New legislation introduced into the US state of Ohio would ban abortion if the reason is a child having down syndrome.
This sort of legislation has become part and parcel with the debate around genetic research. From discussions about down syndrome to gender and sexuality many fear genetic pre-natal research will result in women aborting children they were otherwise going to have.
I have to say I am uneasy about this whole thing. There is a genuine fear here that genetics could become eugenics — and that is not something we want.
But in saying that there is absolutely no way I could support this legislation or any legislation like it.
Here is one thing I believe: a woman should have the right to choose what she does with her body. No ifs, no buts.
While these abortions may make some uneasy therefore, it is not anyones rights to decide what a woman does with her body. That is the case whether it is because a woman does not think she can support a child or because she’s discovered the child has down syndrome, is a boy or girl, or is gay. No ifs, no buts.
How to stop these feared mass abortions then? First, I suspect our fears are much less than many whip up and that the fears are just a way to push an anti-abortion agenda.
But maybe another solution would be to stop our obsessive focus with searching for genes to explain every part of our selves. Maybe we could accept that some parts of us just ‘are’ and deal with the consequences — positive and negative — of that. Stop our obsessive search for genes and maybe we could stop the fear peddling around them.
What do you think? Would you support a bill like this?