News,

The High Court in Belfast has granted an application to SPUC for a judicial review of the Northern Ireland health department's guidance on abortion. Mr Justice Weatherup allowed the application on the grounds that the department has erred in law in its view of the law on abortion in Northern Ireland, as summarised in the guidance, and on other grounds. Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland said: "We are very grateful to have the opportunity to present the issues that were not properly examined during the consultation, particularly the recommendations of the Stormont health committee. We hope that the department will now be reasonable and redraft the guidance which were fundamentally flawed and need radical revision." [SPUC, 30 June]

Terry Pratchett, the popular fiction author, has spoken in support of the legalisation of assisted suicide. In an interview with Britsh Humanist Association, Mr Pratchett said: "Either we have control over our lives or we do not. I don't believe that life is a gift from God, because I don't believe there is a god in the sense that people think of that." Mr Pratchett was speaking ahead of a debate on assisted suicide expected next week as part of the government's Coroners and Justice bill. [International Humanist and Ethical Union, 30 June] Anthony Ozimic of SPUC commented: "It is striking that many of the people who either want or who campaign for assisted suicide are people with a heightened concern for control over their own lives. Allowing assisted suicide would actually remove control from vulnerable people by exposing them to coercion, either implicit or explicit."

Pope Benedict has said that being an adult Christian means being pro-life. In an address closing the Catholic Church's Year of St Paul, the Pope said that an example of an adult faith is "to commit to the inviolability of human life from the very beginning, thus radically opposing the principle of violence, in defence of the most defenseless humans." He said that following the trends of the day was, in contrast, childish [LifeSiteNews.com, 29 June]

The headquarters of a pro-life organisation which had campaigned against the work of Dr George Tiller, the murdered abortionist, has been attacked. A man attempted to dismantle the security system at Operation Rescue, based in the late Dr Tiller's home-town of Wichita Kansas. Troy Newman, the organisation's head, has also been subject to death-threats since Dr Tiller's murder. [LifeNews.com, 26 June]

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