The imposition of zones that ban pro-life activity, including prayer, near facilities providing abortion is a further attempt to silence the voice of unborn children, according to the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Eamon Martin.

He was responding to a decision by the UK Supreme Court last week that found legislation creating exclusion zones outside centres in Northern Ireland that provide or facilitate abortions was not unconstitutional.

Archbishop Martin said: “This is tantamount to enforcing a ban on pro-life activities, including prayer and respectful witness, outside such settings.  Buffer zones will further silence the voice of the innocent unborn.  Given that the law already prevents harassment and intimidation, I believe the new legislation represents a disproportionate response with potentially wide implications for freedom of religion and speech”.

A massive forced abortion program on the victims of rape by Islamic insurgents has been carried out by the Nigerian military on at least 10,000 women since 2013, according to a report published by Reuters.

The report’s findings offer further evidence of the use of rape as a weapon of war carried out by Islamist insurgents on Nigerian civilians.

7 Division, the Nigerian military force in charge of countering the insurgents, has been forcing chemical and surgical abortions on tens of thousands of women who have been raped by Islamist insurgents such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State-West Africa Province (ISWAP), a self-proclaimed regional “caliphate” of ISIS.

Soldiers told Reuters that the reason for the program was that the unborn children are believed to be “predestined” to be insurgents like their fathers, necessitating that the government “destroy (these) insurgent fighters before they could be born.”

Reuters verified that the Nigerian military has beaten and coerced women, some as young as 12, into abortions in the most unsanitary conditions.

Any law banning a pro-life presence outside hospitals and clinics administering abortions could face legal challenges, according to the Iona Institute.

The warning came as the UK Supreme Court yesterday ruled on Wednesday that a similar law in Northern Ireland was not unconstitutional.

David Quinn of The Iona Institute, said it was “disappointed” with the ruling.

“It interferes with the right to peacefully protest, or even to silently pray outside facilities that conduct abortions,” he said.

“No real evidence has been provided that exclusion zones are necessary. There are few, if any, reports that bear real scrutiny of people being obstructed or intimidated entering hospitals or GP surgeries. Where that happens it is already against the law.

“If and when a similar law is introduced in this jurisdiction, its constitutionality may need to be challenged.

“That is something pro-life groups will have to take advice on when the time comes,” Mr Quinn said.

A Catholic parish in the US state of Michigan is suing the state attorney general over a redefinition of “sex” discrimination as encompassing sexual orientation and gender identity as it threatens the parish’s ability to hire people who model the Church’s teachings.

“Michigan’s new understanding of ‘sex’ discrimination deems it unlawful for St. Joseph’s to follow the 2,000-year-old teachings of the Catholic Church, including its teaching that marriage is a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman, that sexual relations are limited to marriage, and that human beings are created as either male or female,” a legal filing contends.

“St. Joseph’s religious decisions regarding how to advance its mission and ministry are protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Michigan cannot force the Catholic Church to compromise its religious character simply as a function of its doors being open to all.”

The European Commission has appointed Frans van Daele as Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the EU.

The position was vacant for almost three years. The Senior Diplomat has previously served as an Ambassador of Belgium to the United States, and as Chief of Staff to former President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy.

Aside from a brief period of five months in 2021, the Special Envoy position has been left vacant for almost three years. Religious freedom advocates have criticised the apparent reticence to fill the role in light of increasing pressure on religious freedom worldwide, including the persecution of Christians in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, and the violent murders taking place against Christian communities in Nigeria.

“Nobody should be persecuted because of their faith. The reappointment of a Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the EU is an important step in showing much-needed, real commitment to protecting this fundamental right. We urge the European Commission to strengthen the position of the Special Envoy and build on the important work already achieved,” said Adina Portaru, Senior Counsel for ADF International.

A chronically-ill woman who featured in a controversial pro-euthanasia video in Canada had complained months earlier that she wanted to live but couldn’t access the appropriate healthcare.

Jennyfer Hatch, 37, was the subject of a campaign by Canadian fashion giant La Maison Simons which documented her experience with end-of-life care before her death by assisted suicide in October.

The ‘All is Beauty’ video – which included audio of Jennyfer talking about her ‘sacred’ last breaths – was fiercely criticised over claims it glorified suicide.

It has now emerged that Jennyfer gave an interview in June in which she complained about ‘falling through the cracks’ in attempts to get treatment for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS).

She gives the harrowing conclusion that it was ‘far easier to let go than keep fighting’.

Iraq will soon be without the Christian faith as approximately 20 Christian families desert the country each month, according to Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako.

Iraq was once home to more than one and a half million Christians.

Pervasive persecution, at times amounting to genocide, has seen millions of Christians in the Middle East killed, kidnapped, uprooted, imprisoned and discriminated against.

It has taken a toll on the survival of the oldest Christian communities in the world, located in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.

A century ago, Christians comprised 20 percent of the population in the Middle East, but currently, the region is home to less than 4 percent or roughly 15 million Christians.

More than 500,000 Christians left Iraq due to the sectarian conflict that started with the self-styled caliphate of ISIS in 2013. Earlier, the 2003 US-led invasion had wreaked havoc on the oil-rich country.

More than 100 doctors, nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals, including consultants, obstetricians and senior medical staff in maternity services, have signed an open letter “strongly urging” the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, to retain the 3-day period of reflection before undergoing an abortion.

The letter says that there “is no medical basis” for scrapping the 3-day wait, and points to figures released by the Department of Health which strongly suggest that some 1,000 women change their mind during that period of reflection and do not proceed with an abortion.

“The 3-day wait helps women, it gives them time to think, and the figures strongly suggest it reduces the number of abortions,” Dr Ronan Cleary of Doctors for Life said.

The Court was asked to review the validity of Northern Ireland’s ban on “direct” and “indirect” pro-life “influence” within 100m of abortion facilities. The bill in question criminalises not only harassment, which is already illegal; but also quiet or silent prayer, or the offer of leaflets about charitable services available which provide alternative options to abortion, including through financial or practical support.

“We are of course disappointed to see today’s ruling from the Supreme Court, which fails to protect the basic freedoms to pray or to offer help to women who may want to know about practical support available to avoid abortion. Peaceful presence, mere conversation, quiet or silent prayer – these activities should never be criminalised in a democratic society like the UK,” said Jeremiah Igunnubole, Legal Counsel for ADF UK.

“The criminalisation of any kind of ‘influencing’ is vague, uncertain and reduces the threshold of criminality to an impermissibly low level. Northern Ireland’s broadly drafted law hands arbitrary power to police officers, with the inevitable consequence being the unjust arrest and prosecution of those expressing pro-life views, even though such views are protected under domestic and international human rights law,” he continued.

Croatia is moving to ban shopping on all but 16 Sundays of a year, giving retailers the right to decide when they would use the exemption. The rationale is that Sundays will become more of a family day.

Shops in countries like France, Germany and Spain are routinely closed on Sundays.

“We want to make it possible for retail employees to spend Sundays with their families,” the government said on Twitter on Thursday.

Most retailers are expected to use the exception during summer at the height of the tourist season.

Retail stores that are part of airports, bus and train stations, ferries, hotels, gas stations or museums would be completely exempted from the new law.