THE Irish Government has paid out €30,000 to a woman who had to travel to Britain for an abortion after a fatal foetal abnormality diagnosis. Siobhan Whelan was refused a medical abortion despite learning that her unborn son had holoprosencephaly – a congenial brain disorder. The Wexford woman, who was told her child would likely die in utero or soon after birth, was forced to travel to Britain for a termination in 2010. Following the procedure in Liverpool, Ms. Whelan brought a complaint against the Irish State to the UN Human Rights Committee, who concluded that her human rights had been violated. The Committee said that the Irishwoman had been treated in a “cruel, inhuman and degrading” manner. Today, the Irish Government confirmed it paid Ms. Whelan a sum – understood to be €30,000 (£26,500) – following the UN’s decision in June. In a statement, Ms. Whelan said: “The human…

According to UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics, women account for less than 30% of the world’s researchers. Naledi Pandor, the South Africa minister for science and technology has called for gender evaluation in science education to see what is causing low science enrollment among women in higher institutions of learning. “Let us insert a gender eye,” she advised during the Who will do 21 Century Science: International Perspective from Women in science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics STEM Igniting Conferences Start- Ups in the Middle East and Africa session at the World Conference of Science Journalists in San Francisco, California last week. The conference with the theme Bridging Science and Societies brought in science journalists from across the globe Naledi urged that the science discipline in the 21 century had to include women and black people, else the world will continue missing out on talent and it does not make sense to…

By Rudi Keller Planned Parenthood on Monday sued to overturn the latest state abortion regulations, claiming the rules have already forced it to cancel appointments for some women in Columbia and will prevent new clinics in Springfield and Joplin from opening. In the federal lawsuit filed in the Western District of Missouri, the two Missouri-based Planned Parenthood affiliates are seeking a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of rules requiring a complication plan for women who have trouble after taking medication to induce an abortion. The regulations are unconstitutional, the lawsuit argues because they require a doctor handling complications to have hospital admitting privileges that have been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court when applied to doctors performing abortions. “This ‘complication plan’ flies in the face of our patients’ constitutional rights to safe, legal abortion services without undue burden,” Planned Parenthood Great Plains interim President and CEO Aaron Samulcek said in…