Attorney General Ken Paxton joined 17 other states in a friend-of-the-court brief to protect babies with Down Syndrome from abortion based solely on their genetics. Despite numerous civil rights protections, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, an Ohio federal court created a categorical right to abortion, regardless of whether the reason for an abortion is clearly based on discrimination against a child with disabilities.
“As fetal screening technology advances, the risk of eugenics-minded abortion unfortunately expands as well. To kill a child in the womb simply because they possess different physical or mental capabilities than their parents envisioned is a barbaric and horrifying act of discrimination against the helpless,” said Attorney General Paxton. “All life should be celebrated and all people, regardless of their genetics, should be afforded the right to life.”
Ohio’s anti-eugenic law protects those with Down Syndrome from harm prior to their birth and opposes the demeaning stereotype that a life with disabilities is not worth living. Allowing the baseless abortion of those with Down Syndrome opens the door to increasingly dangerous discrimination in determining who is allowed to live and who must not be born at all.
To view a copy of the amicus brief, click here.