UK & Ireland in Brief

A December report by the Care Quality Commission revealed that Marie Stopes, the UK’s biggest abortion group, failed to follow basic safety procedures and the commission reported more than 2,600 serious incidents during 2016.

Pre-signed forms and inadequately trained nurses were found in clinics. Reports of women not having their questions answered and being pressured into proceeding with abortions were reported at some clinics. The remains of aborted foetuses had been left in an open waste container at another clinic.

A portrait of Lord Carey was removed from the King’s College London campus, seemingly after the university bowed to pressure from LGBT campaigners, it was reported in January.

Activists had campaigned for the image of the former Archbishop of Canterbury and King’s alumnus to be removed from its ‘wall of fame’ of prestigious graduates, because of his pro-marriage views. In 2013, Lord Carey expressed opposition to the legalisation of same sex marriage. The ‘Orwellian double-think’ of LGBT activists who ‘carry the baton of tolerance’ while attacking Lord Carey has been criticised.

Health and patient groups have condemned a move by NHS England to fund a controversial drug for those engaged in high-risk homosexual activity, while cutting other vital treatments, it was reported in December.

More than 10,000 gay men who do not have HIV but are at risk of contracting it through unprotected sex will be offered pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which lowers the risk of infection. The ‘large scale clinical trial’ will cost £400 per month per person and will take place over three years. If rolled out for just the 10,000 men in the trial, it will cost the NHS £48,000,000 each year.

For the first time, the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) will have a London Director in 2017.

Trevor Archer will officially move into the post when Adrian Reynolds joins as the Fellowship’s new Training Director in April to take on the role Trevor has served in since 2012. As London Director, Trevor will help the 76 FIEC churches within the M25 to connect better with one another, as well as developing stronger links between FIEC and other like-minded churches and gospel-hearted networks in London.