The Secular Medical Forum (SMF) has raised several concerns following the publication of updated GMC guidelines for medical practitioners – which include updated guidelines on Personal Beliefs and Medical Practice.

The Secular Medical Forum has condemned Ed Miliband's recent support for the ritual genital cutting of children and called on the labour leader to rethink his stance on the issue.

"Conscience clauses" that permit religious pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception or the "morning after" pill are unsatisfactory and should be dropped, say experts.

NHS Sheffield's Clinical Commissioning Group has proposed to make families who want their sons to undergo non-medical male circumcision pay for the procedure. Each operation costs about £1,000.

Two Scottish Catholic midwives who didn't want to supervise staff who carried out abortion procedures have appealed to the Court of Sessions after their arguments were rejected in a judicial review last year.

In 2012, 19 states in the USA enacted 43 provisions that "sought to restrict access to abortion services," according to the Guttmacher Institute.

The Philippine parliament approved legislation on Monday that permits government funding for contraception and for sex education classes in schools.

The Presidents of the European Council and European Commission today heard a plea for greater protection for pregnant women's right to life following the death of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland.

Members of the European Parliament have this week examined Tonio Borg's bid to join the European Commission. Alarm has been raised about Mr Borg's performance in his home country of Malta, where he has opposed women's rights, gay rights and issues such as contraception and abortion.

The Secular Medical Forum has condemned the state of abortion laws in Ireland after a 31-year old woman died of septicaemia following a protracted miscarriage in Galway, Ireland.

Leaders of some West African churches in the UK are pressuring patients infected with HIV to stop taking medication and instead trust in prayer and faith healing.

Two Swiss hospitals have suspended the performance of infant circumcision, after the ruling of a German court in Cologne which said that religious circumcision was likely to be illegal because it infringed the rights of the child.

The court decision in Germany that held that circumcision, carried out for religious — as opposed to medical — reasons, is potentially harmful has been fiercely opposed by religious interests, putting pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel.

New research in the USA shows that Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse blood transfusions recover from heart surgery faster and with fewer complications than those who have transfusions.

Parents, doctors and researchers in Calgary have launched a fight to overturn a Catholic School District's ban on vaccinations for girls against the human papilloma virus (HPV).

The GP Dr Richard Scott who was disciplined by the General Medical Council for distressing one of his patients by trying to persuade him to change his religion has said that he intends to continue with his proselytising activities.

A Margate GP who was accused of distressing one of his patients by inappropriately trying to evangelise him has received a warning from the General Medical Council (GMC). If any further complaints are made about him, he risks being struck off the medical register.

A Christian psychotherapist has lost her appeal against suspension from her professional body after being struck off after attempting to convert a homosexual man to heterosexuality.

Speaking at a conference on infertility in Rome, the Pope has renewed his attack on IVF treatments. He said artificial methods of getting pregnant were 'arrogance', insisting that sex between a husband and wife was the only acceptable way of conceiving.

The National Secular Society's campaign to get the church to pay the salary of their clergymen who are working in hospitals as chaplains was falsely portrayed at this week's Church of England General Synod.