A trial scheme supplying free Morning-After Pills (MAP) to teenagers in Wales has not succeeded in reducing teenage pregnancy, according to research commissioned by the National Health Service. The trial scheme was being run in Bridgend, and the research, which was shown to BBC Wales, said that the scheme did not have the intended impact...
The French parliament has rejected a bill legalising same-sex marriage. The bill, proposed by the opposition Socialist Party, was defeated on Tuesday. The vote reflected opposition to gay marriage among President Nicolas Sarkozy’s governing conservatives and the strain of traditional values that runs through many parts of France. The National Assembly, the lower house of...
Political correctness is preventing Christians expressing themselves, according to Northern Ireland’s new Presbyterian Moderator, Dr Ivan Patterson. And he added that society was prepared to tolerate any philosophy except one centred on Jesus. He cited the example of Christian GP Richard Scott, who has been accused of harassment after discussing his religious beliefs with a...
The best interests of the child are best served within marriage, a leading Vatican official has told a top UN committee. Speaking on Monday to the 17th Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council on children’s rights, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s U.N. representative in Geneva, said that the family should receive State protection...
A growing number of Fine Gael TDs want to tackle what they see as a “dependency culture” linked to the social welfare system. A recent Fine Gael party meeting heard a range of proposals to fundamentally change the social welfare code, according to a report in the Sunday Independent. The reform proposals went beyond stamping...
More than 9 in 10 Americans still say “yes” when asked the basic question “Do you believe in God?”, a figure which is virtually unchanged since the 1940s, according to a new Gallup poll. The study confirms a range of surveys which show that the US, despite a fall in reported religious practice, remains far...
Long commutes may increase the risk for divorce by 40 percent, according to a new study from a leading Swedish university. In Ireland, the last Census showed that thousands of people spent well over two hours commuting, with 285,000 bleary-eyed workers setting off before 7am – and 113,000 of these out the door before 6.30am....
Labour Senator Ivana Bacik has defended her remarks calling for a ban on male circumcision. Speaking in the Seanád on Thursday, she said that she didn’t “believe that the cutting of a child’s genitals for anything other than medical reasons is ever justified”. Male circumcision is a religious requirement in both Islam and Judaism. She...
Marriage in the US needs a new “Marshall Plan” to restore marriage, a leading US think-tank has said. The Heritage Foundation has issued a paper entitled “A Marshall Plan for Marriage: Rebuilding Our Shattered Homes,” which sets out a range of policies designed to strengthen marriage admidst a range of challenges facing the institution. It...
New legislation that will give same-sex cohabiting couples the same tax treatment as married couples has been published by the Government. The legislation, arising from the last Government’s Civil Partnership Act, will allow registered civil partners the same treatment in matters of income tax, stamp duty, capital acquisitions tax, capital gains tax and VAT, the...
