Life Links 9/6/11

Britain is now embroiled in an abortion controversy. Some members of parliament want a conscience vote on legislation to require abortion counseling be performed by organizations who don't perform abortions. Now, Nadine Dorries the MP behind the legislation claims there's a covert whipping operation underway as Prime Minister David Cameron is opposed to the legislation and fears if passed it could hurt his coalition.

In other UK abortion news, the Telegraph reports that statistics from a sample of clinics show abortion providers may be lying about how many women forego abortions after undergoing their counseling.

Just one in 10 women who book consultations with Maries Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) decide against having an abortion, according to figures from a sample of clinics.

This is half the proportion regularly cited by the charities, who have claimed that one in five women who have consultations decide to keep their baby.

Ramesh Ponnuru comments on Mitt Romney's answer during a recent debate on abortion and the 14th amendment.

What does Gov. Romney think of the effort by Congress and the president to ban partial-birth abortion during the last decade? The Supreme Court had already struck down state laws against partial-birth abortion. Was it "constitutional chaos" for Congress to ask it to reconsider the question? And on what constitutional ground does Romney think Congress acted? Does he believe that Congress was regulating interstate commerce? Or does he see that it was attempting to vindicate rights of unborn persons to have the same protection from having their skulls punctured and vacuumed out that other human beings enjoy?

At Public Discourse, Mark Leach discusses the IOM's recommendation for free prenatal screenings and Down Syndrome.

Buried in the IOM report is the recommendation for no-cost well-woman visits; these visits include prenatal care—and thus prenatal testing for "genetic or developmental conditions." The regulation was issued as part of the PPACA's coverage of preventive services. This prompts the question, how does prenatal testing prevent Down syndrome?

The IOM report defines preventive services "to be measures . . . shown to improve wellbeing, and/or decrease the likelihood or delay the onset of targeted disease or condition." Down syndrome occurs at conception. Prenatal testing simply identifies whether a pregnancy is positive for Down syndrome—a prenatal diagnosis after which most women choose to terminate their pregnancy. A prenatal test does not decrease the likelihood of Down syndrome in a person; it does allow for a decreased likelihood of a person with Down syndrome surviving beyond the womb. If this is how HHS is justifying prenatal testing for Down syndrome as preventive care, then HHS has ushered in a program meant to target future children like Juliet.