Providing free contraception to 16-year-olds would amount to the State “giving licence to underage sexual activity”, according to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín.

His remarks comes after it emerged Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly is seeking an expansion to the scheme providing free contraception to women to include 16-year-olds, despite the age of consent for sex being 17.

Meath West TD Mr Tóibín criticised the proposal saying “sexual activity for children is dangerous” and “engaging in risky sexual behaviours can lead to HIV infection, sexually transmitted diseases, and unintended pregnancy among children.

“There is also significant emotional and mental health consequences to sexual activity among minors.”

“Children are incredibly susceptible to peer pressure. This peer pressure may well increase for a child, if the State, in a practical sense, is giving licence to underage sexual activity.”

A new law to establish “safe access zones” outside abortion facilities in England and Wales has been called “unnecessary and disproportionate”, by the Catholic bishops’ conference.

The legislation criminalizes a range of activities within 150-meters of abortion clinics, including potentially prayer, peaceful presence, consensual communication and offers of practical support.

The Bishops say the new law is “deeply concerning” as a threat to freedom of speech, thought, conscience and religion for all people.

“As the Catholic Bishops’ Conference repeatedly stated during the passage of the Public Order Bill last year, ‘safe access zone’ legislation is unnecessary and disproportionate. We condemn all harassment and intimidation of women and hold that, as was accepted in a Home Office Review, there are already laws and mechanisms in place to protect women from such behaviour,” said Bishop John Sherrington, the Lead Bishop for Life Issues for the conference.

“In practice, and despite any other intention, this legislation constitutes discrimination and disproportionately affects people of faith,” he said.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is pushing to expand a state-paid “free” contraception scheme to 16-year-olds as part of Budget 2025, even though the age of consent is 17.

It comes despite a 2019 Working Group on Access to Contraception, under the then Health Minister, Simon Harris, say the scheme would probably be a waste of public funds.

Contraception is currently “free” for women aged 17 to 35, under measures brought in by the Fianna Fáil minister.

However, there is resistance within the Department of Health for the initiative to be extended to girls aged 16 due to “medical ethics” – given that the age of consent in Ireland is 17.

The minister is understood to be pushing back against the “legally complex” issue, as he believes free contraception should be made available to 16-year-old girls, as the State already provides abortions to girls of that age.

Mr Donnelly has also pointed to the age of medical independence being 16 – meaning that, from that age, children can go by themselves to a GP and do not need parental or guardian consent.

The UK Home Office has announced that a ban on “influencing” within 150m of an abortion facility will commence 31st October 2024.

In a press release issued 18th September, the Home Office confirmed that anyone found guilty of breaking the law will face an unlimited fine.

Human rights experts warn that the ban on “influencing” is too broad, leaving innocent people open to prosecution for engaging in consensual conversation or even silent thought:

“Good law should be clear, consistent and predictable but the buffer zones legislation set to be enacted is vague and broadly drafted. By banning “influencing” – a broad and sweeping term – over an area stretching 300m in diameter, the law is wide open to misinterpretation and abuse.

“In the places where “buffer zones” already exist under local authorities, we have already seen three individuals prosecuted over the past two years, simply for praying silently in the privacy of their own minds.

Despite recent reports that Ministers were considering naming silent prayer as an offence in buffer zone guidance, the government did not ultimately publish such guidance. But the extent of what is unlawful is unclear.

The British Prime Minister is seeking to fast-track a euthanasia/assisted suicide law through Parliament before Christmas, according to reports.

Sir Keir Starmer reportedly made his decision after Labour MPs dominated the results of the annual Private Member’s Bill ballot, the Mail on Sunday has said.

Winners of the ballot can propose Bills for debate.

One Labour MP on the list said he had been offered two extra staff members to help him draft a Bill if he proposed legalising assisted suicide.

When the issue was last debated by the Commons in 2015, it was defeated on a free vote by 330 votes to 118. But it stands a greater chance of being passed now because of the influx of new Labour MPs.

Meanwhile a “citizen’s jury” that found in favour of assisted suicide has been criticised as “flawed”.

The randomly selected group of 28 members of the public deliberated for eight weeks before voting in favour of legalising assisted suicide by 20 votes to seven, with one person undecided.

But its findings have been criticised as not “impartial and balanced” by campaigners opposed to change.

The number of people in Japan aged 65 and over has reached 36.25 million, accounting for a record high 29.3 percent of the population, government figures showed.

The nation of 123.9 million people only recorded 727,277 births last year. Currently deaths outnumber births in Japan by about two to one.

In 2023 the total fertility rate, indicating the number of children a woman has in her lifetime, fell to a record low of 1.20, with Tokyo dipping below 1.0 for the first time to 0.99.

A rate of 2.1 is considered the minimum for a population to sustain itself.

Japan’s rate of 29.3 percent being over the age of 65 is the highest among the world’s 200 countries and regions.

Among G-7 major countries, the equivalent rate in Italy is 24.6 percent, in Germany it is 23.2 percent, and in France it is 22.1 percent.

China’s is 14.7 percent and India’s is 7.1 percent.

The number of working elderly people in Japan is also increasing.

According to a government labour force survey, the number of workers aged 65 and older in 2023 was a record high 9.14 million, up by 20,000 from the previous year.

The office of Minister for Equality Roderic O’Gorman has received an official rebuke for breaking Freedom of Information (FOI) rules when it blocked a request for Government files on the family and care referendums.

Mr O’Gorman, now leader of the Greens, was chief sponsor of two referendums that were rejected overwhelmingly by the electorate in March.

The refusal to acknowledge or reply to an application from The Irish Times and other media outlets such as Gript for referendum papers came as FOI files from other departments called into question the Minister’s claims about the proposed amendments.

Even though Ministers claimed the family referendum proposal had no tax implications, Revenue officials warned of potential tax law changes.

Although Mr O’Gorman claimed the proposals would have no “legal impact” on immigration law, justice officials warned the referendums risked creating prolonged “legal uncertainty” over migration.

Now a binding ruling from the Office of the Information Commissioner has compelled the Department of Equality to consider afresh the news organisation’s FOI application, saying the original decision to refuse access to the files was “not justified”.

An Australian doctor, facing deregistration for sharing social media posts critical of abortion and gender ideology, has begun his trial in an effort to save his career.

The content included posts from the satirical website, the Babylon Bee, that lampoons ‘woke’ politics.

Dr. Jereth Kok came under investigation by the Medical Board of Australia in 2018 after two anonymous complaints were lodged regarding posts he had shared on social media.

Hey learned he was under investigation nine months after the initial complaints were made. During that time, the Board combed through ten years of his social media content and hired forensic specialists to scour the internet for content he had written.

They finally took issue with more than 80 Facebook posts, including content from well known conservative commentators Matt Walsh, Allie Beth Stuckey, and Katy Faust.

While consulting with patients in 2019, Dr. Kok was abruptly notified that he would be immediately suspended from practice in order to protect the “public interest.”

He has remained suspended for the past five years.

Dr. Kok’s professional misconduct trial finally began in July 2024 and is scheduled for closing arguments on October 14.

Zones prohibiting prayer and other forms of pro-life activity near centres administering abortion will come into effect next month. Very few countries so far have national laws of this nature on freedom of protest grounds.

The new Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Act commencement order says that Thursday, October 17th, will be the day that the new arrangements will come into operation. The statutory instrument was laid before the Oireachtas in recent days.

Similar regulations exist in part of England and throughout Northern Ireland and have been used to arrest people engaged in silent prayer near abortion clinics.

In Ireland, Gardai told the HSE that legislation was not required.

Speaking in May after the passing of the legislation, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said the Act was about ensuring that people accessing abortion “feel safe and not be intimidated”. No evidence exists that women do feel intimidated going into GP surgeries or hospitals.

But in the Seanad debate on the Bill, Independent Senator Rónán Mullen said Mr Donnelly “has got an easy win for himself by caving in to an activist group and by attacking the peaceful expression of dissent on abortion”.

A once off Child Benefit payment of €560 for parents with new children is a “good idea” according to Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys.

The “baby boost” idea has been pitched by Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman as part of Budget 2025.

The payment would be made to parents within the first month of their child being born.

“I have discussed that with my officials and I actually think that it’s a good idea. But again, these things all have to be considered in the context of the Budget,” said Minister Humphreys.

“There’s going to be a lot of kites flown between now and the Budget and what I plan to do is I try and catch as many as I can and put them in my pocket and on Budget Day we pull them back out again.”