Bishop John Keenan of the diocese of Paisley in Scotland has condemned his nation’s “culture of death” after two Catholic midwives lost a conscience case in the Scottish Supreme Court. Reacting to the court’s rejection of the previously upheld right of midwives to opt out of any stage of an abortion procedure, Bishop Keenan described...
Health Minister Leo Varadkar has been attacked by the Pro-Life Campaign after he criticised Ireland’s abortion law as too restrictive and expressed support for the repeal of the Constitutional protection for unborn children known as the ‘Eighth Amendment’. Minister Varadkar said yesterday that he believes the Eighth Amendment has a “chilling effect” on doctors and that...
A symbolic motion in favour of legalising assisted suicide has been defeated in a vote in the Welsh Assembly. Twelve Assembly Members (AMs) voted in favour, while 21 voted against and 20 abstained. While the Welsh assembly does not have the power to change the legislation on assisted suicide, the motion, tabled by Plaid Cymru...
The leader of a western French region has described as “grotesque” an order to remove a Nativity crib from his town hall. Following a complaint by a group called the Federation of Freethinkers against a traditional crib at the town hall in La Roche-sur-Yon in the Vendée region, a local court ruled that the display...
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has defended its decision to uphold complaints of bias on the issue of same-sex marriage after journalist Una Mullally accused the BAI of stifling debate on the issue. BAI Chief Executive Michael O’Keeffe wrote in the Irish Times that Mullally’s representation of the BAI’s regulations was “demonstrably false”, and said that the...
“You can have no idea how much I feel for those who, as I speak, are suffering for their faith in such terrible circumstances.” This was the message conveyed by England’s Prince Charles yesterday as he addressed a gathering of Iraqi Chaldean Christians in London. The Prince of Wales attended a special service at the...
Two leading abortion providers in Britain have called for US-style ‘buffer zones’ around clinics to ‘protect’ staff and visitors from pro-life advocates. Pro-lifer campaigners say it is an attack on the right to protest. Maries Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) have launched a campaign, ‘Back Off’, to persuade legislators to enact laws...
A member of the Northern Ireland Assembly has unveiled a ‘conscience clause’ Bill after a Christian bakery was sanctioned for refusing an order for a cake supporting same-sex marriage. Democratic Unionist MLA Paul Givan is seeking support for an amendment to current equality legislation to take account of ‘deeply held religious beliefs’ after the bakery,...
British schoolchildren are being denied lessons on the true meaning of Christmas by teachers frightened of offending other faiths, a BBC broadcaster has said. In an arrticle penned for the current edition of the Radio Times, Roger Bolton, presenter of Radio 4’s Feedback programme states that a combintaion of fear and reluctance within a PC...
Two years after the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar and her unborn child, a review of the hospital at the centre of her case has concluded there is still “room for improvement” in patient care. Galway University Hospital became the focus of attention after October 28, 2012, when a raft of deficiencies were identified as...
