Birth certs should be changed to reference ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’, instead of ‘mother’ and ‘father’ with the option of adding additional parents, according to a proposal from two Irish academics.

Writing on the RTE News website, Drs Páraic Kerrigan and Amber L. Cushing say the current structure of the birth certificate is orientated around ‘normative’ categories of gender and sexuality, and does not allow for the ‘fluidity’ and ‘multiplicity’ of gender and sexual identities that exist today.

The say the process of collecting birth information and the design of the birth certificate must be reconsidered “to enable a more accurate and fuller representation of LGBTQ families”.

“This can come down to changing the field of information on the birth certificate to be more inclusive, such as changing “mother” and “father” to “parent 1”, “parent 2” and perhaps allowing for additional parents to be listed, as is allowed in the Canadian Province of British Columbia”.

Slovakia’s parliament has narrowly rejected proposed legislation that would have given the unborn more protection.

The bill was rejected by one vote, as 67 of the 134 lawmakers present in the 150-seat house voted in favour of it. A similar proposal to restrict abortion was rejected a year ago, also by one vote.

The bill was submitted by representatives from ‘Ordinary People’, the senior party in the coalition government led by Prime Minister Eduard Heger.

Among its key provisions, the mandatory waiting period before women have access to abortion at their request would have been extended from 48 to 96 hours.

Women would also have had to give their reasons for having an abortion.

The new legislation would also have banned abortion advertising, and services linked to it.

Currently, abortion is legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; and after that for certain ‘medical reasons’.

On Friday two prominent leaders of the Parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales voiced their opposition to a controversial bill to legalise “voluntary assisted dying”.

The Premier, Dominic Perrottet, told the House that his own grandmother is dying at the moment from cancer and is in considerable pain. Nonetheless he said, “a strong society protects and cherishes its most fragile members”.

The Leader of the Opposition, Chris Minns, said he was “in the minority” within the NSW Labour party but he would also vote against the bill.

“I am not convinced any legislation can prevent an individual choosing to die in response to pressure, coercion or duress caused by others,” Mr Minns said.

Sarah Dunn, died at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on 11th April 2020 almost four weeks after having the abortion.

After feeling unwell in the days following the procedure, the mother of five approached her GP several times over the course of two weeks. On 10th April, she was taken by ambulance to Victoria Hospital’s A&E department and died the following day from the sepsis infection.

A spokesperson for the Pro-life Campaign said her death is far from the first case of its kind in England where a woman lost her life due to an infection directly related to the abortion procedure. “The lack of media interest in her case and similar cases is unconscionable, in contrast to say the round the clock media coverage of the Savita Halappanavar case that was used to foist abortion on Ireland. Savita died as a result of mismanaged sepsis during her care and not as a result of being denied an abortion as the media falsely and repeatedly claimed,” she said.

The one-year-old daughter of an Italian couple, who was born in Ukraine through a commercial surrogacy arrangement, but later abandoned, has arrived in Italy to be adopted by a new family.

The Italian couple had gone to Ukraine in August 2020 to fulfill their desire to have a child through a surrogate mother. After receiving the child, however, the couple entrusted it to a babysitter and returned to Italy. For a while, the couple wrote to the nanny, asking for news and sending money; but then they disappeared.

In time, the nanny contacted the Italian consulate, and the police authorities arranged for the baby to be taken to Italy to be adopted.

Italian MEP, Simona Baldassarre, said it is a chilling story of a little girl “assembled, stored, bought and abandoned”.

“It is clear to everyone how dehumanising the abomination of the rented womb is. ‘Love is Love’, ‘love is enough’, shouts those who promote this aberrant practice. Here is the result, an innocent being who, like a much desired toy, later finds himself abandoned in a box”.

A national ban on protests outside abortion clinics is not an option, according to the public health minister of the Scottish Government.

The SNP’s Maree Todd said in a Holyrood debate that the rights of protesters who gathered outside clinics also had to be considered, even though ‘some’ women feel intimidated.

“Women should have access to healthcare free from stigma. However, any action taken must be proportionate and balance the rights of the women accessing healthcare services and those protesting peacefully and expressing their views,” she said.

“The Scottish Government is determined to find a way forward but doesn’t consider blanket buffer zones the solution. The precedent here in the UK is that its best dealt with at a local level. Our view is that bye laws are the fastest way to address the problem. The principle of protected spaces is one this Government supports.”

Meanwhile, a pro-choice group tweeted to say that the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities released legal advice on Nov 12th confirming that local councils cannot use byelaws to implement buffer zones.

During a debate on Wednesday, Senator Sharon Keogan said that the legislation “may be the first time a bill has sought to criminalise the act of praying.”

She added that there was “more than a whiff of anti-Christian sentiment” about the Bill.

“The right to protest and assembly cannot be limited to what one wants. The law must treat all equally,” she concluded.

Senator Ronan Mullen asserted that the proposed legislation was “not constitutional” or “legally necessary.”

The Senator continued: “Article 40 of the Constitution “guarantees liberty for the exercise … subject to public order and morality … of the citizens to assemble”. This Bill would target the constitutional freedom of assembly of a specific group of people.

“None of this is permissible under the Constitution because everybody has the right to assemble peacefully and make their point.

He added: “I am afraid this legislation ultimately seeks to demonise people who want to offer positive alternatives to abortion. It is an attempt to deny there is a legitimate human rights argument in favour of protecting the unborn baby as well as a mother’s health and well-being. That counter narrative will always be there as long as abortion is legal in this country.”

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell has defended the Church’s role in the boards of management of State-funded schools, saying a true plurality of patronage in education “needs to ensure parental choice while enabling all patrons, including Catholic patrons, to be true to their own ethos and characteristic spirit”.

A great strength of faith-based schools “has been their rootedness in local communities. Those who do not share our faith come to our schools because they know that at their heart there is the acceptance of values motivated by our faith – values that present a specific vision or view of human life. Furthermore, inter-religious and inter-belief dialogue is at the heart of the Catholic school enterprise,” he said.

The Catholic school provided “academically excellent education; it provides faith-based formation that allows each student to develop a moral foundation on which to stand for the rest their lives and, it gives a vision and hope beyond the limits of value-free education,” he said.

Money is not the main reason Americans who desire marriage remain single, according to a recent survey by the Institute for Family Studies and the Wheatley Institute.

A survey of single Americans ages 55 or younger who desire marriage found that “it is hard to find the right person to marry” (58%) and “not ready for the commitment” (33%) are the top two reasons cited.

In contrast, only about a quarter of unmarried adults chose economic reasons, such as “can’t afford a wedding” or “don’t have a good job.”

The top two reasons for singleness are the same for those who make $100K+ a year as for those whose income falls below $50K.

Income does make a difference in a few areas: Nearly 3 in 10 lower-income unmarried adults cited “Can’t afford a wedding” as one reason they are single. Lower-income singles are also more likely than singles with higher income to cite lacking a good job as a reason for not being married (23% vs. 15%). On the other hand, higher-income singles are much more likely than their counterparts with lower incomes to cite working too much as a reason. A third of higher income singles said that they are “too focused on work to get married,” compared with 17% of lower-income singles.

The so-called “marriage penalty” also plays a much more significant role among lower income adults who are not married.