{"id":172282,"date":"2017-09-22T16:31:01","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T20:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=172282"},"modified":"2017-09-22T16:34:01","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T20:34:01","slug":"outrageous-women-told-moral-duty-abort-children-down-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/outrageous-women-told-moral-duty-abort-children-down-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Outrageous: Women told there is a ‘moral duty’ to abort children with Down syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"
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People with Down syndrome are often targeted for death, even in our supposedly more ethical, tolerant world today.<\/p>\n

Women with prenatal diagnoses frequently choose to abort<\/a> their preborn babies, with rates over 50 percent in virtually every country that has prenatal testing available. But while the Down syndrome community has been speaking out against the staggeringly high abortion rate, there is still pushback, accompanied by lies, misinformation, and coercion.<\/p>\n

And there are even those who argue that there is a moral obligation to make Down syndrome a death sentence.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, there was international outrage over the revelation that Iceland has an almost 100 percent abortion rate for children with Down syndrome<\/a>. Australia, meanwhile, glowingly featured a special on 60 Minutes that boasted of how a new Non-Invasive Pre-Natal Test (NIPT) could “effectively end Down syndrome” in Australia<\/a>. And now, in the Netherlands, women are being told that they have a moral duty to abort<\/a> their children with Down syndrome.<\/p>\n

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Attention was first called to the issue by Dr. Stefan Paas, who slammed an article printed in a national newspaper written by Michael van der Lubbe. In it, van der Lubbe argued that because people with Down syndrome are a “financial burden,” parents who get a prenatal diagnosis should not have the freedom to give birth to their babies — instead, they should get an abortion, or receive a government fine. van der Lubbe’s op-ed isn’t the first, either; multiple articles have been published recently echoing similar sentiments, with headlines such as “Better Off Without Down.”<\/p>\n

Paas responded on Twitter, likening this attitude to those of the Nazis. “Handicapped children cost money, so parents: abort or face a fine,” he wrote. “We haven\u2019t come this close to Nazi before.”<\/p>\n

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Gehandicapte kinderen kosten geld, dus ouders: aborteren, en anders een boete. Zo nazi hadden we het nog niet gegeten. Brief in @nrc<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/333Yrs4tda<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Stefan Paas (@StefanPaas) September 15, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n