Ireland is experiencing an increased diversity of family types, according to a new study from researchers at Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University. According to findings contained in ‘Family Rhythms’, the book resulting from interviews with 240 family members, while the commitment to the traditional family unit endures in Ireland, numerous types of family structure have evolved in line with the country’s changed economic and social reality. Among those findings are a greater reliance on the support of grandparents in child-rearing, greater involvement by fathers, but also division in educational achievement between single and two-parent families. In this latter category, children growing up in single-parent, female-headed families experience a distinct disadvantage against more affluent families who continue to dominate in the “concerted cultivation” of their children’s education, by deliberately investing in extra-curricular activities and grinds.
US legislators have been criticised for removing a religious freedom amendment from a bill after lobbying from secular groups. At the heart of the row was the Defence Authorisations Bill, which was being held up amid wrangles between Democrats and Republicans over the inclusion of the Russell Amendment, a device to prevent religious groups or charities being sanctioned for operating according to Christian principles. Democrats threatened to hold up the defence legislation unless the Russell element was dropped, a move backed by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union. Reacting to the removal of Russell, Kristina Arriaga, executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty said: “Because Congress ducked this important issue, more service providers will be unable to continue offering their critical services, services that are sometimes only offered by religious groups. It is the refugees, homeless, trafficking victims, veterans, and other vulnerable populations who will suffer the most from Congress’s choice to prioritise political expediency over principled governance.”
An Australian court has cleared the way for a five-year-old boy to undergo surgery in order to become more female. The parents of the child, identified only as Carla, had argued before the court that their child has always exhibited “stereotypically female” behaviour and never wanted to be referred to as male. The court ruled that Carla’s parents need no permission to arrange surgery for the boy, accepting medical arguments that without it, Carla’s physical and mental health would suffer.
A pro-life television advertisement showing Down’s syndrome children living full and happy lives has been banned in France to ‘protect the consciences’ of women who have undergone an abortion after that foetal diagnosis. The ban, originally imposed on ‘Dear Future Mum’ by the French Broadcasting Council, has now been upheld by the country’s highest court, the Council of State which ruled the advertisement “inappropriate”. Renate Lindeman, spokesperson for Downpride, the international lobby group for people with Down’s said: “Our kids are banned from public television because their happy faces make post-abortion women feel uncomfortable. What’s next? Will kids with Down syndrome be banned from school? Will they be segregated from society and placed in institutions like in the old days, because their presence upsets post-abortion parents?”
A fresh attempt to have the Northern Ireland Assembly legislate for abortion has been introduced at Stormont. The move has been initiated through a Bill tabled by Alliance Party member and former NI justice minister David Ford, who is calling for abortion in cases where an unborn baby is terminally ill. Mr Ford previously tried to have such legislation voted through while serving as Justice Minister. Members of the Legislative Assembly have been lobbied repeatedly since 2013 to introduce abortion in Northern Ireland, an issue last voted on in February of 2016 when the measure was rejected by 59 votes to 40. Mr Ford’s Bill is expected to be examined and debated in 2017 as Stormont brings for its own proposals on abortion, arising from a Belfast High Court ruling of 2015 that the North’s abortion ban may be incompatible with human rights law.
A combination of a growing incidence of cohabitation and increasing age at first marriage is believed to be responsible for divorce rates in Britain reaching a 40-year low. According to a new report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the overall divorce rate has fallen to 9.3 per thousand married males and females, the lowest rate since 1974. The ONS report said: “Changes in attitudes to cohabitation as an alternative to marriage or prior to marriage, particularly at younger ages, are likely to have been a factor affecting the decrease in divorce rates since 2003; levels of cohabitation increased over this period while the married population declined. Age at marriage is also considered to be closely linked to the risk of divorce with those marrying in their teens and early 20s being at greater risk of divorce; our marriage statistics show that the average age at marriage has increased steadily since 1970 for both men and women.”
A massive 300,000-strong petition against any change to abortion laws in Northern Ireland has been presented to the Stormont Assembly. In what is believed to be the largest ever petition on any issue placed before legislators in Northern Ireland, the petition was compiled by the pro-life group Precious Life in answer to an earlier Amnesty International initiative which saw a petition of 45,000 signatures backing wider availability of terminations in the region. Presenting the latest petition, Democratic Unionist MLA Jim Wells pointed out that eight million babies have been aborted in the rest of the United Kingdom since the introduction of the 1967 Abortion Act, and added: “I am absolutely convinced the people of Northern Ireland do not want that law to extend to this part of the United Kingdom.”
