News,

SPUC has called for women to be told the truth about the potentially fatal effect of birth control pills on their unborn children. SPUC was commenting after researchers at Tromsø university, Norway, found a 45% increase in the risk of breast cancer among women who took second generation birth control pills for three years or longer. John Smeaton, SPUC's national director, said: "It is quite right that women should be told the truth about how birth control pills may threaten their own health. However, they also need to be told that the pill can cause an early abortion. Many birth control pills can prevent ovulation, and thus prevent conception. But these pills can disrupt the womb-lining too, so that if conception does occur the embryo cannot implant, and is aborted instead. It is not only the morning-after pill that does this." When SPUC sought a judicial review on morning-after pills, two of the witness statements in support of the drug company and the judge's ruling acknowledged the fact that non-barrier birth control could affect the lining of the womb, which is where the early embryo needs to implant. [International Journal of Cancer on Courier-Mail on news.com.au and SPUC, 20 May]


The European Union has authorised €74 million to be spent on so-called reproductive and sexual health planning in developing countries. The deputy foreign minister of Greece, which holds the EU presidency, said that the grant, part of a €400 million package, would help maternal health. [EU business, 21 May] Peter Smith, an SPUC lobbyist at the EU, said: "The World Health Organisation, a United Nations body, includes access to abortion in its official definition of reproductive health. Reproductive health is mainly about contraceptives and abortions, not mothers' health. The best ways to save women's lives are basic nutrition and basic health services. Poor nutrition means that women are more vulnerable to disease from which contraceptives and abortion can't save them. The west is trying to force its liberal agenda on these countries. This is a way of trying to contracept and abort poor people out of existence. If the west can cripple the developing countries' birth-rates, those countries can never properly compete with developed nations." Dana, the pro-life MEP, has been asking where the extra EU money for reproductive health is coming from. The reproductive health grant is a result of the implementation of the EU's Sandbaek report.


Democrat candidates for the US presidency have warned that, if President Bush wins a second term, abortion could cease to be legal in America. Ms Carol Mosley Braun told a candidates' meeting in Washington, DC, that the Roe versus Wade judgement was under threat. Two supreme court judges are expected to retire soon and more could go during the next presidential term. Mr Bush could use his power of appointment to give the court, which interprets the constitution, a pro-life majority. [LifeSite, 20 May, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 21 May]


Planned Parenthood has received $2.5 billion from the US federal government in the past 16 years and has made one billion dollars from providing American women with abortions since 1977. The organisation is reported to have performed more than three million abortions over the past 26 years. This information comes from a survey by the Stop Planned Parenthood movement. [Family News, 20 May]


The number of American women taking abortifacient morning-after pills has tripled over the past three years, according to a survey by the Kaiser family foundation to be published in Self magazine. More than two thirds of women knew about the drug as opposed to two fifths in 1997. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has urged its members to give prescriptions for the drug to women in advance so that they do not need to see their doctor before obtaining the pills. Four states allow prescription-free supply and another 14 hope also to permit it. The Journal of American College Health reports that more than half of university clinics provide morning-after pills. [Lexington Herald-Leader, 19 May]


Catholic missionaries are opposing sex-selective abortion in India. Fr Carlo Torriani who works in Bombay told Vatican Radio about the growing gender-imbalance. Identification of a child's sex before birth facilitated selective abortion. Cultural aspects, such as brides' expensive dowries, meant boys were valued more. There was also gender-related infanticide. [Zenit, 20 May]


Two candidates for the recent Welsh assembly elections who displayed a picture of an aborted baby during campaigning will plead not guilty to public order charges at Cardiff magistrates' court tomorrow. The South Wales Argus newspaper supported Mr Joseph Biddulph and Miss Fiona Pinto of the ProLife Party and published a picture of a third trimester abortion. [ProLife Party, 21 May]


The Canadian Catholic diocese of Ottawa will hold its first week for life starting on Sunday. Events will include a banquet and outdoor Mass by the archbishop. [LifeSite, 20 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