Canada
According to an Abacus Data Inc. poll, 52 per cent of Canadians say “we shouldn’t be afraid to debate” abortion, that 49 per cent think abortion should not be fully covered at taxpayer expense, and only 22 per cent support the status quo of abortion permitted through all nine months without limit. While 27 per cent say human life should be protected from conception, only 8 per cent said abortion should be illegal in Canada. Sun media columnist Brian Lilley said, “The results fly in the face of the political consensus in Canada in which all major party leaders at the federal and provincial levels are committed to the status quo” … Supreme Court justices Ian Binnie, 72, and Louise Charron, 60, announced they will retire from the court in August. REAL Women said in a press release that their departure “provides an opportunity to ensure that the newly appointed judges to the Supreme Court respect the role of Parliament to allow it to make public policy decisions, rather than assuming this role themselves. Including two appointments he has already made and with three more expected to retire by 2015, it could mean that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will have appointed seven of the nine justices on the bench by the end of his tenure … Liberal MP Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre) plans to reintroduce the failed transgender/transsexual rights bill, dubbed by critics as the bathroom bill, which died on the Order Paper when parliament was dissolved. NDP MP Bill Siksay (Burnaby-Douglas) did not run for re-election and he pushed for inclusion of the inclusion of transgender and transsexual in Canada’s human rights and hate crimes laws … Ontario Superior Court Justice Donald Taliano struck down parts of the federal drug law and granted noted marijuana advocate Mathew Mernagh a 90-day “personal exception” to buy and produce marijuana while waiting for government to respond to his ruling. If Ottawa does not appeal Taliano’s decision, critics worry that marijuana could effectively become decriminalized across Canada …After tweeting support for sports agent Todd Reynolds’ comments on traditional marriage, the now former host of sports show Connected, Damian Goddard, was fired by Rogers Sportsnet. The controversy erputed after NHL star Sean Avery starred in a New Yorkers for Marriage Equality commercial backing same-sex “marriage”… A paper from the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics recommends that Canada create guidelines regarding organ transplants for foreigners. There have been cases of Canadian hospitals performing transplants for foreigners using organs from foreign donors or dead Canadians, possibly harming Canadians on transplant lists … B.C. Supreme Court Judge Elaine Adair declared that anonymity for sperm and egg donors is discriminatory as adopted children may request information about their biological parents, and donor children may not.
United States
In a 2-1 decision a U.S. Court of Appeals re-instated the Barack Obama administration’s use of taxpayer money to fund embryonic stem cell research a year after a lower court ruled it violated federal law prohibiting the use public monies in embryonic and fetal research … The thrice-married billionaire businessman Donald Trump, who earlier this year claimed to be pro-life after announcing was considering running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, decided against running for the White House … Operation Rescue filed a complaint with the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners against the Delta Abortion Clinic of Baton Rouge on behalf of a woman who was forced to have a hysterectomy after suffering from a botched abortion. The facility is known for its abortion abuses and already caused the deaths of two women … A U.S. study found that, after the Plan-B “morning-after” pill became available over-the-counter in 2006, its use increased. Twice as many women from 15 to 44 used the contraceptive from 2006-2008 than four to six years earlierin 2002 … Jack Kevorkian was hospitalized in Detroit due to pneumonia and a recurrent kidney condition. Kevorkian is known as “Dr. Death” for assisting over 100 people in committing suicide …
International
“Under international law, States have an obligation to decriminalize homosexuality and to protect individuals from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation,” claimed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay in a video message on so-called homophobia. As the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute noted there is no treaty or document negotiated by member states that obliges them to decriminalize homosexual relations and countries are still divided over whether sexual orientation should be a non-discrimination category … A Portuguese girl died of septic shock after using the RU-486 drug to abort her unborn child … Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokalamsk told the Christian Interconfessional Council of the Community of Independent States and Baltic Countries that stopping Russia’s population decline should be a Christian and state priority: “We need a policy aimed to support the family and traditional moral values.”