Canada

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, an intervener in the Carter assisted suicide case which was heard in the B.C. Court of Appeal from March 18 to March 22, is requesting that the 2012 B.C. Supreme Court ruling permitting assisted suicide be reversed … The Council of Canadians with Disabilities and the Canadian Association for Community Living argued in favour of banning assisted suicide and also asked the B.C. Court of Appeal to reverse the Carter decision. Dean Richert, chair of the CCD’s Ending of Life Ethics Committee, said in a press release: “When non-disabled people say they want to kill themselves, society mobilizes to prevent their suicides… however when ill and disabled people ask to die, the helping hand only pushes them toward death” … The University of Regina has converted 10 of its handicapped washrooms into “gender-neutral” restrooms. The UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity had lobbied for the change. “There’s a lot of harassment that happens in washrooms for folks (who) aren’t filling gender expectations or presentations in those washrooms,” said Leah Keiser, the director of UR Pride to the university student newspaper, The Carillon. The new washrooms are marked “gender neutral” and have a plaque saying, “this restroom may be used by any person regardless of gender identity or expression.” The washrooms could already be used by either sex before the change … Federal Minister of Public Safety and Regional Minister for Manitoba Vic Toews said that the Manitoba government’s Bill 18, an “equity” bill modeled on Ontario’s Bill 13 and which would force all schools to allow homosexual student clubs, is “an unconstitutional infringement upon the freedom of religion” … The Sanders family from Nanaimo, B.C., is outraged after their 13-year-old son at Wellington Secondary School was given a cartoon book showing a couple putting on a condom and having sex as a prize during a class on “sexual health” by AIDS Vancouver Island.

United States

The United States Agency for International Development devoted 16 times more money towards family planning than child health in 2012. USAID’s 2012 Report to Congress: Health-Related Research and Development Strategy also reports that almost half of its $188 million budget for health research and development was used for HIV/AIDS … On March 6, the same day that an Idaho ban on abortions after 20 weeks was overturned by U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill, Arkansas lawmakers voted to outlaw abortions after 12 weeks, thereby overriding a veto by Democrat Governor Mike Beebe … In response to a graphic pro-life exhibit at the University of Cincinnati, an outdoor public exhibit showing billboard-sized photos of vaginas titled “Re-Envisioning the Female Body” was organized by the campus’ LGBTQ Alliance and UC Feminists. On their Facebook page, exhibit organizers wrote that the event “call(s) attention to the vaginas as a site of conflict … it points to the negative disposition our society holds toward the vagina” … Michigan abortionist Reginald Sharpe who has a history of botched abortions, one of them causing the death of a patient, has closed two abortion facilities and moved to a new employer, Summit Women’s Center in Detroit, which provides abortion up to 24 weeks … In a review of their policy barring open homosexuals from being members or scoutmasters, the Boy Scouts of America are asking for online input and will hold a vote during its online meeting in May. President Barack Obama has urged repeal of the ban.

International

Catharina Zätterström, deputy chairwoman at the Swedish Association of Midwives, said she was baffled at abortion statistics that show the abortion rate has been unaffected by the introduction of the abortifacient morning after pill. She said, “our hope was that the pill would bring down the abortion rates.” In 1997, just before the MAP was introduced, the abortion rate was 18.4 per 1,000 women, but has increased to 20.9 in 2012. Zätterström told The Local, “it would be much better if we could find a functioning contraception” … The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, a United Nations watchdog that upholds the sanctity of human life, has noted that a flawed statistic that more women from 15 to 44 years old die through violence than from malaria, HIV, cancer, accidents, and war combined, originating from a 1994 World Bank paper co-authored by abortion activist Adrienne Germain who sits on the U.S. delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, is being used to advocate for abortion … Boris Dittrich, a homosexual activist and former MP dubbed the father of the political campaign to legalize Dutch same-sex “marriage” told the French online homosexual magazine Yagg in a video interview that group marriages are the next step. Dittrich, who is currently working for Human Rights Watch, said that it is “the beginning of something completely new.”