Drugs used to induce abortions continue to be seized by Irish authorities even as abortion has been widely and legally available since 2019.

According to the Health Product Regulatory Authority (HPRA), 42 abortion tablets were confiscated between January and July of this year. In 2021, a total of 89 tablets were seized. The figure is down from 277 in 2020, and 288 in 2019.

The drugs contain misoprostol and mifepristone which are taken in two separate doses to induce a miscarriage.

Because of the risk of adverse consequences for the mother, the HSE says women more than 9 weeks pregnant must attend a hospital to take the abortion pills.

They should not be taken if a woman is more than 12 weeks pregnant.

The Tánaiste has told an Oireachtas Committee that there should be a third gender option on the census along with female and male.

Leo Varadkar told the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality that it is “definitely something the Government is open to”.

The Tánaiste was responding to Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan who said that there were people who wanted to identify as non-binary in the census and were unable to do so.

He said that “there should be a third option”, adding that he would have to consult “statisticians and the CSO [Central Statistics Office] as to how best to do that”.

Mr Varadkar was appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality today to discuss the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality regarding pay and workplace conditions.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega blasted Catholic leaders as a “gang of murderers,” in comments amping up persecution of the church and scorning Pope Francis’ call for dialogue in the Central American country.

Catholic clergy in Nicaragua have remained mostly silent as Ortega — who won elections in 2021 after disqualifying and imprisoning opposition candidates — has persecuted priests and bishops speaking out on issues of human rights and democratic deterioration. The government also has closed church-run charitable and education initiatives, along with Catholic radio stations, and expelled priests and nuns, including the Missionaries of Charity.

In a fiery address, Ortega took aim at Nicaragua’s Catholic bishops for promoting democracy as an exit from the country’s political crisis, alleging without proof that they called on protesters to kill him during the 2018 protests — which his regime violently repressed.

The comments come as Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa remains under house arrest after being taken by force from the diocesan curia Aug. 19. The priests arrested with him in the pre-dawn raid are still being held in the notorious El Chipote prison, where the regime keeps its political prisoners.

An expansion of the free contraception scheme for women and funding to help people access IVF treatments have been announced as part of Budget 2023.

The expansion comes despite previous Government advice that free contraception would probably be ineffective and a waste of public funds.

Earlier this month, women aged 17-25 became eligible for free contraception, however the Government has confirmed the initiative will be extended from September 1st next year to include those aged 16-30.

The €107.1 million of additional funding allocated to the Department of Health as part of the cost-of-living package also includes measures which will help those undergoing IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) treatment.

Meanwhile, the Irish Times reports today on new research from the New York University Langone Fertility Center which found most women who tried to become pregnant after freezing their eggs did not succeed.

Dr Marcelle Cedars says the data is “sobering” and “should give women pause”, adding that many women “are overly optimistic” about their chances of having a baby when they freeze their eggs. Extracting eggs is extremely expensive as is thawing them, fertilizing them, and then trying to implant them successfully in a woman’s womb. The procedure is often not a success.

A church that was funded and largely built from within the Romanian community to serve more than 1,200 worshippers at any one time was officially opened in Dublin on Sunday morning.

The Betania Church in Tyrellstown Dublin 15 which serves Pentecostal Christians, has bucked the trend of recent times that has seen places of worship significantly scaled back and it now stands as one of the largest in Ireland.

It was funded by the community to the tune of around €8 million and almost entirely built by the Romanian faithful, often at weekends and late evenings.

While it opened its doors several months ago, its official ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Sunday with local TD and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, the mayor of Fingal Howard Mahony, Romanian government officials and the Romanian ambassador in Ireland Laurenţiu-Mihai Ştefan in attendance.

“Our mission is to spread God’s love to all nations” said pastors Valerian Jurjea, Calin Onitiu and Avram Hadarau. “This was the motivating force behind the project.”

An international guide on transgender health that no longer includes minimum age thresholds for so-called “gender-affirming surgery” such as double mastectomies and operations on the genitals is being studied by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

However, the Department of Health told The Irish Times that any potential change in the Irish model of care depends on the outcome of discussions with the HSE about the new recommendations.

The updated edition of the Standards of Care of the US-based World Professional Association of Transgender Healthcare (WPATH) initially contained recommended age thresholds for surgical and pharmaceutical sex change treatments.

These included 14 years of age for the administration of cross-sex hormones, 15 years for “chest masculinisation” (mastectomies), and 17 for metoidioplasty (a type of ‘penis creation’), orchidectomy (the removal of the testicles), vaginoplasty (the construction of a ‘vagina’) and hysterectomy (the removal of the womb).

However, the updated WPATH edition published earlier this month was amended hours after it was posted online, with WPATH saying the age thresholds originally included were being removed as they had been published “in error”.

Large Budget spending on institutional daycare has left stay-at-home parents with almost nothing.

That’s according to the Director of the Iona Institute, David Quinn.

Yet, the great majority of parents of pre-school children neither use day-care nor wish to do so.

A recent Amarach Research poll commissioned by The Iona Institute shows that only one in five people want children under five placed in day-care during the working day. Almost half (45pc) think the ideal is that one parent stays at home with the child during the day, while 24pc say their preferred option is for the child to be looked after by another family member, such as a grandparent.

In addition, the Finance Minister also announced a small increase of €100 in the Home-Carers Credit.

David Quinn says this leaves single-income couples even further behind their double-income counterparts, exacerbating the effects of tax individualisation which caused such controversy when it was first introduced.

The Catholic Archbishops of Chicago and New York have issued a joint statement affirming that Catholic hospitals welcome patients who identify as transgender while also declining to perform sex-altering procedures.

It comes in reaction to a newly-proposed Government rule which would force Catholic health care facilities to offer gender-reassignment surgery.

In a statement published by America Magazine, Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago and Timothy Dolan of New York affirm their wholehearted support that all people, irrespective of age, sex, racial or ethnic background “without exception, receives the best health care that is their due” and this includes “people who identify as transgender”.

At the same time, the two Cardinals said that under the HHS-proposed rule “it would be considered discrimination for a health care facility or worker to object to performing gender transition procedures, regardless of whether that objection is a matter of sincerely held religious belief or clinical judgment”.

“Such a mandate threatens the conscience rights of all health care providers and workers who have discerned that participating in, or facilitating, gender transition procedures is contrary to their own beliefs”.

Armed men kidnapped more than 80 Christians last week in attacks on two separate churches in north-central and northwest Nigeria, reported Morning Star News.

Morning Star News, a news service that covers the persecution of Christians worldwide, identified some of the attackers as Fulani herdsmen based on reports from witnesses.

Only days before the attack in Suleja, “suspected Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists” kidnapped at least 57 Christians during another all-night prayer vigil held at another Cherubim and Seraphim Church located in Kasuwan Magani in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, sources told Morning Star News.

More than a dozen escaped and 43 remain captive, said the Rev. John Joseph Hayab, Kaduna state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria. The terrorists have demanded a ransom of 200 million Naira, or over $450,000, according to the report.

The majority of submissions to RTE in response to Liveline discussions featuring ‘gender-critical’ views of transgender issues was positive, while no formal complaints were made to the BAI, according to RTÉ’s head of editorial standards.

In a letter to the chair of the Oireachtas joint committee on media, Brian Dowling said: “RTÉ received approximately 110 contacts (emails and phone calls) regarding the three programmes and around two-thirds were positive and one-third negative. RTÉ responded comprehensively to nine formal complaints concerning the Liveline programmes.”

He added that none of the nine complainants referred their grievances to industry watchdog, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI).

Dowling said RTÉ rejected all the complaints about three Liveline shows on 9th, 10th and 13th June, and insisted the station was “fully compliant with all the broadcast statutory and regulatory obligations”.

Moreover, he confirmed that Dublin Pride did not make any broadcast complaint regarding any of the three Liveline programmes.

In its letter to Ms Smyth, RTÉ contradicted a claim relating to campaign group Uplift, which reportedly stated their members had made over 1,000 complaints to RTÉ. The broadcaster said it had not received any complaints from people who said they were members or supporters of Uplift.