abortion and disability...

[BoogDoc7]

Just a few questions, because I know this is an issue in the disability arena...

Just curious as to how disabled people view abortion, and the concept of aborting the disabled?

[cornermouse]

1. I have a better question.

How do disabled people view executing the mentally retarded as the republicans tend to do?

[cornermouse]

2. And while we're going....

How do you think the disabled people view the use of themselves in the past, when they were commonly put into institutions as a higher level of "mice" for medical experiments, as was shown on 60 Minutes last night; especially given the fact that the Bush Cabal is trying to destroy SS and SSI. Is it possible that these abusive experiments may once again become popular due to Bush's policy?

[KamaAina]

3. That's just the kind of line anti-choicers use to try to recruit us

and the concept of aborting the disabled

The anti's will say anything to anyone to further their cause. To African Americans, it's "abortion is genocide 'cause they kill more black babies than white ones". My personal experience in clinic defense belies this: the anti's would yell MUCH louder at the white women on their way in to the clinic. They would hit the African American ones full blast on the way OUT.

As to "aborting the disabled", I find the notion to be repulsive and abhorrent. Does that mean we ban abortion? Hell no. I find drunk driving to be repulsive and abhorrent, too. Does that mean we ban cars because a few selfish jerks abuse the privilege?

That's what I thought.

[cornermouse]

4. The fact is, this is really a non-issue.

With the exception of only a few rare, extreme, usually genetic and life-threatening circumstances, people don't know the expected child is disabled until after birth.

[KamaAina]

5. Would that it were so.

Down's Syndrome and spina bifida aren't that rare, nor life-threatening -- yet many parents choose to abort once the amnio or ultrasound comes back with the news. What they need, obviously, is better counseling, not "the sky is falling".

[cornermouse]

6. Maybe.

Down's syndrome is usually connected to older mothers. Spina bifida tends to have some physical characteristics. My point was that a lot of disabilities aren't genetic or physical. Abortion simply isn't going to happen because of disabilities.

Due to the repulican attempts to destroy the safety net, I do think that something that needs to be addressed is the fact that many disabilites are expensive. Early intervention by physical, occupational, and speech therapists is critical to the child's future. Cost of access to necessary medical care can financially destroy the family. In the bad old days, parents used to take their child to the local institution and drop them off where they were not well taken care of and far too frequently abused. I'm really worried about the possibility of a return to those days.

In addition, Bush and his talk about results the other day was very upsetting. Mentally disabled children are unlikely to be able to produce "results" in the terms that he's thinking.

[pop goes the weasel]

7. depends

There are a lot of disability activists who see any talk of aborting fetuses identified as disabled as eugenics warfare. And there are a lot of people with hereditary disabilities who have decided to never have any natural children, either because they have an already weakened physical condition or because they don't want anyone else to have what they have or both. And this means that many people with disabilities support legal abortion, since there is no such thing as fail-proof birth control, and yes, disabled people have sex, too.

I personally don't think abortion should be encouraged or discouraged for reasons of disability, any more than it should be encouraged or discouraged because of income, or health, or family approval, or who the father is, or anything else. Abortion should be legal, women should know that it is an option, and people should make decisions about parenthood based on their own self-knowledge and their own situation. And other people should respect those decisions, even if they aren't the ones they'd make themselves.

[Banazir]

8. Separating the issues.

There is a difference between selective abortion and abortion in general.

Selective abortion is wrong IMO. Abortion in general is about whether to have a child. Selective abortion is about which kind of child to have. A writer with Down syndrome has written, "I feel like one of an endangered species." Women campaign against selective abortion of females in other countries. It's the same to me.

I don't have a definitive view on all abortion. But I think selective eugenic abortion is very wrong. And I think that confusing abortion with selective/eugenic abortion (whether you are pro-choice or pro-life to begin with) is a huge mistake that drives both pro-choice and pro-life activists away from looking at the real issue here. It's confusing the way something happens (abortion) with the result in this particular application of abortion (genocide), and it gets nowhere except a bunch of standard rhetoric from both sides drowning out the very real issues in selective abortion.

[REP]

9. Has Nothing to do With Disabled/Nondisabled

I was pro-choice before I became disabled; I am still prochoice.