Catholic Mexican bishops have lauded the pro-life ruling in Mexico’s Supreme Court rejecting a push to decriminalise abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in the state of Veracruz. “Thank you. Blessed be God. #Yes to life”, tweeted Auxiliary Bishop Alfonso Miranda Guardiola of Monterrey after the ruling. John Smeaton, SPUC Chief Executive, said: “The decision of Mexico’s Supreme Court is a significant victory for Veracruz and its unborn. SPUC is delighted to see that a campaign for life, supported by its bishops, is at work in Mexico.”

One of the UK’s largest abortion providers, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), has posted  abortion drugs to a woman who said that she wanted to abort her baby because “she didn’t want to look pregnant on holiday”,  an investigation by Christian Concern has revealed.

Bethan Simpson, 27, from Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, has related how she could not abort “a child I could feel kicking” after a 20-week scan showed her daughter had spina bifida. Antonia Tully, SPUC’s Director of Campaigns said: “All Bethan’s natural instincts told her that her baby’s life mattered more than the disability she had. It’s a wonderful moment in a pregnancy when you feel your baby kicking. Your baby is telling you: ‘I’m here’. For Bethan it seems that her baby came first and the disability came second.”

J. R. R. Tolkien, the noted English don and author of The Lord of the Rings, wrote that, as “a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic”, he did “not expect “history” to be anything but a ‘long defeat’ – though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory”. Indeed, The Lord of the Rings is, in part, a meditation on what may be dubbed Tolkien’s theology of the “the long defeat” – a theology that pro-lifers must themselves embrace, as an informing pro-life ethic, if we are to work towards “final victory”.

SPUC has expressed gratitude to pro-life DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr for his continued efforts in defending the right to life and for “speaking out with determination and conviction against abortion.”

SPUC has congratulated pro-life and disability rights activist Heidi Crowter, on her recent marriage to James Carter. Antonia Tully, SPUC Director of Campaigns said: “SPUC sends heartfelt congratulations to Heidi and James on their recent marriage and wishes them many years of happiness.”

On Tuesday, BBC news ran a segment on late term abortion, using “exclusive” information from abortion provider BPAS. Dr Patricia Lohr of BPAS said that abortion is needed for women with some medical conditions, comments that a doctor has dismissed as “untrue” and “bad medicine”.

Recent weeks have seen the announcement that the Department for International Development (DFID) is to be folded into the Foreign Office to create the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.