The House of Lords is to debate abortion for disability, after a Tory peer introduced a Bill on the subject.
Lord Shinkwin’s Abortion (Disability Equality) Bill was given its first reading last week. Introducing the Private Member’s Bill, Lord Shinkwin said: “Discrimination on the grounds of disability after birth is outlawed. Yet today legal and lethal discrimination on the grounds of disability is allowed up to birth by law.”
The 1967 Abortion Act made abortion legal at any stage, as long as two doctors give the opinion “that there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped”.
Lord Shinkwin’s Bill proposes to strike that condition from abortion law, so that the law would no longer make a reference to disability.
Last year, 3,213 unborn children were aborted under the disability clause in England and Wales.
New chaplains for sea ministry
The national director of the Apostleship of the Sea (AoS), Martin Foley, has said that its ministry is expanding.
AoS has appointed two new assistant port chaplains in the past year, Mr Foley said, “because we recognise the scale of this ministry and the need to ensure that it’s properly resourced”.
To mark the Jubilee Year of Mercy, AoS is organising retreats on the theme of mercy for its 16 port chaplains and 120 volunteer ship visitors.
British singer provides Vatican soundtrack
British mezzo-soprano Carly Paoli has been chosen to provide the official song for Pope Francis’s Jubilee celebrations in Rome. Her track Ave Maria, written by Grant Black, will be the official song of the Jubilee Tours for visitors to the Vatican throughout 2016.
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