News Bulletin 19 October 2012

A judge has ruled that a Christian B&B owner broke equality laws when she refused to allow a gay couple to share a double room — Susanne Wilkinson has been ordered to pay £3600 in damages — Christian housing manager Adrian Smith, who was demoted after posting on facebook that ‘gay weddings in churches’ was ‘an equality too far’, has been in court seeking to recover lost earnings from his employer, the Trafford Housing Trust — Rowan Atkinson has given his support to ‘Reform Section 5’, a campaign group which is campaigning to protect free speech by removing the word ‘insulting’ from Section 5 of the Public Order Act — A diversity officer at a university in America has been suspended for signing a petition calling for a marriage referendum, even though she has not stated her personal opinion on the matter — Scotland has the second highest percentage of teenage abortions in the world, after Cuba — There’s been widespread outcry in Northern Ireland following the opening of the Province’s first private abortion clinic — A scientist has been awarded a Nobel prize for pioneering ethical research into stem cells which doesn’t destroy embryos — And a pregnant mother whose life was in the balance, turned down a recommendation to abort her unborn child.