The modern view of Down syndrome can best be described as a paradox. People with DS have more opportunities than ever before to live long, healthy and fulfilling lives. Many graduate from high school, attend college and have meaningful employment. Their life expectancy has more than doubled since 1980, from 23 to 60 years.
Yet, despite these and other advances, most unborn babies with DS face a death sentence once their condition is discovered. A 2012 synthesis of 24 studies found post-diagnosis abortion rates for fetuses with DS ranging from 50-85 percent. That threat will soon become more acute as sophisticated new blood tests (which I’ve reported on here and here) become more widely available.
All of this serves as the backdrop to a debate over an Ohio bill that would make it illegal for a woman to seek an abortion to avoid having a baby with Down syndrome. The bill is expected to pass the Ohio legislature this month.
Women seeking abortions would not be punished, but those who perform them could be. An abortionist found violating the law could receive six-18 months in prison and revocation of his or her medical license. North Dakota passed a similar ban in 2013, but nobody has been prosecuted under the law.
Down syndrome usually occurs when there are three copies of the 21st chromosome instead of the usual two. The excess DNA causes numerous changes, including low muscle tone and delayed cognitive development. DS is also associated with health problems such as early-onset Alzheimer’s and congenital heart defects.
The Ohio legislation raises several questions: If a Down syndrome diagnosis is not a valid reason to abort, what about other fetal abnormalities — or race, or even sex? Also, how would the law be enforced? Couldn’t women seeking Down syndrome abortions simply offer a different reason for wanting the abortion?
Putting these questions aside, high DS abortion rates and a plummeting DS population seem to indicate a widespread belief that the lives of people with DS, and disabilities generally, are not worth living.
But most people with DS are happy, and surveys of parents and siblings of people with DS show that the vast majority are affected more positively than negatively.
In this way, the bill’s core logic — that an extra chromosome shouldn’t be a death sentence — is as solid as the love people with Down syndrome evoke.
Daniel Allott is deputy commentary editor for the Washington Examiner
