Major row erupts over lack of abortion services in Kilkenny

Kilkenny Now

A BITTER war of words has erupted over the failure of St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny to provide abortions services.

This morning it was reported that four consultant obstetricians at St Luke’s, among them an anti-abortion campaigner, have written to local GPs to advise that termination services are not available in the hospital.

The letter, signed by Ray O’Sullivan, Raouf Salam, Yuddandi Nagaveni, and Trevor Hayes, said that, following discussions between the four, it was “decided unanimously that the hospital is not an appropriate location for medical or surgical terminations”.

Mr Hayes was a prominent anti-abortion campaigner during the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment in May 2018.

Abortion rights campaigners reacted angrily to the news. . . [Full text]

Abortions can’t be provided at St Luke’s Hospital for Carlow/Kilkenny according to consultants

KCLR

MaryAnn Vaughn

St Luke’s Hospital will not be providing abortion services.

That’s according to four consultant obstetricians at the local hospital who have penned a letter to the Ireland East Hospital Group advising them that they won’t be providing terminations. . . [Full text]

App that connects users with abortion providers launches across Canada

Choice Connect app was first released locally and in southwestern Ontario in 2017

CBC News

A smartphone app that matches people with their nearest abortion provider launches across Canada on Wednesday.

The web-based app was developed by Waterloo region’s Shore Centre, a sexual health resource centre. 

Choice Connect was developed with the help of Kitchener’s Zeitspace and was first launched in southwestern Ontario in 2017. . . [Full text]

Pharmacist refused to give morning after pill on a Sunday ‘for personal reasons’

Metro

Martine Berg Olsen

A mum was told she couldn’t have emergency contraception because it went against the beliefs of the only pharmacist working that Sunday.

Siani, 41, visited her local LloydsPharmacy at Sainsbury’s on Lewes Road, Brighton, when a female member of staff refused to give her the morning after pill for ‘personal reasons’.

Knowing that there are not many pharmacies open on a Sunday, Siani ordered the contraception online and paid upfront for collection. . . [Full text]

Short Form Conclusion of the China Tribunal’s Judgment

China Tribunal

In December 2018 The Tribunal issued an interim judgement:

“The Tribunal’s members are certain – unanimously, and sure beyond reasonable doubt – that in China forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial number of victims.”

. . .The Tribunal has considered evidence, in its many forms, and dealt with individual issues according to the evidence relating to each issue and nothing else and thereby reached a series of conclusions that are free of any influence caused by the PRC’s reputation or other potential causes of prejudice. . .

These individual conclusions, when combined, led to the unavoidable final conclusion that;

Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners have been one – and probably the main – source of organ supply. The concerted persecution and medical testing of the Uyghurs is more recent and it may be that evidence of forced organ harvesting of this group may emerge in due course. The Tribunal has had no evidence that the significant infrastructure associated with China’s transplantation industry has been dismantled and absent a satisfactory explanation as to the source of readily available organs concludes that forced organ harvesting continues till today.

. . . Governments and any who interact in any substantial way with the PRC including:

  • Doctors and medical institutions;
  • Industry, and businesses, most specifically airlines, travel companies, financial services businesses, law firms and pharmaceutical and insurance companies together with individual tourists,
  • Educational establishments;
  • Arts establishments

should now recognise that they are, to the extent revealed above, interacting with a criminal state.

China Tribunal Summary Report VIEW/DOWNLOAD HERE