These articles were first published in our September edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
A ComRes poll of 1,000 Welsh adults released in mid-July showed that three quarters oppose making smacking a criminal offence.
The poll, commissioned by The Christian Institute, also found that eight in ten say parents, not the state, should be left to decide on smacking.
Only a week after Mike Overd and Michael Stockwell’s public order convictions were overturned at Bristol Crown Court, another street preacher was acquitted of a public order offence charge in July.
Andrew Frost was acquitted at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court. Christian Legal Centre’s Andrea Williams described the result as a ‘fantastic victory for freedom of speech and the freedom to share the life-giving news of the gospel’.
In mid-July, Nikki and Merv Kenward of campaign group Distant Voices demonstrated outside the High Court in London to bring to the public's attention the danger of liberalising the law on assisted suicide.
They used a giant puppet display as part of the protest, while Noel Conway, who has Motor Neurone Disease, asked for intervention from the court to allow doctors to assist him and others to commit suicide.
Lord Shinkwin reintroduced his Bill in early July to bring the abortion limit for unborn babies diagnosed with a disability in line with the current limit for babies who are deemed healthy.
Following the Bill’s first reading in the House of Lords, Lord Shinkwin said: ‘I urge all organisations and individuals who believe in genuine equality, rather than just disability equality on non-disabled people’s terms, to support my Bill.’
The head of Britain's largest abortion provider BPAS claimed again in July that abortion is a form of birth control.
Ann Furedi said in a new BPAS report: ‘Abortion is birth control that women need when their regular method lets them down.’ She made a similar statement in 2014. She also approved the BMA’s decision to vote in favour of decriminalising abortion.
On the same day in July that the Supreme Court ruled that Employment Tribunal fees are unlawful as they create a chilling effect on access to justice, the Christian Legal Centre filed a claim to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of pro-lifer Aisling Hubert, and the prohibitive costs she suffered because of her private prosecution.
Miss Hubert launched a private prosecution against two doctors who had verbally agreed to perform ‘gender-abortions’ in breach of the Abortion Act 1967.
Boots was accused in July of ‘capitulating’ to pressure from radical feminists after it agreed to look at reducing the price of the morning-after pill in its pharmacies.
Marc Donovan, the high-street chemist’s chief pharmacist, had resisted calls to make the abortifacient drug cheaper, saying it would ‘incentivise inappropriate use’. But after a backlash by BPAS and dozens of Labour MPs, Boots said it was ‘truly sorry’ for the ‘poor choice of words’ and agreed to look at cheaper alternatives.
Women’s safety would be threatened if the government pushes ahead with plans to change laws on transsexualism – but a climate of fear stops more people from speaking out, activists warned in late July.
Existing sex-based laws would be rendered ‘meaningless’ if men are allowed to become women by simply ‘feeling like it’, the women’s rights campaigners told The Sunday Times.