After a long and costly battle, Ashers Bakery from Belfast, which is owned and operated by a Christian couple, has been vindicated. Ashers had refused to bake a cake that was to be iced with the words “Support Gay Marriage.” The ruling is a very important one for freedom of conscience. The case refers to...
Minister Simon Harris has presented his abortion Bill in the Dáil and has confirmed that it will allow only a limited form of conscientious objection. In the Bill, which is now being discussed in the Oireachtas, there is no provision for institutional conscientious objection, which means that hospitals with a religious ethos will be forced...
The General Assembly of the World Medical Association (WMA) is taking place in Reykjavik (Iceland) this week, starting today. Important topics such as the participation of doctors in assisted suicide and abortion will be discussed. The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and Royal Dutch Medical Association (RDMA) will introduce proposed changes to the WMA policy against...
During the referendum campaign we were told, correctly, that the vote was not on the proposed legislation but only on the removal of the pro-life amendment. Among those telling us this was no less a person that the head of the Referendum Commission, Justice Isobel Kennedy. So, in theory, the abortion legislation proposed by Minister...
In front of a packed house in Dublin last night, Maria Steen of The Iona Institute discussed the recent abortion referendum, how it was covered by the Irish media, the legislation that will replace the Eighth Amendment, and the way forward for the pro-life movement in Ireland. An edited version of Maria’s talk follows. The...
There is a push underway to remove the proposed 72-hour waiting period before a woman can obtain an abortion. The matter came up before the Oireachtas Health Committee today. Among those questions it was Dr Peter Boylan, one of the most active pro-choice advocates during the recent abortion referendum. He said: “The proposed 3-day interval...
The single best protector against abortion appears to be marriage. A married woman is only a fifth as likely to have an abortion as a woman who is not married. This difference is stark and is worth examining. We know that in the UK, for example, about one every five pregnancies ends in abortion, but...
The forthcoming legislation on assisted human reproduction is set to build on the extremely radical approach to family relationships put in place by the Children and Family Relationships Act from 2015, a law that greatly demotes the importance of the biological ties between parents and children. In an article published in the current issue of the...
The General Scheme of the abortion Bill is one of the most permissive in the Western world but four pro-choice academics and activists have published a position paper asking to make it even more so. The proposed law will allow abortion up to 12 weeks for any reason and up to viability if there is a...
Leo Varadkar believes publicly-funded hospitals should be imbued with “a civic and scientific ethos.” So he said in his Dublin Castle address to Pope Francis. But that term, “scientific ethos”, needs a lot of explaining. Science deals with physical reality, while ethos deals with the moral character of an institution, its values and goals. One...
