So this actually happened before Christmas, but deserves some comment, I think, for multiple reasons – the least of which being it got relatively little media coverage, given the GOP’s scramble in the weeks before Christmas to push tax reform through and to pass a funding bill that would prevent a government shutdown. But here it is: On December 15, the Ohio Senate passed a bill, Ohio House Bill 214, that “punishes clinicians for performing abortions that were sought specifically because of either a potential or a conclusive Down syndrome diagnosis“. They are the third state to put such legislation on the books, claiming that it will protect people with Down Syndrome.

The GOP is going about this the wrong way.  But, frankly, I’m not sure that they care.

Image Description: Ohio governor (then a Republican presidential candidate) John Kasich speaks to a group of supporters during a town hall event before the Wisconsin presidential primary in Madison, Wisconsin on March 28. 2016. He is a white man with gray hair, wearing a dress shirt with black pants. He stands in front of a large American flag

Content Note: Ableism, Abortion, John Kasich, Medicaid Cuts, Ohio Down Syndrome Abortion Ban, Sexual Harassment, Trump, UK Austerity Cuts

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I’ve talked in detail before about how I understand why laws like Ohio House Bill 214 seem like they  should be something that disability advocates should support as a no-brainer…and about why I don’t support them.

I know that women are routinely encouraged to abort fetuses with a Down Syndrome diagnosis.

I know that there’s a movement in support of eliminating the Down Syndrome genotype from the population.

I have loved ones who have Down Syndrome, and I’m grateful for their lives, their friendship, the contributions I see them making to their communities.

But I will never tell a woman, “Your reason for having an abortion is wrong.” It’s not my right. And I’m not the only one in the disability activist community who thinks so.

David Perry’s son has Down Syndrome. He’s made the excellent point that Ohio House Bill 214, under the guise of criminalizing abortion, actually criminalizes discussion between a woman and her doctor:

“…this law doesn’t hinge on the act of performing an abortion, but rather on whether there is “knowledge” of motivation for abortion. If the doctor is aware of a prenatal diagnosis as motivation, an abortion would be a felony. Without awareness, even if that was the woman’s motivation, an abortion could safely proceed. Therefore, the bill functions only to silence women after they receive their prenatal diagnosis—or, even worse, early pregnancy screening (note that such screenings are not accurate enough to be diagnostic)—lest a doctor begin to suspect their motivations and refuse to terminate a pregnancy.”

Ohio House Bill 214 makes it so that a woman seeking an abortion because she knows or suspects that the fetus she’s carrying has Down Syndrome is highly motivated to stay quiet about her reasons for wanting the abortion so that she’s not refused it.  And in this environment, the myths about Down Syndrome and stigma surrounding it continue to thrive – there’s no room for open, honest conversation with medical health providers and anyone who may report to them.

And, as I’ve said several times in this blog – if the GOP cared about disabled children, they would make it easier to raise a disabled child in America.

• They would ensure that CHIP stayed funded.
• They would take steps to make and keep schools places where all students can get an education that prepares them for them for their adulthood goals.
• They’d respect the Olmstead Ruling, and leave the vital supports in place, provided by Medicaid, that let disabled people live independently and participate in their communities. Trump repeatedly promised during his campaign that he will not touch Medicaid or Medicare, and then  broke that promise when he tabled his budget in May.

It’s also worth noting that the Trump administration is removing “guidance documents” about the ADA from its website. There was no explanation as to why, beyond a statement by Jeff Sessions that they were part of a broader removal of “25 examples of improper or unnecessary guidance documents identified by our Regulatory Reform Task Force led by our Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand.”

The GOP in the House and Senate don’t care about disabled people, it seems, except when it can use them as pawns to do an end-run around women’s constitutionally-protected rights to bodily autonomy.

Let’s Break Briefly from Ohio House Bill 214 to talk about Ohio Governor John Kasich

I remember this guy from the Presidential debates. I remember thinking, “Okay, I could live with him as President. He gets that there needs to be a safety net and that it’s unfair to demonize people for needing it.”

I should have listened more closely to those people who’ve been saying, “Don’t be fooled; John Kasich is no moderate.” In 2016, Politico summarized his actions to limit abortion access in Ohio:

“Laws signed by Kasich prohibit almost all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, mandate ultrasounds before a woman can get an abortion and require abortion clinics to establish formal written agreements with local hospitals about emergency care — a provision that has been repeatedly modified to be even more restrictive and make it harder for clinics to comply. “

It’s too bad, because Kasich reminded me (or he used to) that not all of the GOP are from that school of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and their cronies (I’d say Trump, but I figure that Trump only identifies as GOP because he can go the furthest with them; he’s not a Conservative) that don’t seem to have much use for marginalized groups or much interest in helping them.  I know that there are Republicans, because I talk to them, who are quite socially aware: they’ve done their research on social issues, they speak with insight, and while I may not always agree with them on all things, the conversations are always thought-provoking.

I wish more of them would run for office, damn it.  Because it’s becoming difficult – so difficult – not to become totally disillusioned with the current crop of GOP in the House and Senate, watching them throw my friends in the US under the bus again, and again, and again.

(Not that there are Democrats that are doing it too – as I wrote earlier, I’ve been disturbed, and upset on female American friends’ behalf, by some of the Democrat rhetoric around sexual harassment in particular recently. Its hypocrisy seems to have increased in the last little while, and I think it’s important to call that out, because I like to be fair.)

But that, at this point, is not affecting legislation. The tax bill and the repeal of the individual mandate affects especially my disabled friends that are, for a variety of reasons:

• Most affected by cuts to Medicaid
• Unlikely to benefit from the tax cut.

Cuts to Medicaid mean that disabled people lose services that they depend on; some will no longer be able to live independently; some will die. This is the way it happened in Britain  with the austerity cuts – the government thought that it could save money by making cuts to supports and services to disabled people and to the National Health Service, and people died – in excess of  120000 deaths were estimated to be linked to austerity cuts, as of November 2017.

But back to Ohio House Bill 214…

America, Meet Me at Camera Three

Ohio’s House Bill 214 is not an indicator that the GOP cares about people with Down Syndrome; it’s a blatant attempt by the GOP to emotionally manipulate the public into supporting an (albeit limited) ban on abortion – after all, who could object to measures designed to stop the abortion of disabled children?

I object, as I said earlier.

Ohio House Bill 214 is  totally typical of a government more committed  to fetuses than it is to making sure that American families have what they need to raise children, and I won’t feel like the monster that Ohio lawmakers want me to because I can’t support it. Using a fetal diagnosis of Down Syndrome as a way to further an anti-abortion agenda is pretty objectionable – a similar law was found to be unconstitutional in Indiana, and another in Louisiana is being blocked by the court –  so he hasn’t got much moral ground to stand on here. Dr. Leesha Thrower, whose daughter has Down Syndrome, said it better than I can:

“These politicians do not care about my six-year-old daughter. If they did, they would be using their valuable time to make sure that every child born with Down syndrome has what they need to live a healthy, full life…I want my leaders to have my back, and my child’s back, instead of using her as a pawn in a political effort that is only going to harm women and make it harder for them to make the right decision for them and their families.”

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The post Ohio House Bill 214, Its Serious Implications, and Why I Can’t Support It appeared first on Girl With The Cane.