This week we've been protecting patients' right to access healthcare free from evangelism, by raising concerns about a GP who continues to proselytise to patients
despite a warning not to do so.
We're also defending women's reproductive rights, by raising a pharmacist's refusal to give a woman the morning after pill for "personal reasons" with the relevant
regulator.
And we're assisting a man who was sacked by Asda for sharing a comic sketch mocking religion.
If you'd like to help us make the case for a fairer, more secular Britain, please consider joining or donating to the NSS today. Thank you for your support.
A medical watchdog is investigating a GP who continues to proselytise to patients despite a warning not to do so after the National Secular Society raised...
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»
The National Secular Society has asked a medical regulator to investigate an incident in which a pharmacist reportedly refused to
serve a woman contraception... Read More »
Richard Scorer, NSS Vice president and specialist child abuse lawyer, says the latest Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse report scotches once...
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More »
The government will require schools in England to take "the religious background of all pupils into account" during lessons about relationships and sex...
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»
The supermarket chain Asda has sacked a man for sharing a sketch of the comedian Billy Connolly mocking religions including Christianity and Islam on
social... Read More
»
Prince William's comments on supporting his children if they are gay should be treated with much less significance than the fact he is due to lead an
established... Read
More »
The National Secular Society has given its backing to a registration system for children who do not attend state-funded or registered independent schools,...
Read More »
Other news
A Catholic primary school is campaigning
to be become the first faith school to transform to integrated status in Northern Ireland.
Peter Ball, who was jailed for a string of sexual offences against teenagers and young men committed while he was a bishop, has died.
A golf club in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis may lose its lease
if it opens on Sundays, despite the fact its members have unanimously voted in favour of opening. The NSS has criticised this as the latest example of Sabbatarians imposing their agenda on people
who don't share it on Lewis.
The Court of Appeal has upheld
the right of a north London-based housing organisation to cater only to strictly observant Jews.
Hospital bosses have halted
High Court litigation and agreed that a teenage Jehovah's Witness should not be treated with blood products against his will.
By Becky Dale, Irene de la Torre Arenas, Clara Guibourg, and Tom de Castella, for the BBC
Arabs are increasingly saying they are no longer religious, according to the largest and most in-depth survey undertaken of the Middle East and North Africa.
Watch: Nick Cohen and Joyce D’Silva at Secularism 2019
Also next week you can join the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and One Law for All for an evening of film, poetry and a panel discussion
on LGBT rights, Apostasy and Blasphemy on Thursday.
Fighting racism by imposing blasphemy codes gives the impression that something is being done against racism. But the promotion of secularism, citizenship,
equality and our common humanity irrespective of background and belief are the best ways to fight racism.
The Trump administration's 'religious liberty task force' is a Trojan Horse.
Quote of the week
"Religion is private. Having sex is personal. But freedom to be who you are, under the law of the land, rather than what someone else's private and personal
rule book tells you to be, is sacrosanct." Deborah Orr on sex education and human rights
"We mustn't put together this view that if somebody has a religious objection somehow there can be no debate about it." Labour MP and NSS honorary
associate Angela Eagle defends LGBT-inclusive
education in a debate on parental objections
"I do not think that there is any age-appropriate threshold for respect. From the word go children should be taught to respect other people, whoever they are
and whatever they are." Labour MP Richard Burden in the same debate
"You don't want foreskins flapping around the house when you haven't got one yourself." A bizarre defence of non-therapeutic infant circumcision from
TV presenter Vanessa
Feltz
Petition comment of the week: end religious non-stun slaughter
"As a former environmental health officer engaged in meat inspection at abattoirs I am used to slaughter with prior stunning which is humane. However,
without stunning it is not." Douglas, West Midlands
Sign the petition and explain why religious non-stun
slaughter should end.
NSS speaks out
Our president Keith Porteous Wood discussed the case of the GP being investigated over his repeated proselytism to patients with Nick Ferrari on LBC. His remarks
in that interview were quoted at length by the Christian
Post.
Our chief executive Stephen Evans appeared on Three Counties Radio, while our role in the case was also highlighted in publications including
The Sunday Times, The
Telegraph and Kent Online.
Stephen was also quoted in Pink News, Gay Times and
The
Freethinker on the case of a magistrate who failed to separate his views on gay adoption from his official duties.
We were also quoted in The
Freethinker on Sabbatarianism on the Isle of Lewis.
NSS Bulletin 72: Summer 2019
In the latest edition of our Bulletin we highlight the harm done by charities which exist to promote religion in a major report, summarise our recent Secularism
2019 conference, stand up for education on relationships and sex and do much more.
