The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has rejected a proposal to introduce surrogacy in all member states. A vote on the issue had been called on foot of a report from Belgian Senator Petra De Sutter, which was largely in favour of surrogacy. However, it failed to pass the PACE vote. Opponents had pointed out a conflict of interest on Senator De Sutter’s part, given her links to surrogacy clinics in India. Welcoming the vote, the legal lobby group Alliance Defending Freedom said: “International law protects the right to family life, which means children are entitled to know their parents. Most cases of surrogacy render this impossible. The Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights consider themselves to be champions of human rights. If they are serious about the rights of women and children, they will not stop until they have achieved a complete ban on this problematic practice.”
The Irish public remains split over the form of law that should come into effect should the constitutional 8th Amendment protection for the unborn be set aside. According to an IrishTimes/Ipsos MRBI poll, which asked whether the amendment should remain or on what terms it should be replaced, men and women are evenly split on the issue, with slightly more women than men favouring retaining the ban on abortion. Overall, the poll found that while repeal of the amendment could happen on the basis of a limited abortion regime replacing it, if that limited regime were to be opposed by a mix of those for retention of the Eighth and those seeking abortion on demand, any referendum on the matter might not pass. A citizens’ assembly to consider the Eighth Amendment will meet for the first time later this month.
A new study of the US law which prohibits federal funding of abortion has estimated that it has saved some two million lives since enacted in 1976. The study, undertaken by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, compared figures since the introduction of the Hyde Amendment in 1976 against the period from 1973 to 1977 – when the US government funded terminations – and came up with the two million difference. The Hyde Amendment, which must be renewed annually by Congress – remains a constant target for pro-abortion activists despite repeated studies showing that a majority of Americans do not want their taxes used to pay for terminations. The Hyde Amendment saves more than 60,000 lives in the United States annually.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has defended Church autonomy in the area of employing teachers of religion. In a case stemming from Croatia, where the Catholic Church required a teacher of religion to hold and practice the same beliefs he was supposed to be teaching, the ECHR ruled that Churches have the freedom to select, hire and replace their teaching personnel in keeping with Church teaching and without undue state interference. The teacher in question had divorced and remarried in violation of Church teaching about the indissolubility of marriage.
A Bill aimed at protecting disabled children in the womb from abortion will have its second reading in Britain’s Houses of Parliament this month. The Abortion (Disability Equality) Act 2016 would make it an offence to procure a termination solely on the basis of a disability diagnosis in the womb. Britain currently allows for abortion up to 24 weeks for a foetus diagnosed with a disability. The Bill is sponsored by Conservative Peer Lord Shinkwin, a sufferer of brittle bone disease who has previously pointed out that disability discrimination has been outlawed for years “but for disability diagnosed before birth, discrimination remains enshrined in 2016 in the law of our land”.
An insurance company in Australia has become the first in the country to recognise customers who do not wish to be listed as male or female. HIF insurance of Perth has stated that it is to allow for customers to tick a box for ‘other’ on official forms and will offer the title ‘Mx’ in addition to traditional titles. “HIF members may select the ‘other’ gender option if they choose to identify as neither male nor female, including (but not limited to) those who are agender, androgyne, bi-gender, gender fluid, intersex, neutrois, non-binary, pangender or transgender,” said HIF director Grame Gibson. In altering its forms, HIF is following the example set by the Australian government which has already allowed for M, F, X on passports and this year changed the census form to offer a third gender category.
