{"id":247149,"date":"2021-06-18T06:28:15","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T11:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=247149"},"modified":"2021-06-16T16:44:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T21:44:57","slug":"supreme-court-selective-abortion-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/","title":{"rendered":"The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2021\/06\/the-supreme-court-must-settle-the-selective-abortion-question\/\">National Review<\/a>)\u00a0<span class=\"drop\">L<\/span><span class=\"small_caps\">ast <\/span>week, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked key provisions of a pro-life statute in Missouri, including the portion of the law that prohibits abortions knowingly performed after an unborn child has been diagnosed with Down syndrome.<\/p>\n<p>The decision marks the second time this year that Eighth Circuit judges have struck down a state law attempting to regulate selective abortions following a prenatal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2021\/03\/this-world-down-syndrome-day-remember-the-value-of-every-life\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Down-syndrome diagnosis<\/a>. In January, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit blocked a similar law out of Arkansas, a decision that the state has appealed to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt has already announced that his state plans to do the same. \u201cWhile we\u2019re disappointed in the Eighth Circuit\u2019s decision, their decision does provide an avenue for this case to be heard by the Supreme Court, and we plan to seek review in the Supreme Court,\u201d Schmitt said in a statement last week.<\/p>\n<p>Schmitt, who in April led a coalition of 22 states in filing an<em> amicus curia<\/em> brief on behalf of Arkansas in its Supreme Court appeal, told <span class=\"small_caps\">National Review<\/span> that the selective-abortion provision of Missouri\u2019s law is especially important to him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m the dad of a 16-year-old son with some pretty profound disabilities,\u201d Schmitt said in a phone interview. \u201cStephen was born with a rare genetic condition called tuberous sclerosis. He\u2019s been pretty affected by it, but certainly Stephen has taught me a lot about life and perspective, and I view it as part of my role to fight for the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a recent op-ed on the subject, Schmitt wrote,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>When an entire group of people is targeted for elimination solely because of an immutable characteristic, such as race or disability, that is considered genocide. People with Down syndrome are facing genocide through abortion and biased genetic counseling. That genocide must stop.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In addition to the ban on selective abortion, Missouri\u2019s H.B. 126 contains several \u201ctiers\u201d of gestational-age restrictions on elective abortion, including at eight, 14, 18, and 20 weeks of pregnancy. Pro-life legislators sometimes structure laws in this way in the hopes that they will present courts with an opportunity to expand the types of permissible protections for the unborn while also serving as a vehicle to challenge and reverse existing abortion jurisprudence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/missouri-abortion-ban-blocked-discriminatory-eight\/\">Judge blocks Missouri law banning discriminatory abortion and abortions at eight weeks<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The selective-abortion section of the Missouri law is perhaps the most interesting of its provisions as a matter of legal strategy, as the Eighth Circuit decision in this case and in Arkansas\u2019s intensifies an existing circuit-court split on the question of disability-based abortions.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Ohio law that prohibits abortions chosen on the basis of a prenatal Down-syndrome diagnosis. The ruling, decided by the full court, reversed a previous ruling from a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit that had blocked the law and prevented Ohio from enforcing it.<\/p>\n<p>The April decision upholding Ohio\u2019s statute created a circuit-court split, because it contradicted a 2018 ruling from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which had blocked a similar selective-abortion ban in Indiana. Upon review, the Supreme Court declined to make any determination about that Seventh Circuit decision, as no other appellate court had yet ruled on the question of selective abortion.<\/p>\n<p>Three years later now, that has changed, and bans on abortion chosen on the basis of sex, race, fetal disability, or Down-syndrome diagnosis have become far more common. Earlier this year, South Dakota and Arizona enacted legislation banning abortions knowingly performed after a Down-syndrome diagnosis, and state legislatures in North Carolina and Pennsylvania are mulling laws that would do the same.<\/p>\n<p>Though it\u2019s conceivable that the Court\u2019s ruling in <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization <\/em>might render it unnecessary to rule on selective-abortion bans, the Court ought to take up this question in particular and rule in favor of a state government\u2019s right to protect disabled unborn children from blatant, eugenic discrimination.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: This article was published at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2021\/06\/the-supreme-court-must-settle-the-selective-abortion-question\/\">National Review<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a> for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(National Review)\u00a0Last week, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked key provisions of a pro-life statute in Missouri, including the portion of the law that prohibits abortions knowingly performed after an unborn child has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. The decision marks the second time this year that Eighth Circuit judges have struck down a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":618,"featured_media":216726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,4,3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;When an entire group of people is targeted for elimination solely because of an immutable characteristic... that is considered genocide.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;When an entire group of people is targeted for elimination solely because of an immutable characteristic... that is considered genocide.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-18T11:28:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-16T21:44:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/GettyImages-141623334-down-syndrome.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1194\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alexandra DeSanctis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alexandra DeSanctis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alexandra DeSanctis\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f72447e5789a9c64ab08f54ca18e20d4\"},\"headline\":\"The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-18T11:28:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-16T21:44:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/\"},\"wordCount\":704,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Guest Column\",\"Issues\",\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/\",\"name\":\"The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-18T11:28:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-16T21:44:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"\\\"When an entire group of people is targeted for elimination solely because of an immutable characteristic... that is considered genocide.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f72447e5789a9c64ab08f54ca18e20d4\",\"name\":\"Alexandra DeSanctis\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1c1c96d981d34123b315097a6faa38e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1c1c96d981d34123b315097a6faa38e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alexandra DeSanctis\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/alexandra-desanctis\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question","description":"\"When an entire group of people is targeted for elimination solely because of an immutable characteristic... that is considered genocide.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question","og_description":"\"When an entire group of people is targeted for elimination solely because of an immutable characteristic... that is considered genocide.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2021-06-18T11:28:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-06-16T21:44:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1194,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/GettyImages-141623334-down-syndrome.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Alexandra DeSanctis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alexandra DeSanctis","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/"},"author":{"name":"Alexandra DeSanctis","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f72447e5789a9c64ab08f54ca18e20d4"},"headline":"The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question","datePublished":"2021-06-18T11:28:15+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-16T21:44:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/"},"wordCount":704,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Guest Column","Issues","Opinion"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/","name":"The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-06-18T11:28:15+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-16T21:44:57+00:00","description":"\"When an entire group of people is targeted for elimination solely because of an immutable characteristic... that is considered genocide.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-selective-abortion-question\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Supreme Court must settle the selective-abortion question"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f72447e5789a9c64ab08f54ca18e20d4","name":"Alexandra DeSanctis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1c1c96d981d34123b315097a6faa38e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1c1c96d981d34123b315097a6faa38e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alexandra DeSanctis"},"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/alexandra-desanctis\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/618"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247152,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247149\/revisions\/247152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}