News,

A Kenyan government report has recommended the legalisation of abortion. The document, prepared for the health standards and regulatory services department and entitled Kenya Family Health Programme, claims that social and medical evidence outweighs the "perceived moral and legal need for retaining the [pro-life] law in our books". The report also refers to social and personal grounds for abortion, appearing not to restrict it to medical grounds. [The Nation, Nairobi, 4 October ] Kenya, formerly part of the British empire, inherited the pro-life Offences Against the Person Act 1861 from Britain but not the Abortion Act 1967. A new potentially abortifacient method of birth control was yesterday approved for use in the United States. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensed the NuvaRing device, which is produced by Organon Inc. and will be available on prescription by the middle of next year. The device is a ring of about three inches in diameter which is inserted once a month inside the vagina where it releases a continuous dose of oestrogen and progestin for 21 days. The device works in the same way as the combined oral contraceptive pill, which can disrupt the implantation of a newly conceived embryo when it fails to prevent ovulation. [Washington Post, 4 October ; SPUC] It has been reported that the recent election of pro-abortionists to power in Poland is generating a battle over the future of the country's abortion laws. The pro-abortion Federation for Women and Family Planning is taking legal action against several hospitals which have allegedly refused to perform abortions even when the statutory conditions (such as foetal abnormality) have been met. The same organisation is also using a tactic employed by pro-abortionists elsewhere by making unsubstantiated claims about large numbers of illegal backstreet abortions in order to press for legalisation. [BBC News online, 3 October ] Pro-abortionists in California are promoting the abortifacient morning-after pill on television. The California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League has launched a campaign called Tell a friend about EC which encourages young women to keep so-called emergency contraceptives on hand should they require them. Television public service announcements in English and Spanish will accompany the campaign. [PR Newswire, via Northern Light, 2 October ]