An EU initiative granting automatic cross-border recognition of ‘parenthood’ may impinge on the local surrogacy laws of member nations.

That’s according to the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe.

The European Commission say the initiative will not change the law on marriage of EU Member-States. “Yet – commented the President of FAFCE, Vincenzo Bassi – the introduction of a new legal category, ‘parenthood’, which goes beyond the current terminology of ‘filiation’, does have an impact on family domestic law.”

Indeed, if approved, the initiative would automatically extend the legal effects of filiation to all types of ‘parenthood’ legally acquired in one Member State, including through surrogacy, to all other EU Member-States uniformly.

“Beyond the declared intention of not interfering with Member States’ family law, this scenario would put the Commission’s proposal in contradiction with Art. 9 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, stating that “The right to marry and the right to found a family shall be guaranteed in accordance with the national laws governing the exercise of these rights”, he concluded.

Beijing’s “all-out assault on religion” amid a broader effort to block the Chinese people from enjoying fundamental freedoms and human rights has been denounced by Taiwan’s top legislative leader who was in Washington DC thanking the U.S. for its support.

The visit came just days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to China in an attempt to improve relations.

You Si-kun, who serves as the speaker of Taiwan’s Parliament blamed Chinese President Xi Jinping for ushering in a new era of religious persecution, starting in 2014, which includes the detention and forced labor of more than a million Uyghurs, as well as the decades-long repression of Tibetans and members of the Falun Gong, and efforts to stop millions of Christians from worshipping in underground churches.

The UK’s Secretary of State for Education has praised the work of faith schools across the nation.

Speaking at the Church of England’s education conference, Gillian Kegan described the Church of England as one of the department’s “most valued partners”.

“I want you to know how much I really value the role the Church of England plays in educating our children. Its reputation for excellence in schools speaks for itself,” Keegan said.

“You are transforming lives and you should be really proud of the work you do. And on behalf of the children you teach, I am eternally grateful. Put simply, without the Church of England, pupils across the country will be learning less and doing worse.”

The Cabinet Minister also reflected on the impact faith schools had on her own upbringing. After listing all the Catholic schools she attended, she admitted they left a mark on her life.

“All of those faith schools, which were fantastic schools, they got me where I am today. But they also instilled faith in me. And it’s a core part of who I am today.”

Portugal’s Constitutional Court has rejected, for the second time, a law facilitating euthanasia, pointing to an “intolerable vagueness” in its wording and sending the text back to parliament.

The Court concluded that the text was not in line with the Basic Law because it failed to clearly define the “suffering of great intensity” that could lead to “medically assisted death,” its judges announced in a statement read out to the press.

The Portuguese parliament has been trying to legislate in favour of euthanasia for almost three years.

The Constitutional Court had already rejected this law in March 2021, judging at the time that it used terms that were too imprecise.

Parliament will now be able to redraft the text and resubmit it for promulgation by the President of the Republic, conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who had referred the matter to the Constitutional Court in early January.

The UK’s House of Lords has backed a national roll out of buffer zones around abortion clinics in a move which could turn private and silent prayer within them into a ‘thought crime’.

Peers voted in favour a move to criminalise activity that seeks to “influence” the decision of women booked in for abortions to go ahead with the procedure.

After a Report Stage debate, they also rejected an amendment tabled to the Public Order Bill to investigate the evidence that would justify so-called exclusion zones and the corresponding denial of the recognised human rights of association, conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

They supported Amendment 45, tabled by Conservative peer Baroness Sugg of Coldharbour, to make it a crime to influence “any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services”.

Referring to recent cases of people being charged after praying near abortion clinics, Lord Jackson of Peterborough, said: “These cases further highlight the dangers to free expression and belief inherent in these buffer zones. They demonstrate how quickly the position could be that the specific act that turns someone into a criminal is whether they had particular thoughts in their head while in a buffer zone area.”

Women in Canada at the end of their reproductive years have on average about 0.5 fewer children than they desire, according to new research.

A survey of nearly 3,000 women aged 18 to 44 conducted by Lyman Stone of the Cardus think tank explored family and fertility preferences, expectations, and outcomes.

He found that the number of women “missing” births vastly outnumber those reporting “excess” births. Indeed, nearly half of all women at the end of their reproductive years have had fewer children than they wanted.

The research also showed women who accomplish their fertility desires are happier than women who have more or fewer children than they desire. Although “excess” births have a larger unhappiness effect than “missing” births individually, Canadian women lose more aggregate life satisfaction from “missing” than from “excess” births, because “missing” births are almost four times as common. In short, “missing” births are a larger social problem.

A large majority of MPs in France’s lower house voted in favour of the bill, which promises to “guarantee the effectiveness of and equal access to the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy”.

However, the bill still needs the approval of the right-leaning Senate, which rejected a similar proposition by a margin of 33 votes in October. In that instance, Republican senators argued that abortion was not under threat in France.

Now, if senators vote in favour of the proposition, it would either go to a referendum or be passed through “a constitutional bill” put forward by the government. This would require three fifths of a specially convened congress made up of members of both chambers to vote in favour of amending the constitution.

President Macron is coming under pressure from feminist groups to avoid a referendum.

Parents minding their children at home will again miss out as the Government is set to announce a new childcare subsidy scheme.

Proposed new legislation includes subsidies for parents using childminders as well as a framework for properly regulating the informal, child-minding market.

People whose children are in creches are already able to avail of subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) but many thousands of parents using childminders are not.

The legislation also includes measures to bolster the enforcement powers of Tusla’s Early Years Inspectorate including the ability to immediately close unregistered childcare services.

There is no centralised registration system for childminders, who typically work in people’s homes, but it is estimated there are 15,000 in Ireland. Fewer than 80 were registered with Tusla as of last September.

At present most childminders are not regulated as a result of an exemption in the Child Care Act.

The woman arrested and charged with “intimidation” after she prayed silently near a closed abortion facility has asked the Scottish government to protect freedom of expression and thought.

The video of Vaughan-Spruce’s arrest went viral after she was searched, arrested and criminally charged for praying in a “censorship zone”, instituted by local authorities in Birmingham through a “Public Space Protection Order”.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has warned that a Scottish MSP’s bill to introduce similar exclusion zones In Scotland could lead to more people being arrested for simply offering help, or even silently praying to themselves.

“It’s essential that the government protect freedom of expression and of thought for the people of Scotland. As a charitable volunteer, I strongly condemn the harassment of women in vulnerable situations. This is already illegal in Scotland – but the new proposals to install censorial zones around abortion facilities criminalise those who offer financial or practical charitable help outside abortion facilities – or, like I was doing when I was arrested – simply praying silently and imperceptibly inside our minds,” commented Vaughan-Spruce.

Just a third of those aged under 26 in England and Wales now identify as Christian, with the average age of believers leaping to over 50, census data shows.

The Church of England said that it needs to “connect with Generation Z” after figures showed that those with “no religion” now outnumber Christians across the entire population under retirement age, with a wide gap among those aged 25 and under.

Christians are by far the oldest group, with the median age increasing from 45 in 2011 to 51 in 2021. This compares to a median age for the entire population of 40, up slightly from 39 in 2011.

Muslims are the youngest group, with an average age of 27, up slightly from 25 a decade ago. The average age of those with no religion is 32, up from 30. For both Hindus and Sikhs it is 37, up from 32; for Jews is 41, with no change from 2011; and for Buddhists is 43, up from 37 in 2011.