The Minister for Health has said he expects new legislation on surrogacy will be drafted, debated, and enacted by the time the Dáil rises for the summer recess in July.
Almost all European countries either ban or do not recognise the practice because they believe it exploits women and commodifies babies.
Minister Stephen Donnelly told the Dáil the formal drafting process is well under way. He said legislation with this level of detail and complexity would normally take several years.
He said he hopes to bring it to Cabinet soon, after which it will be debated at the Health Committee.
Four in ten adults reported experiencing ‘sexual violence’ over their lifetime, according to a major new survey from the CSO, with young women suffering the most.
‘Sexual violence’ is broadly defined in the study as “a range of non-consensual experiences, from non-contact experiences to non-consensual sexual intercourse.”
There were clear differences by sex and age in terms of experiences of sexual violence. 52% of women have experienced sexual violence compared with 28% of men.
Young women (aged 18-24) reported the highest levels of sexual violence experienced in their lifetime at 65%.
By contrast, the corresponding figure for older women (aged 65 plus) was 35%.
Dr. Clíona Sáidléar, Executive Director, Rape Crisis Network Ireland, discussed the findings on Morning Ireland and said that only some of the difference in reported levels of sexual abuse between the age groups is due to a greater ability by young people to be “able to name something”.
But she added that “the CSO would have been very careful to control for that”. She said another explanation for the difference is the existence of “emerging forms of sexual violence” including “digitally enabled” sexual abuse, which is “much higher for the younger age group”.
Only 2.5pc of women who sought abortions at the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) decided against a termination in the end, after the mandatory three-day wait. This is far lower than the national average of one in six women deciding not to go ahead with an abortion after an initial consultation with a doctor.
In the first three years of the abortion law, when almost 20,000 abortions were recorded nationally, there were 3,951 women, or 1 in 6, who did not proceed to a second appointment after their first, whereas for the IFPA, the corresponding figure is 1 in 40.
Data published on Wednesday show 484 women attended IFPA clinics in Tallaght and Dublin city centre in 2021 seeking abortion. Of these, 459 were eligible for a first trmester, abortion on request. Of these 12 did not make further contact after their first consultation.
This confirms what other national studies have been finding over the last few years.
A co-author of the report, Brian J. Willoughby, Ph.D., said: “It appears that sexual exclusivity between spouses provides an underappreciated foundation for the intimacies of marriage and helps spouses create a mutually satisfying relationship founded on emotional intimacy and healthy communication”.
The study also found that married men and women who have only had sex with their spouse have a nearly 45% chance of reporting a very high level of relationship stability in their marriage, compared to only 25% of married individuals with 5-9 lifetime sexual partners and only 14% of married individuals with 10 or more lifetime sexual partners.
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on assisted suicide held its first meeting, in private session, last night.
TDs and Senators will decide next week whether public hearings will begin in May or September.
The Committee must issue a final report within nine months of the first public session.
It is expected that next week’s meeting, also on Tuesday evening, will decide on whether to seek a change in its terms of reference.
Independent Senator Rónán Mullen is understood to have made a presentation suggesting the terms of reference explicitly state that it is open to the Committee to recommend no change to the existing law.
The Committee will also consider whether its title should be changed to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Assisted Suicide.
The terms of reference state that the committee will consider all “relevant considerations arising from the provision of a statutory right to provide assistance to a person to end their life and the statutory right to receive such assistance”.
Over 70 international religious groups and experts have sent a letter to the Biden Administration urging it to address the state-backed persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Vietnam.
“Over the past twelve months, we have observed the rapid escalation of repressive measures against religious groups that resist government control. Of particular concern are the government’s intensifying efforts to force Christians to renounce their faith, crack down on house churches that do not submit themselves to government control, and coerce members of independent religious groups to join government-controlled religious organizations,” the letter says.
One of the signatories, the Law firm ADF international, said no one should be persecuted, punished, or imprisoned for expressing their faith.
Sean Nelson of ADF added: “Over the past year, we have seen an increase in serious government harassment towards religious minority faiths in Vietnam, especially Christians. The Biden Administration now has an opportunity to stand up for those most persecuted by addressing this situation directly with the Vietnamese government. We implore Secretary Blinken to take this opportunity to speak out in support of the people of Vietnam’s fundamental right to worship freely and live out their faith, without fear of punishment and persecution.”
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case concerning an evangelical Christian and former U.S. Postal Service worker, who was denied an accommodation to observe his Sunday sabbath by not taking Sunday shifts.
Federal law prohibits employers from firing employees seeking religious accommodations unless the employer can show that those accommodations cannot be “reasonably” met without “undue hardship.” In a 1977 decision in Trans World Airlines v. Hardison, the high court found that the “undue hardship” standard is met even at a minimal cost.
Gerald Groff said he sought employment at the post office since it did not deliver mail on Sundays, however, that practice changed during his employment there, leading him to seek an accommodation. However, the USPS refused.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of USPS, arguing the post office would face an “undue hardship” by accommodating Groff’s request to excuse him from Sunday shifts. But the U.S. Supreme Court agreed earlier this year to take up the case.
An English-based historian has called for a reappraisal of the positive contribution of Nuns to Ireland before memory of it is lost forever.
Writing in the Irish Times, Gillian O’Brien, a Reader in Modern Irish History at Liverpool John Moores University, said it is impossible to fully understand the development of Ireland without considering the significance of the female religious orders.
“Overlooking their contributions to communities across the country erases women (once again) from history. And there is an urgency about recording the history of the buildings and landscapes, their material culture and the lives of the women who lived in the convents before it is too late”, she said.
Ms O’Brien noted that convents formed the backbone of Irish Catholic society from the late-18th century until well into the 20th century.
“Many nuns attended university, many had fulfilling and varied careers. Female religious orders were significant as employers – of teachers and healthcare staff, of staff in the convents and of those who provided goods and services to the convents”.
She acknowledged the story of nuns and convents in Ireland is not black and white, but added that it is not sufficient to consider all nuns as cruel overseers of Magdalene laundries or as comic characters in popular entertainment.
She concluded with a plea that time is of the essence.
“The stories of the communities (inside and outside the buildings) must be recorded, and they must be recorded now”.
A primary school teacher in Oristano, Sardinia, has been suspended for 20 days on reduced pay for teaching her students to construct a rosary for Christmas and for praying a Hail Mary and Our Father with them.
The Oristano school office’s decision of suspension was taken after two mothers protested. While other parents defend her, she said she will appeal the decision.
On 22nd December last year, Marisa Francescangeli showed her students how to construct a rosary with beads for the occasion of Christmas and told them “to wish the children a Merry Christmas by reciting two prayers with them,” she told L’Unione Sarda. In reaction to this, two mothers complained to the school principal. After the complaint, a meeting between the parents and the teacher was held. Marisa Francescangeli recalls: “I even apologised for the gesture, remembering, however, that at the beginning of the year, I had asked all the parents for permission to recite some prayers with the children. No one had been opposed.”
Despite this, on March 2nd, Ms Francescangeli was given a suspension notice for twenty days.
A Ukrainian official has said that the Russian military attacked a church in Ukraine on Sunday as many Ukrainians were celebrating the Orthodox Easter.
According to Newsweek, Serhii Lysak, the head of Ukraine’s Dnipro Oblast Military Administration, shared details about the attack in a Telegram post on Sunday morning.
He said it had taken place in Nikopol, southern Ukraine, and left two people injured – a 57-year-old man and 38-year-old woman.
The attack also damaged several residential and farm buildings.
Lysak said the attack showed that “there is nothing sacred” for Russian forces.
