News,

• 20,000 people have staged a pro-life march in the African country of Cameroon. The march was organised in opposition to the Maputo protocol, which seeks to force all 53-member states of the African Union to legalise abortion. A petition against abortion, signed by 30,000 people, was presented to the government. Samuel Kleda, the coadjutor Catholic archbishop of Douala, said, "[W]e cannot pretend to defend women by proposing that they have an abortion and use contraception, which threatens their dignity and nuclear family. No reason can be used to justify abortion or infanticide." [LifeSiteNews.com, 17 July] http://is.gd/1KyOT
• A new study suggests that women who have had more than one abortion are more likely to be involved in abusive relationships. The study, published in the The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist (TOG) medical journal, follows similar findings published in March. Jason Waugh, the journal's editor, said: "These findings highlight the need for health professionals to be aware of, and sensitive to, the possibility of violence in the lives of women seeking abortion" [LifeNews.com, 17 July] http://is.gd/1KyT8

• Two teams of Chinese researchers claim to have created live mice from reprogrammed cells. In a complex experiment, the researchers inserted so-called induced pluripotency stem (iPS) cells into modified mouse embryos, and brought the resulting embryos to birth via female mice. Some of the born mice displayed physical abnormalities, details of which the team would not reveal. [Nature, 23 July] http://is.gd/1J6DW SPUC comment: The use of human iPS cells as an ethically acceptable alternative to human embryonic stem cell research is only ethical if no human embryos are involved.

• The oldest recorded mother told a television channel before her death that she had no regrets about conceiving children in old age. Carmen Bousada, who died this month aged 69, had given birth aged 66 to twins conceived via IVF. Ms Bousada said: "[K]nowing [my children] will be looked after by my family does give me peace of mind." [Daily Mail, 19 July] http://is.gd/1Kz4A

• The number of people aged over 65 is on course to overtake the number of infants for the first time in history, a study has found. The trend is most prevalent in the developed world and is now rapidly gaining pace in the developing world. Richard Suzman, from the National Institute of Ageing in Maryland, which commissioned the new study by the US Census Bureau, said: "Global ageing is changing the social and economic nature of the planet." [Telegraph, 20 July] http://is.gd/1Kz8h

• Pressure is being put on the government to abolish parents' right to withdraw their children from sex education. Simon Blake, chief executive of Brook, an abortion referral agency, said: "Our belief is you cannot reconcile children's rights to high-quality sex and relationships education with the parental right of withdrawal. The right of withdrawal needs to be removed." [Telegraph, 16 July] http://is.gd/1Kzb2 Parents will be given barely any say in the content of sex education under government plans to make the subject compulsory from primary school onwards, according to a new report. Norman Wells of the Family Education Trust, the report's author, said that the move "would make schools less accountable to parents" and "would limit the discretion of individual schools". [Telegraph, 22 July] http://is.gd/1HjCx

• Maternal health prior to pregnancy may affect children's later health. Studies reported at a meeting in Pittsburgh, America, suggest that maternal nutrition, protein intake and level of fat in the mother's diet may cause damaging changes in her unborn child. [Medical News Today, 22 July] http://is.gd/1IzhV

• A British man whose terminally ill partner committed suicide in Switzerland has been arrested on suspicion of assisting suicide. Alan Rees, from London, accompanied Raymond Cutkelvin to Dignitas, the Zurich suicide centre in 2007. Mr Rees was questioned and released on bail until September. [BBC, 23 July] http://is.gd/1J6MX The case of Sir Edward and Lady Downes, the eminent conductor and his wife who also committed suicide at Dignitas, has been referred to British prosecutors [Evening Standard, 23 July] http://is.gd/1K24A

• The Catholic Church in England and Wales has rejected comments endorsing homosexual adoption made by the head of a Catholic marriage counselling service. Terry Prendergast of Marriage Care told a homosexual conference that homosexual parenting was as good as heterosexual parenting. The Catholic bishops' conference said: "The views expressed by Terry Prendergast about the definition of family and marriage are clearly not a reflection of the Church's teaching". [BBC, 20 July] http://is.gd/1HhYX

• The Mexican state of Yucatan has become the 14th Mexican state to introduce pro-life wording into its constitution. The move was in response to the decriminalisation of abortion on demand in early pregnancy in Mexico City in 2007. The added wording reads: "The state of Yucatan recognizes, protects, and guarantees the right to life of every human being, expressly affirming that, from the moment of fertilization, he comes under the protection of the law, and is to be treated like a human being that has been born for all corresponding legal effects, until his natural death, with exceptions already foreseen in ordinary laws." The final phrase allows for abortion in certain circumstances under existing law. [LifeSiteNews.com, 16 July] http://is.gd/1KztH

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