News,

Today's edition of SPUC's news service is an omnibus edition, as our news delivery has been delayed due to our national conference last weekend. You can find links to reports of the conference at http://www.spuc.org.uk/about/conferences/

Top stories:

A consultation on proposals to allow abortion agencies to advertise on TV has drawn massive public opposition to the proposals. The Broadcasting Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) will not be able to complete the consultation process until the first quarter of next year due to the unprecedented number of submissions, numbering 4,000, many of which expressed opposition to abortion. [Guardian, 8 September] http://is.gd/31I6m Paul Tully, SPUC general secretary, commented: "We are pleased to note that the BCAP is carefully scrutinising the submissions. We hope that this huge expression of public concern will make the BCAP realise the depth of public feeling on the issue. We are very, very grateful to all those who have expressed reservations about the proposals. We must ensure that the government too notes the depth of public concern on this matter, and SPUC groups around the country are currently promoting a national petition directed to the prime minister to ensure that our concerns are heard by politicians too."

A mother whose prematurely-born boy died after being denied treatment has condemned guidelines given to doctors. Jayden, the son of Sarah Capewell of Great Yarmouth, England, was denied treatment because he was born earlier than 22 weeks, the cut-off point for treatment under the guidelines. Miss Capewell claimed that doctors told her that Jayden "hasn't got a human right, he is a foetus". [Telegraph, 5 September] http://is.gd/2ZdID

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has called for US$23 billion in contributions, claiming that women are dying because of a lack of funding for so-called sexual and reproductive health, a euphemism for abortion. The agency, which promotes abortion, contraception and sterilisation, made the call at a meeting of anti-life organisations in Berlin, Germany. [AFP via Google, 2 September] http://is.gd/2ZhWv John Smeaton, SPUC director, commented: "If UNFPA was truly interested in saving women's lives, it would campaign against abortion. It is no coincidence that Ireland, the country which has the world's best maternal mortality rate, also forbids abortion."

Other news:

Abortion

• "Several hundred pro-life demonstrators in Vienna protested the decision of the city's mayor to host a party celebrating the anniversary of a notorious abortion facility" [LifeSiteNews.com, 8 September] http://is.gd/34bs2
• "First US Bishop to decry the 'scandal' of the Kennedy funeral" [LifeSiteNews.com, 8 September] http://is.gd/34e0Z
• Americans to hold nationwide pro-life chains on 8 October [LifeNews.com, 7 September] http://is.gd/31JoV
• Catholic academic exposes anti-life/anti-family culture at supposedly Catholic universities [Catholic News Agency, 7 September] http://is.gd/31R5E
• Doctor prepares legal guide to banning abortions from property [Catholic News Agency, 7 September] http://is.gd/31RgK
• "Polish bishops warn Catholic politicians that abortion support risks excommunication" [Catholic News Agency, 6 September] http://is.gd/2ZquG
• Alan Clark, the late Tory minister, regretted his first love's abortion, newly-found letters reveal [Daily Mail, 6 September] http://is.gd/2ZfU8
• UNFPA withdraws name from radical pro-abortion UNESCO sex-ed guide, while training activists to promote the same agenda [LifeNews.com, 4 September] http://is.gd/31Q3h
• Abortion providers circumventing Latin American abortion laws through telephone hotlines [LifeSiteNews.com, 4 September] http://is.gd/2ZpOb
• "A hospital promotion in the western city of Chongqing offering a 50 per cent discount off the cost of abortions to teenagers who show student ID, has sparked a debate about whether Chinese attitudes to abortion are too casual." [Irish Times, 4 September] http://is.gd/2ZiO5
• The parliament in Queensland, Australia has approved an amendment to its criminal code saying the dangerous abortion drug RU486 is legal [LifeNews.com, 3 September] http://is.gd/31Qu0
• "Proposed Spanish abortion reforms offer least protection for unborn in Europe" [Catholic News Agency, 3 September] http://is.gd/2ZoIj The report fails to note that abortion is allowed up to birth in Britain.
• "City of Paris pushes chemical abortion, concerned about access to abortion services" [LifeSiteNews.com, 3 September]
• Mentally disabled teenage rape victim in India allowed to keep unborn child [BBC, 4 September] http://is.gd/2Zix9 Another, older report. Comments from Catholic Church representatives [Spero News, 21 July]
• "Black pro-life advocates say Obama's abortion support has racist outcome" [LifeNews.com, 3 September] http://is.gd/2ZoYg
• "Four former employees of late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart have come forward to tell of unsafe and illegal practices at LeRoy Carhart's Bellevue, Nebraska, abortion clinic" [LifeSiteNews.com, 28 August] http://is.gd/2Zn3A

Embryology; stem cells

• "Globs of human fat removed during liposuction conceal versatile cells that are more quickly and easily coaxed to become induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, than are the skin cells most often used by researchers, according to a new study from Stanford's School of Medicine." [Bionity, 9 September] http://is.gd/34c30
• "Hundreds of desperate British patients have spent up to £30,000 on unproven stem cell treatments in China and elsewhere, an investigation has found." [Sunday Times, 6 September] http://is.gd/2Zgng

IVF; fertility treatment

• "A couple from Gloucester have delivered a petition to Downing Street urging the relaxation of a law which means the destruction of their frozen embryos." [BBC, 8 September] http://is.gd/34dth
• Couple expecting first child spent 24 years and £100,000 on IVF [Mirror, 8 September] http://is.gd/31J74
• "Doctors from Manchester are to become the first to trial a new technique for screening embryos in a bid to make IVF more successful. The fertility experts are to send cells from embryos to the United States for testing so they can implant those which give the best hope of pregnancy." [Manchester Evening News, 7 September] http://is.gd/2Zc11
• "New IVF techniques are being used in a Sheffield fertility clinic to boost to patients' chances of a successful pregnancy by 10 per cent. Experts at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals' Assisted Conception Unit can now implant embryos in the womb at five days old instead of three" [Star, 7 September] http://is.gd/2Zb7s
• "A global fertility treatment boom will trigger a huge rise in the number of older mothers to at least 2,000 over the next five years, one of the UK's leading fertility experts predicts" [Independent, 6 September] http://is.gd/2ZeTz
• Sperm donor speaks positively of his experience [Guardian, 5 September] http://is.gd/2Zha6
• "A hospital which plans to be the largest IVF centre in Europe is to electronically tag embryos to reduce the chance of mix-ups." [BBC, 1 September] http://is.gd/2ZnaX

Population

• "EFRAT, an Israeli pro-life organization that works with women contemplating abortion by providing emotional and material support, is warning that the demographic implications of abortion in the nation are the greatest danger to Israel today." [LifeSiteNews.com, 8 September] http://is.gd/34dPc
• Catholic writer Mary Kenny welcomes Ireland's rising fertility rate [Irish Independent, 5 September] http://is.gd/2ZgQa

Sexual health; teenage pregnancies

• "Booklets promote 'out of control' sexuality to children, Mexican archbishop warns" [Catholic News Agency, 8 September] http://is.gd/34e9c
• Spanish government's education course promotes sexual immorality [Catholic News Agency, 4 September] http://is.gd/34nUA
• NHS Somerset launches Somerset Sex Directory, giving advice on birth control to teenagers [BBC, 6 September] http://is.gd/2ZcSH
• "A UK survey has revealed that myths about contraception may be widespread" [BBC, 5 September] http://is.gd/2ZgZr
• "Kids as young as 10 in London are to get sex counselling and education by text messaging, online and face-to-face. The National Lottery's Young People's Fund has awarded the Terrence Higgins Trust £432,000 to offer sexual health counselling, mentoring support and volunteering opportunities for kids from 10 to 18." [East London Advertiser, 27 August] http://is.gd/31JXV

Maternal health and unborn health

• "A mother, who could be in need of urgent medical help, is being sought after a newborn baby girl was found abandoned in Buckinghamshire." [BBC, 9 September] http://is.gd/34bPH
• Advances in brain scanning of unborn children [Mind Hack, 8 September] http://is.gd/34bia
• The head of Barnardo's, the children's charity, has called for more babies to be taken away at birth from parents who have "failed" with their previous children [Telegraph, 7 September] http://is.gd/2Zj00
• "Miracle recovery of baby sent to hospice to die with 'untreatable' brain cancer" [Daily Mail, 4 September] http://is.gd/2Zi7c
• "Grief threatened to overwhelm a pregnant 9/11 widow... until the day her baby was born" [Daily Mail, 7 September] http://is.gd/2ZcmP

Euthanasia and assisted suicide; disability

• "Daughter claims father wrongly placed on controversial NHS end of life scheme" [Telegraph, 8 September] http://is.gd/34bIR
• "A family doctor called for a terminally ill patient to be given a potentially lethal injection as she lay in bed begging for the right to die, a medical tribunal heard." [Telegraph, 8 September]
• "41 Catholic priests have been issued a formal warning by the Vatican for signing an open letter approving the removal of food and hydration of helpless patients like Eluana Englaro" [LifeSiteNews.com, 8 September] http://is.gd/34dCF
• "An advocacy group for Washington's assisted suicide law says 11 patients used medications to end their lives in the law's first six months." [The Olympian, 8 September] http://is.gd/34emF
• "GMC may require GPs to discuss organ donation with newly-registered patients" [Pulse, 7 September] http://is.gd/34cNt
• Euthanasia activist Celia Fremlin dies [Times, 9 September] http://is.gd/34d9E
• "Justice Secretary Jack Straw has made clear his opposition to any attempt to weaken the current law on assisted suicide" [Christian Institute, 7 September] http://is.gd/31GDT
• Medical writer tried to save friend from death on the Liverpool Care Pathway [Daily Mail, 4 September] SPUC's Patients First Network supported her [SPUC, 7 September] http://is.gd/31Lkk Doctor claims "hospice patients [a]re no more dehydrated than others" [Telegraph, 4 September] http://is.gd/31M7q
• Wesley Smith, the American bioethicist, writes on "the creeping culture of euthanasia" [Secondhand Smoke, 8 September] http://is.gd/31QEa
• Personal story relating to Liverpool Care Pathway [Telegraph, 7 September] http://is.gd/2ZbkG
• Baroness Nicky Chapman, the first person with a congenital disability to be appointed to the House of Lords, has died aged 48 [BBC, 4 September] http://is.gd/2Zpwe
• The Voluntary Euthanasia Society (now renamed falsely "Dignity in Dying") has called for the government to investigate the Liverpool Care Pathway [Telegraph, 4 September] http://is.gd/2Znvl
• "The son of a terminally ill patient who shot himself dead on a busy ward was jailed yesterday for three years after admitting smuggling the weapon into hospital ... Judge Wide also queried a Crown Prosecution Service decision that there was ' insufficient evidence' to secure a conviction for assisting a suicide. That offence carries a maximum 14-year sentence." [Daily Mail, 5 September] http://is.gd/2Zp5J
• "Euthanasia is being practiced in the Czech Republic, even though it is against the law, some doctors have acknowledged." [Baptist Press, 4 September] http://is.gd/2Zq1t
• "Local Catholics in Edmonton, Canada, are inundating their MP's with emails and letters opposing a proposal to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia" [Edmonton Sun, 7 September] http://is.gd/2ZqdH
• Jack Kevorkian, the American doctor jailed for euthanasia, considering suicide, says he would help another person commit suicide [LifeSiteNews.com, 3 September] http://is.gd/2ZoB7

Marriage and family; sexual ethics

• Royal bride-to-be, 29, plans to postpone motherhood for years [Daily Mail, 7 September] http://is.gd/2Zgak
• Tory party courting gay vote [Daily Mail, 27 August] http://is.gd/31LVn
• Former Bishop of Lancaster's marriage document to be discussed at Vatican conference next week [LifeSiteNews.com, 4 September] http://is.gd/31RwB
• The Church of Ireland, Ireland's largest Protestant denomination, has supported behind Cardinal Seán Brady's opposition to same-sex unions [Irish Catholic, 8 September] http://is.gd/31Qjh
• "The bishop of Maine, America has asked churches to take up a special second collection next weekend to support Stand For Marriage Maine, the group leading the effort to repeal Maine's same sex marriage law." [WCSH6.com, 7 September] http://is.gd/31OMI
• 40th anniversary of American's first no-fault divorce law [Catholic Exchange, 5 September] http://is.gd/31OZN

General and miscellaneous

• "Bodies of three newborn babies discovered in Merseyside house" [Telegraph, 3 September] http://is.gd/31LJq

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