PRO-LIFERS TO BE ALLOWED ACCESS TO ABORTION CLINICS
ITALY
PM wants women informed about keeping their babies
Pregnancy centres in Italy are supposed to offer both abortion and advice on other options. Now Prime Minister Georgia Meloni wants to open up these centres to pro-life organisations.
Currently, if a woman wants an abortion she has to obtain permission from an expert at a pregnancy centre, and the centres are already obliged to provide women with pro-life information, but pro-life counsellors aren’t present in the centres.
Meloni’s proposal may seem like a big change, but all it will do is ensure that Italy’s 1978 abortion law is better enacted. Under that law, centres are already allowed to use “volunteer associations protecting motherhood to help women avoid terminating their pregnancies because of economic, social or family hardships” and that “women should get all necessary help to avoid an abortion”.
In practice, how much of this takes place is largely dependent on the abortion experts at the centres, so allowing pro-lifers access will create a more even playing field between pro-life options and abortion.
Back in 2022 Meloni stated she wanted to ensure that women are informed about alternatives to abortion.
HOLLAND
Conservative gains in Parliament halt liberal agenda
‘No’ to abortion pills by post and self-certifying gender change
The general elections in November 2023 marked a swing to the right in political power, which has resulted in ‘progressive’ legislation being curtailed.
After Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) won the largest number of seats last autumn, a gender transition bill has been halted, as have proposals for abortion pills by post and the acceptance of multi-parent families.
The gender transition bill would have lowered the legal age for gender change and allowed people to change their gender without the permission of an expert. After the election, a slight majority voted in favour of removing the proposal.
The abortion pills proposal would have made it easier for Dutch doctors to send abortion pills abroad, so that women in countries with strict abortion laws could get round the laws of their country, but it does not now have enough support. The current cabinet also wants to allow a child to have up to four parents, but the shift to the right in Parliament makes it unlikely this will progress into legislation. [Source: Christian Network Europe]
Wilders, who is anti-Muslim immigration into Europe, is also a supporter of Israel’s right to self-defence and has called himself a ‘Friend of Israel’ on X (formerly Twitter). He expressed a wish to move the Embassy of the Netherlands to Jerusalem and also advocated closing the Dutch diplomatic post in Ramallah.
Recently he appealed for an end to antisemitism in Holland, pointing out that Jews did not feel safe and that the Dutch should stand by and protect their Jewish community.
NICARAGUA
11 pastors imprisoned after ‘sham trial’
A group of pastors and ministry leaders has been convicted on false charges and sentenced to between 12 and 15 years in prison, and each fined over 80 million dollars.
The 11 Christian leaders worked with Puerta de la Montaña, the Nicaraguan branch of a US-based Christian mission. The government has revoked the organisation’s registration as a ministry and seized its property and assets.
The Christian leaders include a woman who has given birth in prison
The pastors have been in custody since the beginning of the year after being accused of money laundering, and have been given no access to family or lawyers. At their trial in March, the government failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing.
The Christian leaders include a woman who has given birth in prison and who has reportedly received inadequate medical care.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has called on Nicaragua to protect their health and welfare, after being petitioned by religious liberty campaigners ADF International. An ADF International letter calling for the release of the pastors has been signed by 58 members of the US Congress and delivered to Nicaragua’s ambassador.
Several senators have also requested that the US government impose sanctions on the Central American nation for its human rights abuses.
ADF International is supporting the pastors’ legal team.
GLOBAL
World authority on transgenderism discredited
Doctors downplayed side effects of sex-change ops and puberty blockers
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) is knowingly promoting dangerous transgender procedures, according to Christian Network Europe (CNE).
CNE reports that WPATH documents leaked by a US whistleblower reveal “pseudoscientific experiments in children, teenagers and vulnerable adults”.
Doctors acknowledge a link between transgender hormone therapy and cancer
WPATH sets the international guidelines for transgender care, yet the documents allegedly show that the organisation is promoting risky and unproven treatments to vulnerable people. Shockingly, the documents reportedly reveal that WPATH doctors acknowledge a link between transgender hormone therapy and cancer, and have downplayed the severe potential side effects of puberty blockers and transgender surgery. WPATH members even admit that children cannot comprehend the lifelong impact of “gender-affirming care”.
Investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger says: “The leaked documents show that what is called gender care is neither science nor medicine.”
AUSTRALIA
Christian schools targeted by activists
Parliamentarians and LGBT+ campaigners are seeking to prevent faith schools from employing staff who hold traditional biblical beliefs, and to remove the schools’ right to hire and fire on the basis of sexual practices.
According to Christianity magazine, this is part of a concerted effort to prevent children from being inculcated with Christian values and instead to impose progressive secular teachings.
Over one third of Australian parents choose independent schools, mainly Christian ones
Over one third of Australian parents choose independent schools, mainly Christian schools, rather than state institutions, because they provide a higher quality of education, better discipline and better pastoral care.
Yet some human rights activists, LGBT groups and politicians accuse Christian schools of discriminating against the LGBT community, even though the schools are open to all children and don’t expel on the basis of sexual orientation. And although Christian beliefs and morality are taught, they are never imposed.
PHILIPPINES
Bishops pray for rain
Catholic bishops in the Philippines are tackling a severe heatwave and drought with prayer.
Thousands of schools were closed in late April and early May due to the heat and persistent drought which has devastated farming.
Then on 4 May, bishops ordered parishes to recite a special prayer, which reads: “We humbly ask you to grant us relief from the extreme heat that besets your people at this time, disrupting their activities and threatening their lives and livelihood… Send us rain to replenish our depleting water sources, to irrigate our fields, to stave off water and power shortages and to provide water for our daily needs.”