Analysis from the Guttmacher Institute has confirmed that the abortion rate in the U.S. is at its lowest level in 30 years. From 1974 to 2004, abortions among teenagers dropped significantly, while the proportion of abortions obtained by women 30 and older rose from 18 percent to 27 percent.
Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., have sponsored legislation that could push the numbers down further.
Unfortunately, the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act (S. 1810) — which will provide up-to-date information to families that receive adverse genetic diagnoses — is stuck in the Senate.
The bill would supply families — prenatally and up to the baby's first birthday — with a connection to support services and networks that can offer assistance.
Brownback renewed the discussion last week on the Senate floor: "The problem is that between 80 and 90 percent of the children diagnosed with Down syndrome in the United States will not make it to the world, simply because they have a positive genetic test in prenatal screening, tests which can be wrong, by the way. I have had a number of people come up to me and say they had a positive Down syndrome designation and the child was born and the child did not have Down syndrome.
"America is poorer because of this. To deny children with disabilities a chance at life will make us more insensitive, callous, and jaded, and will take away from the diversity of American life. I do not think this is what we were meant to do.”
The Democratic leadership has chosen to lump Brownback's bill into a larger controversial bill.
TAKE ACTION
Please ask your senators to support S. 1810. You can find contact information through our Action Center.
— Jennifer Mesko
