TDs rejected an attempt to put a radical pro-abortion bill on the Dail agenda by a vote of 73 to 71 on Tuesday night.

The Private Members Bill, if it went into law, would completely decriminalise abortion, abolished the mandatory three-day waiting period and loosened restrictions on abortion up to birth where the unborn child has a life limiting condition.

While the bill was touted by People Before Profit TD, Paul Murphy, it received the support of some Government Ministers, including Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, Helen McEntee, Jack Chambers and James Lawless.

The Pro Life Campaign warmly welcomed the result with spokesperson, Eilís Mulroy, saying it “shows that many TDs are taking stock of the dramatic increase in abortions since the law changed and of the disturbing realities now emerging under the current legislation”.

“This includes the many testimonies of women who regret their abortions and who say they felt pressured under the current system toward abortion and weren’t offered any information beforehand about alternatives”.

A Department of Education survey determining the kind of primary schools parents want for their children closed on Tuesday night with over 230,000, or 47pc of eligible households, having filled out the questionnaire.

The survey – the largest of its kind ever undertaken in Ireland – was school-specific and assessed parental preference regarding patronage/ethos, co-education or single-sex schools, and language of instruction (English or Irish). It may lead to more divestment of Catholic schools.

Parents and guardians of children who are either in, or have yet to start, primary school were eligible to participate, as were school staff and boards of management.

The department says it will use the survey results to input into its analysis of national, local and school-specific data, to help it plan for schools into the future.

It says that where there is clear support for change to be considered, a further process of inclusive dialogue will begin.

Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media mogul and outspoken critic of Beijing, was convicted in a landmark national security trial in the city’s court this week, which could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

Lai, an ardent Catholic who converted in 1997, was one of Hong Kong’s foremost human rights advocates, sitting at the helm of a small media empire in a political environment that was increasingly controlled by the Communist Party of China.

His plight has drawn support from around the world, including among prominent Catholic leaders. In 2021 he was honoured with an award by organisers of the US National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, while the next year he was given an honorary degree from The Catholic University of America.

In 2023 Lai was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Cardinal Joseph Zen and numerous others for their work in promoting human rights in Hong Kong. That same year nearly a dozen bishops and archbishops from around the world called for Lai’s release, criticizing the “cruelty and oppression” to which he had been subject for years.

Among the attendees at his trial was Hong Kong’s retired Cardinal Joseph Zen.

[Photo shows Senator Ronan Mullen with Sebastien Lai, son of Jimmy Lai]

Legislation providing for the complete decriminalisation of abortion and the abolition of the mandatory three-day waiting period is scheduled for a preliminary vote in the Dáil tonight.

The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) (Amendment) Bill 2023, had been proposed by former People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith, during the last Dail, but lapsed at the end of the session.

It is now being reintroduced by Paul Murphy TD.

As well as decriminalising abortion and ending the 3-day waiting period, the bill would also provide for abortion on demand prior to foetal viability, which is around 22 weeks; and expand the time period for abortion for so-called ‘fatal foetal abnormality’ to where a medical condition is likely to lead to the death of the child within a year of birth.

The Pro Life Campaign is asking its supporters to lobby politicians to oppose the bill, saying it “would allow abortion on request through the entire nine months of pregnancy”, and would “certainly lead to a big increase to the already massive numbers of babies lost and women hurt by abortion”.

Marriage reduces the risk of being the victim of domestic violence compared with other live-in relationships, new figures suggest.

Around 3.8 million over-16s in England and Wales suffered domestic abuse in the year ending March 2025, according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics.

This included approximately 2.2 million women and 1.5 million men.

The statistics regulator noted that victims who were married accounted for a “significantly lower proportion” of those experiencing domestic abuse, in contrast to people who were “cohabiting, single, separated or divorced”.

The most common marital status of victims was “separated” (22.7 per cent), followed by “divorced/legally dissolved partnership” (16.3 per cent). Marriage accounted for just 4.4 per cent.

Dr Tony Rucinski of campaign group Coalition for Marriage said that for years a ‘gendered narrative’ has painted the traditional family as dangerous.

The official figures show “the safest place for women is a stable marriage to a man who keeps his promises. The safest place for men and for children is the same.”

Founded in 1997, and headquartered in Brussels, the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) represents 33 national and local associations. It holds a participatory status with the Council of Europe since 2001 and is a member of the Fundamental Rights Platform of the European Union.

Their advocacy work ranges from drawing attention to plunging birth rates, to work-family balance, protection of children, the harms of pornography, and matters of life and human dignity.

Hungarian MEP, Kinga Gál, deplored the move saying FAFCE is “being punished simply for defending family as the fundamental unit of society”, a view which is now treated as “unacceptable” in Brussels due to “gender ideology”.

Separately, the well known World Youth Alliance (WYA) saw their funding rejected on the basis of their pro-life views. The WYA campaigns for human dignity “from conception till natural death” and has been advocating on behalf of life at major United Nations events since 1999.

A Danish donor whose sperm was used to create at least 197 children across 14 countries in Europe, passed a cancer-causing gene to them, a major investigation has found.

Many of the children developed cancer, with some dying at a very early age.

The donor’s sperm was also sold to Ireland, though records do not show any children having been born from it.

The case highlights the lack of controls over the number of children one donor can procreate, and the danger of using eggs and sperm bought on a commercial market without full knowledge of its genetic heritage.

Sperm from Donor 7069, alias ‘Kjeld’, was made available by the European Sperm Bank (ESB) to 67 clinics between 2006 and 2023, when it was blocked from the market.

‘Kjeld’ was a student in 2005 when he started donating at the Copenhagen branch of the ESB after passing all medical tests.

In 2023, however, a gene mutation which dramatically increases the risk of cancer was discovered in a portion of his sperm cells, after doctors reported seeing children he fathered with the TP53 mutation.

It led to the issuing of an international alert to health authorities and fertility clinics.

The head of the HSE has issued an “unequivocal” apology and said an independent review will take place into the case of a couple who agreed to have an abortion after being wrongly advised that their healthy unborn baby had a so-called ‘fatal foetal abnormality’.

Rebecca Price and Pat Kiely were told that a blood test when Ms Price was 12 weeks’ pregnant with their first child in early 2019 was positive for Trisomy 18, a serious and rare genetic disorder, also known as Edwards’ Syndrome.

A further rapid result polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test carried out in a Glasgow laboratory also showed Trisomy 18 had been detected.

Ms Price and Mr Kiely said they followed the advice of their consultant and terminated the unborn child’s life in March 2019.

The results of a full cell culture test, however, showed that the baby did not have the condition.

In 2021, the couple settled High Court actions with medical consultants operating at the Merrion Fetal Health Clinic, the National Maternity Hospital and a Glasgow laboratory admitting full liability.

A retired pastor is being prosecuted in Northern Ireland under abortion buffer zone laws for an open-air sermon on God’s love for humanity, even though abortion was never mentioned.

76-year-old, Clive Johnston, a former President of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, is facing two charges for holding a Sunday service on the fringes of a buffer zone on the other side of a dual carriageway from Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital on 7 July last year.

According to the Act, it is now a criminal offence for people to be “impeded, recorded, influenced or to be caused harassment, alarm or distress” within 100-150m of hospitals or clinics that offer abortions.

The Pastor spoke on John 3:16, a famous Bible verse that states, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

Crucially, it is not alleged that he even mentioned abortion. Nor were there any abortion placards or banners.

If convicted, the grandfather of seven, who has never been in trouble with the police, faces a criminal record and maximum fines totalling thousands of pounds.