News,

It has been reported that 122 girls under the age of sixteen have requested morning-after pills from pharmacists in Manchester, England, since the introduction of a pilot scheme there last December under which the drug is available without a doctor's prescription. 30 of the girls were only 14 years old. An advertising campaign to promote the abortifacient morning-after pill, particularly among 16 to 19-year-olds, is being launched in Manchester today and will include the use of a five-foot model pill. [BBC News online, 8 August; The Times, Daily Telegraph&Metro, 9 August] Pakistan has refused an offer of 250 million US dollars from the pro-abortion United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to teach schoolchildren the supposed benefits of small families. A spokesman for the Pakistani health ministry said that the offer had been made to Dr Abdul Malik Kasi, Pakistan's health minister, but that the UNFPA had insisted that all the money be managed solely by themselves because "the financial assistance so far extended for population welfare projects has not been utilised justly". [Pakistani Business Recorder, 8 August; from LifeSite Daily News] The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is launching advertising campaigns in a number of so-called swing states in an attempt to let voters know where candidates stand on abortion, sex education and funding for family planning. Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said: "The stakes for women are so high this year because electing a Republican congress or president would mean the end to reproductive rights as we've known them." [Detroit Free Press, 8 August] A new study into 11,000 hospital cases in Scotland has indicated that patients as young as 49 are being denied life-saving treatment on the grounds of their advanced years and that "significantly more of the elderly died than would be predicted". The research was carried out by Dr Pat Grant, an accident and emergency specialist, for the medical journal Injury. Dr Grant blamed a lack of resources rather than clinical decisions by doctors. Jane Barrow, policy manager for Age Concern Scotland, said: "Many people aged 60 to 70 are being written off by the NHS." [Daily Mail in Scotland, 7 August] George W Bush, the Republican candidate for the US presidential election in November, has said that he cannot understand why anyone would not support the banning of partial-birth abortions. Talking to reporters over the weekend, he also said that "surely there are ways to find common ground to reduce abortions and value life" such as parental notification and promoting adoption. [The Washington Times, 7 August] Sr Roseann Reddy, the co-ordinator of Cardinal Winning's Pro-Life Initiative in Glasgow, Scotland, has sought to correct a misquote contained within her recent interview with the Scottish Catholic Observer and reported in this news digest on 17 July. She had not said that her organisation works "closely with family planning and social services" but rather that they "are often approached by individuals within family planning and social services" who do not have any funds to support women who choose to continue with their pregnancies rather than have an abortion.