Politics: Eugenics, American Style

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Politics Eugenics, American Style Santorum says prenatal testing leads to abortions. Read Tucker Carlson's classic essay on prenatal testing and the abortion of Down syndrome babies. By Tucker Carlson Posted Tuesday, Feb 21, 2012, at 07:45 PM ET This past weekend, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum attacked the Affordable Care Act for requiring free prenatal testing. Such testing, Santorum claims, is aimed at identifying babies with birth defects or disabilities, and encouraging parents to abort them. Santorum said, "Free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society. That, too, is part of Obamacare, another hidden message as to what President Obama thinks of those who are less able than the elites who want to govern our country." Santorum is not the first person to raise the issue of whether prenatal testing leads to the abortion of children with special needs. Back in December 1996, Tucker Carlson, now editor of the Daily Caller, wrote a powerful article for the Weekly Standard about the abortion of babies with Down syndrome. It is reprinted here with Carlson's permission. Testifying before Congress in the spring of 1990, Arkansas state health director Joycelyn Elders took an unusual tack in her defense of legal abortion. "Abortion," she said, "has had an important, and positive, public- health effect," in that it has reduced "the number of children afflicted with severe defects." As evidence, the future surgeon general cited this statistic: "The number of Down's Syndrome infants in Washington state in 1976 was 64 percent lower than it would have been without legal abortion." Her remark went all but unnoticed at the time and has ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Spitzer: Why Romney Is Collapsing If an Illegal Immigrant Gay-Marries an American, Does He Become a Citizen? "Between You and I": A Grammar Mistake That Just Won't Die	Advertisement
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