The Northern Ireland Office has confirmed that it will be launching an abortion marketing campaign across Northern Ireland in early November, if the recent abortion law changes go into effect on October 21st.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK Catherine Robinson said: “100,000 people in Northern Ireland are alive today because Northern Ireland did not accept the same abortion law that was introduced into Britain in 1967.
“This move to launch a nationwide abortion marketing campaign across Northern Ireland promoting abortion is a blatant attempt by the Government to further undermine the will of the people of Northern Ireland. It adds insult to injury after Westminster voted to impose one of the most extreme abortion laws in the world on Northern Ireland and could lead to an even larger increase in the number of lives lost to abortion.
“The clock is ticking. The people of Northern Ireland now have only 20 days to stop this. If Stormont reconvenes by October 21st, this extreme abortion law will not be imposed on Northern Ireland. It is up to the people of Northern Ireland to demand that Sinn Fein and DUP reconvene Stormont now.”
Hundreds of health professionals have written to the Northern Ireland secretary expressing opposition to the radical liberalisation of the North’s abortion laws.
Those who signed the letter said their concern was for pregnant mothers and their unborn children and, as Christians, it was their firmly held belief that abortion was the “unjust and violent taking of human life”.
The doctors, nurses and midwives also want reassurance as “conscientious objectors” that they will not have to perform or assist abortions.
One GP told BBC News NI that he and more than 700 other healthcare workers had written to Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith and Richard Pengelly, the permanent health secretary, to say they can no longer “stay silent” on the issue.
Dr Andrew Cupples said he was not aware of any preparation to ensure staff were prepared for the law change and insisted legal protection was essential.
Blaming Catholic schools for anti-Catholic bigotry and sectarianism in Scotland amounts to abhorrent victim-blaming when Catholics are often the main victims of such attitudes.
That’s according to Barbara Coupar, director of the Scottish Catholic Education Service, who says it is time to fight back against the accusation.
Writing in the Scottish Catholic Observer, she said the statement that Catholic schools cause sectarianism is suggesting that “teachers are educating towards a culture of prejudice and our children are bigots”. Addressing parents she said, “What is being said is that by choosing to send your child to a Catholic school, you are the cause of the centuries of hate crimes in Scotland and you are part of the problem.”
She added that this, along with attacks on other fronts against Catholic schools, reveal a wider agenda: “a removal of faith from the public square and a society where rights, respect and tolerance are afforded to everyone, except people of faith.”
Drawing a parallel with the #metoo campaign, she lamented that the Catholic community must “respond to the allegation that it is our ‘fault’ that sectarianism, a crime most notably committed against Catholics, is caused because we won’t just ‘assimilate’ into Scottish culture and accept a secular education imposed us”.
Government restrictions on religion – laws, policies and actions by state officials that restrict religious beliefs and practices – have increased markedly around the world over the decade from 2007 to 2017, according to Pew Research.
The research also found that social hostilities involving religion – including violence and harassment by private individuals, organizations or groups – also have risen since 2007.
The latest data shows that 52 governments – including some in very populous countries like China, Indonesia and Russia – impose either “high” or “very high” levels of restrictions on religion, up from 40 in 2007. And the number of countries where people are experiencing the highest levels of social hostilities involving religion has risen from 39 to 56 over the course of the study.
The leaders of Ireland’s main Churches have expressed their grave concern at the prospect of an almost unregulated abortion regime being imposed on Northern Ireland from Westminster.
In a joint statement released Monday, the leaders of the Church of Ireland, Methodist Church in Ireland, Roman Catholic Church, Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Irish Council of Churches are calling their members and congregations to pray, call for change, and to lobby their locally elected representatives.
Meanwhile, speaking at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the visit of Pope John Paul II to Drogheda, Archbishop Eamon Martin called on those gathered to consistently highlight the fundamental right to life and always speak out against attacks on innocent human life.
“It is shocking, for example, that the democratic process was so cynically manipulated in Westminster during the July holiday period to remove from law all explicit protections for unborn children in Northern Ireland up to 28 weeks in their mother’s womb,” he said.
“Today I plead with political representatives to return to Stormont before the 21 October and end this barbaric abortion legislation. The political impasse has gone on too long. I say to them: For the sake of life; for the sake of peace – make the necessary compromises and return to your posts – this is a critical moment”.
Vulnerable patients are being “coached” on how to pass a psychological evaluation so as to gain access to gender reassignment hormone therapy and surgery, it has been claimed.
Ireland’s leading endocrinologist, Professor Donal O’Shea, has warned that he believes some advocacy groups are prepping patients to fast-track their way to gender transition – without undergoing an appropriate mental health assessment.
“I have had a number of patients who have told me that they have been coached in the answers to give so that they give the ‘right’ answers to psychologists and psychiatrists who will be asking them questions before receiving hormone treatment and gaining access to surgery,” Prof O’Shea said.
“And I have been told by patients who have had hormone treatment, who have had surgery, who are now unhappy with their decision, that they have been instructed by patient advocates not to report this because it would be bad for the wider community.”
A spokesperson for the activist group, BeLonGTo, denied they coach children and young people to pass such psychological tests. TENI, an activist organisation for people who identify as trans, said no one was available for comment.
A Catholic bishop has accused local councillors in Scotland of orchestrating a “hostile” attempt to diminish the church’s influence over education.
William Nolan, the Bishop of Galloway, linked the movement to remove the voting rights of religious representatives on council education boards to renewed calls for Catholic schools to be abolished in response to sectarian violence in Glasgow.
Bishop Nolan, who has urged parishioners to become more engaged in politics, said that the debates had created a “hostile environment” for Catholics.
Nearly a third of councils are considering stripping church leaders of their right to vote.
Scottish law states that there must be three church representatives on committees. However, councillors in Perth and Kinross found that while the law states that religious representation is mandatory it does not say whether they have a right to vote on policy.
The council removed voting rights from religious representatives in May after a decision to close a non-denominational school was swung by the votes of two members of the Church of Scotland.
Parents should be able to choose the ethos behind their child’s RSE class, according to Aontu TD Peadar Tóibín who was speaking in a Dail debate on the review of RSE in Ireland.
The Meath West TD said it would be a “massive mistake to go down the route of uniformity with regard to ethos in sex education.”
“Parents should be able to raise their children within their own values and ethos. Forcing one value system on all parents, a mandatory ethos against the wishes of parents and children, would simply seek to replace the stifling uniformity of the past with the reverse now.”
He specifically criticised comments by TD Ruth Coppinger saying that while the Catholic Church “should not determine the ethos of the sex education of all the children in Irish society, neither should Deputy Coppinger”.
She had earlier claimed that “some right-wing and religious fundamentalist groups are now targeting the area of sex education, and oppose any change or progress in it”.
She further claimed they “tend to focus on sex and gender. However, RSE is about healthy relationships, interacting with others, dealing with difficult situations and much more.”
Chair of the Oireachtas committee Fiona O’Loughlin of Fianna Fáil disagreed with Deputy Toibin’s stance. She said parents should have the right to bring up their children in the ethos and the faith in which they choose to do so. “However, this is not about ethos; it is about health, health education and equipping young people with the skills and confidence they need to navigate this world.”
The reaction of prominent abortion-supporting TDs to the Garda Commissioner’s letter describing the pursuit of so-called ‘Safe Access Zone’ legislation as ‘redundant’ has been described as alarming and irresponsible by the Pro-Life Campaign.
Sinn Féin TD, Louise O’Reilly described the Commissioner’s letter as a ‘distraction’ while Bríd Smith TD described the latest developments as ‘shameful’. Meanwhile Health Minister Simon Harris says he intends pressing ahead with his legislation despite the concerns raised by the Commissioner.
Commenting on these latest developments, Pro-Life Campaign spokesperson Eilís Mulroy said:
“What these reactions clearly establish is that the proposed introduction of ‘Safe Access Zone’ legislation was less about protecting women and more about strong arming the law into silencing pro-life voices.
“Now that this tactic has encountered a sudden and dramatic challenge, efforts are being made to effectively diminish the authority of the Garda Commissioner’s office and to rubbish his objective expert assessment by characterising it as a mere ‘distraction.’
“We are now calling on all political parties, including Fianna Fáil, to make clear whether or not they will support legislation that is in direct contradiction to the Garda Commissioner’s advice. People need to know if the law on this issue is going be evidence based or ideologically based.”
The advice of the Garda commissioner was welcomed by Senator Ronan Mullen who said that calls for exclusion zones had nothing to do with concern for the welfare of women and was in fact, “about crushing any public dissent”.
Italy’s constitutional court has ruled it is not always a crime to help someone in “intolerable suffering” kill themselves, opening the way for a change of law .
Parliament is now expected to debate the matter, which was highlighted by the Milan trial of an activist who helped a tetraplegic man avail of assisted suicide in Switzerland.
Anyone who “facilitates the suicidal intention … of a patient kept alive by life-support treatments and suffering from an irreversible pathology” should not be punished under certain conditions, the top court ruled.
The court was asked to rule on the case of Fabiano Antoniani, known as DJ Fabo, a music producer, traveller and motocross driver left tetraplegic and blind by a 2014 traffic accident.
Marco Cappato, a member of Italy’s Radical party, drove Antoniani to Switzerland in February 2017, where he was given a lethal injection, aged 40.
Helping or instigating someone’s suicide is currently punishable by between five and 12 years in prison in Italy.
