Senator Sam Brownback writes in National Review Online about the importance of early and accurate education for parents of children with Down Syndrome and other disabilities diagnosed in the womb.

He recently sponsored the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act with Senator Ted Kennedy, which aims to increase education and end the eugenics trend toward eliminating disabled babies through abortions.

Brownback outlines the problem:

Sadly, for many in the medical community, these special children do not hold the same value. They argue that these children are a burden on their parents and on society, and this is why they recommend that their lives be terminated before they have a chance to begin. This “eugenics mentality” is behind much of the recent push to expand prenatal testing, with the argument that it is better for everyone to weed out these lives before they are born than to bear the emotional and financial cost of taking care of them after they are born.

Sometimes, this eugenics mentality is explicit. According to the Los Angeles Times, “a senior Canadian doctor is now expressing concerns that such a prominent public role model as the governor of Alaska and potential vice president of the United States completing a Down Syndrome pregnancy may prompt other women to make the same decision against abortion…thereby reducing the number of abortions.”

The article goes on to quote Dr. Andre Lalonde, executive vice president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Ottawa, saying that he worries that Palin’s decision may cause abortions to decline as other women in Canada and elsewhere opt to follow suit.

“Lalonde says his primary concern is that women have the....choice of abortion and that greater public awareness of women making choices like Palin to complete a pregnancy and give birth to their genetically-abnormal baby could be detrimental and confusing to the women and their families.”

“The worry is that this will have an implication for abortion issues in Canada,” Lalonde is quoted as saying.

Sometimes, the push to weed out these lives is more subtle. Recently, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists put out new recommendations that all pregnant women, not just those over 40 as previously recommended, should be screened to determine whether the baby they are carrying has Down Syndrome. The college makes the argument that it is more responsible to inform parents of their options beforehand so that they can decide whether or not to let the baby live.

This recommendation codifies a practice that has become all too common: direct or indirect pressure applied to parents by the medical establishment to end the unborn life of children with disabilities, because these children are, supposedly, too much of a burden for their parents to bear.

Read the rest of the piece and details about Brownback's legislation here. 

The Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act recently passed both the House and Senate.  It now heads to the President's desk, where he is expected to sign it into law.