News,

The Family Planning Association goes to the High Court in Belfast today, appealing against its failed judicial review on abortion guidelines last year. The FPA went to court last year seeking guidelines on abortion for doctors, claiming that the current law was unclear. [The Scotsman, 23 May] However, Mr Justice Brian Kerr ruled that the Northern Irish abortion law was clear and that the Department of Health was not obliged to issue guidelines. SPUC, which is intervening in the appeal, says that the pro-abortion lobby has failed to persuade the people of Northern Ireland to change their laws on abortion which give considerable protection to unborn children. They are now trying to use the courts instead, in order to liberalise the abortion law. [SPUC source]


Senator Sam Brownback has announced the introduction of the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act into Congress. The bill would require women seeking abortion after 20 weeks to be told about the pain the unborn child experiences during an abortion. If the woman proceeds with the abortion, the doctor would be required to offer her anaesthesia for the unborn child. [sbcbaptistpress.com, 21 May] Citing the evidence of experts during partial-birth abortion lawsuits, Senator Brownback said: "We would never allow a dog to be treated this way. Yet, the creature we are talking about is a young, unborn child... Women should not be kept in the dark; women have the right to know what their unborn child experiences during an abortion." [nrlc.org, 20 May]


Durham county council has accepted the living will of a multiple sclerosis sufferer who wants to be left to choke to death, The Times of London reports. The former teacher known as Mrs C has demanded that her council carers do not intervene to save her if she begins to choke, a common symptom in the advanced stages of MS. The council accepted the living will after Mrs C threatened legal action with the help of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, setting a legal precedent that has caused alarm among carers' organisations, social workers and pro-life campaigners. [The Times of London, 23 May]


A new sex education policy in Scotland is to advise schoolchildren to avoid sexual intercourse until they are older, apparently influenced by the experience of American schools. The change in thinking follows a sexual health strategy review last year by Malcolm Chisholm, the Scottish health minister. [The Times of London, 23 May]


The family of Nancy Crick have used the second anniversary of her suicide to call for an end to the police investigation. The daughter-in-law of the euthanasia campaigner said that Mrs Crick's suicide had achieved nothing. The pro-euthanasia group Exit plans to hold a rally at police headquarters in Brisbane, where two people who witnessed Mrs Crick's death will offer to make statements. [Herald Sun, 22 May]


A play based on Lesley Martin's book To Die Like a Dog is to be premiered this week. It will be performed once and filmed for a documentary. Lesley Martin is serving a fifteen-month sentence for the attempted murder of her mother. [The New Zealand Herald, 24 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