The number of babies born with Down’s syndrome in the UK has fallen by 30% in NHS hospitals that have introduced an early screening for foetal abnormalities.

The test takes a blood sample from the woman in the early weeks of pregnancy. Amniocentisis, carried out later in the pregnancy, is more invasive.  It can also cause a miscarriage if carried out before 15 weeks. Because the blood test is less invasive and does not risk a miscarriage there is a higher take-up rate of it leading to more detection of various genetic abnormalities like Down’s syndrome, and therefore more abortions.

The figures, which have been released by 26 hospital trusts in England under freedom of information laws, cover the period from 2013 — before the test was introduced to some hospitals — to 2017. The 26 account for about a fifth of the hospital trusts that offer maternity services.

Collete Lloyd, whose daughter Katie, 22, has Down’s syndrome obtained the figures. She told The Times that she would struggle to explain to her daughter how the tests could be justified.

“How would I tell her, ‘We have a test so that women can make a choice of whether they want to keep a baby like you or not’? It is not a pro-choice or pro-life thing at all. It is the woman saying: ‘I want a baby but I don’t want a baby like that.’”

There were only four babies born this year in Oxfordshire with Down’s, compared with 12 in 2015.

Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK said: “Our current law allows babies with Down’s syndrome to be aborted right through to birth. Already 90% of babies diagnosed in the womb with Down’s syndrome are aborted in the UK. The figures released today show that new non-invasive pre-natal tests are likely to lead to even more babies who have Down’s syndrome being aborted.

“The Government should not be rolling out these tests if there is evidence that they are leading to more babies with Down’s syndrome being aborted. Now there is clear evidence this is the case, it’s time that the Government pulled the rollout.”

Parents who split before their children are six years old put youngsters at greater risk of being bullied, feeling lonely and being unhappy at school, a study suggests.

Danish researchers who analysed answers given by 219,000 children in the National Well-being Questionnaire, found that those whose parents separated when they were aged two to five had a greater changes of low social wellbeing than those aged six to 10.

Overall, one in 20 children (five per cent) were lonely, bullied, or struggled with school, but that rose by 41 per cent for those who came from dissolved families – the equivalent of an extra two children per 100.

And for those whose parents separated before the age of six the chance of unhappiness increased by 55 per cent, compared with 36 per cent for the six to 10s, and 30 per cent for the over 11s.

A new document from the Joint Managerial Body gives guidance to Catholic secondary schools on how to show respect for children from diverse backgrounds while at the same time abiding by the schools’ own religious ethos.

Joint Managerial Body (JMB), representing almost 400 Catholic second-level schools, to reflect the growing religious and cultural diversity in schools.

At the same time, they stress that “it should always be made clear to parents that students will be experiencing the values and ethos of the school in the day-to-day running of the school, not just in RE class”.

The guidelines support the prominent display of Catholic religious imagery in schools, but also suggest that pupils from different faiths could be invited to display art/icons around the time of their own major religious feasts.

In the area of clothing, they state that no one should be prevented from wearing a religious symbol or garment in accordance with their tradition, such as the hijab for Muslim girls or the turban for Sikh boys.

The guidelines point to the practice by Hindu females particularly, and Muslims from India, to paint their hands and feet around the time of a religious festival, which “should be regarded with understanding”.

Where Muslims are concerned about sex education, schools are urged to provide an opportunity for parents to discuss the moral framework before discussing whether to withdraw their child. PE can also be problematic for Muslims, on modesty grounds, and among the solutions proffered are for girls to wear a burkini, a short wet suit.

Catholic bishops in the UK have made the right to life a priority in the upcoming Westminster election.

The bishops of England and Wales put the protection of life at the top of a list of key issues, while the bishops of Scotland also made abortion and euthanasia their primary concerns.

Their statements came as the UK’s Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats pledged to further liberalise the UKs already permissive abortion regime.

The State must seize the land on which the new national maternity hospital (NMH) is to be built to ‘ensure provision’ of all women’s ‘health services’, including abortion, a new group has said.

The Campaign Against Church Ownership of Women’s Healthcare said it was a “disgrace” two Catholic institutions were “still in the driving seat” on the future of the new hospital.

The NMH is to be built on the St Vincent’s hospital campus in Donnybrook, Dublin, on land leased to the State by the religious Sisters of Charity.

Spokesperson, Marie O’Connor, said even this would mean a “grossly inadequate” arrangement.

“The State needs to own the land on which it plans to build this hospital. Women’s healthcare is at risk. To expect a hospital [on land] owned by the nuns’ company to provide a full range of healthcare, including contraception, sterilisation, abortion, IVF and so on, is unrealistic.

“Only public ownership of the company can guarantee the healthcare will be secular.”

Bríd Smith TD (People Before Profit) said every candidate in the forthcoming general election should sign a pledge demanding that the new national maternity hospital be publicly-owned, publicly-run and secular.

While most U.S. adults who attend religious services express confidence in their clergy’s advice, a recent Pew Research Center survey finds that Catholics have considerably less confidence than Protestants. They are also less likely to claim a close relationship with their clergy.

Among U.S. adults who attend religious services at least a few times a year, six-in-ten Catholics (61%) say they have a “very” or “somewhat” close relationship with their clergy, compared with about eight-in-ten Protestants (78%). Just 8% of Catholics say they are very close with their clergy, compared with a quarter of Protestants. And while only 22% of Protestants say they are not close with the clergy at their church, the share among Catholics is nearly twice as high (39%).

Only three-in-ten Catholics say they have “a lot” of confidence in their clergy’s guidance about marriage and relationships. Larger shares of evangelical Protestants (66%), Protestants in the historically black tradition (54%) and mainline Protestants (45%) say the same. And Catholics are much less likely than Protestants overall to trust their religious leaders to give useful advice on parenting (23% vs. 49%, respectively).

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has announced “significant” reforms aimed at put more responsibility for sacramental preparation of children on parishes and less on schools. Other dioceses such as Kildare & Leighlin have already gone down this road.

Diarmuid Martin said training for the reform campaign, which will be implemented on a phased basis, should begin immediately.

Dr Martin wrote to priests and parishes this week informing them that the Priests Council had endorsed a new approach to the sacraments which would be centred on “supporting parents in sharing faith with their children and that in time will see parishes assume responsibility for the preparation and celebration of all four sacraments”.