Research published in the British Medical Journal has claimed that Abortion pills bought online can be a safe “alternative” to travelling for abortion. Such pills can be used to induce abortion up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. However, the study was based on a non-random sample and on self-reporting by respondents. The main authors are involved in the distribution of the online pills. While the importing of abortion pills is strictly speaking illegal, the organisation behind the study claim they have sold the pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, to 1,636 women on the island of Ireland during the two years. In a follow-up survey, to which over 1000 women responded, “ 94.7 per cent reported successfully ending their pregnancy without surgical intervention. Seven women (0.7 per cent) reported receiving a blood transfusion and 26 (2.6 per cent) reported receiving antibiotics. No deaths . . . were reported by family, friends, the authorities or the media.” Ninety-three reported experiencing symptoms for which they were advised to seek medical attention, of whom 87 did seek attention. Of the five who did not report, none reported any adverse outcome.

The rapid decline in churchgoers in the UK may be slowing thanks to a rise in patriotism and pride in Christianity, a new report is suggesting. The trend appeared in an analysis of two major surveys of British attitudes by a Professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. Professor Stephen Bullivary told the Telegraph, “People see Christianity as an expression of Englishness. There has been more rhetoric around Britain being a Christian nation. People are looking for ways to connect with others. I suspect a larger proportion of people who do say they are Anglican tend to be patriotic”. In the period from 2009, the proportion of non-religious people has declined by 2% whereas those who self-describe as Anglican has increased by almost 1%. Professor Bullivary commented, “[a]fter decades of bad news, this is certainly welcome for the Church of England. If I was in the Anglican Church I would be celebrating this.”

Archbishop William Lori has offered a cautious welcome to President Trump’s executive order on religious liberty. The order was designed to protect religious organisations from being forced into actions that would compromise their ethos. Specifically, it should help them from having to comply with a healthcare mandate that they must buy “health” insurance for their employees that includes contraceptive and abortifacient coverage. Speaking to Crux, he said “this looks like a good development, we’re glad to see it, especially those parts that promise us some relief from the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act”. However, he added a note of caution: “First, the devil is in the details, so let’s see how it works out. Secondly, while this is welcome, there are still a lot of other challenges, even at the federal level, that lay before us.” Specifically, on the controversial mandate, he said: “Maybe we can get ‘preventive services’ redefined, so they really do pertain to preventing diseases and not to inducing abortions or preventing birth.”

A case has been filed with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the banning of an ad in France featuring Down Syndrome children. The ad is called “Dear Future Mom”. In it, various children with Down Syndrome reassure pregnant mothers carrying a Down Syndrome child of their capacity for happiness, their abilities, and their love for their parents. The ad was ruled by a French court to be “inappropriate” and would “unsettle” those who had had abortions. The French court, called the ‘Council of State’ ruled that the short film could ‘disturb the conscience of women who, in accordance with the law, have made personal life choices’.

The case was filed by the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, with the help of the European Centre for Law and Justice, who said the ban went against commitments France made to integrate the weakest of its members. “To people with Down syndrome, it has meant that their visibility, their very existence, pose a problem to society”, they said in a press release. “In addition to the infringement on their freedom of expression, these children have also been manifestly discriminated against because of their genomes.”

The United Nations celebrates the International Day of Families today. The intention of the Day is highlight the important role family plays as the fundamental building unit of society, instead, according to Paul Coleman of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), “we are increasingly witnessing international institutions, governments, and courts undermining the family rather than protecting it.” He cites the example of a German family whose home-schooled children were snatched from them by police and social workers in order to enforce a 1918 law prohibiting such education. While the children have since been returned, the European Court of Human Rights has agreed to review whether Germany’s actions breached the right to family life. “The International Day of Families is a good occasion to draw attention to the importance of the family, and the need to safeguard family rights worldwide. Let us not forget that in a free society, parents raise children, not the government,” added Coleman.

A draft of the UK Labour Party’s election manifesto reveals that they would extend the UK’s abortion regime to Northern Ireland. The document states that Labour would “continue to ensure a woman’s right to choose a safe, legal abortion – and we will legislate to extend that right to women in Northern Ireland.” The 1967 Abortion Act, which legalised the practice in Britain, never applied to Northern Ireland where abortion is available only in very limited circumstances. According to the BBC, there were 16 abortions in Northern Ireland in 2014/15, compared to 184,571 in England and Wales. This does not include the number of Northern Ireland women who travel to Britain each year for abortions.

The lower House of the Romanian parliament has given its approval to holding a referendum to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The measure now goes to the Romanian Senate and, if passed there, a referendum will then be held within 30 days. A petition signed by over 3.1 million Romanian citizens had asked for the referendum and the lower House duly gave its consent by a vote of 232 for, 22 against with 13 abstentions. The revised Article 48, Paragraph 1, of the Constitution of Romania, as proposed by the Citizen’s Initiative, would state: “The family is founded on the freely consented marriage between a man and a woman, their full equality and the right and duty of parents to ensure the upbringing, education and instruction of children.”

The Vatican has launched an investigation into Catholic psychiatric care centers in Belgium run by the Brothers of Charity after they approved euthanasia for patients earlier this year. The Brothers of Charity also operate in Ireland offering extensive care facilities for the mentally disabled. The Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is running the investigation after the board of the Brothers’ institutions made a decision to allow doctors to euthanise patients under certain circumstances. The Worldwide head of the Brothers of Charity, Brother Rene Stockman, had campaigned against the legalisation of euthanasia in Belgium and strongly opposed the decision to euthanize patients in the Brothers’ own care-facilities. It was he who brought the matter to the attention of the Vatican as well as to Belgium’s Catholic bishops. The case is reminiscent of the Sisters of Charity in Ireland whose hospitals have agreed to comply with the 2013 law on providing abortion in certain limited circumstances and who are due to own the new maternity hospital where all services “legal in the state” will be available including IVF, sterilisation and abortion.

Six far-left TDs protested the recitation of a prayer before yesterday’s Dáil session by remaining firmly seated throughout its duration. This violated the protocol of standing respectfully while the Ceann Comhairle recits the prayer. TDs are also required to stand during the new 30 second period of reflection, introduced to appease those of no religion. However, some of the protesting TDs  held aloft posters stating “Separate Church and State” even during this silent time. The TDs want the prayer to be abolished entirely. The prayer states: “Direct we beseech thee O Lord, our actions by Thy holy inspiration, and carry them on so that every word and work of ours may always begin from Thee and by Thee be happily ended.”

The Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, has said decades of work by priests and religious in education and healthcare are being “almost obliterated by a revised and narrow narrative that religious ethos cannot be good for democracy”. The Archbishop was speaking at the University of East Anglia in England on Monday night where he delivered a lecture on The Church in the Public Sphere – a perspective from Ireland. He said there was a view that religious ethos stands “against the progress and flourishing of society and the rights of citizens” and there was a belief that things related to faith were “unconnected with reason”, when, in fact, “every Catholic position on concrete morals is argued from reason even when there exists a biblical warrant for that position.” Archbishop Martin said the Church has no desire for a theocracy in Ireland, North or South. “However, the church does expect that in a true pluralist democracy or republic, religion and faith will continue to have an important part to play in the national conversation.”