Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

Ohio lawmakers are considering new legislation that would penalize doctors for aborting babies suspected of having Down Syndrome.

The Daily Caller is reporting on the landmark legislation that would put a stop to the wholesale slaughter of infants who test positive for Down Syndrome in the state of Ohio. If passed, the law would not penalize women for having the abortion, but doctors who perform the abortion could receive a fourth-degree felony charge. They could also be fined and even prevented from practicing medicine.

“[Doctors] tell you of these horrific things that can happen [with a Down syndrome baby] … the different anomalies, cardiac issues …I really feel like you’re given a death sentence,” Ohio nurse Kelly Kuhns told The Associated Press (AP).

Kuhns, 36, received a positive test for Down syndrome during her fourth pregnancy but chose to keep her child. Her son, Oliver, now two-years-old, has led a “pretty normal life” according to the AP.

“We were told of all the different therapies [Oliver] would need and all the additional work that would be involved,” she said. “But we were never told how amazing our lives would be with Oliver in it. Nobody told me my face would hurt from smiling at him.”

Although the Ohio bill was already pending at the time, it was accelerated after a CBS News story published last month touted the so-called “end to Down Syndrome in Iceland” not because doctors found a way to eradicate the defect but because most women were choosing to abort babies diagnosed with the syndrome.

“Some of the sweetest, kindest people I know have Down syndrome,” said Ohio state Senator Frank LaRose (R), one of the bill’s sponsors. “It’s just very unsettling for some of us that people in our society are going to make a decision that this life is worth something and this life is not worth something based on this genetic abnormality.”

Dennis Sullivan, a physician and bioethicist at Cedarville University, told the AP that aborting babies who have Down syndrome is “a modern-day form of eugenics.” He cited France’s 77 percent termination rate and Denmark’s 98 percent rate.

The UK has a 90 percent abortion rate and some statistics show the US abortion rate for Down Syndrome children ranging anywhere from 85 to 92 percent. . As the Daily Caller reports, Indiana and North Dakota have similar laws to the bill under consideration in Ohio. However, Indiana’s was blocked by a federal judge who ruled that the court cannot prevent a women from getting an abortion based on particular reasons.

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