The law on abortion for disabled babies needs to be reviewed as it is outdated and could be discriminatory, according to a group of MPs and Peers. Their call comes as new figures show a significant increase in the number of abortions carried on the grounds of disability. A parliamentary commission has published a report...
Five vulnerable children who were sent to HSE-run care centres last year were involved in potentially life-threatening incidents, records reveal. The incidents included self-harm and fire-setting and a case where a child went missing for several weeks, the Irish Independent reports. The records also showed high levels of children absconding or going missing from the...
The Obamacare mandate, which requires the Catholic Church to offer health insurance plans which cover abortion-causing drugs, threatens the Church’s ability “to carry out the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ,” the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has said. “Although the Conference has not completed its analysis of the final rule, some basic elements of...
The Government is refusing to back a scheme which would create a default block on internet pornography to protect children. The move is being rolled out in the UK, after Prime Minister David Cameron accepted the recommendations made by a commission report on the issue. However, Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte (pictured) has poured cold water...
An Independent TD who voted against the Government’s abortion Bill and has been removed from the Oireachtas Health committee has described the move as “iron-fisted”. Denis Naughten (pictured), who lost the Fine Gael party whip in 2011 for voting against the downgrading of Roscommon Hospital, was among a number of TDs formally removed from various...
The Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton (pictured), has published the Heads of a Bill which will allow people to change the sex registered on their birth certificates and other official documents without having to undergo “sex change” operations. The legislation, entitled the Gender Recognition Bill 2013, is based largely on a report by the...
The European Convention on Human Rights does not “contain, nor create a right to abortion,” a major new study on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found. The study, published this month in the Irish Journal of Legal Studies, also found that rulings by the ECHR had not excluded the...
Fianna Fáil Senator Jim Walsh has defended his speech in the Séanad in which he gave a detailed description of an abortion procedure. Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore described Senator Walsh’s speech as “inappropriate and over the top”, while Labour Senator Ivana Bacik accused him of scaremongering. However, Senator Walsh has defended his words, saying that if...
A Canadian court has ruled that a gay man who is not the biological father of a 10-year-old girl is nevertheless her legal father. The ruling, made by the Court of Appeal in the Canadian province of Alberta, found that, even though the girl’s biological father was the plaintiff’s former partner, the plaintiff, described as...
Fine Gael are considering holding a referendum on same-sex marriage next year, but not promoting a Yes vote, in order to avoid a damaging split, it has been reported. The Cabinet is to ask the Attorney General whether it is possible to hold referenda without the Government taking a formal position on them, according to...
