Login | April 26, 2024
Proposal would prohibit abortion if fetus diagnosed with Down syndrome
TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: April 28, 2015
State Reps. David Hall, R-Millersburg, and Sarah LaTourette, R-Hunting Valley, have filed a bill that would prohibit abortions for women pregnant with a baby diagnosed with Down syndrome.
Ohio Right to Life has championed the proposed legislation with officials saying Ohio could become the first state to ban abortions on the basis of a Down syndrome diagnosis.
A statement from the organization said multiple studies have indicated that as many as 90 percent of unborn babies diagnosed with the syndrome are aborted.
“More and more, it seems that society is rejecting discrimination in favor of diversity, empathy and understanding for the most vulnerable and marginalized members of our communities,” said ORTL Executive Director Stephanie Ranade Krider.
“It makes sense that we would apply that practice across the whole spectrum of life, to protect some of the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, starting in the womb.”
House Bill 135 states that no person shall purposely perform or induce or attempt to perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman if the person has knowledge that the pregnant woman is seeking the abortion solely because of a test result indicating Down syndrome in an unborn child or a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome in an unborn child.
A violation of the bill would be a fourth-degree felony.
Under the proposal, the state medical board would be charged with revoking any physician’s license to practice medicine for violating the bill.
The ORTL statement said the association wants to educate Ohioans “about the high rate of abortions performed on babies diagnosed with Down syndrome while highlighting the positive impact that people with Down syndrome have on their families.”
“In 2011, the American Journal of Medical Genetics ran a three-part series on the impact children with Down syndrome have on families,” officials wrote.
“Nearly 99 percent of people with Down syndrome indicated that they were happy with their lives, 97 percent liked who they were and 96 percent liked how they looked. Additionally, more than 96 percent of brothers/sisters indicated that they had affection toward their sibling with Down syndrome.”
Sixteen House members have signed on to co-sponsor HB 135.
“Terminating the life of an unborn child diagnosed with Down syndrome is both eugenic and a form of disability discrimination,” said Dorinda Bordlee, chief counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund.
“Nothing in the U.S. Supreme Court abortion jurisprudence protects these practices that devalue the lives of all persons living with Down syndrome.”
The bill is awaiting a committee assignment.
Copyright © 2015 The Daily Reporter - All Rights Reserved