RELIGION HEADLINES

(SRN NEWS) – The European Union is warning Pakistan that its status as a duty-free exporter to the bloc will continue to depend on the progress the country makes in addressing concerns about civil liberties, including freedom of religion.  Pakistan is one of the worst persecutors of Christians on earth and its draconian blasphemy laws have been decried by human rights activists for decades.  The country’s exports to Europe have doubled since 2014 when it was awarded the status of duty-free exporter under the EU’s Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus for developing countries. 

The U.S. isn’t the only country where battles over abortion are taking place.  An appeals court in Poland says it will rule later this month in the case of a women’s rights activist convicted in 2023 of providing another woman with abortion pills.  The defendant has been sentenced to eight months of community service for having sent the pills.  Helping a woman have an abortion is illegal in Poland and can result in up to three years in prison.  Poland allows abortion only when a woman’s life or health is endangered or if the pregnancy results from rape or incest. 

Hospitals in Colorado, Virginia and the nation’s capital say they have paused sex-change operations and puberty-blocking drugs for children as they evaluate President Trump’s executive order aimed at cutting federal support for such care.  Denver Health in Colorado has stopped providing sex-change surgeries for people under age 19. Officials at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., says the hospital has paused prescriptions of puberty blockers and hormone therapy.  In Virginia, VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond have followed suit. 

A coalition of legal organizations is calling on Texas school districts to reject the adoption of a recently approved state curriculum that includes references to Christianity and biblical teachings.  The groups claim that the curriculum would violate the so-called “separation of church and state”.  A spokesman for the Texas Education Agency points out that there is no religious instruction in the curriculum, though it contains religious topics when contextually relevant. The State Board of Education approved the elementary school curriculum in November.