Pro-abortion groups have joined in urging the United Nations to declare September 28 as ‘Safe Abortion Day’. Under the umbrella title of the ‘International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion’, some 1,800 groups from 115 countries backed the call in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Pro-Life advocates were quick to criticise the call. Rebecca Oas, associate research director for pro-life organisation C-Fam, who has conducted research on maternal mortality causes, said “what women need is better maternal healthcare” and not more abortions, while Steve Phelan of Human Life International lamented that “these pro-abortion radicals deny the existence of the majority of women who are pro-life and who resent having their femininity reduced to the act of killing an unborn child”.

 A judge in the US state of California has granted permission for doctors opposed to newly enacted assisted suicide legislation to proceed with a challenge to the law. Although Judge Daniel A. Ottolia did not suspend the legislation as requested by lawyers for the doctors, he did agree that they could proceed to argue that it lacks necessary safeguards against abuse. One concern is that doctors are not required to be present when the patient takes the deadly medicine; therefore, there is no way of knowing whether the person is taking the medicine of their own free will. California is now the fourth US state to legislate for assisted suicide after Oregon, Washington and Vermont.

The Indian government has announced plans to outlaw commercial surrogacy. In efforts to counter what is now a billion-dollar industry, the government is to place draft legislation before parliament which would ban women from offering surrogacy services as well as prohibiting foreign passport holders, Indian single people and homosexuals from having children through surrogacy. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters that under the proposed law, only local infertile couples, married for at least five years, would be able to seek a surrogate, who must be a close relative in order to avail of an altruistic path to having a child. “This is a comprehensive bill to completely ban commercial surrogacy,” she said.

A Christian member of the US Air Force who faced a military investigation after complaints that he kept an open Bible on his desk has been told he may continue to do so following an investigation. Major Steve Lewis had become the centre of a call for “swift, visible and aggressive punishment” from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a body dedicated to the separation of church and state within the military, when it was discovered that he kept an opened Bible on his desk at all times. The group said the opened Bible was a “brazen display of sectarian Christian triumphalism and exceptionalism” which caused “helpless subordinates” to view it daily. However, the Air Force has ruled that Major Lewis’ act is “well within the provisions” of military regulations on religious expression.

The number of Americans who state they no longer believe in God is growing for a number of reasons, a new study has shown. According to the Pew research Centre, which conducted an earlier study to show that non-believers now stand at 23% of the US population, fully 49% of those leaving their respective faiths are prompted by a number of causes. Reasons include “many respondents who mention ‘science’ as the reason they do not believe in religious teachings…Others reference ‘common sense,’ ‘logic’ or a ‘lack of evidence’ – or simply say they do not believe in God,” researchers stated. Others, meanwhile, cited “learning about evolution..too many Christians doing un-Christian things [and]  because I think religion is not a religion anymore. It’s a business…it’s all about money.”

A Jordanian prince and a Jewish interfaith expert have issued a joint defence of the place of Christianity in the Middle East. Working to counter the narrative of so-called Islamic State that Christianity is an import of the West to the Muslim world, Prince Hassan of Jordan and Dr Ed Kessler have authored a joint piece for Britain’s The Daily Telegraph in which they argue forcefully against the narrative. They insist: “Christianity has been part of the essential fabric of the Middle East for two thousand years. “Far from being a Western import…it was born here and exported as a gift to the rest of the world. Christian communities have been intrinsic to the development of Arab culture and civilisation.” They conclude: “It is time to call a halt to the hate and atrocities that are causing convulsions throughout our immediate region and beyond.”

A lobby group for women’s equality in Canada has launched a petition calling on legislators to end anti-Christian discrimination in the country. REAL Women was prompted to act on behalf of Christians following the enactment of euthanasia legislation which was viewed as repressive of conscience. The petition urges the government to “to provide Christians and their faith-based institutions protection from [the new law’s] provisions that are contrary to their religious and conscience beliefs,” and to enact “a policy to review any new legislation” to ensure “it does not impinge upon the religious rights of Christians”.

The John Templeton Foundation is to fund a £2.3 million project to study non-religious belief worldwide. The ‘Understanding Unbelief’ project is to be led by a British-based research team comprising members of a number of universities in England and Northern Ireland, and includes Dr Stephen Bullivant, director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society, a group involved in research and engagement activities in the area of religion and the social sciences. In examining the diversity of non-belief, ‘Understanding Unbelief’ aims to build on an earlier 15-month scientific study of non-religious belief. The project will culminate in 2019, with an international conference in Rome, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Vatican’s landmark ‘Culture of Unbelief’ conference.

Nearly 1,000 at-risk children in Ireland were awaiting the allocation of a social worker at the end of 2015, latest figures show. According to the annual report of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, 999 “high priority” cases were waiting to be assigned a social worker at the close of the year. While Tusla points out that his represents a 65% reduction for that category of case its report also concedes that, overall, 6,718 children were awaiting a social worker at the end of 2015. Acknowledging the high figure, Chief executive Fred McBride said the number of vulnerable children waiting for a social worker remained unacceptably high and said Tusla is working towards a zero rate.

Mothers who return to work earn one third less than men over time, a new study in Britain has found. According to research undertaken by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the disparity arises mainly from mothers tending to work fewer hours than colleagues. However, the study also showed that before having a child the average female worker earns 10-15% less per hour than a male employee. After childbirth that steadily increases to 33% after around 12 years. The IFS showed also that there has been a slight improvement in the gender pay gap, with the overall hourly gender pay gap of 18% representing a narrowing of the gap from 23% in 2003 and 28% in 1993.