On the occasion of his annual right-to-life Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City Sunday, O'Connor commemorated "with sadness" the 26th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision granting abortion on demand in the United States.

"We have seen its results in infanticide, in physician-assisted suicide and now, potentially, in experimentation on those who have not even asked for it and are incapable of preventing it," the Cardinal said.

O'Connor was referring to a report in Sunday's New York Post that said the State Health Department was planning to allow patients who are incapable of consent to be used in risky human experiments.

"It is in no way even remotely to impute bad faith or evil intentions to any of these researchers in our state, to anyone in the Department of Health in our state," O'Connor said.

"But every one of us, perhaps, could profit by a periodic reminder that much of what was done under the Nazi regime under Hitler began long before with the experiments of psychiatrists and other medical persons on people who were psychiatrically incapacitated or otherwise vulnerable.

"Please God there will never be such a comparison possible in anything done in the State of New York or in the United States," the cardinal said.

John Signor, a spokesman for the New York State Health Department in Albany, told CNS the Post misleadingly reported that the Health Department was considering a plan that would create categories of human experiments. The newspaper was referring to a report prepared by medical authorities and lawyers in response to a 1996 lawsuit, Signor said. The report broadly addressed the question of human research, among other issues, and was "not reflective of Health Department practices." The document currently is under review by the Health Department and is available to the public, Signor said.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese told CNS the cardinal referred to the Post report in order to highlight his concern that such ideas are not unthinkable in the prevailing culture.

"Now is the time to access draft reports and what could lead to proposed legislation to access what we are doing particularly in this culture of death," O'Connor said Sunday.

O'Connor was applauded when he offered sanctuary and personal assistance to anyone who felt they had no choice but to get an abortion.

"Any woman, of any color, of any religion, of any ethnic background, of any place, who is pregnant and in need, under pressure to have an abortion, can come to us in the Archdiocese of New York, can come personally to me. If she is in need, we will see that she is given free medical care and free hospitalization. If she wants to have her baby adopted we will provide free legal assistance. If she wants to keep her baby we will provide free assistance," O'Connor said to applause.

Meanwhile the Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., Wednesday announced the release of "The Truth in Black and White," a booklet featuring the testimonies of abortionists and excerpts from court opinions on partial-birth abortion bans around the country.

"If doctors and lawyers can testify and listen to the brutalities of abortion without a hint of regret, then the moral corruption occurring in these professions is truly frightening," said Teresa Wagner, the FRC's legal analyst for sanctity of human life issues.

"Despite overwhelming public support to outlaw an especially inhumane abortion method, American courts are telling us we cannot protect the human infant in the very process of birth. This is a violation of the doctor's oath, a travesty of justice, and a perversion of our Constitution," Wagner said today.