From the New York Times:

Ohio Bill Would Ban Abortion if Down Syndrome Is Reason

Opening a new front in the abortion wars, abortion opponents are pushing Ohio to make it illegal for a doctor to perform an abortion if a woman is terminating her pregnancy to avoid having a baby with Down syndrome…

Mike Gonidakis, the president of Ohio Right to Life, said his group had made the bill here a legislative priority because Down syndrome is so recognizable, so easily diagnosed in pregnancy — and so likely to lead to abortion.

“We all want to be born perfect, but none of us are, and everyone has a right to live, perfect or not,”…

Abortion advocates disagree:

But abortion rights lawyers say…that by focusing on the diagnosis of a fetal condition, it edges toward recognizing the fetus as a person, setting up a conflict between the mother’s interests and those of the fetus.

Abortion supporters see the cognitive dissonance here. The designation of the fetus as a person was made during the prenatal testing — when the baby was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome. The whole process of pre-natal testing affirms the personhood of the child in the womb. Only a person can have a syndrome — mere tissue or “products of conception” can’t properly be diagnosed as having any disease at all.

An abscess doesn’t have an infection; the person with the abscess has the infection. A tumor doesn’t have cancer; the person with the tumor has cancer. “Products of conception” don’t have Down’s syndrome. A person has Down’s syndrome. The personhood of the child in the womb is presumed by the diagnosis of Down’s syndrome.

Abortion supporters defend the selective abortion of handicapped children by the claim that the fetus is not a person, yet the diagnosis itself is predicated on the fact that the fetus is a person.

Life begins at conception. That’s settled science and settled medical practice.

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