Mention abortion and a lot of people metaphorically block their ears and start humming loudly. At the very sight of the word in this column, some readers will probably turn the page and move on. But this is an issue that refuses to go away. It was re-ignited last week when Hillary Kieft of Stratford Read more
Pope Francis has announced that all priests will have the discretion to absolve the sin of abortion confessed by women during the upcoming Year of Mercy. This power is normally reserved to bishops, who frequently themselves grant priests permission to forgive the sin. Procurement of an abortion incurs an automatic excommunication under Church law. The Read more
Fiorella Nash is a novelist as well as an advocate for pro-life causes. Her novels, written under the name Fiorella De Maria, include Poor Banished Children, Do No Harm, and her latest, We’ll Never Tell Them. She was interviewed for Catholic World Report by email: CWR: In addition to being a novelist, you are also quite active Read more
In November 2013, the campaign group Abortion Rights announced their first-ever student conference. It was, they explained, in response to ‘many student unions reporting increased anti-choice activity on campuses’. Societies such as Oxford Students for Life, which I’ve been part of for the last couple of years, don’t tend to think of themselves as ‘anti-choice’, Read more
How low can society go? When one considers the many ways countless human beings are treated like cheap disposable products – from children exploited by pornographers, to young sweatshop workers exploited by wealthy corporations – it’s hard to imagine how much worse it can get for the poor and vulnerable. But dismembering and vacuuming babies Read more
An 11-year-old rape victim in Paraguay gave birth to a baby girl on August 13, stoking debate about abortion law in that country. The former partner of the 11-year-old’s mother is accused of the rape. The baby weighed 3.3 kilos and was born by caesarean section. Post-operative recovery is going well. Paraguayan law permits abortion Read more
The admissions by Planned Parenthood personnel about harvesting the body parts of aborted foetuses have been panned by a US cardinal. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said videos showing the admissions reveal a lack of respect for human life. The undercover videos were recorded by a pro-life non-profit Read more
Living in Colour, an eight-week recovery programme, is soon to begin in South Auckland. It’s designed to heal emotional fallout that can surface months, years or even decades after an abortion South Auckland programme organiser Pauline Louden says it’s grief support because many women suffer from a sense of loss, numbness or sadness after their Read more
The publisher of an Asian Catholic news website has called for the Church to play a role in reducing the Earth’s human population. In an opinion piece posted on ucanews.com, Fr William Grimm noted that Pope Francis’s recent encyclical Laudato Si’ dismissed concerns about overpopulation as a major source of the ecological crisis. Fr Grimm Read more
The Prime Minister of Tonga, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, says the issue of ratifying a United Nations Convention CEDAW which recently led to protests in the country, will be put to the public, after the coronation celebrations end. Cabinet announced earlier this year its intention to join the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Read more