LIFE DIGEST: NARAL won’t fight bill to reduce Down syndrome abortions
- Mar 17, 2008 - comment
One of the country’s leading abortion rights organizations is not opposing a bill designed to reduce the killing of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome or other conditions.
Nancy Keenan, NARAL Pro-choice America’s president, told McClatchy Newspapers her organization will not work to defeat the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act, S. 1810.
The legislation, which is sponsored by pro-life Sen. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., seeks to address the lack of information and support reportedly given to parents whose unborn children are diagnosed with conditions such as Down syndrome.
The bill would require that parents whose children receive a diagnosis of Down syndrome or another impairment be provided with the latest information on the condition and be informed of support services available. This would apply to a diagnosis on a child before birth or until a year after birth. The measure also would establish a registry of families willing to adopt special needs children.
“Unlike other legislation Senator Brownback sponsors, this measure does not include anti-choice rhetoric or policy provisions that would harm women’s health,” Keenan said, according to McClatchy. “It’s our view that the bill offers information and services to expectant women and does not undermine their right to choose.”
It has been estimated about 90 percent of American children diagnosed in the womb with Down syndrome are aborted. A similar abortion percentage exists for unborn babies diagnosed with spina bifida, cystic fibrosis and dwarfism, according to Brownback’s office.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved the bill Feb. 27, but the full Senate has yet to act on it.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) made a controversial recommendation in January 2007, urging that all pregnant women, no matter their age, be offered testing for Down syndrome. Previously, women 35 years and older were automatically offered testing for the condition, according to ACOG. Pro-life advocates decried the recommendation, saying it would increase the number of unborn Down syndrome children targeted for elimination.
Abortion may threaten mental health, Royal College says
Women considering abortion should not undergo the procedure until they are informed of the potential danger to their mental health, England’s Royal College of Psychiatrists said March 14.
The new recommendation reverses a long-time, prevailing view that completing an unwanted pregnancy is a greater risk to mental health than the effect of having an abortion that is later regretted, according to The Times of London. It is believed more than 90 percent of the 200,000 abortions annually in Great Britain are performed because doctors think carrying the baby to term would cause more mental pressure than ending the child’s life, the newspaper reported.
In its statement, the Royal College said research is “inconclusive” on the mental-health impact of abortion. It said some studies demonstrate no proof of harm, while others identify a number of mental problems in post-abortion women.
The practice of abortion should include “informed consent,” according to the statement.
“Consent cannot be informed without the provision of adequate and appropriate information regarding the possible risks and benefits to physical and mental health,” the Royal College said.
Peter Saunders, general secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said, according to The Times, “How can a doctor now justify an abortion [on mental health grounds] if psychiatrists are questioning whether there is any clear evidence that continuing with the pregnancy leads to mental health problems?”
The statement was released as the British Parliament prepares to vote on a measure to roll back the maximum time limit for abortions “for social reasons” from 24 weeks into pregnancy to 20 weeks, The Times reported. A Sunday Times poll released March 16 showed 59 percent of women back such a reduction, while only 28 percent endorse the current limit. Overall, 48 percent of men and women support the proposal, and 35 percent oppose it.
The Royal College recommendation followed by less than a month the report that a young artist committed suicide in regret over her abortions. Emma Beck, 30, hanged herself last year in response to her grief over aborting her twins in September 2006, according to information released at a Feb. 21 coroner’s inquest in Cornwall.
“I should never have had an abortion,” she wrote before her suicide, according to the Daily Mail, a London newspaper. “I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies – they need me, no one else does.”
South Dakota enacts ultrasound law
South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds signed into law March 13 a measure requiring a woman seeking an abortion be given the option of viewing an ultrasound image of her unborn baby before undergoing the lethal procedure.
South Dakota became the 12th state to adopt legislation mandating abortion doctors must at least offer a woman the opportunity to see a sonogram of the child in her womb, according to the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). Georgia, Idaho and Mississippi enacted laws similar to South Dakota’s in 2007, while Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, Utah and Wisconsin had done so previously, NRLC reported.
Louisiana’s law is different, according to NRLC, in that it requires an ultrasound on any woman at least 20 weeks pregnant before offering her the chance to view the image.
“We continue to urge other states to join in this trend and protect women and their unborn children,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, NRLC’s state legislative director, in a written release. “The abortion decision is one which cannot be undone and women deserve to have all the facts.”
Pregnancy care centers have reported dramatic upswings in clients choosing to give birth after viewing ultrasound images of their babies.
Dr. Death to run for Congress
Jack Kevorkian, who helped at least 130 people kill themselves, plans to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Kevorkian, who became known as Dr. Death and has been the face of the assisted-suicide movement, hopes to gain election as an independent, The Oakland (Mich.) Press reported March 11. Kevorkian, 79, will need at least 3,000 signatures to be placed on the November ballot as an independent.
“We need some honesty and sincerity instead of corrupt government in Washington,” Kevorkian said of his candidacy, according to The Press.
Kevorkian was paroled from prison in June 2007 after serving eight years and a month for a second-degree murder conviction in a 1998 assisted-suicide death in which he participated. Michigan law does not bar him from seeking election to public office, The Press reported.
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