A religious freedom provison included in New York’s new same-sex marriage law was crucial to its passage. No such provision was included in Ireland’s Civil Partnership Act. The religious exemption language was vital in securing the votes of four Republican senators which allowed the bill to pass. Under the New York law, it appears that Catholic adoption agencies...
The British Chief Rabbi has said that new equality laws are forcing religious people to flee the country because they are being denied the freedom to live in accordance with their beliefs. Lord Jonathan Sacks (pictured) warned that anti-discrimination policies had fuelled an “erosion of religious liberty” in Britain. This process, he said was leading...
Many UK couples are going abroad to access IVF treatment because of a shortage of eggs and sperm donors at home, but some go because they don’t want their child to know the identity of the donor parent, says new research. A report published by researchers from De Monfort University showed that some women from...
Just under one in five of all births in the last quarter of last year were to cohabiting couples, according to the latest CSO figures. An additional 15pc were born to single mothers living alone meaning that 34pc of all births were outside of marriage. Limerick city had the highest number of births outside marriage...
Fianna Fáil has proposed a Bill to hold a referendum to allow for the adoption of the children of married couples. They have suggested that it take place on the same day as the Presidential election later this year. Donegal North-East TD Charlie McConalogue, the Opposition spokeperson for Children, said the Constitution needed to be...
A Swedish preschool has banned the use of the words “him” and “her” and is instead using an invented “gender- neutral” word to describe children. Teachers at the Egalia school in the liberal Sodermalm district of Stockholm try to shed masculine and feminine references from their speech, including the pronouns ‘him’ or ‘her’ -“han” or...
Backbenchers in the British Conservative party yesterday tried to push Prime Minsiter David Cameron into giving tax breaks to married couples. At least ten MPs backed an amendment which would allow husbands and wives to share income tax allowances – a reform that would benefit the couples by up to nearly £1,500 per annum. Their...
Ireland fertility rate stands at 2.1 babies per woman which is exactly the number needed to replace the current population level and is the highest in the EU. A new report from the ESRI looks at Irish birth in 2009. It also finds that a quarter of children were born to non-nationals. A third of...
Fianna Fail no longer favours denominational schools being allowed to admit children from their own faith community ahead of other children. In its submission to the Forum on the future patronage of primary schools it says that “all schools should be multi-faith in their enrolment policies.” If denominational schools are forced to adopt a ‘multi-faith’...
The National Organisation for Marriage (NOM) has said it will spend $2 million in a bid to reverse a new law in New York State recognising same-sex marriage. Brian Brown, head of NOM, has said his organisation will target Republican politicians who backed same-sex marriage in next year’s elections. Speaking after the New York legislature...
