A Federal Appeals court ruled portions of an abortion law signed by now Vice President Mike Pence unconstitutional. The law signed by former Indiana Governor Pence in 2017, placed restrictions on a woman’s ability to abort her child in specific situations. The law prevented sex-selective abortions, those carried out due to the sex of the baby, as well as preventing abortions being sought due to the disability of a child. The law also prevented a woman from seeking an abortion because of the race of the child. This further limits the practice of abortion in the state of Indiana which has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

The 7th US Circut Court of Appeals issued its ruling on Thursday and Judge William Bauer wrote in his decision that provisions in the law “clearly violate well-established Supreme Court precedent and are, therefore, unconstitutional.” When I learned of this I asked myself “Who is more deserving of protection under the law then the most vulnerable?”. To me, the “most vulnerable” surely includes the unborn and the disabled. The seeking of sex-selective, race-based or disability-related abortions falls smack in the center of Eugenics. What is Eugenics? It is a horrific, ill-informed and backward thinking philosophy proposed by a group who sought to promote “the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable”. One of the best-known proponents of this ridiculous social “science” was Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. Her influence reached far and wide in the 1930’s and 1940’s Eugenics movement. Her views helped get sterilization laws passed that were applied to people Sanger dubbed “feeble-minded, idiots and morons”. This pillar of Eugenic thinking even presided over a KKK rally in Silverlake New Jersey. She referenced it in her autobiography:

“She even presented at a Ku Klux Klan rally in 1926 in Silver Lake, N.J. She recounted this event in her autobiography: “I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan … I saw through the door dim figures parading with banners and illuminated crosses … I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak … In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered” (Margaret Sanger, “An Autobiography,” Page 366)”

These are the people who the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals would have Americans side with? This disturbs me greatly. The accepted infanticide in China has resulted in serious societal problems-such as 30 million more men than women coming of age by the year 2020. As social scientists can tell you, young men without prospects for starting families are a danger to not just themselves but to the societies that they inhabit. Research has documented that young men become more violent in these circumstances and homicides tend to rise in these countries. The graph below tells the story of the current position of China, a future the US would do well to avoid.

China has experienced a six percent increase in violent and property crimes. In areas where men outnumber women, the reports of alcoholism and drug use have also risen as have kidnapping and human trafficking. These are not things that American society wants to become even more commonplace then they already are here.

Do we want to follow in Iceland’s footsteps? In Iceland, the number of babies with Down Syndrome that are aborted was nearing 100% in the early 2000’s. In a nation of approximately 330,000 people, only one or two babies with Down Syndrome are born per year according to a CBS News article from late 2017. In the US Down Syndrome births number about 6,000 per year. When asked about what the termination rate of Down Syndrome children says about Iceland, Geneticist Kari Stefansson replied:

“Stefansson noted, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with aspiring to have healthy children, but how far we should go in seeking those goals is a fairly complicated decision.”

I have to say that I disagree with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on this issue. America is not a country where Eugenics has any place in polite society, it is a place where we value life for our citizens-regardless of their sex. America should lead the world in our rejection of anything that smacks of the racism, sexism, and bigotry of the past. Americans value all lives.