North Dakota is on the way to becoming the first state to ban abortions based on genetic “defects” like Down Syndrome. When diagnosed before birth, such genetic abnormalities prompt couples to have abortions 90 percent of the time.

However, the North Dakota Senate has passed a measure would make the state the first to prohibit abortions for such reasons, and Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple appears posed to sign it.

As AP reports: “Fargo Republican Rep. Bette Grande is the prime sponsor of the bill. She says abortions based on gender or genetic abnormalities have “no place in civilized society.” Grande says sex-selection abortions usually target female fetuses because of preference for a baby boy. Grande says she also has two children with “genetic disabilities.”

The measure would also ban abortion based on gender selection, an issue of increasing concern in the United States has people from nations like China and India migrate to the United States and bring their cultural preference for boys with them.

North Dakota Family Alliance Action supports the measure and told LifeNews more about it.

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“HB 1305 would prohibit abortion if the abortion is on account of the sex of the unborn, or because the unborn child has been diagnosed with a genetic abnormality or a potential for a genetic abnormality,” it said. “”Throughout the world millions of the unborn are being aborted because they are not of the desired sex, and this phenomena is beginning to find its way to America. While all abortion is unacceptable, what we can do today is to make unlawful this atrocity–to abort because of the sex of the unborn is undesirable.”

“Today 9 of 10 unborn babies diagnosed with Downs Syndrome–are aborted. As a people, we cannot take into our hands to arbitrarily determine who should live and who should die because of a genetic abnormality or other potential physical condition,” it continued. “We must protect these who are so vulnerable.”