A state visit to Washington D.C. last week prompted an outcry against India’s human rights record by International religious freedom advocates on behalf of persecuted religious minorities.

Violence against Christians and other religious minorities in India has escalated over recent years, with dramatic upticks in 2022 and 2023, most recently in the northeast state of Manipur. Laws and policies at the national and state level severely hinder and restrict the liberties of minority religious groups in India, allowing for the harassment and targeted discrimination of minority religious groups by radical mobs throughout the country.

“What we are seeing in India is a religious freedom crisis,” said Sean Nelson, legal counsel for Global Religious Freedom for ADF International as Indian PM Narendra Modi visited the White House and the US Congress.

“Christians and other religious minorities are systemically targeted in India by radical Hindu nationalist mobs, who carry out widespread violence and harassment with impunity. No person should be persecuted, harassed, or killed for simply living out their faith. The government of India should work to put an end to the violence and reform any laws that restrict freedom of religion and implicitly encourage such violence. President Biden and other world leaders should speak clearly about the deteriorating religious freedom conditions in India and encourage the Indian government to work to reverse this trend”.

Medics who provide abortions in Ireland have described moments of personal doubt about their work, according to new research.

The study by a trio of UCD academics was based on interviews with 13 abortion providers, including GPs, midwives, obstetricians and nurses.

One of those interviewed said the hardest thing morally and ethically “is seeing the little fetus”.

“[A]t the end of it all … they are formed so well, like even little fingernails … it’s just unbelievable really the formation even just … coming up to that twelve-week mark”.

“[E]ven the position. A lot of the time, they just have their little hands underneath their chin, or their hands could be across their chest … On a personal level, you just have to try and forget about it as quick as you can, but there’s certain cases that you don’t forget about … as much as others and especially the babies that are, you know, all older babies and babies that are … practically formed in every way … so that can be very, very difficult.”

Another said “In theatre during a termination … you kind of have to take yourself out of the room a little bit in your head cause I think if I thought about it too much, I would have gotten uncomfortable or I would have gotten upset, just the physical thought of what’s actually happening.”

Another interviewee said it’s “not a pleasant procedure”, adding: “you can have a moment every now and again like ‘Oh my god, [this is] not quite what I’m usually used to’ but that has diminished a lot.”

Americans tend to give higher marks to worshipping together in person rather than online, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of more than 11,000 adults.

Broadly speaking, while majorities express satisfaction with virtual services, even bigger shares of physical attenders say they feel extremely or very satisfied with the sermons (74%) and music (69%) at the services they attend in person, according to the research.

In addition, virtual viewers are much less likely to report feeling connected to other worshippers, whereas roughly two-thirds (65%) of regular in-person attenders say they feel “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of connection with their fellow attenders.

A 19-year-old found guilty of murdering her baby son hours after giving birth has been jailed for at least 12 years.

A trial heard Paris Mayo, then 15, suffocated the boy, Stanley, by stuffing cotton wool into his throat.

Mayo delivered him alone at her family home in Ross-on-Wye, in March 2019, while her parents were upstairs. She had hidden the pregnancy from her parents.

“Killing your baby son was a truly dreadful thing to do,” said the judge, Mr Justice Garnham, passing the sentence.

The trial heard she had assaulted Stanley, leaving him with injuries comparable to those seen in a car crash.

“How you did this is not clear, but I suspect you crushed his head, probably beneath your foot,” the judge told Mayo.

Her initial assault caused him “serious damage”, but did not kill him, the judge added.

“He remained alive and continued to breathe for at least an hour. You decided you had to finish Stanley off by stuffing cotton wool balls into his throat.”

Inherent biases, a limited sample, and a lack of additional empirical evidence significantly weakens the evidence basis to justify the so-called Conversion Therapy bill and may result in legislation that targets religious settings.

That’s according to Dr Karl Neff, the clinical lead at the National Gender Service (NGS).

He was responding to a claim by Noah Halpin, of Transgender Equality Network Ireland (Teni), that some people did not know they had undergone conversion practices and that they are used even in assessments for clinical healthcare.

Dr Neff said he had never met anyone who experienced this with a practitioner in Ireland.

The research paper, he said, “is weakened by significant recruitment, selection, and reporting bias. The political impetus for the study likely exaggerates these biases”, while even the report’s authors noted that there is “no empirical evidence of conversion therapies in Ireland in published research”.

The endocrinologist said if the proposed bill followed the study’s findings it would focus on religious and family settings.

There is a real risk of state interference in Christian doctrine if the recommendations of a UN expert on LGBT issues are followed, warns the World Evangelical Alliance [WEF].

The WEF’s Wissam al-Saliby said the report of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Independent Expert of the United Nations, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, blurs the lines between religious doctrines and violations of human rights by several references to “sin” and “exclusionary teachings”.

Under international law, he said the State has the right to restrict religious freedom where it amounts to a threat to public safety, order, health and life, but traditional Christian teachings about sin and sexuality are usually excluded from that.

However, “[t]he report and its recommendations invite State intervention in Christian doctrine. Such an intervention would amount to an attack on the doctrinal autonomy of Christian communities and would violate the core protection of the forum internum or the non-negotiable internally held beliefs stemming from the God’s revealed Word”.

In addition, religious freedom expert, Ignasi Grau, said: “Calling an act sinful should not mean persecuting a person. Otherwise, all believers would be persecuted or rejected”.

“Although the report does not say this explicitly, it seems to suggest that public authorities should prevent religions leaders to call what they consider a sin a sin”.

There were at least 8,156 abortions in Ireland in 2022 – the highest number yet – according to new figures released by the Department of Health.

Reacting to the news, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Eilís Mulroy said the figures show that for every seven babies born, one was aborted.

“The Irish abortion rate has dramatically jumped, as the result of a government which has shown a complete lack of interest in providing women in unplanned pregnancies with real alternatives to abortion. Politicians’ only focus now should be on reducing the numbers, not on making the abortion regime even more pervasive”.

Ms Mulroy noted the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar’s, recent concern about high abortion numbers. Yet, she said a radical Bill which passed second stage of the Dáil to expand the abortion law would “see the abortion rate climb even higher”.

“If Mr Varadkar is serious about seeing a decrease in the abortion rate, he urgently needs to focus on providing women in unplanned pregnancies with greater supports and alternatives to abortion. He must also engage with and listen to pro-life perspectives, instead of relying exclusively on abortion advocates in setting policy in this area.”

Blanket bans against peaceful prayer gatherings near abortion organisations are impermissible, according to Germany’s highest administrative court.

The ruling by the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig upholding freedom of assembly comes even as Federal minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus is planning to introduce exclusion zones around abortion facilities that would ban prayer vigils and offers of support.

“I’m truly relieved. Our prayers really help, as affected women have told us over and over. I am grateful that we can continue our prayer vigils. Every human life is precious and deserves protection,” said Pavica Vojnović, leader of a local prayer group after the decision was handed down.

In 2019, the city of Pforzheim banned the prayer group, despite the four-lane-wide road separating the group from the Pro Familia building. The city prohibited the group from praying within eye and earshot of an abortion organisation. Vojnović, the group’s leader, went to court to challenge the prohibition, arguing that it violated their right to freedom of assembly

More than half of the global population lives in a country where people are actively persecuted for their religious beliefs, according to the 2023 Religious Freedom in the World report.

The report was released on the first day of Religious Freedom Week, in which the U.S. Catholic bishops have invited Catholics to pray for greater religious liberty both in the U.S. and around the world from June 22–29.

Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity, published the report, which put 28 countries in the “red” category for religious freedom, which denotes religious persecution. Those countries are home to more than 4 billion people and make up about 51.6% of the global population.

Two of the most populous countries in the world, China and India, were found to be among the worst religious persecutors.

Other notable offenders include Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea.

There were 1,428 abortions where a baby had a disability in the UK in the first six months of last year, according to figures released by the Department of Health and Social Care.

120 of these abortions took place when the baby was 24 weeks or over.

This is 17,731 higher than the figure for the first six months of 2021.

The full twelve months of last year saw the highest number of abortions ever recorded at 214,256.