A commission of Poland's parliament has vote against a bill seeking to ban all abortions. The bill is backed by a 600,000-strong petition and by the Catholic Church. Mariusz Dzierzawski of the Stop Abortion group: "[A]t the next election...we'll seek to make life a key campaign issue. If the MPs don't want to support life, we'll have to change the MPs". [Tablet, 23 August] http://bit.ly/r7LHAz
Dutch priest refuses to conduct funeral for man who chose euthanasia
A priest in The Netherlands refused to conduct a funeral for man who had chosen euthanasia. Norbert van der Sluis said he was following both his conscience and the advice of bishops, adding that he would not allow another priest to conduct such a funeral in his church. The denomination of the church is not clear from the source. [DutchNews.nl, 23 August] http://bit.ly/nVaUAS
Afghan government starts population control programme
The government of Afghanisation has started a birth-control programme to reduce the country's population. The programme will involve the promotion of contraception. Khalilullah Mohammad, a lecturer in Islamic law at Kabul University, said: "It is not up to us to control the reproduction of children. The holy Koran tells us not to kill your children... If anyone asks me advice on this new plan, I will strictly oppose it." [Reuters, 23 August] http://reut.rs/ojZWaG Many drugs and devices which work as contraceptives also induce early abortions by killing newly-conceived embryonic children.
Other stories:
Doctor at UK abortion clinic cleared of sex charges [Manchester Evening News, 24 August] http://bit.ly/ow4fp7
Fewer US doctors willing to do abortions, new study shows [LifeNews.com, 23 August] http://bit.ly/rrAVQ3
Pro-life blogger converts pro-abortion atheist blogger to pro-life position [Life Training Institute, 20 August] http://bit.ly/o8l6jn
US married couple sue IVF clinic after embryos implanted into wrong woman [Mail, 24 August] http://bit.ly/oQyiPw
UK scientists claim stem cell breakthrough in Parkinson's disease research [Scotsman, 24 August] http://bit.ly/obW5Tg
Embryonic stem cells don’t work as well as adult cells, suggests study [LifeNews.com, 23 August] http://bit.ly/pTa3Gy
Australian cardinal urges youth to persevere in the battle to protect life at World Youth Day [LifeSiteNews.com, 23 August] http://bit.ly/rr3egE