In a highly significant ruling, the US Supreme Court has ruled by a 7-2 majority that a baker had his right to religious freedom unjustly infringed when a State Human Rights Commission sanctioned him for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. The baker said that it would have violated his religious beliefs to support the wedding, though he would have gladly served the customers in any other way.
The Supreme Court ruled that the State Commission showed an illegitimate animus against religion in its original ruling. One commissioner had claimed that “freedom of religion” has been used to “justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history,” including slavery and the Holocaust. The commissioner called the baker’s religious-freedom claim “one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use.”
In response, US Supreme Court Judge, Anthony Kennedy, who himself authored the decision to make same-sex marriage legal in all fifty States in the US, said the description of the man’s faith disparaged his religion in at least two distinct ways: by describing it as despicable, and also by characterizing it as merely rhetorical — something insubstantial and even insincere. “This sentiment is inappropriate for a Commission charged with the solemn responsibility of fair and neutral enforcement of Colorado’s anti-discrimination law — a law that protects discrimination on the basis of religion as well as sexual orientation.”
Furthermore, the Court found an inconsistency in applying the law to protect some free speech, but not other speech, an inconsistency that again revealed an anti-religious animus. On at least three occasions the Commission protected bakers who had refused to make cakes with a text disapproving of same-sex marriage. The Court decided that the Government must be a neutral arbiter in free speech cases and not be the judge of what should be deemed offensive, and not protected, and not offensive.
While the Court ruled on the question of religious freedom, it did not address the question of whether free speech could be compelled and, for instance, force a baker to express a pro same-sex marriage message apart from religious freedom concerns.
The Government will not accept amendments to the forthcoming abortion legislation which seek to stipulate that disability is prohibited as a ground for abortion. The amendments are being proposed by some Fianna Fail and Independent TDs so as to protect disabled children who might be aborted under the 12 weeks on request ground, or the risk of serious harm to health ground that allows abortion up to 24 weeks. Some in Government appear to think that the draft legislation already includes a clause that specifically excludes abortion on the grounds of disability, and this point was made by Minister Finian McGrath on RTE Radio 1’s News at One on Monday. However, the published heads of the bill make no mention of any such exclusion, thereby allowing the possibility of disabled babies being aborted under one of the stated grounds.
Nonetheless, Government sources have told the Irish Times that they will oppose any amendments that would narrow the scope of abortion in the published Heads of the Bill. However, an unnamed spokesperson did say that “the Government has always said that disability of the foetus will not be accepted as a threat to the mother’s health. It is intended to set this out in clinical guidelines, rather than in primary legislation.”
The Minister for Health Simon Harris is assessing if services provided under the Maternity and Infant Care Scheme can be expanded to pay for expectant mothers who want an abortion. Pro-life leaders have said providing abortion under this scheme would make a mockery of it.
Currently, the Maternity and Infant Care Scheme allows for maternity services free of charge when provided by a family doctor (GP) and a hospital obstetrician. Government sources told various media the assessment was at the preliminary stage but it was keen there would be “no barrier to accessing services on the basis of affordability”, which means pro-life tax-payers would be forced to pay for abortions.
“Our priority is that no woman is treated differently because of her economic circumstances – part of the reason we legalised abortion is to ensure women no longer turned to the web for abortion pills,” a source told the Irish Independent.
The DUP has said Northern Ireland will not be “bullied or bounced” into changing its abortion laws after feminist activists openly flouted the law by swallowing abortion pills in a public protest outside Laganside courts in Belfast on Thursday.
Even though Northern Ireland is set to be the only part of the UK or Ireland to not have liberal abortion laws, South Down MLA Jim Wells said it was “entirely our right under the devolution settlement to make our own decisions on that”.
“The Assembly discussed this in detail on February 10th, 2016 and after a lengthy debate decided we did not need to change the laws in Northern Ireland and that is where we stand. And we are not going to be bullied or bounced into changing our laws because of what happened in the Irish Republic,” he said.
Channel Four have aired a documentary on women who decide to get pregnant by artificial insemination, using sperm donated free of charge by strangers who offer their services via the internet. One such man, a 61-year-old from Yorkshire, claimed to be a retired teacher. He advertised himself on Facebook, and was happy to drive up to 80 miles to park outside a woman’s house, hand over a syringeful of fresh sperm, before heading home. He asked for no payment, except a text to announce each pregnancy and a photo of each baby. Most of the women who called on Clive’s services were in same-sex relationships.
Junior Minister John Halligan will put euthanasia firmly on the political agenda by submitting a bill to the Dáil in the next few weeks that would legalise assisted-suicide. This is only days after the vote to repeal the pro-life amendment from the Irish Constitution.
According to the Irish Independent, the proposed laws would require a person to be terminally ill, have a “clear and settled intention to end his or her own life” and be over 18. ‘Safeguards’ would require a person to make a declaration in the presence of a witness who is not a beneficiary of the ill person’s estate. It would have to be countersigned by the medical practitioner from whom the person has requested assistance to end their life. A 14-day ‘pause period’ would be legally enforced between the time a person signs the declaration and doctors actually prescribing the necessary medicines.
A bill preventing Catholic schools admitting Catholic children first was passed by the Dáil yesterday. Minority denominations and religions will continue to be allowed to operate faith-based admissions policies.
Catholic school bodies have argued that banning religion as a selection criterion in admissions would breach their constitutional rights relating to religious freedom and freedom of association and have indicated they might fight the legislation in the courts.
Minister for Education Richard Bruton said however that the provision was robust and would mean baptism as a preferment for entry to Catholic schools in the event of oversubscription would be removed. Mr Bruton told the Dáil after the Bill was passed: “Ireland is changing and we need to change with it. The expectation of citizens around the education system have changed and I think this Bill will go some distance to ensuring that we keep up with those changes.
Fianna Fáil education spokesman Thomas Byrne welcomed the passage of the Bill which he described as “in some ways radical legislation” but said in other way it will not affect many schools in terms of how they operate.
The legislation now goes to the Seanad.
Portuguese lawmakers have rejected a proposal to legalise euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide.
Drafted by the ruling Socialists, the bill garnered 110 votes in the 230-seat parliament but was voted down by 115 opponents, with 4 abstentions, after a heated debate and a vote that required each lawmaker to declare his or her stance.
The Portuguese Doctors’ Association opposed the change, saying it violated key principles of the medical profession.
The outcome of Portugal’s vote was expected to be close as the two main parties, the Socialists and the main opposition Social Democratic Party, allowed their lawmakers to vote according to their conscience. The two parties have 175 of the 230 members of the Republican Assembly, Portugal’s parliament. Another of the government’s hard left allies, the Communists, voted against the legislation, joining the conservative CDS-PP on the other end of the political spectrum.
Inciting or assisting euthanasia is currently punishable by up to three years in prison.
Health Minister Simon Harris has issued a threat to doctors who refuse to refer patients for abortions under the proposed legislative regime. On Monday, GPs with the Medical Alliance for Life had asked the Minister that they might not be prosecuted for refusing to do referrals. However, speaking on Claire Byrne Live Monday night, Harris said he didn’t expect any substantial changes between the already-published outline of the bill and the final legislation.
“I think these have been the most discussed heads of bill of perhaps any legislation ever. I took a conscious decision, along with the rest of the government, to publish the heads of bill before the referendum because people rightly wanted to know, if I voted Yes, what will the law look like?”
People cast their ballots in the full knowledge that this would be the legislation, he said.
Doctors who refused to administer abortions to their patients would be allowed to conscientiously object, Harris said, but added that those GPs would have to refer patients to a doctor who would. “The law of the land will be very clear on that,” Harris said. “Medical Council guidelines already deal with issues of conscientious objection and I expect the Medical Council will deal with that.”
British Prime Minister, Theresa May, has ruled out any legislative diktat from Westminster that would impose a liberal abortion law on the North. She spoke as hundreds of pro-choice activists vowed to hit Northern Ireland like a “seismic wave” as they stepped up their bid for change with a rally in Belfast on Monday. Theresa May’s official spokesman said on Monday that abortion was a devolved matter on which politicians at Westminster should not legislate. “It is important to recognise that the people of Northern Ireland are entitled to their own process which is run by elected politicians. Our focus is restoring a democratically accountable devolved government in Northern Ireland so that locally accountable politicians can make decisions on behalf of the public they represent,” the spokesman said.
