Call for Investigation of USAID Over Forced Abortions

COMBINED NEWS SER VICES, March 14 — GOP lawmakers called on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to investigate allegations that the Peruvian government is using USAID money to force poor Peruvian women to undergo sterilization, the news service reported.

The Population Research Institute brought the abuses to lawmakers' attention.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-KS, is the principal sponsor of a measure signed into law in October 1998 that prohibits U.S. funds from going to non-voluntary foreign family planning programs, said news services.

Tiahrt called on USAID to send their own investigators to the Latin American country to examine allegations that Peruvian agencies are using U.S. taxpayer dollars to promote programs that coerce poor women into sterilization or contraception, regardless of beliefs.

N.H. House Votes to Abolish Death Penalty

ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 10 — Despite a veto threat from the governor, members of the state House in New Hampshire have voted to abolish the death penalty, the wire service reported.

New Hampshire has no death row inmates and has not executed anyone in 61 years. Supporters of the bill nonetheless argued the death penalty system was inherently unfair and that life in prison is a more just punishment.

The bill now moves to the state Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, has said she would reject it, reported the AP.

Also this month, Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon, also a Democrat, asked a state commission to review the death penalty in his state to make sure it is being imposed correctly and fairly.

In a letter to the chairman of the Criminal Law Study Commission, O'Bannon requested “an in-depth look” at the law “in light of the problems that have surfaced in other states.”

Neb. and Wis. Legislatures Debate Fetal Tissue Sales

OMAHA WORLD HERALD, March 14 — Nebraska State Sens. John Hilgert and Kermit Brashear, both of Omaha, filed a request to bring a bill to ban fetal tissue research out of committee, the World Herald reported.

The measure was introduced in response to reports last November that the University of Nebraska Medical Center was conducting research into neurodegenerative diseases using fetal cells obtained by LeRoy Carhart. He operates a Bellevue, Nebraska facility where abortions are performed.

Pro-Life Wisconsin reported that a bill they helped draft to prohibit the trafficking of body parts from aborted babies passed out of committee in the Wisconsin State Assembly and was expected to be approved by the full assembly.

Peggy Hamill, president of Pro-Life Wisconsin, said, “The fact that we are even discussing the issue of human body parts as commodities is astounding.”

Oregon Nursing Home Patients Overdosed With Morphine

ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 15 — Prosecutors are investigating a nursing home that has been fined $6,000 by the state based on accusations that a probationary nurse gave four terminally ill patients excessive doses of morphine before they died, the news service reported.

No autopsies were done and there is disagreement over the cause of the deaths in late 1997 and early 1998 at the Sheridan Care Center.

AP reported the fine was assessed Feb. 23 by the state Senior and Disabled Services Division following a belated investigation triggered by a yearlong campaign by a daughter of one of the residents who died.

Oregon officials said the state has revoked the license of the probationary nurse, who was supposed to get permission of a registered nurse before giving medication.

There were signed physicians' orders for administration of morphine to all of the residents in question, who were terminally ill.