June 28, 2021
On June 25th, Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina vetoed a bill that would have prevented discriminatory abortion in his state. House Bill 453 (The Human Life Non-Discrimination Act) was largely intended to protect babies with Down Syndrome from eugenic termination, but also prevented race or sex from being motivating factors in an abortion.
Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins said of the decision:
“Governor Cooper’s actions prove that he wants discrimination in his state. Cooper’s veto of a widely supported ban on killing children based on “undesired” traits should prompt all North Carolinians to ask: Who else is disposable in Cooper’s North Carolina? And how long will North Carolina tolerate a leader who lacks the moral compass to even protect his most vulnerable residents?”
In his veto, Governor Cooper wrote: “This bill gives the government control over what happens and what is said in the exam room between a woman and her doctor at a time she faces one of the most difficult decisions of her life. This bill is unconstitutional and it damages the doctor-patient relationship with an unprecedented government intrusion.”
Click here to read more about abortion & fetal anomalies.
“With a stroke of his pen, Gov. Cooper just told North Carolinians that it’s OK to discriminate based on race or disability as long as it’s in the womb. This bill simply put an end to eugenics. It shouldn’t be controversial to protect an unborn child with Down syndrome, but Gov. Cooper proves once again that he’s unwilling to stand up for North Carolinians when his left-wing donors demand his loyalty,” said Sen. Amy Galey (R-Alamance).
It’s not unheard of for states to pass this type of abortion restriction. Six states prohibit aborting a child based on race, and fourteen states, including North Carolina, prohibit aborting a child based on their sex. Tennessee and Ohio have made successful moves towards banning abortion based on supposed Down Syndrome diagnoses, rightfully deeming it “eugenic.”
ABC reported, “Republicans backing the measure say it would prevent a “modern-day eugenics” by ensuring disabled people wouldn’t need to pass a genetic test in order to be born.” This is completely accurate. No civilized society should be placing rules on who’s allowed to be killed or not based on external characteristics. All abortion is gravely wrong, but targeting specific babies adds yet another toxic layer to the deaths of innocent people.
Down Syndrome Abortions in the U.S.
Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) noted in 2015 that data on Down Syndrome abortions is not meticulously collected (after all, there is no national abortion reporting law), but most often in print we see statistics of 90% – 92%. In this same 2015 report, CLI concluded that “abortion after prenatal diagnosis [of Down Syndrome] has reduced the population of individuals living with DS in the U.S. by approximately 30%.”
For children who will be born with a disability or a disorder, there are many organizations and support groups who are available to help understand the child’s condition and to prepare parents to care for their child. Not to mention, when we take eugenic termination out of the picture, it encourages medical specialists to seek treatments for conditions instead of just killing the person who has them.
Sex-Selective Abortion Happens in the U.S.
In 2015, the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)–a group that sets fertility clinic standards nationwide–said it isn’t always discriminatory for parents to choose their children’s sex for non-medical reasons.
They stated that they did not feel that it would be unethical for parents to utilize this technology to select for a child to “enable individuals to shape the course of their pregnancy and child-rearing experience. […] Parents may reasonably believe that there are differences between the experience of rearing male and female offspring; such beliefs cannot be seen inherently to promulgate discrimination.” Click here for source.
Research has suggested that thousands of baby girls have been aborted in the United States for the sole reason that the baby was not the preferred sex. Moreover, investigations of various Planned Parenthood abortion facilities have showed that workers within these facilities have supported sex-selective abortions.
Kudos to the handful of states that have passed laws banning lethal discrimination in the womb, but to Governor Cooper… do better. The Pro-Life Generation (and every other American with any sort of moral compass) is watching.