A bill aimed at protecting the right of US health care providers to opt-out of abortion mandates has been tabled in the Senate. The Conscience Protection Act would protect health care providers from federal, state, and local abortion mandates if they conscientiously object to assisting with abortions. It would also protect religious employers from having to cover elective abortions in their health plans. The bill was previously introduced in Congress last year and passed the House by a vote of 245-182, but did not receive a vote in the Senate. “This bill is needed to give health care providers the right to provide medical care without violating their deeply held beliefs,” said the bill’s sponsor, Senator James Lankford. “Americans have very different views about abortion, but we should not force anyone to participate in it or provide coverage.”

The Pro Life Campaign (PLC) has accused the Citizens’ Assembly of lacking balance in its discussions on abortion and of ignoring the positive impact of the constitutional protection for the unborn. Speaking after the latest meeting of the Assembly, PLC spokesperson, Sinéad Slattery, criticised the gathering’s choice of speakers for sessions on abortion law. These included a representative of the UK’s largest abortion provider, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, and a representative of the Guttmacher Institute, which promotes access to abortion services in the United States and internationally. “It is bizarre, to say the least, that a leading abortion provider in Britain, a business that has publicly campaigned against Ireland’s constitutional protection for the unborn, should be invited to present under the heading of ‘case studies’ and ‘care paths’,” said Ms Slattery. “Even more strange is that an invitation was given to the partisan Guttmacher Institute to present an ‘overview of the availability of legal terminations in other jurisdictions’. Clearly, a neutral institute or group of scholars should have been asked to present such a dossier.” Ms Slattery’s comments were echoed by Independent TD Mattie McGrath who, in a statement, said: The Assembly, by giving a platform to organisations who do not have even the pretence of objectivity or impartiality is incredibly disturbing and will only result in confirming many of us in the belief that it is simply not interested in engaging in a fair analysis  of the topic.”

A proposed “stunt” by abortion advocates to travel around Ireland distributing abortion pills has been criticised as offering “nothing to the abortion debate in Ireland”. Responding to news that ROSA, a group which garnered publicity in May 2016 when it claimed to have transported abortion pills into Ireland from Northern Ireland by drone, Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign wrote: “Pro-life supporters in Ireland will see this publicity tour as what it is – a stunt that places the health and safety of women second to media hype for the campaign to liberalise Ireland’s abortion laws.  No consideration will be given to the rights of the unborn child and no room for any discussion of the intrinsic worth and dignity of every human being.” She added: “At the end of the day, stunts like this offer nothing to the abortion debate in Ireland, which involves deeply sensitive and complex issues of how we support women and families who are facing unplanned pregnancies.  Encouraging women to take dangerous pills without medical supervision is highly reckless.  Ignoring the rights of her unborn child is inhumane.”

Abortion provider the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has been heavily criticised by a health watchdog for low standards and a lack of care for women. In a report from the Care Quality Commission into BPAS’ Merseyside clinic, a range of safety issues are highlighted, including infection control procedures not being followed, no effective systems being in place to ensure resuscitation equipment was regularly checked to protect patients from avoidable harm, and incidents not being properly investigated. The report was commissioned after 16 serious incidents were brought to the attention of the Commission  between 2013 and 2016, 11 of them related to women transferred to hospital for serious injuries. Commenting on the report, Dr Anthony McCarthy of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said: “This report focuses on a catalogue of safety concerns pointing to an inherent lack of care for women which is endemic to the for profit abortion industry. There has been a cavalier attitude to safety concerns and we are presented with a series of health and safety breaches that put the lives and health of women at risk.”

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has announced that it will in future admit biologically-born girls who self-identify as male. In the wake of a similar move by Britain’s Girlguiding organisation to admit on the grounds of gender identity, the BSA said that after 100 years of deferring to “the information on an individual’s birth certificate… that approach is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently, and these laws vary widely from state to state”. The statement added that the BSA will strive to “remain true to our core values, outlined in the Scout Oath and Law”.

Hungary has said it wishes to become a hub for supporting persecuted Christians and called on others to offer tangible assistance to that community. During a conference in Budapest on the issue of Christian persecution, human resources State Secretary Bence Rétvári pointed out that more Christians are persecuted today than under the rule of the emperor Nero. Noting that religious leaders in the Middle East have repeatedly called on western democracies to provide humanitarian aid to Christians and to assist them in remaining in their home countries, Rétvári called on conference participants to work to meet that call. Meanwhile, Tamás Török of Hungary’s state secretariat for providing help to persecuted Christians told the conference that even as the European Union was affected by the violent fall-out of events in the Middle East, it had not developed a unified approach to combat persecution, prompting Hungary to act unilaterally in establishing the secretariat to coordinate Hungary’s own measures with the foreign ministry, churches, civil groups, the UN, the International Criminal Court and the European Parliament in this area.

Doctors in Britain have been instructed to stop referring to pregnant women as “expectant mothers” so as to avoid insulting transgender people. New guidance from the British Medical Association (BMA) says the word ‘mother’ should no longer be used staff should use the term “pregnant people” as a way to “celebrate diversity”. The advice is contained in a booklet called ‘A guide to effective communication: inclusive language in the workplace’ which states: “A large majority of people that have been pregnant or have given birth identify as women” and that “there are some intersex men and trans men who may get pregnant…We can include intersex men and trans men who may get pregnant by saying ‘pregnant people’ instead of ‘expectant mothers’.” Decrying the new guidelines, Deputy Director for Public Affairs at The Christian Institute, Simon Calvert, said: “It’s one thing for an individual to suffer from a delusion that they are trapped in the wrong body. That deserves compassion. But it’s quite another thing for the BMA to wilfully go along with it, and even worse for them to try to force others to go along with it.

US President Donald Trump has named a pro-life defender of religious freedom as his nomination for the Supreme Court. The man chosen to fill the vacant seat in the court is Neil Gorsuch, 49, a judge of the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals. During his tenure with that court, Gorsuch sided with the Christians owners of a crafts store that opposed being required by government to provide certain contraceptives through its health plan. In a similar case, he also sided with the Little Sisters of the Poor when they argued on conscience grounds that they would not supply contraception or abortifacients. Gorsuch is also the author of a 2009 book, The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, in which he argued that human life has intrinsic value and “that intentional killing is always wrong”. In that book he also wrote of Roe v. Wade, that there is “no constitutional basis” for giving a mother more rights than her unborn child.

The Irish Bishops have welcomed an announcement by Minister for Education Richard Bruton that a system of surveys and consultations with parents and patrons will precede future divestment of faith schools. Under the new two-stage plan, Education and Training Boards will first work to identify areas where there is likely to be demand from families for diversity in schooling. Secondly, where such demand is demonstrated justifying transfer of at least one school from denominational status, a process will be set in train to realise this. “Where the need for a transfer to a multi-denominational patron is identified by surveys, the existing landowner, in cooperation with the local school community, will decide what multi-denominational patron to transfer to. The transfer will be by way of a live school transfer, with existing staff remaining in place, where this is the wish of the parties involved. In most cases the new patron will lease the building from the landowner,” Minister Bruton said. He added: “I believe that we should acknowledge the role of religious organisations in providing a system of national education for nearly two centuries. I also believe that a desire on behalf of many parents to have their children educated within their faith is welcome and should be respected.”