The Rally for Life has been banned by a county council from putting up posters advertising an upcoming event in Fingal.

An officer in the Operations Department of Fingal County Council (FCC) told the Rally that the council “does not allow posters of a contentious nature on public property.”

When questioned by Gript, the staff officer who oversaw the decision, claimed that  there would be “lots of complaints from the public” if the poster were allowed.

She added that permission was refused due to an image on the poster, rather than the fact that the posters promoted a pro-life event, but emails seen by Gript show that the Rally offered to remove the image in question from the poster and were told the poster would still be refused as the issue itself was still “contentious.”

Megan Ní Scealláin of the Rally for Life Committee told Gript that the FCC’s refusal was “open censorship of one point of view,” and was, in their view, “an attack on free speech happening in plain sight” and was “completely unacceptable.”

It occurred in the wake of Friday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the landmark abortion case, Roe v. Wade.

The centre in Colorado, Life Choices, sustained fire and heavy smoke damage, authorities said. The front of the building also was defaced with pro-abortion slogans, including the words, “If abortions aren’t safe neither are you,” written in script with black spray paint.

Federal law enforcement had issued a warning that a radical group is “calling for extreme violence” against churches and pro-life pregnancy centres nationwide in response to the Supreme Court’s expected reversal of abortion rights.

An internal document obtained by Newsweek outlines intelligence shared by the Department of Homeland Security with the Catholic Church of a planned “Night of Rage,” targeting churches and pregnancy centers over their opposition to abortion rights.

A UK High Court judge has ruled that the husband of a woman who died while pregnant can use an embryo created during fertility treatment to have a child using a surrogate.

Ted Jennings, 38, and his late wife, Fern-Marie Choya, who died aged 40 in 2019 after her womb ruptured while she was 18 weeks pregnant with twin girls, had undergone several IVF cycles.

Jennings wants to use the couple’s remaining embryo — created using his sperm and his wife’s eggs in 2018 — in treatment “with a surrogate mother”.

He asked a High Court judge for a declaration that it would be lawful for him to do so, because Choya had not given consent in writing.

In a ruling last week, Mrs Justice Theis said she was “satisfied” that Choya had consented to use of the embryo, which is stored at a private fertility clinic in London, in the event of her death. The judge concluded that Choya had not been given sufficient opportunity to give consent in writing because a form completed during the IVF process was “far from clear”.

The judge said that the interference with Jennings’s “right to respect to become a parent” were she not to grant the declaration he sought “would be significant, final and lifelong”.

Assisted suicide for healthy persons is not medically and ethically justifiable, according to new guidelines issued in May by the Swiss Medical Association. In Switzerland people merely ‘tired of life’ can avail of assisted suicide.

Patients should also have at least two meetings with a doctor– at least two weeks apart –before the final decision to ensure that their desire is “well-considered and enduring”.

The guidelines underscore that the doctor is free to refuse to cooperate: “The true role of physicians in the management of dying and death, however, involves relieving symptoms and supporting the patient. Their responsibilities do not include offering assisted suicide, nor are they obliged to perform it. Assisted suicide is not a medical action to which patients could claim to be entitled, even if it is a legally permissible activity”.

The new guidance is in line with the ethical guidelines issued in 2018 by the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. While not legally binding, they will form part of an ethical code for Swiss doctors.

The U.S. Supreme Court has recognised that each U.S. state has the freedom to determine its own laws on abortion, including protections for unborn life from its earliest stages, in today’s judgement in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

This marks a dramatic shift away from the United States’ previous abortion framework established by the Court in the now infamous Roe v. Wade case of 1973. In that ruling, the Court overturned pro-life laws in all fifty states and instead imposed an extreme law on the whole nation, which positioned the U.S. among only six countries in the world, including China and North Korea, permitting abortion on demand throughout all nine months of pregnancy.

At issue in this present case was the state of Mississippi’s law protecting life by limiting abortion on demand after 15 weeks gestation.

By a 6-3 ruling, the law was held to be constitutional, despite contravening aspects of the Court’s previous Roe v Wade ruling. However, by a 5-4 majority, in an opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito, the Court ruled that all of the Roe v Wade jurisprudence should be overturned, paving the way for each state to make up its own laws on the matter as each one sees fit.

The Minister for Children and Families, Kjersti Toppe, supports the country’s current ban on domestic surrogacy: “It is forbidden in Norway, and I am very much behind it. I am opposed to surrogacy for various reasons. Among other things, the child rights perspective. There is a risk that children will be born and orphaned [if the intended parents do not pick it up].”

Toppe told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that the disapproval of surrogacy should also be extended in some way to those who circumvent the law by going abroad to have a child through a foreign surrogate and then return with the child to Norway. “It is not a point for me to punish, but penal provisions are attitude-creating and support the seriousness of the legal provision. It is important to make it clear that there is a ban”.

About ten years ago, the Storting passed an exemption proposal which means that people who have children through surrogacy abroad cannot be punished. Toppe voted against that law change and still disagrees to this day.

Already in 2017, Toppe advocated such a ban and compared it to the fact that it is a criminal offence for Norwegians to buy sex abroad.

A nationwide shortage of sperm donors is driving British women to rogue online sperm banks and foreign donors, says a new report.

Three quarters of donated sperm used in the UK is now shipped in from overseas, often after being purchased online from poorly regulated clinics.

The report by the fertility charity Progress Educational Trust (PET) said the shortage was putting women at risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and increasing the likelihood of their children having genetic conditions. It is calling for a recruitment drive to get men in England to donate sperm to the NHS, urging those aged 18-45 with no health problems to sign up.

Sperm donation is regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and all donors are screened for heritable medical conditions. Under UK law donors cannot be paid, receiving £35 in expenses, and they cannot remain anonymous. Children get the right to find out their father’s identity on their 18th birthday.

Women can obtain donor sperm from a licensed fertility clinic either on the NHS or by paying privately, but long waiting lists because of England’s chronic sperm shortage mean many look abroad instead. Private clinics can import from overseas sperm banks which offer online profiles of donors, showing characteristics including eye colour, race and hair colour.

The highest number of abortions ever recorded in England and Wales occurred last year, according to the Department for Health and Social Care. This includes 859 terminations where a baby had Down’s syndrome, a huge increase of 23.95% from 2020.

The figures showed 214,869 abortions taking place, an increase of 4,009 from 2020.

The statistics also show a 71% increase in late-term abortions at 24 weeks gestation or over where the baby had Down’s syndrome, increasing from 14 in 2020 to 24 in 2021.

There was also a 9% increase in the overall number of abortions for babies with disabilities, also known as eugenics, increasing from 3,083 in 2020 to 3,370 in 2021. The number of late-term abortions at 24 weeks gestation or over where the baby has a disability increased by 20% from 229 to 274.

There was also an increase of 14% in the number of abortions where a baby had a cleft lip and palate, rising from 35 in 2020 to 40 in 2021. The number of late-term abortions at 24 weeks gestation or over where the baby had cleft lip and palate, increased by 100% from 3 to 6.

The US Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the state of Maine may not exclude religious schools from a state tuition program.

The 6-3 ruling was the latest decision by the court that has increasingly favoured the role of religion in public life.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said the ruling did not require states to support religious education. But states that choose to subsidise private schools, he added, may not discriminate against religious ones.

Michael Bindas, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice, which represented the families challenging Maine’s program, said the court’s decision on Tuesday was a major step for religious schools to receive the same kind of government aid as other private schools.

“Today’s decision makes clear, once and for all, that the government may not bar parents from selecting religious schools within educational choice programs,” he said.

An Irish delegation is in Rome to attend the 10th World Meeting of Families which begins today on the theme, ‘Family love: a vocation and a path to holiness.’

The delegates include family members as well as Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, and Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare & Leighlin.

Ahead of his departure for Rome, Bishop Nulty said, ““We look forward to discussions and reflections from families on themes such as the role of grandparents, the pastoral care of the elderly, accompanying fatherhood and motherhood, vocations, accompanying forgiveness, preparing for marriage, the impact of digital media on family life and much more.

“As we pray and reflect together on the many joys and challenges facing family life today.  I am particularly conscious of the enormous difficulties being faced by families here in Ireland as a result of the rapid rise in the cost of living. I commend the work being done in dioceses and parishes across the country to reach out and support families in difficulty on a day to day basis.  As we depart for Rome we will take the prayers and intentions of Irish families with us”, Bishop Nulty said.