejected. Rep. Deborah L. Cherry, who opposed the resolution, told The Catholic Times, newspaper of the Lansing diocese that the resolution failed because it lacked specifics on how the death penalty would be implemented as well as consideration of the consequences of changing the law.