When a politician tells you people with Down syndrome are targeted, they’re absolutely right.

Summary:

Pennsylvania’s Down Syndrome Protection Act (House Bill 2050 & Senate Bill 1050) would protect children given a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Estimates show at least 67 percent of families in the United States when given a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to abort the baby. And families right here in Pennsylvania have been pressured by medical professionals to have an abortion when given this diagnosis.

Facts & Sources:

Children are being targeted for abortion after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.

  • Estimates show the market for a new screening test – non-invasive prenatal testing – that includes testing for Down syndrome could quadruple in the next five years. View source
  • One country – Iceland – reports show has nearly “eradicated” Down syndrome due to aborting every child with a positive test. An Icelandic geneticist, when asked what the 100% termination rate reflected about Icelandic society, said “It reflects a relatively heavy-handed genetic counseling. And I don’t think that heavy-handed genetic counseling is desirable. … You’re having impact on decisions that are not medical, in a way.” View source

Medical professionals are pressuring women and families to have an abortion solely based on their child having Down syndrome.

  • Dr. Justin Shaw: “It became clear as we sat in that session that if anything she was trying to influence us into aborting Eva.” View source
  • Actress Sally Phillips:“If someone keeps asking you something, it’s going to shake your resolve…you assume that the doctors know.” View source

The history of our country’s treatment of people with Down syndrome is horrific.

  • We used to physically and sexually abuse them through forced sterilization. By 1981, over 60,000 people with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities had been sterilized. View source
  • Doctors as late as the 1980s were starving babies to death with Down syndrome because they categorized the feeding of a baby with this diagnosis as a “lifesaving procedure.” And until 1984, many doctors would refuse life-saving procedures like heart treatments on people with Down syndrome.

Pennsylvania’s Down Syndrome Protection Act (House Bill 2050 & Senate Bill 1050) simply expands the exceptions to an abortion.

Take action:

Use PA Family Council’s Citizen Action Center to tell your State Senator to support the Down Syndrome Protection Act (House Bill 2050): tinyurl.com/ALifeWorthSaving