Irish President Michael D. Higgins signed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act into law on Tuesday, making abortion legal in cases where the mother’s life is at stake. Higgins said the passage of the law is a move toward “basic human rights.” Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said it was “a historic moment” for Read more
A doctor with name suppression has been suspended for six months and ordered to pay legal costs of $29,000 for illegally prescribing a drug that can induce labour. She has also been banned from prescribing or supplying misoprostol for three years after resuming practice – an order that can be signed off only by the health Read more
An 11-year-old rape victim has been praised by Chile’s president, Sebastian Pinera, for saying she would be happy to keep her baby and shun abortion despite being 14 weeks pregnant through being raped by her mother’s partner. President Pinera, whose government has opposed lifting the country’s ban on abortion, said he is surprised by the Read more
The Catholic bishops of Ireland intend to mount a constitutional challenge to the government’s abortion bill that is widely expected to pass a key vote in the Irish lower house. The Irish bishops will challenge the law on the basis of its unconstitutional legislative process or its failure to adequately vindicate the equal right to Read more
Family Life International NZ has announced that they will be opening a new John Paul II Centre for Life in Dunedin within weeks. There are two Centres already established in Auckland and Wellington which provide free pregnancy tests, counselling for women facing an unexpected pregnancy, practical help and support, advocacy and support for families who Read more
The number of abortions performed in New Zealand has fallen to its lowest rate in almost 20 years. Statistics New Zealand figures, released on Wednesday, show a total of 14,745 induced abortions were performed last year, 1118 fewer than in 2011. There were 193 abortions per 1000 known pregnancies last year, compared with 204 the Read more
After years of moving in a more socially liberal direction along with the rest of western Europe, the Spanish government is now doing an about face, seeking to restrict abortion and return the Catholic Church to a prominent role in the country’s school system. Though the Church is still losing ground among the faithful, it Read more
The conviction of a Philadelphia abortionist for murdering three babies born alive during abortions reveals “the ugliness of abortion”, said Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia. “We need to stop cloaking the ugliness of abortion with misnomers like ‘proper medical coverage’ or ‘choice’,” he said. “It’s violence of the most intimate sort, and it needs to Read more
In obstetrics, a fetus is an unborn child who is recognisably human and in whom all the major structures and organ systems are already present. An embryo is an unborn child from an earlier stage of development. An embryo becomes a fetus about eight weeks after fertilisation. The ‘abortion drug’ RU486 kills embryos. RU486 or Read more
In 1985, Mary Anne Warren coined the term gendercide to refer to the ritual eradication of women and girls throughout the world. More recently, the heartbreaking film It’s a Girl documents the effects of this practice on the numbers of girls and women in China and India. It makes for difficult viewing, particularly when confronted with the Read more