News, Note: we apologise for the absence of the news-summary in recent weeks during the summer period. This edition is an omnibus edition containing links to stories during that period. Support 40 days for life in the UK 40 days for life, an international pro-life campaign, is being launched in ...

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News, Parliamentarians have produced a report on the government's draft Human Tissue and Embryos Bill and SPUC is deeply concerned about it. If the committee has its way, wide areas of embryo research would be exempt from licensing and the regulatory authority would have unprecedented new power. T...

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News, British Health Minister Caroline Flint has said in a leaked memo to Prime Minister Tony Blair that pro-life members of parliament are "plotting" to "hijack" a Government Bill to reduce the time limit for some abortions. She said "There is a possibility that some members (of parliament) may w...

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News, In its statement to the 51st session of the Commission on the Status of Women [Holy See Mission, 2 March], the Holy See delegation highlighted issues of prostitution, forced marriages and sex selective abortion. "[A]bortion, often considered a tool of liberation, is ironically employed by wo...

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News, A review of 23 studies on the use of morning-after pills has concluded that, "[t]o date, no study has shown that increased access to this method reduces unintended pregnancy or abortion rates". Writing in this month's Obstetrics and Gynecology, the researchers nevertheless supported the avai...

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News, A Scottish man suffering from a degenerative disease has again been refused an assurance that, when his condition deteriorates, doctors will give him artificial nutrition and hydration. The European Court of Human Rights upheld the decision of the English Court of Appeal last year in the cas...

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News, A judge in the English High Court issued orders last Friday giving two hospitals in the north of England permission to withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration from two patients considered to be in permanent vegetative states. This follows the precedent set by the case of Tony Bland in 19...

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News, The Catholic Education Service (CES) of England and Wales has helped to draft the government's anti-life/anti-family sex education draft guidance. The draft guidance promotes abortion, contraception and homosexuality. Oona Stannard of the CES has described the guidance as "a positive step fo...

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News, UK teenage pregnancy figures have rocketed under the government's supposed crackdown 10 years ago, statistics have shown. The Department of Health, which set a target of halving reducing teenage pregnancies by 2010, has admitted that "progress needs to accelerate" following the news that the...

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News, The British government has confirmed that it supports population control in Africa. Speaking in the House of Lords, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon said: "The Government are committed to improving sexual and reproductive health, including family planning, across Africa. In 2006, [the Department ]...

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News, A senior cardinal has said that family life is under attack by "direct denial, if not mockery, ridicule, and scorn." Cardinal Jorge Mejia, former archivist and librarian of the Catholic Church, identified same sex unions, sex change operations, in vitro fertilization, as well as the dehumani...

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10-wee The picture shows an unborn baby at 10 weeks after conception: recognisably a member of the human family. The baby measures 2 1/2 inches (61mm) from crown to rump ("sitting height"), and is growing at a rate of 1/2 inch (13mm) per week. The baby's face, at first broad, now becomes narrower; ...

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12 Dec Top storiesAlison Davis, the well-known pro-life disabled rights advocate, is heading a challenge to July's House of Lords judgment in favour of Debbie Purdy, the assisted suicide campaigner. SPUC supporters will know Alison well through her many years as co-ordinator of No Less Human, a gro...

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News, The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship and Comment on Reproductive Ethics are seeking a high court judicial review of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's licence which let Newcastle university, scientists create animal-human embryos. The fellowship says the authority acted outs...

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News, SPUC has responded to a new UK public opinion poll on abortion. Anthony Ozimic, political secretary, commented: "SPUC welcomes the evidence of continuing deep-seated concern about the alarming numbers of abortions, reflected in the poll conducted on behalf of Life, a leading pregnancy suppor...

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News, The highest court with jurisdiction over the United Kingdom has ruled that a woman may not use frozen embryos created by IVF after her former partner withdrew consent. The grand chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, ruled against Ms Natallie Evans, 35, of Wilts...

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11-wee The baby is completely formed even though he fits snugly into the doctor's hand. The ears were first distinguishable during the sixth week; the inner ear is completely formed in mid-pregnancy. The baby is held in the hand of the late Professor Sir Albert William Liley, the pioneer of medical...

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News, Some Catholic Labour MPs who oppose the UK government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill may have rejected an offer to let them to abstain from voting and, instead, they want to vote against the measure. Mr Greg Pope, MP for Hyndburn, said "I have had hundreds of letters from constit...

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News, The state health service in England has been running a pilot project which could lead to family doctors giving girls and women abortion-inducing drugs up to the ninth week of pregnancy. The government has confirmed that trials are happening in two places, though it will not say where. Mr Phi...

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News, A cross-party coalition of MPs is to push for changes to current abortion legislation to mark the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act in Britain. Moves to increase access to abortion include removing the need for two doctors to sign an abortion referral and the extension of t...

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