The Irish hierarchy has warned that repealing the constitutional protection for the unborn will change the principle that the right to life of all human beings is a fundamental entitlement. In a submission to the Citizen’s Assembly, the Bishops warn that any such repeal “would radically change the principle, for all unborn children and indeed for all of us, that the right to life is a fundamental human right”. They stressed their “firmly held belief, based on reason as well as faith, that there is no such thing as a human life without value” and rejected “the suggestion that any person can decide when it is time for another person to die”. The bishops further voiced concern at the language used in the debate on abortion availability in Ireland. “Words like ‘foetus’ and ‘embryo’ and ‘zygote’ have specific technical meanings. We question why, in public discourse, healthy unborn children are always referred to as ‘the baby’ while those who, in the opinion of some, do not measure up to expectations are routinely defined as the ‘foetus’ or the ‘embryo’?”

A teacher at a school in Canada has been sacked after a student took offence at his stated opposition to abortion. During a class on law and ethics at the unnamed school in British Columbia, the teacher illustrated a point by stating that “I find abortion to be wrong, but the law is often different from our personal opinions.” A female student subsequently took a complaint to school heads, demanding an apology for the offence she felt at the comment. Under threat of being fired, the teacher apologised for his comment and for offending a good student he liked. The student then complained that this was too personal and the teacher was sacked. According to reports, the school is known as “progressive” on LGBT issues and affords students the right to be ‘triggered’ by issues they find offensive and to walk out of class should this happen.

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 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.”

Ireland may be required to compensate women who have travelled abroad to procure abortions, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) has suggested. Following the case of Amanda Mellet, who is set to secure €30,000 from the Irish Government after the UNHRC ruled that her inability to access abortion in Ireland was a breach of her human rights, Prof. Sarah Cleveland, an independent member of the UN committee said that other cases in which women felt compelled to travel to Britain could result in similar compensation results. “If the same facts arose, the same obligation would apply,” she said, adding, “the Irish Government is under obligation to prevent another such situation from occurring in the future.” At least one other case is currently before the UNHRC.

The French government has approved a bill which seeks to outlaw websites working to dissuade women from seeking abortion. The bill, aimed at sites which it says “deliberately mislead, intimidate and/or exert psychological or moral pressure to discourage recourse to abortion” was hotly debated in parliament and opposed by pro-life groups and the French Catholic Bishops before it ultimately passed, setting it on track for a final vote in the Senate. Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille slammed the Bill as a “very serious attack on the principles of democracy”, while Christian Democratic Party member Jean-Frederic Poisson accused the government of double standards for banning sites offering an alternative to abortion but not “jihadist websites”.