Props to Andrew Sullivan for having the intellectual integrity to print an email which seems to me to embody a devastating critique of the “pro-life” position Sullivan holds dear:
The arguments for and against aborting babies who will be born with disabilities are not much different than the arguments for abortion in general. If you believe that the fetus is a person from the start, then the consistent position is not to abort babies with disabilities. After all, they are people, and just as you would not euthanise them after they were born, or as adults, you would not kill them before they are born. On the other hand, if you believe that the fetus is not yet a person, then deliberately allowing a disabled child to be born is akin to abuse. Just as you would not maim a child after it is born in order to cause mental or physical handicaps, you would also not allow such a child to form in the first place when you could avoid it.
Now, given that our nation is supposedly evenly divided about choice, the fact that so many fewer Downs babies are being born should tell you something about what anti-choicers do when actually confronted with such a situation.