Eight countries have now joined together in seeking to create a global fund for abortion in answer to US President Donald Trump’s ending of taxpayer funding of groups who provide overseas terminations. Following the announcement of the initiative to seek funding for that lost by the US announcement, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland and Cape Verde have agreed to pledge future funding for abortion, viewing it as necessary for ‘gender rights and the fight against poverty’. Towards finalising the global fund, leaders from the eight countries will meet in Belgium this March 2 for a gathering themed ‘She Decides’. Thus far, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark have announced pledges to the value of €30million towards the project.

An Irish author whose exposé on the crimes of infamous US abortionist Kermit Gosnell has become a nationwide bestseller in America has attacked the New York Times for failing to feature the book on its respected Bestseller List. Gosnell was a Pennsylvania-based abortionist who, in 2011, was exposed as performing abortions beyond the state’s 24-week limit. He was subsequently convicted of three infant murders and the manslaughter of a woman who died at the clinic. He is currently serving life in prison without the chance of parole. Documentary maker Phelim McAleer, who is co-author of Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer, accused The New York Times of “messing with the figures” in order to keep attention away from the book’s revelations. The book has shot to No.3 on the Amazon bestseller list and is the fourth bestselling non-fiction hardback in the US.

A bill to criminalise the purchasing of sex has passed through the Dáil and will now be considered by the Seanad before becoming law. The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill contains a range of measures in addition to the bar on purchasing sexual services, such as protecting children against online grooming; new offences in relation to child pornography; maintaining the age of consent to sexual activity at 17 years of age and providing new rules for sexual consent. Ruhama, the group working with those falling victim to sexual exploitation, welcomed the progress of the bill. The body’s CEO Sarah Benson said the criminalising the purchase of sex deters men from the “exploitative act” of buying sex. It has a “normative effect” where “it is no longer acceptable for any human being to buy access to another”. Meanwhile, Denise Charlton of the anti-prostitution Turn Off the Red Light campaign, said the bill shifts “attention to the perpetrators of sexual crime, and those who enable abuse and exploitation to continue”.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has attacked Ireland’s abortion laws, stating that they impede a woman’s right to bodily autonomy. In a report, set to inform a wider United Nations study on Ireland’s performance on gender equality, ‘Ireland and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women’, the IHREC calls on the ongoing Citizens’ Assembly to fully consider recommending calls for a referendum to change the Eighth Amendment constitutional protection for the unborn. It further states that Article 41.2 of the Constitution stereotypes women as it presumes they occupy primary carer roles within the home. The full report will be presented to the United Nations in Geneva next week by IHREC chief commissioner Emily Logan.

A Christian preacher who was jailed in connection with an argument after a gay man asked him about the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality has been cleared of any wrongdoing on appeal. Gordon Larmour was preaching in July 2016 when the young man posed his question on Bible teaching. Apparently enraged by the answer, the man chased Lamour until police intervened and arrested the preacher on suspicion of “threatening or abusive behaviour, aggravated by prejudice relating to sexual orientation” and “assault aggravated by prejudice relating to sexual orientation”. Lamour was subsequently jailed for one night. However, an appeal against this jailing heard from a colleague of the young man that Larmour had in no way assaulted the man or used homophobic terms against him. “I had simply answered his question and told him about Adam and Eve and heaven and hell,” Larmour said. “Preaching from the Bible is not a crime.”

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.”