Vatican threatens doctors with excommunication after abortion pill approved in Italy: The Vatican’s leading bioethics expert, Elio Sgreccia, has said that doctors who prescribe the abortion pill RU486 (mifepristone) face excommunication, after Italy’s drugs regulatory agency announced that it was authorising the intervention. The regulator’s ruling follows a review that has lasted several years, in which the church, doctors, and women’s groups clashed fiercely.

Respiratory doctors warn of risks of global warming: The European Respiratory Society and the Health and Environment Alliance have called for the health effects of climate change to be considered in all discussions and recommended actions at the European Union level. …