News, 28 February 2000
A trial scheme under which morning-after pills are given without
prescription has been extended so that it will continue until June and
will be targeted at teenagers. Ms Edna Robinson, head of the health
authority in north-west England which is running the trial, said that
it was immoral not to help women under 18 in this way. Nearly 400 women
with an average age of 20 have used the service to date, though 15
women were refused the pill because they did not meet criteria. [The
Express, 28 February, 2000]
The Federal Drug Administration has again delayed approving the RU 486
abortion-pill. Neither the French company which developed the pill nor
American drug companies want to market it because they fear boycotts of
their entire range of drugs. The Population Council now has the rights
to produce the drug. The House of Representatives has passed two bills
blocking an FDA review of the drug, though they were not taken up by
the Senate. [Zenit, 20 February, 2000]
Mr Ian Brady, a convicted murderer, is trying to persuade the high
court to stop staff at Ashworth Hospital from feeding him by tube so
that he can starve to death. Mr Brady has been on hunger-strike for 152
days. [The Guardian, 28 February, 2000]
The Archdiocese of Washington DC's Project Rachel subsidised the
insertion of half a million leaflets on post-abortion grief and healing
in American newspapers yesterday. The project has also promoted its
ministry through advertisements on radio, buses, railways and
billboards. [Mr David J Tennessen's digest, 25 February, 2000]
The United Nations' three-week-long preparatory meeting for the review
of the 1995 Beijing Women's conference begins in New York today. It
will be attended by Peter Smith, representing the SPUC Educational
Research Trust.
600 families in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have placed baskets to
receive unwanted babies on their front porches. [Mr David J Tennessen's
digest, 25 February, 2000]
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