On 23 January 2017 President Trump signed an executive order reinstating the Global Gag Rule, or the Mexico City Policy. This order denies U.S. funding to global health and family planning organisations if they use money from other donors to provide abortion services, counselling or referrals—even if abortion is legal in a country. It blocks critical funding for life-saving health services like contraception, maternal health, Zika and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment for any organisation that refuses to sign it. It will have a devastating effect. The World Health Organisation estimates that every day, 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth and 99% of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries. The Policy will hit hardest women living at the margins of society – the poorest, the most remote and those under 25. Zika and HIV are more likely to spread. Millions will suffer. The Global Gag Rule jeopardises the investment the UK Government has made in women’s health globally. Due to close inter-linkages between women’s health and poverty, environmental degradation, forced migration and conflict, these trends will worsen. The Global Gag Rule is an attempt to silence the voice, choice, and control of the world’s poorest women. The Policy is an assault on every woman, everywhere. In the spirit of the Women’s Marches last weekend, we call on the UK government to join other governments in championing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights both politically and financially. So please sign and share our petition asking the UK Government to champion life-saving services for women across the world. Many thanks, The IPPF team For more on the Global Gag Rule: http://www.ippf.org/news/why-we-will-not-sign-global-gag-rule

Portavoe holds a special place in our hearts, and it would be devastating to lose such a haven of beauty and tranquility. The decommissioning of our open reservoirs and placing them onto the open market has quite rightly caused outcry from us, the public, who have enjoyed them for so many years. A local property developer has won a recent High Court battle with Northern Ireland Water in his wider bid to buy lands, and if successful could completely ban the public from them. NI Waters fought the case at the High Court as hard as they could, but the judgement could be subject to appeal. Ards/North Down Councils had also expressed interest in purchasing the land for the benefit of all residents. Please sign the petition to show your support for keeping Portavoe accessible to all! For more information please follow "Friends of Portavoe" page on Facebook.

Waiting time for appointments should depend on need not the basic ability to pay. Do we need to go back to pre NHS times just so extremely well paid GP's can increase their coffers? It is basically dangerous. Already the poorer members of our society have a lower life expectancy and generally poorer health, paying for a GP will just excesserbate the current situation. GP appointments for medical reasons, should always be free at the point of contact and remain a basic tenet of the NHS.

Public services are being cut back to the bone due to the political choice of austerity, playgrounds and sports facilities are being closed, the NHS is under attack, community groups, the disabled and vulnerable face all sorts of challenges from closures and budget cuts – this decision is an utter disgrace.

This service engages children, young people and families with lived experience, to improve health services. It gives us a voice, that we otherwise wouldn't have. Our thoughts and opinions are listened to, discussed, and acted upon to turn our often difficult experiences into positives to change child and adolescent health services for the better. It puts the service users at the heart of shaping services throughout the whole of the Child Community Health Partnership here in Bristol and South Glos, and allows medical staff and young people to come together and be a team. Many of us were referred to this service whilst incredibly vulnerable, having missed out on key parts of pre adult life due to illness or disability. Slowly, taking into account our own abilities and needs, this wonderful team of staff encourage us to find our voice. The sense of pride, empowerment, and achievement this process instills is second to none. The Bristol CCG is planning to axe this wonderful service by 75%. The majority of the staff team supporting the service users have been made redundant. This team of people really are one of a kind, and work tirelessly and enthusiastically to ensure our voices are heard, and our suggestions and opinions both positive and negative are acted upon. It is appalling that it has already been cut by 75%, and we may be at risk of losing it completely. I have been a young person engaging with this service for 5years. When I first arrived, I couldnt speak, was only well enough to leave the house for an hour a week, and having been housebound and often bedridden for the last 2years of my school education, had lost all sense of confidence and hope for my future. With the support and understanding of the NHS/ Barnardo's HYPE team, I have gained so many positive experiences, skills, friends, and so much confidence, that I have now given talks to 100 professionals at a time, on what it's like first hand to have mental and physical illnesses whilst at school, and what can help them to help children and young people in future. The feedback that me, and other young people gain from doing these talks, is incredible - to be given the support and platform to speak out and improve things for the future generation is down to the HYPE team. This is only a tiny aspect of the work we are involved in. Other opportunities we have, are to sit on recruitment panels for health workers, create artwork for hospitals and clinic spaces to make them more user friendly, work with different medical teams to provide information in the best and most accessible way to young people, and also work with the medical professionals in the partnership to bridge the gap between 'service users' and 'professionals' to let everyone be heard. I cannot fully explain how important this service is, and what a massive impact it has on the way the Bristol NHS works for children and young people. Without this service, many of us would have remained in desperate situations, and have continued our isolation and silence. By the huge reduction of this service, the commissioners are taking away our right to have support to find our voice, and make a difference to these services, as well as to ourselves and future young people. After hearing the government once again last week promise more funding for mental health services - it is even more disheartening to see this wonderful service working to improve those services, being axed. We do have a voice, and we DO matter. Please join us in challenging their decision.

On Thursday 26th Jan, South Devon and Torbay CCG will decide whether to close four cottage hospitals - Dartmouth, Paignton, Ashburton April this year. At a time when the NHS is desperately short of beds, these decision are perverse The Community hospital beds could be put to full use for looking after patients being discharged from major hospital units in the county where there are no immediate alternative arrangements for care in the community. The proposal to cut the 32 acute beds is dangerous and completely detrimental to the people of South Devon

Midwifery is a separate role from nursing. Both professions are unique in every way, from character of the role, all the way back to preregistration study. Midwives have a completely different way of working and totally different responsibilities. This has meant that an individual arrangement has always been necessary to ensure public safety, public health, support of women's choice and, of course, promoting the health of generations to come. The NMC have, in one fell swoop, and ignoring the results of their own consultation, removed supervision, removed the need for a midwifery committee and declared that independent midwives have inadequate insurance to provide intrapartum (birth) care for their clients. If an independent midwife has provided antenatal care, she may not now provide intrapartum care. If she attends the birth, the NMC have stated she will be struck off the register. This action has resulted in many women suddenly being faced with the loss of the intimate and trusting relationship they have developed with their midwife. There is unlimited research proving that this model of care is the gold standard. The long term implications for the mental and emotional health of all those affected will be enormous. Any stress during pregnancy has the potential to affect fetal neurological development and maternal attachment and bonding. Far from protecting the public, this decision is creating serious emotional and financial harm to women (including midwives) and their families. In summary, the ultimate outcome of this action will lead to the downgrading of midwifery as a profession. This will result in a much higher level of maternal and infant death. (Look at the USA where midwifery has often been outlawed). Act now to save midwifery before it is too late.

Camden Council is planning to close Netherwood which is a specialist dementia day centre - the only one of its kind - in Camden. This will be the third time Camden has tried to close it since 2011. Each time we campaigned and won. We need to win again. Situated in NW6 between West Hampstead and Kilburn, Netherwood is regularly visited by people the world over, so impressive is its design and the care received by the people who attend it. If Camden Council closes this centre and sells off the land, as is the general feeling, then it will be lost forever. The council will never be able to afford such a site again. If the closure goes ahead, those attending their beloved Netherwood will be "decanted" to another nearby centre which is not a specialist day centre and is not purpose-built. The council says it will have money to make alterations to the building to make it "dementia friendly". We argue: why spend money on partially reconfiguring another centre when you have one right there that is purpose built? We appreciate local governments are having to make huge budget cuts, but we believe losing such a jewel of a resource will be a travesty and will adversely impact generations to come. Please help us save this incredible community resource a third time! Dementia is recognised as a growing concern in today's society. Not only is it important that there is excellent care for the person with dementia, it is also crucial that family carers are given time to themselves to recharge from what can often be a hugely challenging and exhausting situation. Places like Netherwood enable families to STAY together. They also keep people from being hospitalised and we know how important that is in the current climate. If we have brilliant services in the community the ultimate saving to society, both financially and in terms of general well-being, is enormous. Cutting such lifelines will ultimately cost more in the long run with some families perhaps deciding that residential care is the only solution. The cost of this to the council would be enormous. If we are to have a truly dementia-friendly society then places like Netherwood should never be threatened with closure but should be protected in perpetuity.

Kamelia kids Nursery is the only nursery in West Sussex that has classes especially for special needs children. My son started off at this nursery in one of their mainstream classes. He used to crawl into the cloakroom and lay on the floor to escape the busy environment he couldn't handle. My son is autistic. The nursery moved him to an autistic class within the nursery. He settled immediately. He had extra support and an environment that was specially designed to meet his needs and allow him to make unbelievable progress in his communication and development. These classes give children like my son their best possible chance and a sense of security. Wscc are suggesting that this is about inclusion rather than funding. The truth is we have schools for special needs children funded by the council. That is because they are NEEDED. So why exactly is it that nurseries offering that service aren't? Of course they are! People come from miles around so that their children can access the resources Kamelia kids currently has because they are already few and far between. The early years of a child's development are crutial to shaping their future. As lovely as it would be to believe that all children with additional needs could cope and even thrive in a mainstream environment, as some do, the reality is that there are many that don't. That is fact. For those children they are going to be abandoned to a system that fails them if this is allowed to go ahead. These units/classes are too important to lose. Our special needs children shouldn't be forced into environments they will not only struggle to cope in but where their development will suffer too. This is failing the most vulnerable children in our society. How can that possibly be justified?

By making food outlets display their hygiene score; 1 - the public can make an informed choice, 2 - dirty, low scoring business's will be motivated to improve as the public boycott them and their revenues drop.

The Cresta pool is used by residents of Chard, Ilminster and surrounding villages, of all swimming ages and abilities. Swimming is now a key part of the National Curriculum, and the continual closures of the pool are threatening our children's ability to learn to swim - as well as the health and wellbeing of many other residents.

Currently the law forbids assisted dying . And people are being denied a choice . People are able to travel to Switzerland to Die at a minimum cost of £10,000 . Many people are being forced to suffer and wish to Die . The majority of people are discriminated against by not only not having a choice but not being able to afford to go to Switzerland.