Nora Sullivan, M.P.A

Issues in Law and Medicine is a peer-reviewed professional journal that has been published twice a year since 1985. It is currently cosponsored by the Watson Bowes Research Institute and the National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent & Disabled, Inc.  The new issue (spring 2017) includes a fine article by CLI associate scholar Nora Sullivan, M.P.A., cowritten with Dr. Eoghan de Faoite., an Irish physician committed to the sanctity of human life.

The authors reviewed ten studies which examined the psychological sequelae of pregnant women following prenatal diagnoses of severe life limiting conditions. Based on the available data, the authors found evidence that women who abort due to a poor prenatal diagnosis are at higher risk of post-traumatic stress and depression than women who continue with pregnancy.

Late Friday, it was announced that leading United Kingdom abortion agency Marie Stopes International will suspend a significant percent of abortion procedures following a surprise inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

Earlier this month in Ireland, a High Court judge ruled that the unborn child possesses "significant" rights by common law, by statute, and under the Irish Constitution. Mr. Justice Richard Humphreys went on to say that the unborn child enjoys rights "going well beyond the right to life alone" and that these rights "must be taken seriously" by the State.

Recently, the Atlantic published an article entitled "Why America is a Global Outlier on Abortion." The author, Olga Khazan, wrote that the United States stands apart from the rest of the developed world due to restrictions to public funding of abortion.

Late last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rose to the defense of the embattled Planned Parenthood organization, which is currently caught up in a fetal tissue and organ harvesting scandal following an undercover investigation by the Center for Medical Progress. In a letter addressed to Senators Joni Ernst and Roy Blunt, HHS insisted that they know of no breach of the law in the actions taken by Planned Parenthood in its selling of fetal remains.

Undercover videos released by David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress show various Planned Parenthood employees discussing the harvesting and sale of fetal organs and body parts.  The negotiations caught on camera suggest that these transactions are not at all unusual for the organization nor are they limited to these few incidents but are, in fact, systemic throughout the organization.  This suggests that Planned Parenthood, which performs about 330,000 abortions a year in the United States, has found a way to make abortion even more profitable.

In February, Virginia became the second state in the union to legislate in favor of compensating victims of the state’s infamous eugenic sterilization program.  The living victims of its state-sponsored forced sterilization are set to be awarded $25,000 following a protracted battle in the legislature.