T4 Revisited

Even if abortion were banned, that would not stop the abortion of fetuses that test positive for Down syndrome. In Ireland and Uruguay, where abortion is outlawed, half of all pregnancies diagnosed as positive for Down syndrome are still terminated. Though abortion is banned, transportation is not, and so Dublin mothers simply cross the Irish Sea to England; those in Uruguay can travel to neighboring countries where they can abort.

Similarly, in America, even if the pro-life agenda succeeded, the challenge would remain one of transportation. Should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, then abortion would be regulated by the individual states. There already exist “springing” statutes in several states that would automatically allow abortion to continue. In some, such as Maryland, abortion would be unrestricted for the duration of the pregnancy in cases of “genetic conditions” such as Down syndrome. So, like in Ireland, mothers in pro-life states simply would need to travel to Illinois, or California, or New York, or any of the many other states where they could selectively abort their pregnancy because their child was prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome.
...
Mothers who have terminated following a prenatal diagnosis overwhelmingly (97 percent) report that these are wanted pregnancies. Furthermore, they say that they consider themselves to be, in fact, mothers, and that their fetus is not simply a fetus, but their child. Yet they still go through with aborting their child.

The challenge is not convincing mothers that their child prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome is in fact a child, having moral status, and therefore having the same right to life as any other human being. Consider why these mothers say they aborted: the burden on their other children; the burden on the child itself; fear that they could not care for the child; and fear that society would not support their child. One study found that “the lack of access to care was often given priority over strongly held ethical positions, such as those on abortion.”

read the entire article here.

Jill Stanek isn't the first person to liken this to the Nazi policy of selective breeding.