News,

SPUC is encouraging religious believers to pray and fast to prevent the extension of the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. John Smeaton, national director, points out that, while SPUC is not a religious organisation, prayer does have a part in national life. Parliament begins its sessions with prayers and King George VI called on the nation to pray during the 1944 allied landings in Normandy. "This is a time of national peril," John Smeaton writes. [SPUC director, 13 August]

Many evangelicals support Senator John McCain for US president but many Catholics are undecided, according to a survey of attitudes to the de facto Republican nominee. The Barna research shows Senator Barack Obama, Democrat, in the lead among all faith-groups (and atheists) except for evangelicals, with evangelical support for Mr McCain declining. [LifeNews, 12 August]

There is to be a conference in Illinois next month about the effects on men of abortion. The Knights of Columbus and the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation are repeating what they did last year in California, with sessions on men's healing process after abortion, the procedure's effects on men's spirituality, fatherhood and abortion, and why men who have been involved in a termination seek help. Mr Carl Anderson, head of the knights, said: "There are three victims of every abortion, the child and both of his or her parents, and it is our hope that this conference will be the beginning of a ministry within the Church to these fathers, who grieve the death of their unborn child in isolation and silence." [LifeNews, 12 August]

Birth control pills could affect the way women are attracted to men. Liverpool University, England, found that the drugs affected women's perception of pheromones. It is even suggested that this could lead to women's choosing genetically inappropriate partners. [PA on Channel 4, 13 August]

Heavy maternal drinking early in pregnancy may increase the risk of oral clefts in unborn children. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, North Carolina, found that, among some 1,300 Norwegian women, those who drank heavily in the first trimester were twice as likely to have babies with cleft lip or palate. [Reuters, 12 August]

Palliative care is to be among the duties of nurses who will provide a round-the clock visiting service in West Sussex, England. [West Sussex Gazette, 13 August]

To subscribe to SPUC's email information services, please visit www.spuc.org.uk/em-signup. The reliability of the news herein is dependent on that of the cited sources, which are paraphrased rather than quoted. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the society. © Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 2018