Americans United for Life filed a brief last week to the en banc Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the state of Missouri in Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region v. Parson, urging the court to uphold protections for pre-born individuals diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
The Eighth Circuit is reviewing a decision that struck down the Missouri Statute. There is already a Circuit conflict on the issue of eugenic abortion, since the Sixth Circuit has previously upheld the constitutionality of a similar law in Ohio.
Protection for Americans with disabilities is a cornerstone of both federal and state law and policy.
When Missouri legislators acted to protect pre-born citizens who are diagnosed with Down Syndrome, they were simply extending the principals of equal protection guaranteed to all Americans.
Protections like this one accomplish the vitally important goal of preventing this pernicious type of selective abortion to be a gruesome tool of eugenics.
I urge the Eighth Circuit to reverse the earlier panel decision and to reject dangerous discrimination against those precious individuals with Down syndrome.
