weekly update, 30 August to 7 September

weekly update, 30 August to 7 September The man most likely to be the next British prime minister has in general an equally bad record on life-related issues as Mr Tony Blair, the incumbent. Mr Gordon Brown MP, currently the Labour government's Chancellor of the Exchequer (chief finance minister), is expected to succeed Mr Blair following Mr Blair's announcement that he will resign within the next 12 months. [BBC, 7 September ] Anthony Ozimic, SPUC political secretary, commented: "Mr Brown has voted consistently in favour of abortion. In 1990, he voted with the pro-abortion lobby no fewer than 16 times - three times for abortion up to birth, including for disabled babies; twice for abortion on demand in early pregnancy; once to extend the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland; once for selective foeticide in multiple pregnancies; once to facilitate RU486; once to suppress information about abortions on disabled babies; and seven times for other pro-abortion positions. He also voted five times to promote destructive embryo experimentation. More lately, Mr Brown launched the International Finance Facility to raise money for the Millennium Development Goals, goals which the British government interprets as including a universal human right to abortion on demand. In the light of Mr Brown's hardline pro-abortion record, any move for a parliamentary review of abortion law would be exceptionally dangerous in the forseeable future." The British prime minister has proposed plans to identify children who could be antisocial before they are born. In an interview with the BBC, Tony Blair said that teenage mothers, people in care and the mentally ill could face sanctions if they do not accept state help, such as parenting classes, before giving birth. He said: "If we are not prepared to predict and intervene far more early then there are children that are going to grow up in families that we know perfectly well are completely dysfunctional, and the kids a few years down the line are going to be a menace to society and actually a threat to themselves." [The Guardian, 1 September ] Teenagers in Britain have said that they may stop using birth control and abortion services because they do not trust the new national children's database to keep their details confidential, according to a recent survey. The Children's Information Sharing Index, a database that will hold details on abortions, underage birth control and treatment for sexual diseases for 12 million children, is to be launched in 2008 in England and Wales at an initial cost of £224 million. Information will be shared between doctors, teachers, social workers and the police. A survey carried out by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children found that young people were sceptical about ministers' claims that the database would be completely confidential, and some said they might stop using birth control services to preserve their privacy. [Telegraph, 7 September ] Most European countries are suffering increasingly from under population problems, according to a recent report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Whereas in 1990, all European countries recorded birth rates of more than 1.3 children per woman, now 15 countries have rates below 1.3, well below the estimated 2.1 rate needed to maintain a population. Tomas Sobotka of the Vienna Institute of Demography, said: "If you have a fertility rate of 1.2 or 1.3 you need to do something about it - it's really quite a problem. You have labour problems, economic problems and steep rates of population decline." The problem was reported to be worst in eastern European countries, where abortion has been used as a method of birth control. [Life News, 6 September ]