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Dana Rosemary Scallon, the pro-life former politician, has called upon Irish voters not to be afraid to vote no in Friday's referendum on the Lisbon treaty. In a press statement, Mrs Scallon said that the guarantees obtained by the Irish government from the European Union (EU) on abortion are "worthless". She also said that "voting no will protect Ireland's Constitution in matters such as the definition and protection of the family, children's rights, parent's rights [and] the protection of life and the child embryo". [John Smeaton, 29 September] http://is.gd/3Ok71

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has announced that pregnant 16 and 17-year-olds will no longer receive council flats and will be housed in dedicated hostels instead. Speaking at the Labour party's annual conference, Mr Brown referred to the problem of "children having children" and said: "It cannot be right for a girl of 16 to get pregnant, be given the keys to a council flat and be left on her own." [Daily Mail, 30 September] http://is.gd/3Oe17 Mr Brown also announced changes to government childcare. [Daily Mail, 30 September] http://is.gd/3OH3H SPUC is greatly worried that government-appointed social workers will be assigned to oversee the pregnant teenagers, considering the government's ardent promotion of abortion.

Hundreds of Polish medics have called upon Polish parliamentarians to reject the legalisation of IVF and urged them to back ethical alternatives. In an open letter to a major newspaper, the professionals wrote that "artificial fertilization entails risk of embryo death" and "violates the dignity of men, women and children". They also said that NaProTechnology is more effective than IVF. [LifeSiteNews.com, 29 September] http://is.gd/3Ojct

Other stories

Abortion

• SPUC campaign alert on this Friday's Council of Europe vote [SPUC, 29 September] http://is.gd/3Oc2d
• Spanish archbishop says "abortion is repulsive to reason" [Catholic News Agency, 29 September] http://is.gd/3Ogae
• Seriously-ill mum refused abortion advised by doctors, mum & boy well [Christian Institute, 28 September] http://is.gd/3OjIH

IVF; fertility treatment

• UK IVF clinics to be rated for first time on likely chances of successful births [Times, 30 September] http://is.gd/3Odd4

Population

• Holy See deplores aid programmes tied to population control [Zenit, 29 September] http://is.gd/3OjZ0
• One-fifth of all Scots births to mothers aged over 35 [Herald, 29 September] http://is.gd/3OeOL

Sexual health; teenage pregnancies

• Manchester city council publishes sex guide for over 50s [Manchester Evening News, 30 September] http://is.gd/3OdCT
• Guardian writer claims Catholic teaching on condoms makes Pope a mass murderer [Guardian, 29 September] http://is.gd/3OiIg

Euthanasia and assisted suicide; disability

• Briton accompanied wife for Swiss assisted suicide [This is Devon, 29 September] http://is.gd/3OcIu

Marriage and family; sexual ethics

• Profile of lesbian couple both pregnant by same man [Mirror, 30 September] http://is.gd/3OeCu
• Obama includes homosexual couples in "National Family Day" [LifeSiteNews.com, 29 September] http://is.gd/3Ojqn

General and miscellaneous

• Six jailed over baby adoption fraud in Vietnam [PA via Channel 4, 29 September] http://is.gd/3Ocox

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