Down syndrome groups ask Supreme Court to review Indiana’s Nondiscrimination Abortion Law
By BDF
2019 UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to accept review of this issue until another circuit court weighs in. Read the outstanding concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas discussing the link between abortion and eugenics.
For immediate release
November 15, 2018. Washington, D.C. Today, Bioethics Defense Fund, a public interest legal and educational organization, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Fondation Jérôme Lejeune, Saving Down Syndrome and Down Pride. The amicus brief was filed in support of Indiana who is seeking view of an appellate court decision striking down its state law that prohibits abortion of children solely on the basis of being identified prenatally to have a disability, or to be of a certain race or sex.
“The statute is properly called the ‘Nondiscrimination Law’ because abortion based solely on an unborn child’s disability or other minority status crosses the line into eugenic discrimination,” said Nikolas T. Nikas, president and general counsel of Bioethics Defense Fund.
Dorinda C. Bordlee, lead counsel on the amicus brief, noted the brief’s argument that “the government interest in prohibiting discrimination based on disabilities or other immutable traits must logically exist from the outset of that human being’s life or not at all.”
Nikas said the brief includes citations to show that “since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, science’s understanding of embryology has exploded exponentially. The Court’s analysis of the challenged statute should not be limited by 45-year-old science.”
The Supreme Court will likely decide whether to grant certiorari to review the Indiana law in the Spring of 2019.
Contact:
Dorinda C. Bordlee, Esq.
Bioethics Defense Fund
504-231-7234
By BDF
