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Maternal health better in Ireland with no abortion than in UK says study
~Pregnant women have better health outcomes in Ireland and Northern Ireland, where the laws on abortion are very restrictive compared with women in Britain, where it is freely available, according to a new study. The study, published in the summer issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons compared national health data over a period of 40 years. Read more...
Pro-same-sex marriage stories predominate in US media
~A new study shows that the US media have covered stories weighted in favour of same-sex marriage five times more than they have covered statements opposing it. The survey, by the Pew Media Centre, measured the coverage of same-sex marriage in the US media from March 18th, 2013 - a week before the US Supreme Court heard arguments about the issue, to May 12th. Read more...
Stand-alone abortion law will deal with children in care
~A stand-alone law to deal with teenage girls and children in state care who request abortions is to be introduced by the Government. The Government has ruled out introducing any amendment to its current abortion legislation to acknowledge a distinction between women over the age of 18, who have the right to refuse or consent to medical treatment, and underage girls, for whom there are no clear laws governing issues of capacity and consent, The Irish Independent reports. Read more...
Record number of UK children living without their fathers
~A record number of children in the UK, over three million, are being raised by lone parents, and an estimated one million of these have no meaningful contact with their father, according to a new report by a leading think tank. The report, Fractured Families: Why Stability Matters, published by the Centre for Social Justice, also found that there are an additional 130,000 lone parent families since 2006. Read more...
Obama opposed to religious freedom clause
~Legislation which would oblige the US military to accomodate "actions and speech" reflecting the "conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs of members of the armed services is being “strongly opposed” by the Obama Administration. Section 530 of the National Defence Authorisation Act ia an amendment introduced by Republican Representative John Fleming from Louisiana. Read more...
French mayor faces up to five years in prison for gay marriage stance
~A mayor from the town of Arcangues in the South West of France is facing up to five years in prison and fine of up to £63,000 for declining to carry out a same-sex marriage. Jean-Michel Colo, who has been mayor for 31 years, rejected a wedding application from two men and says he stands by his decision. Read more...
Fine Gael TDs to demand free vote on abortion
~Fine Gael TDs are set to demand a free vote on abortion legislation from Enda Kenny to prevent a serious split in the party. Three of Mr Kenny's TDs will almost definitely vote against the Protection of Life Bill, the Irish Independent reports. Read more...
Pro-Life Campaign welcomes Halappanavar report
~The Pro Life Campaign has welcomed the publication of the Health Service Executive (HSE) report into the death of Savita Halappanavar. The report, published yesterday found there was inadequate assessment and monitoring to pick up the deterioration in her condition, a failure to adhere to hospital guidelines for managing sepsis and a failure to offer her all management options as she experienced inevitable miscarriage. Read more...
Catholic hospitals must perform abortions, Reilly says
~Catholic hospitals will not be allowed to refuse to perform an abortion on conscientious grounds, Health Minister Dr James Reilly has said. “All institutions mentioned (in the Bill) are funded by the taxpayer. We could not have a situation where a service funded by the taxpayer could deprive a citizen of their rights,” he said. Read more...
Suicide clause of abortion legilslation ignores evidence, says PLC
~The Pro Life Campaign (PLC) criticised the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill, published early this morning, for retaining a provision for terminations for suicidal women. Caroline Simons, legal advisor to the Pro-Life Campaign, said the “overwhelming weight of evidence” given by psychiatrists during the hearings on the Bill was that “this is not an appropriate treatment and they do not prescribe it for women who are suicidal”. Read more...
Equality obsession marginalising Christians, MPs say
~Local authorities are overly “suspicious” about faith groups, creating barriers to working with them on social projects, a report by MPs says. Gary Streeter MP, chair of Christians in Parliament, said: “there is an obsession about equality and political correctness that can hamper those doing the most to tackle inequality.” Read more...
Abortion legislation "a radical change" in Irish law, say bishops
~The Government's abortion legislation represents “a radical change” in Irish law by allowing for the first time “the deliberate and intentional killing of an unborn child” the Catholic bishops of Ireland. In a strongly worded statement, they also accused the Government of misleading voters with claims that they had to legalise abortion because of European Court of Human Rights ruling in 2010. Read more...
Morning After Pill to be available in US without prescriptions to girls of any age
~President Barack Obama has dropped his administration's legal challenges to a ruling which permits girls of any age accessing the controversial Plan B morning after pill over the counter and without a perscription. The Department of Justice will no longer appeal the ruling by Judge Edward Korman of the District Court of Eastern New York that overturned Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ decision to keep the age limit of 17 on obtaining Plan B without a prescription. Read more...
Nearly half of Irish women feel work in the home not equally valued: poll
~Nearly half of Irish women feel that society does not value women who work in the home equally with women who do paid work, according to a new survey. The poll, carried out by Ipsos/MORI on behalf of the Irish Times, found that 43pc of women felt that Irish society valued women who work outside the home more than homemakers. Read more...
Australian man wins right to be recognised as "sexless"
~A man in Australia who claims to be neither a man nor a woman has been officially recognised by Australian authorities as ‘sexless’ on his birth certificate. Norrie May-Welby, a British expat, was born a man but had a sex change operation in 1990 when he was 28. Read more...
Introduction of divorce may have increased female numbers in workplace
~The introduction of divorce may have led to greater female participation in the workforce, a new paper by a leading Irish think tank suggests. The research suggests that women who felt more at risk of marital breakdown may have been more likely to take up full-time work after the introduction of divorce legislation in 1996. Read more...
Home-schooling parents fined €2,000
~Two parents who educate their children at home were fined €2,000 in court yesterday for not registering them with the State. Monica O'Connor and Eddie O'Neill, Tullow, Co Carlow, have home educated all of their six children. Read more...
Refusal of abortion Bill to protect conscience rights is ‘totalitarian’
~The Government's proposed abortion Bill is “totalitarian” because of its failure to adequately protect the right to conscientious objection, the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) has said. It said that the conscience rights of both medical professionals and legislators must be acknowledged by the Government in the drafting of the legislation and in the debate surrounding it. Read more...
State to challenge surrogacy ruling on behalf of non-genetic ‘mothers’
~The Government has decided to appeal a High Court ruling which allowed the genetic parents of children born to a surrogate mother to be named on their birth certs. In a statement, the Department of Social Protection expressed concern that the ruling “by linking motherhood exclusively to genetic connection” could affect a large number of families. Read more...
Catholic third level sector in danger of extinction says academic
~Ireland's third level Catholic colleges could disappear under Government proposals unless Church leaders take a stand, according to a leading Catholic academic. Prof. Eamonn Conway, Head of Theology at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, told The Irish Catholic that plans to streamline the country’s higher education sector could signal the end of Catholic colleges. Read more...
‘Politicians must follow their conscience not the party whip’
~Politicians are obliged to follow their consciences when voting and must disregard the party whip if necessary, moral theologian, Dr John Murray, has said. He was addressing a lunchtime meeting organised today in Buswells hotel by The Iona Institute on the issue of ‘Abortion and Conscience’. Read more...
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French primary school children to be taught radical gender theory
~The French Government is to introduce a compulsory sex education programme for children aged six and over based on radical “gender theory” ideas. Gender theory teaches that the differences between men and women aren’t natural but are purely the result of historical and social forces. Read more...
Number of stay-at-home mothers continues to fall
~There has been a further fall in the number of mothers in the home, according to the latest CSO figures. The latest Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) shows there were 480,000 women engaged in home duties in the first quarter of this year, down from 516,000 compared to the first quarter of last year, a fall of over 30,000. Read more...
Same-sex marriage would damage fabric of society says Archbishop of Canterbury
~Legalising same-sex marriage would damage the fabric of society, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has warned. It is the first time Archbishop Welby, the head of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion world wide, has intervened in the debate, the Daily Telegraph reports. Read more...
A majority of children of mothers aged 28 or less are born outside marriage
~A majority of children of mothers aged 28 or less are born outside marriage, according to Central Statistics Office figures released on Friday. According to the report, in the fourth quarter of 2012, 70pc of births to 25 year olds were outside marriage, 65pc to 26 year olds and 52 percent to 27 year old. Read more...
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State-overseer to be appointed to every child in Scotland
~Every child in Scotland is set to have their own state-appointed overseer under new legislation designed to promote their welfare. Critics have described the move as “dystopian” and an invasion of family privacy. Read more...
Martin forced to allow a free vote on abortion
~Fewer than half of Fianna Fáil TDs may end up voting with their leader Micheál Martin in support of the Government’s abortion legislation after his failure to bring the parliamentary party with him on the question. Mr Martin has granted a free vote on the legislation after a meeting of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party yesterday made it clear that most of the parliamentary party was not with him on the issue, the Irish Times reports. Read more...
Minister blames heavy investment in Child Benefit for crèche scandal
~Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald has blamed mistreatment of children at a number of creches on overinvestment of public resources in Child Benefit payments and therefore underinvestment in crèches. Speaking in the Seanad yesterday, she said that direct cash payments to parents, rather than investment in services, had led to the breaches in childcare standards revealed by a Prime Time report this week. Read more...
'Child-care policy should not favour crèches over home'
~Any policy changes stemming from the current debate on childcare must “respect the choices parents actually want to make in respect of how their young children are cared for during the day and not favour crèches over home” the Iona Institute has said. The statement was issued following a Prime Time report which found that children had been mistreated in a number of creches in Dublin and Wicklow. Read more...
Taoiseach rejects call to allow assisted suicide
~Taoiseach Enda Kenny has rejected calls to legislate for assisted suicide. He was responding to Independent TD John Halligan, who raised the case of multiple sclerosis sufferer Marie Fleming, who is seeking the right to have her partner, Tom Curran, assist her in taking her own life, the Irish Times reports. Read more...
Ireland’s anti-conscientious objection laws highlighted in new report
~Ireland is one of a number of European countries with laws limiting freedom of conscience according to a leading watchdog on religious intolerance. In a new report, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians details 41 examples of national laws with adverse effects on Christians in more than 15 European Countries. Read more...
Bishops attack Government claim that abortion bill doesn’t change the law
~The Catholic Church has slammed as “untrue” the Government's claim that its proposed abortion legislation is not a change in the law. The proposed law, which allows women who claim to be suicidal to access abortion if their claim is verified by two psychiatrists and one obstetrician, is set to be debated next month. Read more...
Huge protest in Paris against same-sex marriage and adoption
~Hundreds of thousands of same-sex marriage opponents gathered in Paris on Sunday to protest the passage of the French government's Bill allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, which came into force earlier this month. It is the third such demonstration in only a few months. They are the biggest demonstrations France has seen in over 30 years. Read more...
Three-quarters of Canadians prefer home-care to crèches for their children
~Seventy-six percent of Canadians believe it is best for children under six to be cared for at home by a parent, according to a new poll by a leading pro-family organisation. Respondents were asked: "Please tell me which arrangement you would ideally prefer for your children, even if you don’t have children under six. "Would you prefer to: Have one parent stay home to care for your child? Have your child looked after by a competent care giver" or "Don’t know." Read more...
Americans think morality on the decline in their country
~A majority of Americans are pessimistic about the state of moral values in the United States, according to a new Gallup poll. Seventy-two percent say moral values in the country as a whole are getting worse, while 44pc rate the current state of moral values as poor. Read more...
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