The Trump administration is standing up for an Ohio law that protects unborn babies with Down syndrome from discrimination.
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice filed an amicus brief to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, supporting the pro-life law as a necessity for “equal dignity of those who live with disabilities,” the Washington Times reports.
The 2017 law prohibits abortions specifically because an unborn baby has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. However, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a lawsuit against it, and a judge who used to work for Planned Parenthood blocked it in 2018.
In October, a Sixth Circuit panel ruled 2-1 against the pro-life law, arguing that it would block “access to constitutionally protected health care services.” But in December, the Sixth Circuit granted a request for a full-court rehearing of the case — meaning Ohio has another chance to defend the law in court.
Representing the Trump administration, Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband said Ohio should be allowed to enforce the law because it protects both women and babies from discrimination.
“Ohio’s Antidiscrimination Law affirms that people with Down syndrome have lives worth living and protecting,” Dreiband said. “The law also protects the medical profession from harm to its integrity and protects women from abortion providers who may seek to pressure them into obtaining an abortion because of Down syndrome.”
Unborn babies with Down syndrome are aborted at astronomical rates, and parents of children with Down syndrome frequently say they felt pressured to abort them. Laws like Ohio’s protect children from modern day eugenics perpetuated by legalized abortions.
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Dreiband said the government should be allowed to protect people with disabilities from discrimination.
“The federal government has an interest in the equal dignity of those who live with disabilities,” he continued. “Nothing in the Constitution requires Ohio to authorize abortion providers to participate in abortions the providers know are based on Down syndrome.”
Lately, however, prominent pro-abortion groups, including NARAL and Planned Parenthood, have been arguing openly that abortions are OK for any reason, including discrimination.
“EVERY reason to have an abortion is a valid reason,” Colleen McNicholas, a Planned Parenthood abortionist, told the AP in 2019 in reaction to a Missouri law that bans sex-selection and Down syndrome-based abortions.
Unborn babies with Down syndrome frequently are targeted for abortions. A recent CBS News report shocked the nation with its exposure of the discriminatory abortion trend. According to the report, nearly 100 percent of unborn babies who test positive for Down syndrome are aborted in Iceland. The rate in France was 77 percent in 2015, 90 percent in the United Kingdom and 67 percent in the United States between 1995 and 2011, according to CBS.
North Dakota, Missouri and Indiana also passed laws to protect unborn babies with Down syndrome from discriminatory abortions. However, in May, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal to lift a block on the Indiana law. A judge also recently blocked the Missouri law.
