Did The Americans with Disabilities Act Cause More Abortions

Goodness I hope not. Mirrors of Justice has both a interesting and disturbing post on this at Selective abortion after prenatal screening -- two perspectives

I have to admit I am tad dubious.

Fox and Griffin analyze two possible hypotheses about the "expressive externalities that the ADA could have generated with respect to the practice of disability-selective abortion." The "uplifting" message of the ADA could be that "the ADA's affirmation of social equality and disability rights discourages disability-selective abortion by tempering negative attitudes toward people with disabilities. According to this hypothesis, the ADA, by barring employment discrimination and assuring access to public serivces and accommodations, conveyed to parents the promise that prospective children with disabilities could lead happy and productive lives."

In contrast, the "disappointing" message of the ADA could be that "the ADA, by requiring sometimes onerous workplace adjustments for persons with disabilities, led to a media backlash driven by commercial employers. On this account, disapproving stories about people with disabilities, covered widely by print and television sources, combined with detailed news reports on selective abortion procedures, to convince parents that children with disabilities would not be accepted into the world as social equals."

I can recall when the ADA was passed and I don't quite recall this media backlash that was of such a degree that people would have more abortions because of it. However I will read the study.

The post is also interesting because there appears to be a movement to frame a argument that having a abortion because your child has a disability is a morally unacceptable while it is not morally problematic for a woman to abort because she does not want any child at this time.

I am afraid one cannot have it both ways in the real world.

Anyway this issue has been on my mind since the ex coach of Alabama Coach Gene Stalling's, son died a couple of weeks back and all the stories that were around that. His son had had downs. It has hit me that I see far less kids with mental disabilities at the mall or in public than I once did.

I fear the reason for that .