In Brownback's opening statement he had some words on abortion and chose to use Down's Syndrome children as his example. I think he made a mistake in doing so, the same mistake the far right made in the Terry Schiavo case. Follow me over the fold and see if you agree.
Brownback's words from his
statement:
And you can claim whatever you want to of being pro-life or pro- choice, but the right to a abortion is not in the Constitution. The court created it. It created a constitutional right. And these decisions removed a fully appropriate political judgment from the people of the several states and has led to many adverse consequences.
For instance, it's led to the almost complete killing of a whole class of people in America. As I noted to my colleagues in the Roberts' hearings, this year -- this year -- between 80 percent to 90 percent of the children in America diagnosed with Down's Syndrome will be killed in the womb simply because they have a positive genetic test which can be wrong, and is often wrong, but they would have a positive genetic test for Down's Syndrome and they will be killed.
America is poorer because of such a policy. We are at our best when we help the weakest. The weak make us strong. To kill them makes us all the poorer, insensitive, calloused and jaded.
Roe has made it not only possible, but has found it constitutional to kill a whole class of people, simply because of their genetic make-up.
Let us start with the second paragraph. It is apparent that something like almost 90% of the parents - mother and father, male and female, Democrat and Republican - 90% of the parents of the fetuses diagnosed as probably having Down's Syndrome DISAGREE with Mr. Brownback. 90% do NOT choose to bring these children into the world for whatever their personal reasons might be. No one is forcing these parents to make this decision. Brownback says they are insensitive, calloused and jaded people and make us all the same.
Does this not seem to be the same interference as in the Schiavo case? The majority of the people in Schiavo felt the government was interfering in private family matters. Would not the government interfering in an abortion decided upon by a father and mother in the case of a fetus diagnosed with Down's syndrome be the very same kind of interference? 90% of these parents would feel this was gross interference. I doubt these parents are at all insensitive, calloused or jaded.
Brownback also tells us, in his first paragraph, that an abortion is a political judgement. It is not. Abortion is being fought by the various religious groups and they have forced their religious beliefs into the political system. It is a religious judgement. Brownback is supporting Alito to make church and state one entity where laws will be made by the church of his choice and in accordance with his religious beliefs. Brownback wants to get rid of pro-choice and make it Brownback's Choice.