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Fr Kevin Doran resigns from Mater Hospital board following its statement on compliance with abortion legislation
A member of the board of a leading Irish hospital has resigned after it announced that it will comply with Ireland's new abortion law. Fr Kevin Doran, a prominent priest in Dublin, said that the Mater hospital had a duty to give witness to the Gospel value of the sanctity of human life. The Archbishop of Dublin is seeking clarification of the hospital's announcement. [Pat Buckley, 2 October]
"Schools have no right to dictate what parents must teach their children about sex", says Safe at School campaign to Hounslow parents
Parents in Hounslow met yesterday evening to hear how they can best protect their primary school children from explicit sex education. The meeting was held in response to growing concern among parents that some local schools are telling parents that their children must attend sex education classes and any parents withdrawing their children will be told by the school what they must teach their children. Antonia Tully, national co-ordinator of SPUC's Safe at School campaign, said: "This is an outrageous development. Sex education is not compulsory and it has never been a statutory part of the science curriculum. Schools have no legal or moral right to dictate what parents must be teach their children about sex." [SPUC, 2 October]
SPUC's Anthony Ozimic comments on so-called "post-fertilisation contraception"
Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, has commented on recent news that scientists are developing a monthly birth-control pill as an alternative to daily birth-controls pills and the morning-after pill. Such a pill would work by killing newly-conceived human embryos. Anthony told Simon Caldwell, writing for The Catholic Times this past weekend: "Firstly, it is both nonsensical and devious to speak of 'post-fertilisation contraception'. Contraception is something which prevents conception, which every embryology textbook teaches is the fertilisation of an egg by a sperm. The use of any drug to prevent a newly-conceived embryo from implanting in the womb, or to dislodge him or her from the womb, is abortion. Secondly, promoting chemical abortion outside of medical centres as preferable to surgical abortion inside medical centres is to promote a form of backstreet abortion. Lastly, the supposed 'benefit' of greater convenience will further fuel the already-rampant levels of promiscuity, abuse and disease which has been fuelled by mass promotion of both the ordinary contraceptive pill and the morning-after pill." [John Smeaton, 30 September]
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