China Clamps Down on Epidemic of Online Gaming

..

In 2019, China restricted online gaming to 1.5 hours per day. Now they have significantly reduced that. A lot of teenage boys will be very upset with this news.

China limits video gaming time to 3 hours per week

By Zarrin Ahmed

A man plays a video game on his mobile phone in Beijing on Saturday. Online games in China are extremely popular

among young people and children, with many people being gaming addicted. Photo by Roman Pilipey/EPA-EFE

Aug. 30 (UPI) -- China announced Monday that children will only be allowed to play video games for 1 hour on Fridays, weekends, and holidays.

Gaming platforms can only offer online gaming to minors between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on those days, according to the National Press and Publication Administration (NAAP). The new restrictions limit a previous rule that allowed children to play video games for 1.5 hours per day.

A majority of parents expressed their concern over minors' indulging in online gaming, which led to the previous restriction enacted in 2019, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

"Recently, many parents have reported that some teenagers' indulging in online games have seriously affected their normal study life and physical and mental health, and even caused a series of social problems," Xinhua stated in a Monday press release.

Along with the time slots, China will implement a real-name verification system where users will present their identification. Regulation of the new measures will also go into effect.

The NAAP urged families, schools, and social sectors to assume the responsibility of guardianship and provide environments conducive to "the healthy growth of minors."

Religion Can Help Improve Children’s Mental Health, New Study Finds

Surprised to find this story on a national news network in Canada

By Laura Hensley Global News

People who grew up in a religious household reported fewer symptoms of depression. Getty

Children who are raised with religious or spiritual beliefs tend to have better mental health into their adulthood, a new study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found.

According to the study’s findings, people who attended weekly religious services or prayed or meditated daily in their childhood reported greater life satisfaction in their 20s. People who grew up in a religious household also reported fewer symptoms of depression and lower rates of post-traumatic stress disorder.

On top of the mental health benefits, researchers found that religious subjects weren’t as likely to smoke, use drugs, or contract a sexually transmitted infection compared to people who had a less spiritual upbringing.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, followed more than 5,000 youths between the ages of eight to 14 years.

Why does religion benefit mental health?

According to Dr. Tyler J. VanderWeele, the study’s senior author and a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, attending religious services, like church, for example, may benefit youth because it’s a shared experience with people who hold similar beliefs and values. Community is thought to be beneficial to well-being.

VanderWeele also said that being involved in a religious community may offer adolescents role models and mentors other than their parents.

When it comes to the positive effects of prayer and meditation, VanderWeele said it’s likely that the practices “give rise to an experience of God or of transcendence so that an adolescent need not turn to drugs or risky sexual behaviours in their search for something more.”

“That experience of God may fundamentally make a person more other-oriented, leading to greater volunteering, forgiveness, and a sense of mission, and these things ultimately make one happier and protect against depression,” he told Global News.

“Adolescence is a particularly critical time of development and self-understanding, and the establishing of these practices may shape health and well-being throughout life.”

Religion also helps people think about their health in a holistic way, where the mind, body and spirit are all connected, said Jane Kuepfer, a specialist in spirituality and aging at Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo.

“[With religion], when one aspect of ‘who we are’ suffers, the whole suffers. And when one aspect is healthy and vital, ‘all that we are’ benefits,” she said to Global News. “Religion teaches us to value life, and to respect and care for our physical bodies.”

Kuepfer also stressed the importance of belonging and feeling connected to others as a factor contributing to well-being. Social isolation and loneliness are harmful to anyone’s mental health, but particularly to vulnerable populations.

“A sense of belonging is really important, and something we don’t always get in our society in other places,” she said. “[Religion] also gives you a larger perspective and connection across generations.”

Even for those who don’t attend religious services, spirituality benefits health

While attending regular religious services was key to well-being, the study also found that daily meditation and prayer greatly benefited mental health — even in adolescents who didn’t attend service as often.

VanderWeele, the study’s co-author, said that previous studies of adults showed that religious service had the strongest effects on health. But with kids, both service attendance and prayer and/or meditation were strongly associated with well-being.

“For some outcomes, the associations with prayer and mediation were even stronger than for service attendance,” he said. “This is different from adult populations.”

Kuepfer said prayer and meditation are known to be calming and can help people cope with stress. They also offer people a chance to connect with something larger than themselves and work through problems they’re dealing with.

“Religion or belonging to a faith community and participating in spiritual practice helps to slow us down and get perspective,” she said. “We realize that life isn’t all about us, and we don’t have to carry the world on our shoulders. It takes the pressure off.”

There is another aspect that has been completely ignored in this article, and that is that children, or adults, who pray and practice their faith, are living, generally speaking, in obedience to God, that is, 'in His Will'. As such, God may offer extra levels of protection from temptations and from evil. God may also very well bless those people in many various ways and direct their steps if they are listening to Him.

Christian prayer and church attendance are not just healthy exercises; they are ways of connecting to the living God, and preparing for Eternity, which is the real purpose for our existence on this earth.

Five Years Later, Colorado Sees Toll of Pot Legalization

Colorado Springs Gazette 

Last week marked the fifth anniversary of Colorado's decision to sanction the world's first anything-goes commercial pot trade.

Five years later, we remain an embarrassing cautionary tale.

Visitors to Colorado remark about a new agricultural smell, the wafting odor of pot as they drive near warehouse grow operations along Denver freeways. Residential neighborhoods throughout Colorado Springs reek of marijuana, as producers fill rental homes with plants.

Five years of retail pot coincide with five years of a homelessness growth rate that ranks among the highest rates in the country. Directors of homeless shelters, and people who live on the streets, tell us homeless substance abusers migrate here for easy access to pot.

Five years of Big Marijuana ushered in a doubling in the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for marijuana, based on research by the pro-legalization Denver Post.

Five years of commercial pot have been five years of more marijuana in schools than teachers and administrators ever feared.

"An investigation by Education News Colorado, Solutions and the I-News Network shows drug violations reported by Colorado's K-12 schools have increased 45 percent in the past four years, even as the combined number of all other violations has fallen," explains an expose on escalating pot use in schools by Rocky Mountain PBS in late 2016.

The investigation found an increase in high school drug violations of 71 percent since legalization. School suspensions for drugs increased 45 percent.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found Colorado ranks first in the country for marijuana use among teens, scoring well above the national average.

The only good news to celebrate on this anniversary is the dawn of another organization to push back against Big Marijuana's threat to kids, teens and young adults.

The Marijuana Accountability Coalition formed Nov. 6 in Denver and will establish satellites throughout the state. It resulted from discussions among recovery professionals, parents, physicians and others concerned with the long-term effects of a commercial industry profiteering off of substance abuse.

"It's one thing to decriminalize marijuana, it's an entirely different thing to legalize an industry that has commercialized a drug that is devastating our kids and devastating whole communities," said coalition founder Justin Luke Riley. "Coloradans need to know, other states need to know, that Colorado is suffering from massive normalization and commercialization of this drug which has resulted in Colorado being the number one state for youth drug use in the country. Kids are being expelled at higher rates, and more road deaths tied to pot have resulted since legalization."

Commercial pot's five-year anniversary is an odious occasion for those who want safer streets, healthier kids and less suffering associated with substance abuse. Experts say the worst effects of widespread pot use will culminate over decades. If so, we can only imagine the somber nature of Big Marijuana's 25th birthday.

— Colorado Springs Gazette

The reference to decades here probably has to do with mental health. I've shown several times on this blog that there is a connection between teen use of pot and the development of schizophrenia, paranoia and other mental health issues. This should begin to show up in statistics in the next 5 to 10 years and get worse for decades. This is cultural suicide. 

The commercialization of marijuana will result in major players supporting programs that normalize pot, convincing people that it is a good thing. Just as the 'wild west' commercialization of guns has resulted in Americans being convinced that making automatic and semi-automatic assault weapons available to every lunatic in the country is somehow a good thing. 

Muslim Countries have Highest Rates of Suicide, Murder, Rape, and Mental Health Problems

Suicide, murder, rape and mental health conditions are skyrocketing in a stretch of Muslim-majority countries from Morocco to Pakistan, many of which have been wracked by violence and conflict.

A major study covering data from the last 25 years shows soaring rates of death by suicide or at the hands of others. In 2015 alone, the last year for which data was used, around 30,000 people committed suicide, while 35,000 were murdered. The figures do not include deaths in places which are at war, such as Syria and Iraq, and represent increases of 100 per cent and 152 per cent respectively since 1990.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

“In other parts of the world during the same period, the number of deaths from suicide increased 19 percent and interpersonal violence by 12 percent,” stated one of the 15 reports published this week in the International Journal of Public Health.

The researchers also found a “sharp increase” in mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. “Depression and anxiety disorders were the most common mental conditions,” according to the study.

“Intractable and endemic violence is creating a lost generation of children and young adults,” said Dr Ali Mokdad, the study’s lead author and the Director for Middle Eastern Initiatives at IHME. “The future of the Middle East is grim unless we can find a way to bring stability to the region.”

Islamic Insanity:

“I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible…

impossible…for any human being to read the biography

of Mohammed and believe in it, and then emerge a

psychologically and mentally healthy person.”

- Syrian Psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan

The research showed that the wars in Yemen, Iraq and Syria in particular are taking a severe toll on the health of the population in those countries. Not only are the effects immediate in terms of death and injury, but “these events will lead to increased health burden in the future as the next generation…is being raised under the harsh conditions of malnutrition and lack of preventive health services.”

Yemen has the highest proportion of its population suffering from food insecurity,at 36 per cent.

Despite the fast increasing need for mental health professionals to address the psychological fallout of conflict and poverty, the region has very few psychiatrists and psychologists. Many of the countries have only 0.5 psychiatrists for every 100,000 people. By comparison, Europe has more than 40 per 100,000.

The study was conducted using estimates from the annual Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors study and focused on the 600 million people of the “Eastern Mediterranean”, which includes 22 countries from the Maghreb, Horn of Africa, the Middle East — including the GCC — and Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The geographical area has endured, to varying degrees, conflict for decades.An estimated 208,179 people were estimated to have been killed by war, suicide and murder in 2015, of which 144,000 died in war. Such estimates are almost always below the true figures due to the difficulties of collecting reliable data in war zones.

But violence and the associated psychological disorders are not the only alarming findings about the region’s health trends.

“In recent years, many of the health gains for some countries have slowed and several health conditions that were under control are re-emerging,” Dr Mokdad said. “This study clearly indicates that the future health of the region is in danger.”

Even the wealthiest per capita countries of the GCC will be affected directly or indirectly by the impact of global warming and climate change. Some of the countries “face significant environmental challenges due to lack of water, rising temperatures, and sandstorms,” the study found. Air pollution also needs to be addressed.

In the UAE, Qatar and Oman, transport-related accidents were the second highest cause of death in 2015, at 14 per cent, 20 per cent and 16 per cent respectively. While such deaths are falling in all the countries except Libya, Pakistan and Egypt, they were doing so at a slower rate than elsewhere in the world.

The overall level of obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean has increased by 37 per cent since 1980, the study, but obesity is most prevalent in Qatar and Kuwait.

Child mortality also fell more slowly than the global rate in many of the 22 countries. Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan are all in the top ten countries with the highest child mortality rates. Eighty per cent of all child deaths occurred in those three countries along with Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

The study also found that most of the cases responsible for a tenfold increase in HIV and Aids-related deaths in the last 25 years occurred in three Horn of Africa countries — Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan.

“In this region, individuals infected with HIV are dying faster than the rest of the world,”said Charbel El Bcheraoui, assistant professor at IHME. ”This is a sign that HIV patients are not receiving proper treatment in an era where HIV can be well controlled with the appropriate treatment regimens.”

The countries studied are: Afghanistan, Egypt, Bahrain, Djibouti, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and the UAE.

Was Charles Darwin Psychotic? A Study of His Mental Health

by Jerry Bergman, Ph.D.



Darwin's many lifelong and serious illnesses have been the subject of much speculation and study for over a century. Darwin stated that his health problems began as early as 1825 when he was only sixteen years old, and became incapacitating around age 28 (Barloon and Noyes, 1997, p. 138). Horan (1979, p. ix) concluded that Darwin was "ill and reclusively confined to his home in Kent for forty years." Darwinian scholar Michael Ruse even concluded that "Darwin himself was an invalid from the age of 30" (2003, p. 1523). And medical doctor George Pickering, in an extensive study of Darwin's illness, concluded that in his early thirties, Darwin became an "invalid recluse" (1974, p. 34). UCLA School of Medicine Professor Dr. Robert Pasnau (1990, p. 123) noted that Darwin also "remained ill almost continually" for the entire five years that he was on his HMS Beagle trip.

Dozens of scholarly articles and at least three books have been penned on the question of Darwin's illness. The current conclusion is that Darwin suffered from several serious and incapacitating psychiatric disorders, including agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is characterized by fear of panic attacks (or actual panic attacks) when not in a psychologically safe environment, such as at home. Darwin, as is common among agoraphobiacs, also developed many additional phobias—being in crowds, being alone, or leaving home unless accompanied by his wife (Kaplan and Sadock, 1990, pp. 958-959).

Agoraphobia is also frequently associated with depersonalization (a feeling of being detached from, and outside of, one's own body), a malady that Darwin also suffered (Barloon and Noyes, 1997, p. 138). A study of Darwin's mental condition by Barloon and Noyes concluded that Darwin suffered from anxiety disorders that so severely impaired his functioning that it limited his ability to leave his home, even just to meet with colleagues or other friends. This diagnosis likely explains his very secluded, hermit-like lifestyle (1997, p. 138). It also helps to explain the title of Desmond and Moore's 1991 biography of Darwin: Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist.

Other Psychiatric and Medical Problems

Colp (1977, p. 97) concluded that "much of Darwin's daily life was lived on a rack which consisted of fluctuating degrees of pain" that was sometimes so severe that Darwin called it "distressingly great." Darwin's many psychological or psychologically influenced physical health symptoms included severe depression, insomnia, hysterical crying, dying sensations, shaking, fainting spells, muscle twitches, shortness of breath, trembling, nausea, vomiting, severe anxiety, depersonalization, seeing spots, treading on air and vision, and other visual hallucinations (Barloon and Noyes, 1997, p. 139; Picover, 1998, p. 290; Colp, 1977, p. 97; Bean, 1978, p. 573). The physical symptoms included headaches, cardiac palpitations, ringing in ears (possibly tinnitus), painful flatulence, and gastric upsets—all of which commonly have a psychological origin (Pasnau, 1990). Colp noted that "behind these symptoms there was always a core of anxiety and depression" (1977, p. 97). Some speculate that part of Darwin's mental problems were due to his nagging, gnawing fear that he had devoted his "life to a fantasy"—and a "dangerous one" at that (Desmond and Moore, 1991, p. 477). This fear was that his theory was false and there was, in fact, a divine Creator.

Darwin's behavior also indicates that he suffered from a mental disorder. Although devoted to his wife and daughters, he "treated them as children" even after his daughters were fully grown (Picover, 1998, p. 289). Some of Darwin's statements to others also cast doubt on his mental stability. For example, in 1875 he wrote the following words to fellow scientist Robert Hooker:

You ask about my book, & all that I can say is that I am ready to commit suicide: I thought it was decently written, but find so much wants rewriting. . . . I begin to think that every one who publishes a book is a fool (quoted in Colp, 1977, p. 228).

Colp noted that Darwin's son Leonard claimed that his father's illness even interfered with his feelings for his children. For example, Leonard once noted that

As a young lad I went up to my father when strolling about the lawn, and he . . . turned away as if quite incapable of carrying on any conversation. Then there suddenly shot through my mind the conviction that he wished he was no longer alive (quoted in Colp, 1977, p. 100).

Darwin's mental problems were considered so severe that Picover (1998, p. 289) included Darwin in his collection of historical persons that he calls "strange brains . . . eccentric scientists, and madmen." That Darwin suffered from several severely disabling maladies is not debated; the only debate is what caused them (Pasnau, 1990, p. 121).

Other Possible Causes of Darwin's Condition

Others, including Darwin's own wife, argued that his mental problem stemmed from guilt over his life's goal to refute the argument for God from design (Bean, 1978,
p. 574; p. 28; Pasnau, 1990, p. 126). Most of the psychoanalytic studies have argued that his problems were a result of his repressed anger toward his tyrannical father and "the slaying of his heavenly father" by his theory (Pasnau, 1990, p. 122).

Diagnosis of the cause of Darwin's mental and physical disorders include parasitic disease (Chaga's disease—caused by an insect common in South America), arsenic poisoning, and possibly even an inner ear disorder (Picover, 1998, p. 290; Pasnau, 1990). All of these causes have largely been refuted. Many persons conclude he had a classic, essential mental disturbance bordering on psychosis (a severe, incapacitating mental disorder). Regardless of the diagnosis, Darwin's condition was clearly incapacitating, often for months at a time, and rendered him an invalid for much of his life, especially in the prime of his life.

Arnold Sorsby concluded that Darwin was also an obsessive-compulsive and gives the following evidence:

If Chagas's disease did not cause Darwin's symptoms what did? My personal diagnosis would be an anxiety state with obsessive features and psychosomatic manifestations. Anxiety clearly precipitated much of his physical trouble, and regarding the obsessive component there are several important points. . . .

Darwin exhibited the obsessional's trait of having everything "just so"; he kept meticulous records of his health and symptoms like many obsessional hypochondriacs. Everything had to be in its place; he even had a special drawer for the sponge which he used in bathing . . . Then there is the health diary he kept. Days and nights were given a score according to how good they were; the score was added up at the end of each week, and there is evidence of frequent changing of mind in deciding whether a night was very good or just good (1974, p. 228).

Darwin's Own Words about His Condition

In addition to the diary on his health problems and complaints (Colp, 1977, p. 136), he frequently discussed his health problems in his letters and his autobiography. Darwin's own description of his condition included the following: "I am forced to live, . . . very quietly and am able to see scarcely anybody and cannot even talk long with my nearest relations" (quoted in Bowlby, 1990, p. 240). Darwin once complained that speaking for only "a few minutes" to the Linnean Society "brought on 24 hours vomiting" (Darwin, 1994, pp. 98-99). At another time, Darwin had a "house full of guests" and after he visited the parish church for a christening, he was "back to square one" and his good health "had vanished `like a flash of lightning'" and sickness (including the vomiting) returned (Desmond and Moore, 1991, p. 456). The suddenness of his illness, as illustrated by these incidents, indicates that his incapacitating episodes were psychological in origin.

Another side of Darwin revealed his sadistic impulses. His own words taken from his autobiography give a vivid example:

In the latter part of my school life I became passionately fond of shooting, and I do not believe that anyone could have shown more zeal for the most holy cause than I did for shooting birds. How well I remember killing my first snipe, and my excitement was so great that I had much difficulty in reloading my gun from the trembling of my hands. This taste long continued and I became a very good shot (1958, p. 44).

The fact that he loved killing so much that killing his first bird caused him to tremble with excitement could certainly indicate a sadistic streak in Darwin. His passion for killing birds is well known. One wonders if this "passion" for killing may have, in part, motivated his ruthless "survival of the fittest" tooth and claw theory of natural selection.

Conclusions

Darwin was clearly a very troubled man and suffered from severe emotional problems for most of his adult life, especially when he was in the prime of life. The exact cause of his mental and many physical problems has been much debated and may never be known for certain. Since Darwin wrote extensively about his mental and physical problems, we have much material on which to base a reasonable conclusion about this area of his life. The diagnosis of the cause of his mental and physical problems includes a variety of debilitating conditions, but agoraphobia with the addition of psychoneurosis is most probably correct.

Unfortunately, most writers have shied away from this topic, partly because Darwin is now idolized by many scientists and others. Often listed as one of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth century, if not the greatest scientist that ever lived, Darwin is one of the few scientists known to most Americans. To understand Darwin as a person and his motivations, one must consider his mental condition and how it affected his work and conclusions.

There is a lot of interesting stuff here. For instance, Darwin's attitude toward his father probably reflected his attitude toward his Heavenly Father. There is a tendency to blame God when our lives are very difficult and unhappy. Then there is also a tendency to reject any belief in God for allowing such suffering. If Darwin suffered from one or both of these attitudes, it may explain his motivation for writing On the Origin of Species.

There is another possibility that I want to discuss very carefully. I have known people with some of the psychological symptoms Darwin suffered from. I have seen people shaking from fear, and I have seen people who were about to lose their jobs because they couldn't summon the courage to leave their house. I have also seen such people immediately relieved of these fears and anxieties after I prayed for them and rebuked any evil spirits that afflicted them. 

Was Darwin demonically afflicted? Probably not! But in my mind it's a possibility, especially when you consider his response to attending a Christening at a church. 

References

Barloon, Thomas and Russell Noyes, Jr. 1997. "Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder." JAMA 277(2):138-141.

Barlow, Nora, ed. 1958. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882. NY: Norton.

Bean, W. B. 1978. "The Illness of Charles Darwin." The American Journal of Medicine 65(4):572-574.

Bowlby, John. 1990. Charles Darwin: A New Life. NY: Norton.

Colp, Ralph Jr. 1977. To Be an Invalid: The Illness of Charles Darwin. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.

Darwin, Charles. 1994. The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University. Vol. 9.

Desmond, Adrian and James Moore. 1991. Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist. NY: Warner Books.

Grigg, Russell. 1995. "Darwin's Mystery Illness." Creation Ex Nihilo 17(4):28-30.

Horan, Patricia G. 1979. Foreword to The Origin of Species. NY: Gramercy Books.

Kaplan, Harold I. and Benjamin J. Sadock, ed. 1990. Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry/V. Volume 1 Fifth Edition. NY: Williams and Wilkins.

Pasnau, R. O. 1990. "Darwin's Illness: A Biopsychosocial Perspective." Psychosomatics 31(2):121-128.

Pickering, George. 1974. Creative Malady. NY: Oxford University Press.

Picover, Clifford A. 1998. Strange Brains and Genius: The Secret Lives of Eccentric Scientists and Madmen. NY: Quill William Morrow.

Ruse, Michael. 2003. "Is Evolution a Secular Religion?" Science 299:1523-1524.

Sorsby, Arnold, ed. 1974. Tenements of Clay. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons.

*Dr. Bergman is on the Biology faculty at Northwest State College in Ohio.

Cite this article: Jerry Bergman, Ph.D. 2004. Was Charles Darwin Psychotic? A Study of His Mental Health. Acts & Facts. 33 (1).

Queensland Bill Would Legalize Abortion Up To 9 Months

Queensland abortion bill: MP says procedure

'should not be a crime'

By Josh Bavas and Louisa Rebgetz

A private member's bill to legalise abortion for women up to nine months' pregnant in Queensland will be tabled in State Parliament today by independent MP Rob Pyne.

This story is particularly close to my heart as one of my granddaughters just gave birth to two babies at only 32 weeks - that's 7 months. They are both health and happy and growing. How can killing a viable baby after 6 or 7 months be anything but first degree murder?

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said the LNP partyroom would consider the bill, while Labor MPs would be allowed a conscience vote.

Rob Pyne said he was committed to progressive change.
(Supplied: Queensland Labor)

The bill does not contain provisions to prevent late-term abortions but Mr Pyne said he would be open to amendments.

The Member for Cairns, who resigned from the ALP in March, said he was drawn into politics to make progressive changes in the state.

"It's not 1899, abortion should not be a crime," Mr Pyne said.

"The world is changing very quickly and unfortunately our politicians aren't."

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has not confirmed whether she would support Mr Pyne's bill was for a conscience vote.

"Every single member of the Australian Labor Party has a conscience vote on this matter," she said.

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said the LNP was yet to formulate its position.

"We'll be looking at it and we'll be considering it in the partyroom as we always do with these important issues to Queenslanders," he said.

Mr Pyne said he had the support of fellow crossbench MP Billy Gordon, while Shane Knuth and Rob Katter were yet to make their views clear.

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, Minister for Women, Shannon Fentiman, and Leader of the House, Stirling Hinchliffe, this morning attended a rally outside Parliament House in support of change.

Open to amendments to prevent late-term abortion

The Queensland Criminal Code has prohibited abortion since 1899, but case law based on a 1986 ruling means abortions are permissible if there is serious danger to the mother's life or her physical or mental health.

Amendments introduced in 2009 also allowed for surgical and medical (or chemical) abortions in Queensland.

In New South Wales, an abortion is only lawful if a woman's doctor believes on reasonable grounds it is necessary to avoid a serious danger to her life or her physical or mental health, taking into account economic, social and medical factors.

The ACT, Victoria and Tasmania have all decriminalised abortion, making it legal up to nine months' gestation.

However, late-term abortions in Tasmania, defined as past four months, and Victoria, where late-term is classed beyond six months, require approval from two medical practitioners.

Mr Pyne said his bill did not include any such provisions.

"It may be that, as part of the committee process and as part of this bill going through, that either of the major parties or anyone may move amendments and I'd be happy to look at those," he said.

The bill will go to a parliamentary committee for consideration before being presented to Parliament for debate.

Pre-teens seek abortions in private hospitals

Emily's List supports progressive female Labor candidates trying to reach Parliament, Ms Trad is a member.

"We certainly have a few members of the State Government and they will be supporting the woman's right to choose," Lisa Carey from the group said.

Queensland counselling service Children by Choice said about two children under 14 were seeking advice about an abortion every month.

Last month a 12-year-old Rockhampton girl was forced to go to the Supreme Court to get permission to have one done.

Counsellor Liz Price said most of the abortions are happening in private hospitals as current laws make it too difficult to use the public system.

"We see access significantly compounded for under 14-year-olds," she said.

"There are only two private clinics in all of Queensland that have a licence that allows them to perform procedures of that nature on an under 14-year-old one in the far north of Queensland and one down here in south east Queensland."

Northern Irish Assembly Rejects Abortion Law Change

Betrayal of women or faithful to sanctity of life?

© Regis Duvignau / Reuters

My subtitle above is a most unfortunate reality - we should never have come to a place where we have to choose a child's right to live over its mother's right to not be pregnant. It's an absurd argument since women have any number of ways to not get pregnant and that's really it, isn't it? If you don't want to have a baby, don't get pregnant! I know there are many situations where that is not a choice for a girl, but most abortions are not performed on women who had no choice in whether or not they get pregnant. That is a disgrace and is morally repugnant at best.

Members of the Northern Irish Assembly have voted against proposals to relax strict abortion laws. Human rights groups said the decision has “betrayed women and girls.”

The Stormont assembly voted 59 to 40 against the legislation, which proposed to allow abortions in the case of fatal fetal abnormality and sexual crime. 

Not sure I agree with preventing abortions of fatally abnormal fetuses, however, I suspect that could be misused. I don't know if that was their reasoning for rejecting it or not.

Amnesty International said the decision will allow Northern Ireland to maintain its “Victorian” and “restrictive” laws, and called on the devolved authority to bring its legislation in line with the rest of the UK.

Despite a debate which lasted until nearly midnight, the outcome of the vote was predictable, after the Democratic Unionists and the SDLP announced they would not support amendments to the law.

Abortion is permitted in the rest of the UK under the 1967 Abortion Act, but in Northern Ireland terminations are only allowed if the mental health or life of the mother is in danger.

The rejection of abortions for reason of sexual crimes, ie rape, is not a real issue since that can be covered under the 'mental health' exception. If a girl is able to carry the child while receiving counselling for the rape, she should do that. She can then give the child up for adoption if she doesn't want to keep it. 

She should also have the option of keeping the child and continuing counselling for a period afterward.

The change to legislation was proposed by Alliance Party members Trevor Lunn and Stewart Dickson. Lunn told the assembly his decision was sparked by the “painful” decision to access an abortion many years ago due to a fatal fetal condition.

In December last year, Belfast’s High Court ruled that abortion law in Northern Ireland breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland program director, said the laws are draconian and in need of urgent change.

“Northern Ireland’s abortion law dates from Victorian times, is among the most restrictive in the world and is in urgent need of reform. A vote to stymie change today is a further betrayal of women and girls who will continue to be forced to travel outside Northern Ireland to seek the healthcare they are denied at home.”

He said between 1,000 and 2,000 women are forced to travel abroad each year to find abortions, and “are made to feel like criminals for having done so.”

They would have felt that way even if they received their abortions in Belfast. Guilt is inevitable when you take the life of a child that God has blessed you with, as it should be.

“An extensive consultation on this issue was already conducted by the Department of Justice in 2014/2015 – it recommended a change to the law with regard to access to abortion on fatal fetal abnormality. The DUP and other Executive Ministers have had eight months to get behind the proposal from the Justice Minister and have failed to do so. More talk will tell us nothing we do not already know – that the law on abortion in Northern Ireland is unfit for purpose.”

Obama Executive Action to Expand Background Checks on Gun Sales

Here we go!

President Barack Obama said Monday he will use his legal authority to issue executive actions to close loopholes in the country’s gun laws.

Obama said he will move forward on requiring background checks for guns purchased from dealers, whether bought online or at gun shows.

Earlier in the day Obama said from the White House that gun violence has taken a heartbreaking toll on too many communities across the country, with “more than 100,000 people…killed [over the past decade] as a result of gun violence.”

Obama said many of the crimes “were committed by people who never should have been able to purchase a gun in the first place.”

The FBI will overhaul its background check system as a result of the executive orders and hire 230 more examiners to process the checks, offering the service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The administration is also proposing a new $500 million investment to increase access to mental health care.

Under the executive actions, the Social Security Administration will report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System on beneficiaries who are prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services will remove the unnecessary legal barriers preventing states from reporting information about people prohibited from possessing a gun for mental health reasons.

The president also directed the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security to conduct or sponsor research into gun safety technology.

I fully expect the NRA to go ballistic and attempt to flex their considerable muscles. I sincerely hope Christians will tell the NRA to back-off. This is the very least that should be done to address the absurd number of shooting deaths in the US - more than 30 per day since 2006. 

Christians should support it for if they don't they will have to give their reasons for not doing so when they stand before Jesus Christ.

Virginia to Cancel Concealed Gun Permit Recognition with 25 States

© George Frey / Reuters

The state of Virginia will cease recognizing concealed-carry gun permits from 25 other states, as the state has determined they do not meet the Commonwealth's own standards for receiving a concealed handgun permit.

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced the decision on Tuesday, saying that, following "months of research and evaluation" and outreach to other states, Virginia will continue recognizing concealed handgun permits of five of the 30 states that have concealed-carry laws that the Commonwealth previously considered valid within its borders. The new policy will go into effect on February 1, 2016.

Herring said 25 states had policies that didn't meet the standards of Virginia's own concealed-carry laws, which disqualify those receiving court-ordered mental health treatment or those subject to a restraining order, among 18 other restrictions.

“While you are here, you are subject to the commonwealth’s gun laws,” Herring said during a news conference announcing the policy.

The decision means more than 6.3 million non-Virginians who previously could carry concealed guns in the state will not be able to do so come February, according to the Washington Post. More than 400,000 Virginians, meanwhile, will not receive reciprocal recognition of their concealed-carry permits in six states, which require mutual recognition of permits.

The move is an effort by Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe's administration to take action to combat gun violence in the face of both Virginia's Republican-led legislature and other conservative state legislatures with concealed-carry laws that are less restrictive than Virginia's.

Virginia Republicans and advocates of loose gun laws panned the move as politically-motivated and detrimental to gun rights vested in the US Constitution's Second Amendment.

“This decision is both dangerous and shameful,” said Chris Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action. “At a time when people are scared and desperately need the ability to defend themselves, Herring has chosen the path of making self-defense harder.”

Virginia Democrats said the new policy is simply enforcement of the state's own gun rules.

“This action is a reflection of the law a conservative Republican legislature has crafted over the years,” said Sen. A. Donald McEachin. “And now, when the attorney general actually follows the law, conservative Republicans are squealing about it.”

Virginia canceled permit recognition with: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Virginia will continue to recognize permits from West Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah.

The six states that now will not recognize Virginia's concealed-carry permits are: Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wyoming.

In November, Gov. McAuliffe's administration banned firearms in state-owned buildings. The move riled gun-rights advocates like the National Rifle Association, which is headquartered in Virginia. Given the state's "purple" mix of Democrats and Republicans, gun-law expert and UCLA law professor Adam Winkler dubbed Virginia "ground zero" in today's gun debate.

In fact, Democrat McAuliffe was voted into office in 2013 advocating universal background checks in a state previously known for being solidly Republican. McAuliffe amped up his effort to bar guns in state buildings after the August gun murder of two broadcast journalists in Roanoke, Virginia.

“There are many public facilities where people come to perform necessary acts of everyday life where the governor believes we should not wait for a tragedy to occur before we change our policies,” a McAuliffe spokesman said in November.