Banning Abortion in the Case of Down Syndrome
Arkansas Senate approves bill banning Down's syndrome abortions
Arkansas ‘Down Syndrome Discrimination by Abortion Prohibition Act’ (SB 2)
As it impinges on the right to an abortion I don't think anything should - if you are pregnant and don't want to be, you should have the right to decide - but I don't think Down Syndrome is a good reason for it if you want kids in the first place.
I don't think one *should* abort for sex selection or Down Syndrome or anything along those lines. But that's a different question than a legal ban. Bans get into the state requiring you to give a reason and or proof and that's extremely problematic for privacy in medical care and maintaining a right to abortion in general. Obviously there's a movement to ban abortions of which this ban is likely a part, not just a disingenuous slippery slope argument. It's got to remain an opinion and up for discussion rather than law if we want to keep the right to choose at all.
What about Iceland? They've got such a low number of Down Syndrome births.
As long as there is choice in the matter - which is a necessary right of bodily autonomy - it won't be eradicated, as headlines frequently announce. I don't even like using that word, eradicated, but it drives home a certain point about our problem with ableism in this country and the extent to which Down Sydrome isn't really a disease that you can, in good conscience, speak about in such a way. You aren't going to "eradicate" it with any sort of preventative measure at this point - those things aren't known as far as I know. It's not polio. Eliminating a single disease is good and there are vaccines that accomplish that by preventing the spread of them and keep people from catching it. You don't "catch" Down Syndrome though.
The facts are, that Down Syndrome isn't a disease and the eugenics aspect is hard for me to deal with. Eliminating a segment of the population with traits some simply find undesirable is troubling, to say the least. With Downs, sure the are health issues, but there are a host of other traits that make them much needed members of society. We would be less without them. I wonder what the line would be if we could predict blindness or other things from the womb. Who would be next? Maybe in Iceland and the Netherlands they are in general a more cooperative or collective society and services wouldn't diminish despite a lower incidence and there wouldn't be more stigma/discrimination, but I suspect that situation here would be a disaster.
It might seem like a positive, this near eradication in Iceland, but talk of eradication is hard to reconcile (or frankly hear anyone discuss) with knowing Down's people and what they've added to my life. It's not like polio, where there's a vaccine and you're eradicating a disease instead of a set of traits and a particular personality. We would be less without them.
I hope the thinking doesn't change among our population such that it goes the way of Iceland - I wonder if it comes with a greater intolerance of all disability - but equally I hope abortion is never banned again.
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If you want to read something by someone who said it better, you can read this by a woman who has experience:
The "Down Syndrome Abortion Ban" Uncovers A Difficult Truth About Pro-Choice Politics & Disability
A couple of quotes from the article, things to think about:
I do not believe my daughter's mutations are an accident. I do not believe they are a gift. I believe they are part of who she is. And I know that I will always feel grateful and honored to be Esmé’s mother, just as she is.
Genetic mutations, genetic difference, is what has allowed us to become more resilient as a species. It is at the root of how we grow and adapt.
Instead, what we need, and what individuals like Esmé require of us, is a turn toward compassion, selflessness, joy, and determination in the face of struggle.
---
From the struggle in Ireland where people with Down Syndrome were used as political pawns by anti-choicers.
STOP USING DOWN SYNDROME AS ANTI-CHOICE PROPAGANDA
Quote from article:
Writing in the Irish online publication The Journal, Darach Ó Séaghdha, the father of a toddler with Down syndrome, takes issue with the "Love Both" flyer. He's tired of seeing faces of children with Down syndrome in anti-abortion propaganda and almost nowhere else. "She's more likely to see a girl like her in such propaganda than she is to see a girl like her in a TV show or even working in a shop," he writes. Meanwhile, he’d like to see these groups put similar efforts into expanding postnatal services.
Arkansas Senate approves bill banning Down's syndrome abortions
Arkansas ‘Down Syndrome Discrimination by Abortion Prohibition Act’ (SB 2)
As it impinges on the right to an abortion I don't think anything should - if you are pregnant and don't want to be, you should have the right to decide - but I don't think Down Syndrome is a good reason for it if you want kids in the first place.
I don't think one *should* abort for sex selection or Down Syndrome or anything along those lines. But that's a different question than a legal ban. Bans get into the state requiring you to give a reason and or proof and that's extremely problematic for privacy in medical care and maintaining a right to abortion in general. Obviously there's a movement to ban abortions of which this ban is likely a part, not just a disingenuous slippery slope argument. It's got to remain an opinion and up for discussion rather than law if we want to keep the right to choose at all.
What about Iceland? They've got such a low number of Down Syndrome births.
As long as there is choice in the matter - which is a necessary right of bodily autonomy - it won't be eradicated, as headlines frequently announce. I don't even like using that word, eradicated, but it drives home a certain point about our problem with ableism in this country and the extent to which Down Sydrome isn't really a disease that you can, in good conscience, speak about in such a way. You aren't going to "eradicate" it with any sort of preventative measure at this point - those things aren't known as far as I know. It's not polio. Eliminating a single disease is good and there are vaccines that accomplish that by preventing the spread of them and keep people from catching it. You don't "catch" Down Syndrome though.
The facts are, that Down Syndrome isn't a disease and the eugenics aspect is hard for me to deal with. Eliminating a segment of the population with traits some simply find undesirable is troubling, to say the least. With Downs, sure the are health issues, but there are a host of other traits that make them much needed members of society. We would be less without them. I wonder what the line would be if we could predict blindness or other things from the womb. Who would be next? Maybe in Iceland and the Netherlands they are in general a more cooperative or collective society and services wouldn't diminish despite a lower incidence and there wouldn't be more stigma/discrimination, but I suspect that situation here would be a disaster.
It might seem like a positive, this near eradication in Iceland, but talk of eradication is hard to reconcile (or frankly hear anyone discuss) with knowing Down's people and what they've added to my life. It's not like polio, where there's a vaccine and you're eradicating a disease instead of a set of traits and a particular personality. We would be less without them.
I hope the thinking doesn't change among our population such that it goes the way of Iceland - I wonder if it comes with a greater intolerance of all disability - but equally I hope abortion is never banned again.
---
If you want to read something by someone who said it better, you can read this by a woman who has experience:
The "Down Syndrome Abortion Ban" Uncovers A Difficult Truth About Pro-Choice Politics & Disability
A couple of quotes from the article, things to think about:
I do not believe my daughter's mutations are an accident. I do not believe they are a gift. I believe they are part of who she is. And I know that I will always feel grateful and honored to be Esmé’s mother, just as she is.
Genetic mutations, genetic difference, is what has allowed us to become more resilient as a species. It is at the root of how we grow and adapt.
Instead, what we need, and what individuals like Esmé require of us, is a turn toward compassion, selflessness, joy, and determination in the face of struggle.
---
From the struggle in Ireland where people with Down Syndrome were used as political pawns by anti-choicers.
STOP USING DOWN SYNDROME AS ANTI-CHOICE PROPAGANDA
Quote from article:
Writing in the Irish online publication The Journal, Darach Ó Séaghdha, the father of a toddler with Down syndrome, takes issue with the "Love Both" flyer. He's tired of seeing faces of children with Down syndrome in anti-abortion propaganda and almost nowhere else. "She's more likely to see a girl like her in such propaganda than she is to see a girl like her in a TV show or even working in a shop," he writes. Meanwhile, he’d like to see these groups put similar efforts into expanding postnatal services.
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