News

British health authorities defend hormone contraceptives for nine year-old girls

The British health authorities are defending a programme that allows 13 year-old girls to be given hormonal contraceptive implants in school without their parents’ knowledge or consent. The day after these headlines appeared, it was declared that government statistics showed a sixfold increase in girls under 15 getting implants over the last five years. National Health Service numbers showed that last year alone, 7,400 British girls between 13 and 15 were given implants or hormonal injections. In some schools, hormonal contraceptives have been given to girls as young as nine. 

The government defended the programme, which dates to 2009, claiming that it has had the desired effect of reducing teenage pregnancies by 22 per cent. Under the rules of “confidentiality,” school staff are actually forbidden to tell parents their children are undergoing these medical interventions, even after the fact. British newspapers report that it is “not known” how many schools are offering the contraceptive programme.

The government defended the programme, saying it had produced the desired effect in reducing teenage pregnancies by 22 per cent. Only “properly trained personnel” took the girls’ medical histories and approved the procedures, they assured the public. 

~

Racist threats emailed to Anglican Archbishop over “gay marriage” opposition

The Anglican archbishop of York has received an undisclosed number of racially abusive emails in response to his opposition to Prime Minister Cameron’s “gay marriage” plans. The contents of the messages were not disclosed, but a statement from Dr. John Sentamu’s office said they had been forwarded to police for investigation of possible hate crimes. 

Late last month Sentamu said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that marriage by definition can only ever be between one man and one woman and that the state does not have the competence to re-define it. The second most senior leader of the Church of England, originally from Uganda, accused Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron of acting like a “dictator” in attempting to impose gay “marriage” on the still majority Christian country.

Sentamu was a lawyer who clashed with bloody dictator Idi Amin and fled his home country to Britain in 1974. He was jailed for 90 days by the regime and in his own words was beaten and “kicked around like a football” while imprisoned. He was ordained to the Anglican priesthood in 1979 and was appointed Archbishop of York in 2005, making him the highest-ranking black clergyman in the Church of England.

In his interview, Sentamu said that marriage is “set in tradition and history and you can’t just [change it] overnight, no matter how powerful you are.

“We’ve seen dictators do it in different contexts and I don’t want to redefine very clear social structures that have been in existence for a long time and then overnight the state believes it could go in a particular way.

“It’s almost like somebody telling you that the Church, whose job is to worship God [will be] an arm of the Armed Forces. They must take arms and fight. You’re completely changing tradition.”

Sentamu has supported the Church of England’s position in favour of homosexual civil partnerships and the policy of allowing homosexual clergy to live together on the condition that they promise to remain celibate.

This week, a statement from his office said, “A large quantity of correspondence was received in response to the archbishop’s interview with the Daily Telegraph, which touched on a wide range of issues.

“Amongst many positive emails that he has received, there have been a small number of abusive and threatening emails of a racist nature which North Yorkshire Police are investigating as hate crimes.”

~

Archbishop of Canterbury, General Synod, oppose loosening assisted suicide law

Dr. Rowan Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, has warned of social “disaster” if assisted suicide is legalised and promoted in the same way as abortion.

Addressing the Church of England’s General Synod, Dr. Williams noted that the strongest opposition to legalising assisted suicide comes not from religious people but from physicians who would be left morally and legally vulnerable. He urged legislators to consider the position of physicians opposed to the practice as well as the protection of vulnerable patients.

Changes to the law, he said, are “changes in the default position that our society adopts.”

“The default position on abortion has shifted quite clearly over the past 40 years, and to see the default position shifting on the sanctity of life would be a disaster.”

“We are committed, as Christians, to the belief that every life in every imaginable situation is infinitely precious in the sight of God.  To say that there are certain conditions in which life is legally declared to be not worth living is a major shift in the moral and spiritual atmosphere in which we live,” Williams continued.

Williams said he hopes that the churches will actively resist changes to the existing law. “But to change the law on this subject is, I believe, to change something vital in our sense of the value of life itself.”

The Synod opened the debate in response to a report by euthanasia and assisted suicide promoter, Lord Charles Falconer to the House of Lords recommending changing the law. Currently it remains a crime in Britain to assist a suicide, with a possible penalty of up to 14 years in prison. The public prosecutor’s office, however, has already changed the rules to allow people to assist suicides of loved ones without penalty.

While Falconer himself has admitted the insufficiency of legal “safeguards” surrounding the practice in places where assisted suicide and euthanasia have been legalised, he has led a group of legislators pressing for legalisation. The Synod was debating the motion, “That this Synod express its concern that the Independent Commission on Assisted Dying is insufficiently independent to be able to develop proposals which will properly protect the interests of vulnerable and disabled people.”

The Synod passed the motion, affirming “the intrinsic value of every human life” and supporting the current law on assisted suicide “as a means of contributing to a just and compassionate society in which vulnerable people are protected.”

~