{"id":5181,"date":"2019-11-22T16:03:59","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T21:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/throughcatholiclenses\/?p=5181"},"modified":"2019-11-22T16:30:24","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T21:30:24","slug":"pennsylvania-politicians-divided-over-aborting-the-disabeld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/throughcatholiclenses\/2019\/11\/pennsylvania-politicians-divided-over-aborting-the-disabeld\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Politicians Divided Over Aborting the Disabled"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Pennsylvania<\/a>
Pennsylvania State Capitol (CC BY 2.0 Governor Tom Wolf<\/a> )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In the past few days, it has been reported that the Pennsylvania House and Senate have both approved a bill to make abortion due to a Down Syndrome diagnosis illegal. However, the Governor, Tom Wolf vetoed the bill rather quickly. Thus, in Pennsylvania, you can still abort due to disability. I want to give the news then offer some analysis<\/p>\n

The Down Syndrome Abortion Bill<\/h2>\n

On Wednesday, PennLive reported<\/a> on the bill\u2019s passage:<\/p>\n

\n

The Pennsylvania Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would ban abortions based solely on a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome\u2026<\/p>\n

The Senate voted 27-22 to pass the bill, with Democratic Sen. Jim Brewster, D-Allegheny County, and Independent John Yudichak of Luzerne County, voting with 25 Republicans to pass the bill.<\/p>\n

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kate Klunk, a Republican from Hanover, would make no changes to other portions of Pennsylvania\u2019s abortion law, which allows abortions until week 24 of pregnancy for any reason other than the child\u2019s sex.<\/p>\n

The Republican-controlled House passed the bill 117-76 in May.<\/p>\n

After the vote Wolf said on Twitter that he would veto the bill. And both the House and Senate votes were well short of a veto-proof margin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then on Thursday,\u00a0PennLive reported<\/a> on the official veto.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s Democratic governor is vetoing a bill that would prohibit abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome\u2026<\/p>\n

The bill would have added to that prohibition abortions over a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther, I am not aware of a single disability rights group that supports this bill,\u201d [Governor Tom Wolf] continued. \u201cI support continuing the bipartisan work that\u2019s been done to help people with disabilities. I also believe there is much more Pennsylvania could do to help women and families facing complex pregnancies. However, this bill does not aid in either of these efforts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Atrocity of Eugenic Abortion<\/h2>\n

Pope Francis has attacked<\/a> this eugenic attitude before. I reported earlier on some of his words.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard that it\u2019s fashionable, or at least usual, that when in the first few months of pregnancy they do studies to see if the child is healthy or has something, the first offer is: let\u2019s send it away,\u201d the pope said June 16, referring to the trend of aborting sick or disabled children.<\/p>\n

This, he said, is \u201cthe murder of children\u2026to get a peaceful life an innocent [person] is sent away\u2026We do the same as the Nazis to maintain the purity of the race, but with white gloves.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a travesty, an atrocity, that a child can be slaughtered just because they are diagnosed with a medical condition. Secular society wants to end discrimination but allows this most horrific form.<\/p>\n

Disability Rights Groups, Please Join Us<\/h2>\n

\u201cFirst they came \u2026\u201d is a famous poem based on the confession of Martin Niem\u00f6ller after World War II.<\/p>\n

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out\u2014
\nBecause I was not a socialist.<\/p>\n

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out\u2014
\nBecause I was not a trade unionist.<\/p>\n

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out\u2014
\nBecause I was not a Jew.<\/p>\n

Then they came for me\u2014and there was no one left to speak for me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I fear that if those in the disability rights community don\u2019t stand up to attacks on the disabled in the womb when their condition becomes diagnosable pre-natally, they will have no defense against having those with their condition aborted. This is not merely academic for me: I know prenatal autism tests are coming. Earlier, I wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Abortion (and even\u00a0euthanasia) is becoming more targeted toward the disabled. And this is the greatest way the disabled can be discriminated against. Killing someone due to a disability is akin to participating in an attempt to erase the disabled community. Not only is this far worse than, say, refusing to build a wheelchair ramp or to provide signage for the sight-impaired, it works toward removing the disabled community from society\u2019s consciousness and thus makes it more difficult to build support for disabled rights\u2026<\/p>\n

When Jeff Sessions was nominated as U.S. attorney general in 2017, eight disability rights organizations signed a letter from more than 200 groups opposing his nomination, which is understandable given his record on disabilities. However,\u00a0the same letter\u00a0criticized Mr. Sessions for opposing \u201cwomen\u2019s access to reproductive health services\u201d (understood to be a reference to access to abortion, especially given that the letter\u2019s signatories included NARAL Pro-Choice America) and for voting to defund the abortion provider Planned Parenthood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I want to encourage disability rights groups to reconsider their ardent support of abortion. Abortion will be used to destroy the lives of those with disabilities. We must fight that. Down Syndrome is first because it is easy to diagnose but genetic science will soon be able to diagnose or predict dozens of other conditions.<\/p>\n

No politician should be able to say, \u201cI am not aware of a single disability rights group that supports [a bill to stop the eugenic abortion of the disabled].\u201d We, both in the pro-life movement and fighting for disability rights, need to change that.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Eugenics is always bad. Allowing abortion because of prenatal diagnosis is a form of eugenics and ableism. We need to fight this both for the intrinsic dignity of human life and the dignity of the disabled in particular.\u00a0Abortion is ableist.<\/p>\n

Note: Please support me through Patreon<\/a> so I can write more like this.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the past few days, it has been reported that the Pennsylvania House and Senate have both approved a bill to make abortion due to a Down Syndrome diagnosis illegal. However, the Governor, Tom Wolf vetoed the bill rather quickly. Thus, in Pennsylvania, you can still abort due to disability. I want to give the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3464,"featured_media":5187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[272,47,8,86,293],"tags":[284,92,1132,275,409,236,287,281,278,260,1416],"class_list":["post-5181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disability","category-moral-theology","category-news-analysis","category-pro-life","category-us-politics","tag-ableism","tag-abortion","tag-autistic","tag-disability","tag-discrimination","tag-dna","tag-down-syndrome","tag-eugenic-abortion","tag-eugenics","tag-human-rights","tag-pennsylvania"],"yoast_head":"\nPennsylvania Politicians Divided Over Aborting the Disabled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the past few days, it has been reported that the Pennsylvania House and Senate have both approved a bill to make abortion due to a Down Syndrome\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/throughcatholiclenses\/2019\/11\/pennsylvania-politicians-divided-over-aborting-the-disabeld\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pennsylvania Politicians Divided Over Aborting the Disabled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the past few days, it has been reported that the Pennsylvania House and Senate have both approved a bill to make abortion due to a Down Syndrome\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/throughcatholiclenses\/2019\/11\/pennsylvania-politicians-divided-over-aborting-the-disabeld\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Through Catholic Lenses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-22T21:03:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-22T21:30:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/959\/2019\/11\/PA-State-Capitol.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. 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