Canada
The British Columbia Catholic Civil Rights League condemned the Burnaby School Board’s equity policy with director Sean Murphy declaring, “It is now time to recognize that parents are the first line of defense against the abuse of state power in education, and the first protectors, not just of children, but of civil liberties.” The CCRL’s B.C. wing released its “Declaration on the Authority of Parents and Guardians in the Education of their Children,” which cites international conventions and declarations upholding the primacy of the role of parents in educating their children … In response to an article in the Sudbury Star by Ruth Farquhar that pro-lifers should “get over” abortion, Faye Sonier, legal counsel with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, said “this is a topic that can and should be rationally discussed and debated in our society. Let’s kick the simplistic rhetoric to the curb and have a real conversation” … The Ottawa Citizen reported that there were complaints lodged against Show the Truth in the Ottawa valley communities of Almonte, Arnprior, and Carleton Place. Rosemary Connell, who founded Show the Truth, told the Citizen, “some people get upset, but they should get upset. Abortion is a gruesome act” … Statistics Canada will stop gathering and reporting national data on marriage and divorce rates. Jeff Latimer, director of Stats Can’s Health Statistics Division told the Toronto Star that aggregating marriage and divorce rates was among the lowest priorities of the agency and that it would save $250,000 a year … The federal New Democratic Party mocked the Conservative government on the fifth anniversary of the enactment of the Universal Child Care Benefit that provides families with $100 per month per child under the age of six. The NDP said that with a daily child care cost of $57, “with the help of the UCCB, parents can afford to work outside the home only 1.75 days a month.” Maclean’s pointed out that $57 is a high estimate for infant care and Sun News columnist Brian Lilley responded: “When did it become the government’s job to ensure you could afford to go to work by paying for your other expenses? I thought we went to work to earn a living so we could afford to pay for life’s expenses.”
United States
The Journal of the American Medical Association published research about a new fetal gender test that can determine the sex of an unborn child as early as 12 weeks. Currently, ultrasounds to determine whether a baby is a boy or girl are not utilized until the second trimester. Pro-abortion ethicist Art Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, told Time magazine he is concerned that that parents will use the procedure to procure sex-selection abortions. While supporting the new technology to eliminate babies with genetic problems, he said: “When you are talking about picking a baby’s sex, doctors shouldn’t offer the test, companies shouldn’t offer it, and we should tell people that’s not a good reason to have an abortion” … Barack Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney said the president will support Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D, Calf.) bill to rescind the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and thus open the door to a federal law recognizing same-sex “marriage.” Carney said that Feinstein’s Respect for Marriage Act will “uphold the principle that the federal government should not deny gay and lesbian couples” rights according to others … American Atheists filed a lawsuit seeking to remove a cross from the 9/11 Memorial and Museum that once stood in the middle of the ruins of the World Trade Centre. Members claim in the lawsuit that they “are being subjected to and injured in consequence of having a religious tradition not their own imposed upon them through the power of the state” … The state of Maryland drafted new regulations for abortion facilities after a woman was seriously injured at an abortuary run by Steven C. Brigham. The practitioner started abortions in New Jersey and told patients to drive to Maryland, where he completed the procedure, although he was not licenced to practice medicine in the state.
International
Amnesty International called upon the Nicaraguan government to decriminalize “therapeutic abortion,” including in cases of rape and where the woman’s life is in danger. Although the organization insists that Nicaragua’s abortion ban, which was introduced in 2006, is harming women, the country’s maternal mortality rate fell from 140 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006 to 100 deaths per 100,000 in 2011 … Alois Philipp Maria, the hereditary prince of Liechtenstein has come out against depenalizing abortion in his tiny European country and hinted that his father, the sovereign, Prince Hans-Adam II, would not sign legislation decriminalizing abortion in the first trimester and in cases of fetal defect until birth … While visiting Chengdu, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said he would not condemn Red China’s coercive one-child policy although said that it might not be economically sustainable as one wage earner will become responsible for the care of four retired people. Despite his economic concerns, Biden stressed, “I fully understand – I’m not second-guessing – the one child per family.”