Britain’s new health secretary, Therese Coffey, is a practicing Catholic who has previously voiced opposition to both abortion and assisted suicide.

Announced as part of Prime Minister, Liz Truss’, major cabinet reshuffle, Ms Coffey has also been named deputy prime minister.

Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Coffey told Sky News, “I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve but it’s undoubtedly part of who I am . . . I would prefer that people didn’t have abortions, but I’m not going to condemn people who do.”

The preference for sons in India is no longer translating into a willingness to abort girls.

Sons had been seen as breadwinners who would carry on the family name and perform the last rites for their parents. This has led to the illegal abortion of millions of unborn girls, particularly in northern states like Haryana.

But the latest government data and anecdotal evidence from women and health experts suggests that trend is changing due to education, the success of high-profile Indian women in business and sport and a crackdown on clinics that illegally abort girls.

For the first time, the national family health survey (NFHS) of 2019-21 found that females outnumber males – with 1,020 females for every 1,000 males. In the last NFHS of 2015-16, there were 991 females for every 1,000 males.

There is no official data on sex-selective abortions.

But the U.N. sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, estimates that India lost about 590,000 girl children to pre-natal sex selection every year between 2015 and 2020 and that about 46 million women and girls were missing in India in 2020.

A record number of people gathered in London for the annual UK March for Life, organisers have reported.

According to police estimates the event attracted 7,000 supporters for the march which ended with a gathering in Parliament Square.

It comes just a few days after home DIY abortions using the two-part abortion pill became standard practice in England and Wales.

The event was supported by pro-life organisations from across the UK, under the theme: ’10 Million Too Many’ – a reference to the approximate number of abortions in the UK since the Abortion Act was passed in 1967.

Referring to the recent overturning of Roe v Wade in the US, Madeline Page of The Alliance of Pro-life Students said: “We’ve seen a steady increase in the amount of young people wanting to take part in pro-life events since the news from America”.

Religious street preachers in Leeds have been slapped with a new code of conduct after claims they have been using ‘hate speech’.

The Labour-run local council and West Yorkshire Police said the right to freedom of expression in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), ‘is a qualified right and may be limited to prevent disorder or crime.’

One preacher is appealing the new code as he thinks he is being ‘shut down’ from speaking and believes it is ‘out of the question’ that he would be barred from talking about LGBT issues.

He claimed his preaching was ‘thoroughly Biblical and in line with mainstream historic Christian doctrine.’

The code says preachers should: ‘Refrain from using homophobic language or any other hate speech.’

‘It is an offence under the Public Order Act 1986 to use threatening, abusive or insulting words with the intention of causing a person to feel harassment, alarm or distress,’ it adds.

Preachers are also told they must not use language which could be upsetting or alarming for young children.

Silent prayer gatherings near an abortion counseling facility cannot be prohibited, a German court ruled last week.

The decision lifts a ban issued in 2019 by the city of Pforzheim in southwest Germany and upheld in May 2021 by a lower court decision.

The Mannheim Administrative Court ruled that “authorities could only make an assembly dependent on such a condition if public safety would be directly endangered if the assembly were held. This was not the case here.”

The prayer organiser welcomed the decision.

“Every human life is valuable and deserves protection. I am heartened that we will be able to resume our prayer vigils in support of women and their unborn children in the place where we think it makes the most sense,” said Pavica Vojnović.

The pro-life activist led the prayer vigils by the group 40 Days for Life.

The charity Release International is warning of a renewed crackdown against churches in China.

The charity which serves the persecuted church, says Chinese authorities have been arresting pastors and shutting down congregations as part of a crackdown on religion ordered by President Xi Jinping in December 2021.

‘It’s all about control,’ says Paul Robinson, the CEO of Release International. ‘What the Party cannot dominate and control it seeks to eliminate. And it’s getting worse. Our partners tell us that churches in China are facing the toughest persecution since the Cultural Revolution.’

Tighter regulations on religion in China were passed in 2018 and underlined by President Xi in person in December 2021. The Chinese premier called for a more aggressive campaign against so-called ‘illegal’ forms of religion in China.

He insisted churches should be made to ‘adhere to Marxist religious views’ and called for the stricter enforcement of religion laws.

Governments have been too “squeamish” about standing up for the family, the UK Children’s Commissioner has said, as she called on the next Prime Minister to do more to support couples to stay together.

Dame Rachel de Souza told The Telegraph that data she had collected showed that stable families had a great “protective” effect, making children happier and more successful.

She urged the new prime minister and opposition leaders to commit to harnessing what she calls the “most powerful foundation for the future”: a strong, positive family dynamic that offers those within it “universal values and provable protections”.

Her independent family review, published on Thursday morning, finds that 23 per cent of children live in lone parent households – almost twice the European average of 13 per cent; while 44 per cent of children do not spend their entire childhood living with both their biological parents.

It concludes that children in stable families do better at GCSE – and finds that children who get on well with both their parents will earn more by the time they reach the age of 25.

And it cites data showing that families who spend time with each other, such as regularly eating dinner together, tend to be happier.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has held a meeting with doctors from the National Gender Service (NGS), but made no commitments about stopping referrals to the controversial Tavistock clinic for children in the United Kingdom. It is to close soon after a report questioned the safety of what is happening there, including the high use of puberty blockers.

The meeting was held on Tuesday between Mr Donnelly and senior clinicians who have publicly raised concerns about HSE’s use of the clinic and requested that referrals be ended.

Earlier this year, an interim report by Dr Hilary Cass found staff at Tavistock felt “under pressure” to adopt an “unquestioning affirmative approach” to gender that was at odds with standard clinical assessment processes. Dr Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the UK, had been commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS) to conduct a review of healthcare for gender identity services for children and young people.

Some 238 young people in Ireland were referred to Tavistock between 2011 and 2021, while there were 17 referrals in the first five months of this year. The HSE said 11 children in Ireland are currently on puberty blocker and cross-sex hormones, prescribed by their clinicians in Ireland.

Christians are called to bring hope to those going through dark times, especially families who are threatened by ideologies prevalent in today’s world, Pope Francis said.

The Pontiff has frequently condemned “new theories of gender” as an ideology that corrodes the traditional understanding of sexuality and family life and he has been trenchant in criticising international aid to developing countries when it is conditional on accepting such new ideologies.

Addressing the Schonstatt Fathers, who were in Rome for their general chapter, the pope urged them to be “bearers of a message of hope in these dark situations that people in every stage of life are going through.”

“Today, there are many marriages in crisis, young people tempted, the elderly forgotten, children suffering,” he said. “We often see that the nature of the family is under attack by various ideologies, which shake the foundations that support the personality of the human being and, in general, society as a whole.”

Pro-life leaders in the US state of Minnesota denounced a consumer alert issued by the state’s Attorney General Keith Ellison against pro-life pregnancy centers.

The impact of Ellison’s statement is to “besmirch” the good work of pregnancy resource centers and put people on notice that he has a target on their back, said Jason Adkins, executive director and general counsel for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

Adkins stressed that pregnancy resource centers “should be truthful about what services they offer and what they do not,” adding that “not all of them have medical staff, nor do they hold themselves out as having such resources.”

Many of these centers focus on connecting women with housing and providing an environment where they can access clothing and other support, he said, noting that the attorney general’s alert is “a solution in search of a problem.”

Ellison’s alert states that “many so-called crisis pregnancy centers may pose as reproductive health care clinics despite not providing comprehensive reproductive healthcare to consumers,” and some don’t provide any health care services at all.

It says the centers are “private organisations that attempt to prevent or dissuade pregnant people from accessing their constitutionally protected right under the Minnesota Constitution to a safe and legal abortion.”