Doctor Wants Parents to Have the Right to Abort Their Baby if She Has Down Syndrome

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Mar 21, 2016   |   11:34AM   |   Indianapolis, IN

Abortion activists have come down hard against a new Indiana bill that would protect unborn babies from discriminatory abortions based on a disability or sex.

State and national abortion activists and their media partners have blasted the bill’s protective measures as “anti-woman.” The latest to do so is Dr. Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds, a pro-abortion leader within the Indiana American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Indiana House Bill 1337 would ban abortion doctors from knowingly aborting an unborn baby solely because of a genetic disability such as Down syndrome, the unborn baby’s race or sex. The bill also has several other abortion-related measures, including a requirement that aborted or miscarried babies’ bodies be cremated or buried and another requirement that abortionists who have hospital admitting privileges renew them annually. The burial/cremation requirement backs up a law passed in 2015 by Gov. Mike Pence requiring that aborted babies’ bodies be disposed of in a humane way.

The bill passed both state houses earlier this year, and is headed to the pro-life governor’s desk for signature.

Edmonds attacked the bill as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” in a Sunday editorial for the Indy Star:

Well, a wolf has put on a doctor’s white coat and is trying to take over exam rooms in our state.

Indiana’s state legislators recently passed a dangerous piece of anti-women’s health legislation that they’ve dressed up as an effort to protect the rights of the disabled. In actuality, the bill – which would ban abortions for specific reasons, including a diagnosed disability or genetic abnormality in the fetus – is more accurately described as a dangerous threat to women’s health, and in fact is opposed by members of the disability community. Proponents have gone so far as to oppose amendments that would have required the state to provide additional funding to support the families of children born with chronic medical conditions, physical malformations, or cognitive and physical limitations. Were this truly a disability rights bill, where are the provisions that bolster early intervention? Health-care coverage? Medical foster homes?

So if the bill, HB 1337, does not protect the disability community, what does it actually do? It creates penalties for physicians who knowingly participate in abortions that women and families seek for diagnoses of congenital anomalies, structural malformations, genetic disorders or any other disability.

The extent to which Edmonds attacks the bill borders on propaganda. Rather than presenting all the facts, he plays into the fears of parents who are facing the news that their unborn baby may have a disability.

“… no matter the degree of pain and suffering expected for the child; no matter how devastating the condition – the parents have no say. This is cruel,” Edmonds wrote.

The real cruelty is Edmonds’ claim that killing their disabled child is parents’ only option. It isn’t. Thanks to modern medical advancements and support systems, parents today have numerous options to help them raise children with disabilities. People with Down syndrome are living longer, fuller lives today because our society is beginning to see the value of their lives. Unborn babies with spina bifida now can undergo corrective surgery before they are even born.

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But because of doctors like Edmonds who fail to educate parents honestly about their unborn child’s disability and the support available to them, some families report feeling pressured to abort their “imperfect” unborn babies.

Though the attack isn’t untypical of abortion activists, the firestorm against this particular bill is interesting, especially given that a strong majority of Americans support bans on these discriminatory abortions. Perhaps it’s because the bill exposes the pro-abortion position for what it is – the discriminatory, merciless and cruel targeting of a particular group of human beings for death.

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