A US Congressional body tasked with investigating alleged malpractice among abortion providers has released a damning 500-page report on its findings, which include prosecution calls. The document published by the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives reveals it has made 15 criminal referrals, among them for alleged murder by abortion staff of infants born alive during late-term abortions and one against a company involved in foetal tissue transfers for allegedly destroying documents sought by investigators seeking evidence of the selling of such tissue for profit. In addition to criminal cases, the panel’s report makes a series of recommendations for the protection of women and infants, the “stewardship of taxpayer funds” and conducting ethical scientific research. “Human foetal tissue research is an outdated and unproductive area of research that does not make a strong impact on the field,” the report concluded.
The number of sexual partners a woman has before marriage can predict whether their marriage will last, a new study has revealed. It found that just 5% women who had no sexual partners prior to marriage got divorced within the first five years of marriage. However, a third of those who had 10 or more sexual partners before marriage divorced within the first five years. The study examines statistics as far back as the 1970s taken from the US Centres for Disease Control – on National Family Growth.
Over 744 people have died by euthanasia in Canada since the nation’s legislators decriminalised the procedure in June. Canadian broadcaster, CTV News, which gathered the numbers, said the figures compiled were incomplete, suggesting even more people have died by euthanasia in the time period examined. As part of the report, CTV also interviewed Dr Ellen Wiebe, a euthanasia practitioner who predicted cases of euthanasia will increase. “I know that it will increase,” she said. “I expect that we’ll get to the point of the Netherlands and Belgium because their laws are similar to ours, and that would mean about 5% of all deaths.”
A federal judge in the US state of Texas has ruled that medical professionals cannot be compelled to carry out gender reassignment surgeries if they have medical or religious objections. Prior to the temporary injunction handed down by District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas, such objections were overruled, on sex discrimination grounds, by the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act of 2010. “The regulation not only forces healthcare professionals to violate their medical judgment, it requires them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs,” Judge O’Connor pointed out. “Tragically, the regulation would force them to violate those religious beliefs and perform harmful medical transition procedures or else suffer massive financial liability.” Since the passing into law of the Affordable Care Act, critics have argued that doctors must be free to exercise their professional judgment in deciding medically appropriate actions for patients in their care. Simultaneously, a number of studies have revealed that the majority of children experiencing gender dysphoria will outgrow it by adulthood. Johns Hopkins University, once a pioneer in sex reassignment surgery, has since ended the practice, finding that it was actually damaging to those who undergo it.
Removing religion as a core subject in primary schools will do nothing to solve the curriculum overload problem, the General Secretary of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA) has said. Reacting to proposals by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) that religion lose its core status in favour of ‘flexible time’ outside a 60% dedication of school time to Maths, English and Irish, Seamus Mulconry pointed out that “Religious education is transmitting a holistic world view with very sound values that underpin a lot of the stuff that is valuable in our society. When people are thinking of cutting it down or dumping it they need to do some very, very serious thinking.” Calling for an “objective appraisal” of issues at the heart of the school curriculum debate, Mr Mulconry insisted that the NCCA’s current consultations on a new curriculum should not be “obsessed with religion”. The NCCA consultations run through the spring of 2017.
Christians were the most persecuted faith grouping in the world in 2016, a new study says. According to figures compiled by the Centre for Study of Global Christianity at the Massachusetts based Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, over 90,000 Christians were killed in the past year – a rate of one every six minutes. The figures, set to be released next month, were discussed by Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne of the Centre for Studies on New Religions based in Turin during an interview with Vatican Radio. He pointed out that, in 2016, 70% of Christians killed based on their faith had died in tribal conflicts in Africa, with the remaining 30% accounted for by terror attacks and government persecution worldwide.
Independent Senator, Rónán Mullen has called on RTÉ to offer a “serious” response after the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland issued a warning notice to the broadcaster on foot of the third upheld complaint against the Ray D’Arcy radio show in just 12 months. In all cases, complaints have centred on D’Arcy’s pro-abortion bias in discussing the issue and Irish laws regulating it. In a statement, Senator Mullen said: “It is astounding that RT É Management has let the situation come to this. They seem to have been utterly serene about one of their broadcasters repeatedly abusing the privileged position of tax-funded broadcasting and failing to treat the public with the decency and respect it deserved…Given the hat-trick scored by the Ray D’Arcy Show, RTÉ must…in its coverage of this finding and in its actions going forward, give the public an account of its stewardship. Regardless of people’s views on abortion, all must agree that on vital and sensitive social issues, the public service broadcaster must be scrupulously impartial. It must now give the serious response to this BAI decision that will reassure the public that it ‘gets’ it at last.
The US state of Texas has informed America’s largest abortion provider that it will no longer be funded by taxpayers in the state. Currently in receipt of $3.1 million in such funding, Planned Parenthood has been placed on notice that monies will cease in 30 days as a result of ongoing allegations that the group has been profiting from the sale of foetal body parts. In a letter announcing the move, the Texas Health and Human Services stated that “Planned Parenthood violated state and federal law” in its actions. Just weeks ago, a US Congressional investigation revealed evidence that Planned Parenthood in Texas “broke the law when it sold aborted baby remains for profit to the University of Texas”. That finding came just ahead of a US Senate Judiciary Committee decision to refer several Planned Parenthood clinics to the FBI and the Department of Justice for criminal investigation in relation to the body parts question.
A report on Britain’s biggest abortion provider has revealed a raft of dangerous and questionable practices at its clinics across the country. Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have detailed numerous failings at Maries Stopes clinics, including staff “bulk signing” consent forms, limited clinical oversight, poorly trained staff, and at least one case in which a vulnerable woman was given a termination despite not understanding what was going on. And in one clinic, obtaining consent was left to nurses and healthcare assistants, in breach of laws which state this should be done by doctors. Just last August, Marie Stopes suspended all terminations involving general anaesthetic and sedation, and all involving under 18s, after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) raised safety fears.
Supporters of a new marriage Bill in Italy hope to see ‘fidelity’ removed as a condition of marriage contracts, arguing that faithfulness in marriage is “outdated and obsolete”. The Bill is being pushed by lobbyists who want to see marriage contracts altered in line with those of same-sex civil unions, which do not contain any reference to fidelity. Ironically, this omission caused outrage among the gay community who said the lack of a fidelity element offered their unions less than parity with heterosexual ones. The new Bill has already passed through the Senate en route to a debate in Parliament.
