A date has been set to hear a lawsuit challenging Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the state. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker set January 11, 2010 as the date for the hearing. The lawsuit was filed in May with the by attorneys David Boies and Theodore Olson on...
The Australian state of Queensland is proposing a new law that would recognise both same-sex partners as parents on the birth certs of children over whom they have custody. The new law, which is also set to allow same-sex partners to adopt children through surrogacy, will amend the Status of Children Act 1978 to provide...
Spanish pro-life groups have slammed the country’s Minister of Justice, Francisco Caamano, who said Thursday that “there is no room for conscientious objection” when it comes to abortion. The president of Spain’s Collegial Medical Organization, Dr. Juan Jose Rodriguez Sendin, said: “The right doctors have in Spain to conscientious objection is going to be respected,...
New laws regarding marriage and the family will “inevitably change the perceptions and attitudes of people”, a leading Irish bishop has warned. Bishop Christopher Jones, of Elphin Diocese said that the State existed “for the family and not the family for the State”. He made his remarks as the Government prepares to pass legislation which...
Police have threatened to arrest a street preacher in the UK for reading passages from the Bible in public that relate to homosexuality. Lawyers acting for Miguel Hayworth, 29, have demanded an explanation over the alleged intimidation and abuse of power by three officers. Andrea Minichiello Williams, the director of the Christian Legal Centre, has...
Italy’s highest court has ruled that there is no legal difference between a cohabiting couple and a married couple. The Court of Cessation in Rome, the country’s court of last resort, ruled that a cohabiting couple, especially one that has produced children, which is characterized by coexistence based on common ideals and lifestyles, is the...
Married couples on a single-income are set to be penalised under Government plans to tax child benefit of simply cutting the amount of payment. December’s Budget is set to impose some form of cut to child benefit will definitely as part of the Government’s overall plan to slash the social welfare bill. However, the Government...
The Swedish Government is set to effectively ban homeschooling. In a draft of its new legislation on the issue, it says that “there is no need for the law to offer the possibility of homeschooling because of religious or philosophical reasons in the family.” It is arguing that because a child’s education should be “comprehensive...
Britain remains a Christian country and believers should not privatise their faith, Gordon Brown has told a Christian radio station. When challenged over claims that Christianity is becoming increasingly sidelined in the UK, Mr Brown said it is “impossible” to privatise faith because it underpins people’s convictions about what makes a better society. “I don’t...
A couple in the UK have used IVF to create the first ‘saviour sibling’ twins who will be used to help treat an older son’s blood illness, a practice widely condemned as ‘end justifies the means’ morality. Laurence Maguire and his partner Wendy Plant have a four year old son, Connor, who has aplastic anaemia,...
