Pioneering embryologist calls US abortion ban ‘incredible’

The US decision to ban abortions is incredible, and efforts to overturn the ruling may take an entire generation, said world-renowned Cypriot fetal medicine pioneer Dr Kypros Nicolaides.

Asked about the US Supreme Court’s decision to ban abortions, Nicolaides said the democratic right of 70% of American women to abortion had been restricted, either because they were raped, did not want to get pregnant or because their child had an abnormality.

“The decision of the most advanced democracy in the world to deprive the most basic democratic right of 70% of the population is incredible. That says a lot about democracy”.

He said an “enormous effort” must be made to overturn the decision, which will take an entire generation because six of the nine judges of the Supreme Court in the United States are super-conservative.

The Southern American states, he explained, are conservative.

“The more conservative they are, the more likely they are to deny women the right to choose.”

Nicolaides specialises in fetal medicine and prenatal surgery.

He said he would continue research, especially on preeclampsia and preterm birth, which are the most important problems leading to deaths of mothers and children.

Nicolaides is a Cyprus-born British Professor in Fetal Medicine at King’s College Hospital, London.

He is one of the pioneers of fetal medicine whose discoveries have revolutionised the field.

He was elected to the US National Academy of Medicine in 2020 for ‘improving the care of pregnant women worldwide with pioneering rigorous and creative approaches’.

Nicolaides was in Nicosia over the weekend to give a lecture at the English School, from which he graduated in 1971. (source CNA)