A Finnish parliamentarian and a Lutheran Bishop have both been blocked from entering the UK following a disputed conviction for “hate speech” in Finland over the content of a Christian pamphlet.

Longstanding Christian politician Päivi Räsänen was due to give a talk in person this week about freedom of speech, at a religious freedom conference.

However, in July, Räsänen was informed that her Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to the UK had been cancelled.

This followed the former Interior Minister’s controversial conviction for “hate speech” in March this year.

Courts ruled a booklet which she wrote for her church in 2004, expressing her Christian beliefs on marriage and sexuality, breached criminal law in its argument against same-sex relationships.

Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who published the booklet, was also convicted of hate speech and was likewise blocked from entering the UK.

They have both appealed their cases to the European Court of Human Rights.

Räsänen expressed her shock that the UK blocked her, “a democratically elected politician in an allied European state, from entering the country”, describing her conviction as “unjust” and an “egregious case of state censorship” for “peacefully expressing her Christian views”.

Stay-at-home mothers are less likely to have experienced depression than all other women, according to a leading sociologist.

While abundant research has shown that married mothers are happier than other demographics of women, less work has been done on stay-at-home mothers specifically.

To examine that question, Stephen Cranney of the Institute for Family Studies looked at large US datasets on drug and emotional-health-related issues.

He found that 10% of stay-at-home mothers had experienced a major depressive episode in the past year.

By contrast, that figure rose to 15% for all other women.

Likewise, when looking at suicidality, he found that 5pc of stay-at-home mothers had suicidal thoughts in the past year versus 8% for their non-homemaker, female counterparts.

Moreover, as mental health is not simply the absence of problems, Cranney cited work of a colleague from 2022 that showed stay-at-home mothers are at least as happy as employed mothers.

A surrogate baby marked for abortion by the couple who commissioned it was given a reprieve after a judge agreed with the woman carrying the child and ordered life-saving care instead.

The child had been diagnosed with a heart defect in utero, prompting the commissioning couple to order that the pregnancy be aborted, in accord with the terms of the surrogacy contract.

However, the surrogate mother, McKenna West, a nurse from Alaska, preferred that post-birth surgery should be performed on the child – whom she has named Gabriel.

She wished to give birth in a hospital in Texas with a high success rate treating infants with the same condition.

The couple, however, filed legal proceedings in California to establish their parental rights over the child, and to compel Ms West give birth in the state.

On Tuesday, a judge in Dallas agreed with Ms West and ordered that the child receive life-sustaining treatment.

Ms West gave birth in the Texas hospital on Wednesday and the child is now receiving stabilising care and is scheduled to undergo surgery.

Proponents of assisted suicide believe the Government is ducking the issue and will not legislate for it in the current Dáil.

In 2024, just a few months before the last General Election, a Special Oireachtas Joint Committee called for the Government to bring forward legislation for TDs to scrutinise.

Two years on, former People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, who was an advocate of assisted suicide but lost his seat in the last election, said he does not believe the Government has any interest in the topic.

“I just don’t see this Government legislating for assisted dying,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

His comments follow confirmation from Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan that “no decision” has been taken on the matter. He has described such a bill as “very complex”, adding that it would require careful consideration of medical, ethical, and cultural issues.

Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane, who was a member of the committee that backed change, hit out at the lack of action, claiming the Government are “avoiding the issue”.

Childhood depression is less than half as prevalent amongst the children of married parents, according to a recent report for the Institute for Family Studies.

Depression was most common among children in single-mother households, married stepfamilies, and households with no parent present.

Lead researcher, Grant Bailey, said the research “underscores the importance of tracking and reporting family structure as a key variable in student well-being”, as otherwise key structural dynamics may be overlooked in baseline data.

A surrogate mother is battling a couple who contracted her to carry their baby as they want the pregnancy aborted after the child was diagnosed with a heart defect.

McKenna West, a nurse from Alaska, is arguing that post-birth surgery should be performed on the child – whom she has named Gabriel – and claims the couple who entered a surrogacy contract with her are refusing to allow the surgery after she denied their abortion request.

The intended parents allegedly stopped sending Ms West payments following her decision and demanded that she repay money they had already provided, along with damages for breaching the surrogacy agreement.

The couple have also filed legal proceedings in California to establish their parental rights over the child, and have asked the court to require Ms West give birth in the state.

According to Ms West, the intended parents have indicated they would provide only “comfort” care after the birth rather than the operations required to treat the baby’s condition.

She wishes to give birth in a hospital in Texas with a high success rate treating infants with the same condition.

Newly published research shows a rise in the use of remote consultations for women seeking abortions in Ireland despite an inability to detect dangerous contraindications such as ectopic pregnancy.

A previous report published in the Irish Medical Journal in 2024 revealed how a 24-year-old woman in Limerick, who had a pill-induced abortion, nearly died due to the presence of an undetected ectopic pregnancy.

19% of the GPs who participated in the new study in the BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health journal provided “fully remote consultations” for the first abortion consultation, and another 48% used a mixed model of remote and in-person meetings for the first of two consultations.

Among other things, the increased reliance on remote consultations doesn’t allow for ultrasound examination of the pregnant woman and her baby, leading to potential delays in detecting rare but very serious cases of ectopic pregnancy.

A spokesperson for the Pro-Life Campaign said the latest research suggests that fully remote consultations are taking place much more frequently than previously indicated.

“The risks this poses to women, as well as to their unborn babies, cannot be overstated”.

The Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley, has launched a three-year “Action Plan” to implement its policy on combatting the influence of ‘tradwives’ and the so-called ‘manosphere’.

The action plan was developed “in coordination with the National Women’s Council of Ireland”.

One section deals with providing “gender equality education and education environments that directly counter patriarchal gender norms, including restrictive masculinities”.

Nowhere in the 52 page document does it mention the words “wife” or “mother”, but it does adopt the gender neutral “parent” 20 times.

A press release on the launch of the document described it as “a living document” that establishes mechanisms to track progress over the coming years.

While the Action Plan’s language is generic, the earlier Strategy document spells out its target in clearer terms: misogynistic male influencers in the “manosphere” and “Tradwife” influencers promoting “patriarchal norms” seen as pressuring women into “restrictive, stereotypical roles for women and girls”.

The Diocese of Lokoja announced the death of Fr Samuel Opeyemi Oyetoro in a statement on July 30.

“We commend our beloved priest to the infinite mercy of God, giving thanks for his faithful ministry, sacrificial love, and unwavering dedication to the people of God,” the diocese said.

The murder of Fr Oyetoro is the latest in a series of increasingly violent attacks against priests, religious and lay Catholics in the country.

Four days after the priest’s murder, seven gunmen entered the Church of St Joseph in Enugu state in southeastern Nigeria during Sunday Mass, Fides reported. The attackers kidnapped three people, including a seminarian, a catechist and a parishioner.

The catechist was able to escape his captors while police conducted a search operation. However, the seminarian and the parishioner remained hostages for a few days before thankfully being released.

The State Attorney General of Florda has demanded that Catholic schools accept religious objections to vaccines or risk losing millions in state funding.

According to state law, children wanting to attend public or Catholic schools are subject to vaccine mandates. However, exemptions are granted on either medical or religious grounds.  Philosophical or personal belief exemptions are not recognized in Florida.

A state office grants exemptions when claimed by parents on sufficient grounds.

Catholic schools in Florida, however, have not been accepting the religious exemptions, as the Catholic faith does not provide grounds for a principled objection to any of the required vaccines. This follows advice from the US National Catholic Bioethics Center.

Florida’s AG, James Uthmeier, disputes that reading of Catholic teaching.

Speaking “as a Catholic” and after citing numerous Catholic sources, he says “there is no religious basis on which to reject a person’s claim of religious conscience for refusing to take vaccines”.

He urged the schools to accept the religious exemptions, warning: “[f]ailure to comply could jeopardize eligibility for state educational scholarship programs”.

Notre Dame professor of Law, Rick Garnett, called the letter “a glaring and dangerous government overreach.”