There is significant comfort in the knowledge that Dr. Kermit Gosnell will spend the rest of his natural life behind bars. Just a day after his May 13 conviction on charges related to his profitable Philadelphia abortion clinic, Gosnell cut a deal so that he would not have to face the death penalty. The hundreds of charges he was convicted of included three counts of first-degree murder and one of involuntary manslaughter.

The challenge now is to determine how many more clinics in America operate like Gosnell’s. There is no reason to think his operation was one of a kind. Law-enforcement authorities stumbled upon the abortion clinic accidentally, while investigating what they thought was a pill mill. And the abortion industry has successfully prevented adequate inspection and regulation of clinics, a condition that needs to change.

It matters a great deal how values voters respond to the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell. To forget about him now because he won’t kill any more babies strikes us as exactly the wrong approach.

Judge Edward Korman has angrily rebuffed an attempt from the Obama Administration to bring sanity to the availability of emergency contraception. Korman last month ruled that the “morning-after” pill should be available without a prescription or parental involvement to girls of any age. The administration set a (still too lenient) standard last month, then asked asking Korman to stay his ruling pending appeal. On May 10, Korman refused to do so.

So now a powerful hormonal drug is available to anyone willing to pay for it. We hope an appeal of Korman’s ruling brings this runaway judge back in line, while imposing common sense to a serious matter. Click [here] to thank Attorney General Eric Holder for pursuing the appeal.

As Washington scandals go, the latest controversy surrounding Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius isn’t commanding a lot of attention these days. But we’d argue that it should, because it represents a disturbing abuse of power.

When the government – this administration especially – wants you not to notice something, it’s released on a Friday afternoon. That’s particularly true if it’s an action that will get President Obama in trouble with his political patrons, or if it will be embarrassing.

This is both. Late on May 3, the administration withdrew its appeal of a federal court decision brought by Tyndale House Publishers, challenging the constitutionality of the Department of Health and Human Services’ contraception mandate. The impact of this decision is narrow – it affects only Tyndale’s case against the government – but it’s a significant crack in the administration’s argument that the mandate is constitutional.

Click here to send an email to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, urging her to drop the administration’s contraception mandate.

In February we told you about the fascinating case of former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, running for Congress in a bid for personal and political redemption after a sex scandal. On May 7 Sanford won a special election for the congressional seat he held before serving as governor.

What does Sanford’s return mean? Maybe a lot. Maybe only that his opponent wasn’t ready for prime time.

We’ve told you about the controversy over the emergency contraception drug Plan B, and how the choices remind us of the movie “Dumb and Dumber.” The Department of Health and Human Services and a federal judge are fighting over whose vision of irresponsibility will carry the day. Both seek to put teenage girls at risk of significant health problems, by making a powerful hormonal contraceptive available around the clock without the benefit of a doctor’s advice.

Just when you think things couldn’t get any dumber comes a reliable source of feminist lunacy, writer Amanda Marcotte. In a May 5 post on RH (Reproductive Health) Reality Check, she seeks to go further than HHS or Judge Edward Korman and require over-the-counter sales of birth control pills. We’re not making this up.

President Barack Obama bolstered his credentials as the most pro-abortion chief executive in history April 26 when he became the first president to address a national conference of Planned Parenthood in person.

In some respects this is simply an example of a politician paying homage to a valued constituency. It’s heightened because it’s an organization that is both responsible for the death of more than 330,000 babies last year (by its own admission) and the recipient of lavish federal grants (which President Obama promised to protect). It was a big, heaping plate of disgusting no matter how you look at it.

The lasting impact of Jason Collins’s announcement that he has chosen to live as a homosexual may not be how it changes the world of professional sports. It may be felt instead in the worlds of media and religious liberties. We’re hopeful that a nationally respected journalist who was caught speaking the truth in the wake of Collins’s announcement emerges unscathed. But that’s not a slam dunk, so to speak, though it should be.