‘DEEPLY DISTURBING’

Lawyer Who Said Surrogacy Would Have ‘Grave Effects on Society’ Confirmed to Federal Judgeship

Senate Republicans confirmed Trump nominee Sarah Pitlyk in a party-line vote.

Senate Republicans confirmed Sarah Pitlyk to a lifetime federal judgeship Wednesday, amid outcry about the attorney’s comments on surogacy, invitro fertilization and abortion. In a 2017 amicus brief first reported by HuffPost, Pitlyk claimed that surrogacy would have “grave effects on society,” including the exploitation of women and the “weakening of appropriate social mores against eugenic abortion.” Pitlyk, who currently serves as special counsel to the conservative Thomas More Society, has also claimed it is “scientific fact” that life begins at conception, and defended a six-week abortion ban in Iowa that was later deemed unconstitutional. Vanita Gupta, the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, called Pitlyk’s confirmation “deeply disturbing,” and added that it “epitomizes Trump’s and Senate Republicans’ agenda to roll back our civil rights by stacking the courts with unfit nominees.” Pitlyk will serve on the US. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.