Bill would ban abortion after Down syndrome diagnosis

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COLUMBUS – Ohio would become the first state to ban women from terminating a pregnancy based on a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome under a bill Republicans plan to introduce in the Legislature.

American women choose to terminate pregnancies between 50 and 85 percent of the time after receiving a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome, according to a study published in 2012 in the medical journal "Prenatal Diagnosis."

A move to prohibit such abortions joins a suite of bills abortion opponents plan to champion this year, capped by a signature effort to ban the procedure at 20 weeks' gestation in hopes of chipping into Roe v. Wade.

Only one U.S. state, North Dakota, has a ban on abortions after the discovery of a fetal anomaly. Indiana lawmakers introduced a similar bill last month, although a bill much like it died in 2013.

Anti-abortion activists aren't trying to prohibit women from receiving fetal diagnoses through amniocentesis, said Stephanie Ranade Krider, executive director of Ohio Right to Life. But they fear women are making decisions to terminate pregnancies after receiving only a preliminary screening, even before they have amnio.

"We're never opposed to people having as much information as they can have about their baby," Krider said. Many times, Krider said, "Those are just screening tests," citing a December investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.

"We think there's a lot of misinformation out there," she said.

Abortion rights activists condemned the proposal as over-reaching.

"These legislative proposals interfere with the doctor-patient relationship and exploit complicated issues that can arise during pregnancy in the worst way," said Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, in a statement. "Medical decisions should not be made in the Statehouse, they should be made in doctors' offices based on sound medical science."

In the past two years, Ohio's abortion clinics have seen their numbers dwindle from 14 to 8, in part due to new abortion restrictions passed in 2013 by the Republican-dominated Legislature. One Cincinnati clinic stopped providing abortions in September, while another remains open under an exception it received in November from the Ohio Department of Health.

This year, abortion opponents' signature legislation will be the attempt to ban abortions at 20 weeks – when a fetus can feel pain, the activists say.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that states cannot prohibit abortions unless a fetus is viable outside the womb, generally accepted as 24 weeks' gestation. So the activists hope to pass the 20-week ban and see it appealed to the Supreme Court. They want to persuade the court to change its standard – allowing states to prohibit abortions if the procedure is painful to the fetus, not just when the fetus is viable outside the womb.

In 2013, the most recent data available, 173 women terminated pregnancies in Ohio after 20 weeks' gestation -- accounting for 0.7 percent of abortions that year.

Anti-abortion lawmakers also plan to introduce bills that would:

- Prevent women's health care and abortion provider Planned Parenthood from receiving one of its last public funding streams, for infant mortality prevention grants.

- Prohibit abortions in Ohio, except those necessary to save the mother's life. This bill would take effect only in the event the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade.

- Require use of federal protocols for use of abortion-inducing drugs.

- Funnel money to crisis pregnancy centers that counsel pregnant women on alternatives to abortion.

A spokesman for NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio said some of the proposals are unconstitutional, while fully defunding Planned Parenthood programs would mean jeopardizing women's access to care.

"Ohio Right to Life has unveiled a plan to attack the funding for (Planned Parenthood's) Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies, while at the same time asking that additional funding be handed over to crisis pregnancy centers that do not provide women with a full range of contraceptive options," spokesman Gabriel Mann said. "Contraception is critical to helping women plan their pregnancies and reducing the infant mortality rate in the state of Ohio."

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.