News,

A sexual advice clinic for young people in Dundee is being criticised for arranging abortions for girls as young as 13 without parental knowledge. Caledonia Youth, the organisation that runs the centre, has said that children are encouraged to talk to their parents but that they 'aim to provide a non-judgemental and confidential service'. [Evening Telegraph, 8 March ] The pro-abortion organisation Alliance for Choice in Ireland has called for a repeal of the Abortion Information Act, which bans the publication of information about abortion facilities. The Alliance flouted the law in Dublin and Cork yesterday by handing out leaflets containing details of abortion facilities in the UK. [Irish Examiner, 8 March ] Poland's ruling social democrat party has said that it will try to change Poland's pro-life laws after it enters the EU, Reuters reports. Jolanta Banach, a candidate for party leadership said: "Our bill will aim to protect women's right to decide about their parenthood." Banach plans to submit the bill to parliament this month. [Alertnet.org, 5 March ] Lech Kowalewski of HLI Poland, said: "Poland's feminists should be concentrating their efforts upon the real problems facing women today, such as poverty and unemployment, rather than promoting their misplaced ideologies." [SPUC source] Bishop Anthony Fisher, auxiliary in Sydney, has expressed concern over a Tasmanian couple's use of IVF to create a designer baby in order to avoid having a second child carrying a genetic disease. Bishop Fisher said the situation "raises concerns for us and for other people in the community who question whether we should be designing aspects of children." [CathNews, 8 March ] The Mexican government's policy of including abortifacients in family planning programmes has been criticised by pro-life, civil and religious groups. The pro-life organisation Culture for Life has launched a civil lawsuit against the government over the policy. [CWNews, 8 March ] Norma McCorvey, the protagonist in the landmark US abortion case Roe vs. Wade, who has since changed her views, will be speaking to politicians, peers and members of the public at the British Parliament this week. She will be talking about the case and the way it changed her life. [Independent Catholic News, 9 March ] The papers of a US judge involved in the Roe v. Wade ruling have revealed that he did not realise the impact the ruling would have. Justice Harry A Blackmun received over 60,000 letters of protest in response to his written judgement. The papers also show how close Roe v. Wade came to being repealed in 1992. [BBC, 4 March ] A woman in the US whose ovarian tissue was frozen for six years and then re-implanted in her abdomen, has conceived through IVF using eggs obtained from the tissue. The breakthrough raises the possibility of women made infertile by chemotherapy or the early onset of the menopause having their ovarian tissue re-implanted, or of the technique being used by women seeking to delay motherhood. [The Times of London, 9 March ]