A senior Catholic cleric has rebuked the United Nations over its relentless promotion of abortion.

Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations, has issued a statement highlighting the inconsistent implementation of health and well-being programs, particularly those aimed at protecting the unborn.

“Achieving health and wellbeing for all also calls for special attention to be paid to the most vulnerable members of the human family, including the unborn, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, migrants and those living in conflict-affected areas,” the archbishop stated.

“This is a right for all, not a privilege for the few, rooted in the fundamental truth that every human life is sacred and worthy of care from conception to natural death.”

Caccia made the comments regarding the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3, which outlines steps needed to work towards global “health and wellbeing.” Goal 3 specifically discusses access to essential healthcare in poorer regions of the world. The goal emphasizes the protection of the “vulnerable population groups and individuals residing in regions burdened by high disease prevalence.”

The archbishop welcomed the focus on prioritizing vulnerable communities, but he also drew attention to the many groups frequently overlooked in discussions of individual well-being.

“There must be a commitment to health and wellbeing by protecting and serving those most at risk of being forgotten,” he said.

“In this regard, it is important to underscore that health is not merely the absence of illness, but a holistic state of physical, psychological, social, spiritual and emotional wellbeing,” he said.

The abortion Holocaust is claiming more lives in Ireland than ever. Abortion statistics released by the Department of Health in Ireland show there were a record 10,852 abortions in Ireland in 2024, a 62.8% increase since 2019, when the abortion legislation introducing abortion on demand in Ireland came into effect, and 6,666 abortions took place.

The figures reveal an increase of 8.16% from 2023, when there were 10,033 abortions.

Before new abortion legislation came into effect in Ireland in 2019, the number of abortions that took place in England and Wales for women who were Irish residents in 2018 was 2,879. A further 32 abortions were reported to have taken place in Ireland under the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, taking the total number of abortions for Irish residents in 2018 to 2,911.

The latest available data, for the year 2022, shows that 201 residents of the Irish Republic travelled to England and Wales for an abortion. In the same year, Irish abortion statistics show that 8,156 abortions took place in Ireland, and of these, 12 were for women who had travelled from Northern Ireland. This takes the total number of abortions for residents of the Irish Republic to 8,345 in 2022. This is an increase of 186.7% from 2,911 in 2018.

The report also shows that of the 10,852 abortions in 2024, 10,711 (98.7%) were not carried out based on risk to health or life of the mother or on the basis of a condition likely to lead to the death of the unborn baby.

The largest number of abortions happened in January 2024 (1,056) and the fewest happened in August 2024 (849).

There have been a total of 48,984 abortions in Ireland from the start of 2019 to the end of 2024, according to data from the Department of Health in Ireland.

Quoting the Bible could become a one-way ticket to prison if the Irish government accepts the totalitarian measures against free speech demanded by the European Union.

Speaking in the Irish parliament, Deputy Ken O’Flynn has warned of the threat, asking whether quoting Scripture will “become a punishable act” if the Government introduces the EU rule.

He also asked: “Will this Government stand over a law that criminalises people for what they think, criminalises people for what they say rather than what they do?”

The Irish Government has been urged to resist pressure to implement the European Union’s hate speech laws affecting “words, ideas and opinions”.

In Leaders’ Questions, Deputy Ken O’Flynn highlighted the case of Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, who was dragged through the courts for quoting the Bible, and of a pastor in Sweden, sentenced to one month in prison for publishing a sermon.

In May, the European Commission gave Ireland two months to comply with the EU’s laws on hate speech, which is more extensive and wide-reaching than Ireland’s current rules, or else risk being referred to the EU’s Court of Justice.

He continued: “We are not talking about the incitement of violence, we are not talking about threats or harassment, we are talking about words, ideas and opinions; often and sometimes unpopular and uncomfortable, but still lawful expressions, which are supposedly free”.

In response, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe stated that “any such further decisions are ones that always have to be proportionate, and recognise the deep value of free speech, and the right for freedom of expression”.

According to The Sunday Times, a senior Government source reported that it does not intend to impose any new hate speech laws and that it has a “solid” defence against the EU’s claims.

Another source said: “We don’t believe the commission has given sufficient weight to Ireland’s existing common law on this or to our own existing legal framework”.

Following widespread criticism, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee removed incitement to hatred from the initial proposals of the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024. But the law still allows tougher sentences in instances where crimes are deemed to be motivated by hostility towards a protected group.

Under a previous version, there were concerns that churches could have been criminalised for preaching about biblical sexual ethics.

An attempt to introduce bereavement leave for the parents of unborn babies who die after 20 weeks of pregnancy has exposed confusion and hypocritical double-standards among pro-abortionists.

Nearly one third of all pregnancies in England and Wales now end in abortion. 29.69% of all conceptions in England and Wales ended in abortion in 2022, up from 26.54% a year earlier – and a large increase since 2012, when 20.84% of conceptions ended in abortion, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics.

Figures released by the ONS earlier this week show that the number of conceptions ending in abortion is now approaching 1 in 3, and increased from 1 in 5 in 2012. The figures also reveal that, between 2020, when the pills-by-post at-home abortion scheme was first introduced, and 2022, there has been a 19.61% increase in the number of conceptions leading to abortion.

Overall, the figures revealed that there were 834,260 conceptions for women resident in England and Wales in 2022, and 247,703 of these conceptions led to abortion.

The number of conceptions leading to abortion in 2022 was 13.15% higher than 2021, when there were 218,923 abortions. The number of conceptions ending in abortion in 2022 has increased by 34.31% since 2012, when 184,420 conceptions ended in abortion.

The percentage of conceptions ending in abortion was lowest among women aged 30-34, but still sharply increased from 13% of conceptions ending in abortion in 2012 to 20.53% in 2022.

The percentage of conceptions ending in abortion among those outside marriage or civil partnership increased from 29.4% in 2012 to 36% in 2022. The percentage of conceptions ending in abortion among those within marriage or civil partnership increased from 7.6% in 2012 to 11.1% in 2022.

The percentage of conceptions leading to abortions was highest in Liverpool, where 40.3% of all conceptions ended in abortion. After this came Brighton and Hove (40.3%), Lambeth (38.4%), Halton (38.1%) and Knowsley (38.0%). The percentage of conceptions leading to abortions was lowest in East Cambridgeshire, where 18.6% of all conceptions ended in abortion. Among the other regions with the lowest percentage of conceptions ending in abortion were South Cambridgeshire (20%), Bolsover (20.2%), Mid Suffolk (21.%) and Tewkesbury (21.1%).

The total number of abortions for residents of England and Wales, according to the 2022 abortion statistics, was 251,377. The total number of live births for the same year was 605,342, and the number of stillbirths was 2,402. This would make a total of 859,121. These figures differ from those provided in the conception statistics because the conception statistics count the number of women becoming pregnant, not the number of babies being born. This means twins, triplets and multiple births are not counted separately.

Scotland looks set to follow England and Wales in lurching towards full-on infanticide. Scottish MPs have called for Scotland to follow England and Wales’s example by bringing in even more liberal abortion laws.

Katrina Murray, Labour MP for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch, called Scotland’s abortion law “outdated” and said that it “must change”. She was supported by party colleagues Lillian Jones and Joani Reid.

Last month, MPs approved Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to allow a woman in England and Wales to kill her unborn baby at any stage of pregnancy without sanction, by 379 votes to 137. They also rejected a proposal to reinstate in-person consultations under the pills-by-post scheme.

Murray said that following the vote in Westminster, “Scotland now stands as the only nation in the UK that has not moved to remove abortion from the criminal law. That must change”.

Explaining the current process, she noted: “all abortions still require two doctors’ signatures, and women must meet specific legal criteria to qualify for an abortion”.

She complained that “simply not wanting to be pregnant” at any stage in pregnancy “is not a valid reason to have an abortion” under the law as it stands.

An expert group to review the law on abortion has been assembled by the Scottish Government. They are expected to publish proposals advising whether the law should be changed later this summer.

Commenting on the recent vote in Westminster, columnist Janice Turner, who describes herself as an advocate of ‘reproductive rights’, expressed shock at the “glib, careless and amoral plan” that would “allow a woman to self-terminate a pregnancy up until the moment of birth without facing prosecution”.

While she did not support the prosecution of all illegal abortions, she said the current pills-by-post scheme is “open to abuse and error”, and rejected the notion that a “woman should be free to self-administer abortifacients up until birth, in any circumstance, with no legal sanction”.

“It cannot be that killing a full-term baby in the birth canal is legal, but smothering it outside the womb is infanticide.” She added: “a foetus at 37 weeks gestation is still a human life”.

One of the world's most faithful Archbishops, Hector Aguer, has just published the following powerful intervention on the subjct of the Demographic Winter threatening our entire civilisation:

A Canadian Armed Forces veteran was offered euthanasia by a Government department responsible for pensions, benefits and services for war veterans after he contacted them for help with post-traumatic stress disorder.

David Baltzer, who served two tours in Afghanistan, explained how a Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) agent brought up the topic of “medical-assisted suicide”, saying “I was in my lowest down point, it was just before Christmas”.

“He says to me, ‘I would like to make a suggestion for you. Keep an open mind, think about it, you’ve tried all this and nothing seems to be working, but have you thought about medical-assisted suicide?’”.

“It made me wonder, were they really there to help us, or slowly groom us to say ‘here’s a solution, just kill yourself’”.

Baltzer had contacted VAC for support after the counselling and therapy he received on his return from Afghanistan – where he had seen “plenty of combat” – failed to improve his condition. Baltzer had then tried to deal with the trauma through the use of alcohol and substance abuse. 

Following the VAC agent’s offer, Baltzer was left reeling, saying “It just seems to me that they just want us to be like ‘f–k this, I give up, this sucks, I’d rather just take my own life'”.’

“That’s how I honestly felt”.

This scandal isn't new. Retired corporal, Christine Gauthier, who competed in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, testified before a Canadian House of Commons Veterans Affairs Committee at the beginning of December 2022 that an unnamed veterans affairs case worker had said, in writing, that Ms Gauthier could be provided with a euthanasia device when all she had wanted was a stairlift to be installed in her home.

Ms Gauthier, 52, said “I have a letter saying that if you’re so desperate, madam, we can offer you MAID, medical assistance in dying”.

Canadian veteran Kelsi Sheren said that she knows almost a dozen former military servicemen who have been offered medical assistance in dying by Canadian authorities, calling this “disgusting” and “unacceptable”. 

The Elim Pentecostal Church has pleaded with Westminster to honour the sanctity of life from birth to natural death.

In a press release responding to decisions in the House of Commons advancing Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill and liberalising abortion law in England and Wales, the Elim Movement warned that these developments undermined the value of every human life.

The statement followed an address by Professor John Lennox at the National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast on the theme of ‘God in the public square’.

The denomination, comprising over 400 churches in the UK and Ireland set out the Church’s “deeply held belief in the God-given dignity and worth of every human life” and urged Westminster to “consider the importance of human dignity from conception to natural death”.

Elim called on both Houses to reject “the belief that a just and compassionate society pits the rights of an unborn child with the rights of their mother, or spends time and money on assisted dying rather than improving palliative care and support”.

MPs, it said, should therefore revisit the decision to decriminalise abortion “as a matter of urgency”, and urged Peers “to engage in rigorous interrogation of the Assisted Dying Terminally Ill Adults Bill”.

Christian apologist Prof John Lennox told those gathered at last month’s event in Westminster Hall that “we need Christian faith in the public square”.

He warned: “Removing God from the public square does not leave it in some kind of neutrality. No. What happens is that doing God is replaced by doing not God—in other words, allowing the worldview of atheism to dominate.

"The very values that lie at the heart of all thinking about human beings and Western society — whether religious or secular — actually come from the fundamental teaching of the Bible: that all men and women are of equal value and dignity, since they are created in the image of God”.

Prof Lennox encouraged Christians “to be salt and light in the world – to bear witness to the truth by reasoning in the public space, as Jesus and his apostles did”. He added: “And if we don’t speak, then maybe even these thousand-year-old stones will cry out: Imago Dei.”