Legislation Advances To Ban Abortion
INDIANAPOLIS— On Feb. 24, the Indiana Senate passed legislation banning an abortion sought for gender selection or a genetically disabled fetus, by a vote of 35-15.
The legislation, Senate Bill 334, prohibits abortion if the pregnant woman is seeking the procedure because of the sex of the fetus, or a diagnosis or potential diagnosis of the fetus having Down syndrome or any other disability.
“We believe that public policy ought to protect all human beings from conception to natural death,” said Glenn Tebbe, executive director of the Indiana Catholic Conference. “It is in the best interest of society to protect its weakest members, including the physically handicapped, those with mental illness, all children and especially the defenseless infant in the womb.
“Abortion of all babies is unacceptable,” Tebbe added. “Aborting a child because of his or her sex or handicapped condition is another illustration of people playing God – wanting to control one’s life by determining the perfect child. All children are gifts from God, given for benefit of the family and the good of all in society,” he said. “Public policy should promote and support the growth and development of all children.”
The measure is authored by Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle; Sen. Amanda Banks, R-Columbia City; and Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, who presented it last week to the Senate Health panel, which voted 9-2 to move it to the full Senate.
During that hearing, Sen. Brown said that in addition to aborting for reasons of sex selection or disability, the bill also addresses informed consent. Women seeking an abortion would be notified in writing 18 hours prior to the abortion being performed that Indiana law prohibits abortion solely for sex selection or fetal disability. It also applies to the termination-of-pregnancy form that the doctors must complete after each abortion whether the fetus has been diagnosed with or has a potential diagnosis of a disability
According to Sen. Brown, 63 percent of OB-GYNs believe an abortion was justified; yet when they survey the women, 25 percent of the women with a diagnosis of a Down syndrome fetus reported the doctor insisted they abort, and felt pressured into doing so.
“I think what we are seeing today is a rush to judgment,” said Sen. Brown. “Instead of looking at the value these parents have in making a choice, we have positions; and abortion providers in particular are pushing this ‘choice’ on women, which in fact does not become a choice because they are not given all the facts. They are not making an informed choice.”
Citing Harvard professor Dr. Amartya Sen’s article, “More than 100 Million Women are Missing” (published in the Dec. 20, 1990, issue of the “New York Review of Books”), Sen. Brown said that there is a 60-percent reduction of women being born because they are not valued. “Here in the United States we do not subscribe to that judgment because gender and disability are protected classes. In this bill we are saying that women and the disabled are protected classes from conception to the end of natural life. What this bill does is codifies in law that these are constitutionally protected classes; and that if you have been labeled a potentially disabled child and or a woman should not be the inducement for a parent to abort you.”
Sen. Vanetta Becker, R-Evansville, asked, “Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is?” questioning whether the bill’s sponsors would be willing to provide more funding for the developmentally disabled.
In response, Sen. Holdman said, “I believe we get to a slippery slope when we begin to evaluate a child in economic terms only. We’ve seen that in fascist countries,” he said. “In our public policy, we want to say we value life over an economic choice. If we abort a child because of Down syndrome merely on the fact that it is going to cost somebody a lot of money, it’s a slippery slope. We want to be very careful in approaching that kind of public policy position.” Sen. Holdman said he “absolutely would be in favor of additional funding” if it’s required to support children with disabilities. “We need to have a policy of life rather than a policy of extermination,” Sen. Holdman said.
Dr. David Prentice, a stem cell expert, testified in support of the bill. He called it a bill about “preventing discrimination based on gender or genetic differences on preborn human beings.” He added that while abortion for sex selection does occur in the U.S., there aren’t very good records. He said there are new studies coming out showing sex-selection abortions are taking place in the U.S. and Canada. As more advanced testing becomes available providing earlier results for sex and genetic defects, Dr. Prentice said more sex-selection abortions will occur. While some medical advancement will be used as the reason(s) to terminate a pregnancy, Dr. Prentice said new treatments are coming online to correct some genetic defects in the womb – including the use of adult stem cells.
