The Department of Justice sided with an Ohio law protecting unborn children with disabilities by submitting a filing before the 6th U.S. District Court in Cincinnati on Tuesday.
“Nothing in Ohio’s law creates a substantial obstacle to women obtaining an abortion,” the Department of Justice press release reads, “and nothing in the Constitution or Supreme Court precedent requires States to authorize medical providers to participate in abortions the providers know are based on Down syndrome.”
“Ohio’s Antidiscrimination Law affirms that people with Down syndrome have lives worth living and protecting. The law also protects the medical profession from harm to its integrity and protects women from abortion providers who may seek to pressure them into obtaining an abortion because of Down syndrome,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband said. “The federal government has an interest in the equal dignity of those who live with disabilities. Nothing in the Constitution requires Ohio to authorize abortion providers to participate in abortions the providers know are based on Down syndrome.”
The DOJ press release goes on to say “The law also wards against the slippery slope to medical involvement in race- or sex-based abortions,” and "protects women" from “potentially coercive abortion providers who may seek to pressure them into obtaining an abortion because of Down syndrome.”
