News Roundup

Leeds city council forbids street preachers from ‘hate speech’

Religious street preachers in Leeds have been slapped with a new code of conduct after claims they have been using ‘hate speech’.

The Labour-run local council and West Yorkshire Police said the right to freedom of expression in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), ‘is a qualified right and may be limited to prevent disorder or crime.’

One preacher is appealing the new code as he thinks he is being ‘shut down’ from speaking and believes it is ‘out of the question’ that he would be barred from talking about LGBT issues.

He claimed his preaching was ‘thoroughly Biblical and in line with mainstream historic Christian doctrine.’

The code says preachers should: ‘Refrain from using homophobic language or any other hate speech.’

‘It is an offence under the Public Order Act 1986 to use threatening, abusive or insulting words with the intention of causing a person to feel harassment, alarm or distress,’ it adds.

Preachers are also told they must not use language which could be upsetting or alarming for young children.

Read more...

German court rules in favour of right to pray near abortion clinic

Silent prayer gatherings near an abortion counseling facility cannot be prohibited, a German court ruled last week.

The decision lifts a ban issued in 2019 by the city of Pforzheim in southwest Germany and upheld in May 2021 by a lower court decision.

The Mannheim Administrative Court ruled that “authorities could only make an assembly dependent on such a condition if public safety would be directly endangered if the assembly were held. This was not the case here.”

The prayer organiser welcomed the decision.

“Every human life is valuable and deserves protection. I am heartened that we will be able to resume our prayer vigils in support of women and their unborn children in the place where we think it makes the most sense,” said Pavica Vojnović.

The pro-life activist led the prayer vigils by the group 40 Days for Life.

Read more...

Churches in China ‘facing toughest persecution since Cultural Revolution’ 

The charity Release International is warning of a renewed crackdown against churches in China.

The charity which serves the persecuted church, says Chinese authorities have been arresting pastors and shutting down congregations as part of a crackdown on religion ordered by President Xi Jinping in December 2021.

‘It’s all about control,’ says Paul Robinson, the CEO of Release International. ‘What the Party cannot dominate and control it seeks to eliminate. And it’s getting worse. Our partners tell us that churches in China are facing the toughest persecution since the Cultural Revolution.’

Tighter regulations on religion in China were passed in 2018 and underlined by President Xi in person in December 2021. The Chinese premier called for a more aggressive campaign against so-called ‘illegal’ forms of religion in China.

He insisted churches should be made to ‘adhere to Marxist religious views’ and called for the stricter enforcement of religion laws.

Read more...

Stop ducking the need for stable families, says UK Children’s Commissioner 

Governments have been too “squeamish” about standing up for the family, the UK Children’s Commissioner has said, as she called on the next Prime Minister to do more to support couples to stay together.

Dame Rachel de Souza told The Telegraph that data she had collected showed that stable families had a great “protective” effect, making children happier and more successful.

She urged the new prime minister and opposition leaders to commit to harnessing what she calls the “most powerful foundation for the future”: a strong, positive family dynamic that offers those within it “universal values and provable protections”.

Her independent family review, published on Thursday morning, finds that 23 per cent of children live in lone parent households – almost twice the European average of 13 per cent; while 44 per cent of children do not spend their entire childhood living with both their biological parents.

It concludes that children in stable families do better at GCSE – and finds that children who get on well with both their parents will earn more by the time they reach the age of 25.

And it cites data showing that families who spend time with each other, such as regularly eating dinner together, tend to be happier.

Read more...

Health Minister gives no commitment on ending Tavistock referrals

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has held a meeting with doctors from the National Gender Service (NGS), but made no commitments about stopping referrals to the controversial Tavistock clinic for children in the United Kingdom. It is to close soon after a report questioned the safety of what is happening there, including the high use of puberty blockers.

The meeting was held on Tuesday between Mr Donnelly and senior clinicians who have publicly raised concerns about HSE’s use of the clinic and requested that referrals be ended.

Earlier this year, an interim report by Dr Hilary Cass found staff at Tavistock felt “under pressure” to adopt an “unquestioning affirmative approach” to gender that was at odds with standard clinical assessment processes. Dr Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the UK, had been commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS) to conduct a review of healthcare for gender identity services for children and young people.

Some 238 young people in Ireland were referred to Tavistock between 2011 and 2021, while there were 17 referrals in the first five months of this year. The HSE said 11 children in Ireland are currently on puberty blocker and cross-sex hormones, prescribed by their clinicians in Ireland.

Read more...

Family under attack from ideologies, Pope says

Christians are called to bring hope to those going through dark times, especially families who are threatened by ideologies prevalent in today’s world, Pope Francis said.

The Pontiff has frequently condemned “new theories of gender” as an ideology that corrodes the traditional understanding of sexuality and family life and he has been trenchant in criticising international aid to developing countries when it is conditional on accepting such new ideologies.

Addressing the Schonstatt Fathers, who were in Rome for their general chapter, the pope urged them to be “bearers of a message of hope in these dark situations that people in every stage of life are going through.”

“Today, there are many marriages in crisis, young people tempted, the elderly forgotten, children suffering,” he said. “We often see that the nature of the family is under attack by various ideologies, which shake the foundations that support the personality of the human being and, in general, society as a whole.”

Read more...

US pro-life leaders criticise Government warning against pregnancy care centres

Pro-life leaders in the US state of Minnesota denounced a consumer alert issued by the state’s Attorney General Keith Ellison against pro-life pregnancy centers.

The impact of Ellison’s statement is to “besmirch” the good work of pregnancy resource centers and put people on notice that he has a target on their back, said Jason Adkins, executive director and general counsel for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

Adkins stressed that pregnancy resource centers “should be truthful about what services they offer and what they do not,” adding that “not all of them have medical staff, nor do they hold themselves out as having such resources.”

Many of these centers focus on connecting women with housing and providing an environment where they can access clothing and other support, he said, noting that the attorney general’s alert is “a solution in search of a problem.”

Ellison’s alert states that “many so-called crisis pregnancy centers may pose as reproductive health care clinics despite not providing comprehensive reproductive healthcare to consumers,” and some don’t provide any health care services at all.

It says the centers are “private organisations that attempt to prevent or dissuade pregnant people from accessing their constitutionally protected right under the Minnesota Constitution to a safe and legal abortion.”

Read more...

Decline of traditional UK family revealed in new report

Nearly half of British children now grow up outside the traditional two-parent household, according to a report on the make-up of the modern family.

A review being published today by Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, has found that almost a quarter of families are headed by a lone parent, compared with the EU average of one eighth.

Forty-four per cent of those born in 2000 will have spent some of their childhood up to age 17 outside a traditional “nuclear” family, compared with 21 per cent of people born in 1970.

Before the appointment next week of the new prime minister, de Souza has urged the government to centre policy on families. She will revise the “family test”, which is applied to all new domestic laws and policies, to put families “at the heart” of policymaking.

Read more...

European Court refuse to hear case involving Down syndrome ad

The European Court of Human Rights has refused to review a ban in France of an ad that drew attention to the very high number of children with Down Syndrome who are aborted each year.

The Fondation Jérôme Lejeune had claimed that the French Broadcasting Council’s designation of the video as not “a message of general interest” constituted unjust censorship.

This ruling came in spite of the fact that the French government itself had recognised, both in the domestic proceedings as well as before the Court, that the broadcasting authority’s letter had “significantly influenced the behavior of the television channels, inviting them to avoid future broadcasting of the concerned message”.

“Freedom of expression is the foundation of every free and democratic society, enshrined in international human rights law. We believe that every voice deserves a chance to be heard, which is why we represented Fondation Jérôme Lejeune at the European Court of Human Rights. This is a failure of justice not just for people with Down syndrome and disability rights advocates, but for all concerned with free expression in Europe,” said Jean-Paul Van De Walle, serving as legal counsel, Europe, for ADF International.

Read more...

Increase in ambulance calls after abortion pills became more available

Ambulance dispatches and 999 calls responding to abortion pill concerns have risen by 64% since 2019, according to an investigation by GB News.

The pills were made more readily available at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, allowing women to be posted the two pills after a telephone consultation with a specially trained nurse or doctor, removing the need to be seen and assessed in person.

Six ambulance trusts in England replied to GB News’ Freedom of Information request, which asked for the number of 999 calls and ambulances dispatches from people concerned about abortion pills.

They show there were at least 380 call-outs in 2019, this increased by 64 percent to 624 in 2020, with some ambulance trusts having double the number of calls and subsequent responses.

With face-to-face consultations no longer mandatory, there have been concerns raised over whether there is enough safeguarding for vulnerable women or children.

37-year-old Kirsty Deakin from Solihull was forced by her boyfriend to order abortion pills over the phone during the first lockdown.

She told GB News: “I made the call to an abortion clinic sort of hoping they’d question my decision.

“Because I knew deep down, I didn’t want to do it. They didn’t even offer me a scan…I could have been anyone on the phone when I rang for the pills.”

Read more...