News,

Tributes have been paid to Jack Kemp, the American pro-life politician who has died age 73. Mr Kemp was the co-author of a law preventing US federal funds from being used in coercive population control programmes. Dave Andrusko of National Right to Life said that Mr Kemp "had an enormous impact on young pro-lifers." [National Right to Life, 4 May]

A spokesman for the government of Laos has said that a Briton held on drugs charges will not be executed if convicted because she is pregnant. [Belfast Telegraph, 6 May] The facts surrounding the case of Samantha Orobator are unclear. Her lawyer fears that, if convicted, Ms Orobator may be executed after giving birth. [Mirror, 6 May]

Pope Benedict has told a Vatican body that the right to life is non-negotiable. The Pope said that "the right to life [is] at the centre of those rights that spring from human nature itself." He called upon members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences "to be credible and consistent witnesses to the defence and promotion of these non-negotiable human rights." [Vatican, 4 May]

A newly-appointed American bishop has given a strong pro-life inaugural homily. Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, the new bishop of Oakland, California, said that America seems to be "unwelcoming toward those who may place a burden on us because they are terminally ill or otherwise 'unproductive'; [and] worst of all, a land that shows itself all too often unwelcoming toward the most defenseless of our brothers and sisters who are not even given a chance to be born, and so are eliminated from society even before they see the light of day. This inhospitality, this hostility, creates a tsunami of moral and physical violence which leaves countless damaged and destroyed lives in its wake". [Oakland diocese, 5 May]

A Spanish pro-life group is conducting a bus tour of Spain to warn about the Spanish government's plans to widen the law allowing abortion. The tour by Right to Life will visit 51 cities until 15 June. [Catholic News Agency, 4 May]

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