Denmark has boasted that 98 percent of their Down Syndrome babies were aborted in 2014, and say they hope to be 'Down Syndrome free' in the next 10 years.

The Prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, is scheduled to visit the White House this Thursday to discuss with President Trump “our strong bilateral relationship and how we can progress on our shared priorities.”

Those priorities are said to include defeating ISIS and deepening economic ties, but would they also include human rights? Denmark has boasted that 98 percent of the country’s Down Syndrome babies were aborted in 2014, as testing for Down Syndrome (called a nuchal scan) has been offered to all Danish pregnant women for over a decade now. The number of abortions of babies diagnosed with DS has skyrocketed, and Denmark hopes to be “Down Syndrome free” within the next 10 years.

That’s the systematic promotion of eliminating individuals with specific genetic markers—in this case, an extra chromosome 21. CPH Post quotes the head of a Danish midwife association as saying, “When you can discover almost all the fetuses with Down Syndrome, then we are approaching a situation in which almost all of them will be aborted.”

Inclusion For All—Except Those With Down Syndrome?

The increasing availability of nuchal scans across Europe has had the same effect. Iceland claims it hasn’t had a DS birth in the last five years, and Holland is also following suit in the effort to be Down Syndrome free. The CPH article claims DS is heading for “extinction” in Denmark, but as a commenter pointed out, there’s a difference between extinction and extermination.

A written appeal to the UN Human Rights commissioner by the organization Down Pride points out that, “On one hand inclusion and equality in society is an ongoing matter of grave concern, on the other, governments and industry are pouring hundreds of millions Euros into screening programs. A sign that society has found the ‘solution’ in the prenatal exclusion of people with Down syndrome and other disabilities.”

Much like American culture, the Danish culture appears to be quite concerned about “acceptance” as progressives define it, with multiculturalism and LGBTQ+ inclusion and promotion as its core tenets.

The Diversity Double-Standard Is Becoming Clear

For example, this Danish television ad encourages acceptance on the basis that we’re more alike than we are different. The subhed reads, “We live in a time where we quickly put people in boxes. Maybe we have more in common than we think.” The ad is set in a large empty room with white boxes outlined on the floor.

A moderator then asks the group a series of questions, and they move from box to box depending on their answers. A soft-spoken voiceover lists off the categories as the camera pans across the crowd shuffling across the room. At one point, the voiceover says, “…those of us who are bisexual,” and a solitary man goes to stand by himself, facing the rest of the group, which applauds as the voice continues, “and we who acknowledge the courage of others…”

The camera zooms in on many faces throughout the three-minute video, capturing emotions ranging from shame to mirth to pride. The diversity of the crowd is obvious and intentional, including women in hijabs, children, women with short hair, men with long hair, and everyone in between. Well, almost everyone. There are no recognizably disabled individuals among the crowd. None.

The top of the screen features the banner, “THIS IS THE BEST TV AD FOR 2017!” The call to recognize our commonalities over our differences is admirable, but I suppose in the minds of the video’s producers, some differences aren’t even worth representing.

Doctors Push Mothers To Abort Down Syndrome Babies

Reinforcing that perception, polling indicates that Danes view the extermination of Down Syndrome children as positive overall, with 60 percent on the whole viewing it as a positive development, according to an Epinion poll.

As a matter of human rights, it would be entirely appropriate for our President to address this atrocity with the Danish Prime Minister during his visit to the White House.

Down Pride’s appeal to the UN discusses the potential impact of the NIPt (non-invasive prenatal testing), which detects Down Syndrome in preborn babies with a high degree of accuracy. It calls the widespread establishment of the test part of an effort toward a “systematic elimination of a group who shares distinct physical and genetic traits.” In a word: genocide.

A positive result for DS is broken to the parents as a devastating tragedy, and the pressure to abort is great. The UN appeal mentions an ongoing compilation, a “Blackbook” detailing the “directive counselling” for DS pregnancies, which includes instances of pressure to abort and “biased and negative information” found in medical literature. “One mother reported she was asked moments before being induced: “Would you like us to try our best to deliver your baby alive? It is a very difficult life with Down syndrome.”

Doesn’t sound very accepting, does it?

Governments Don’t Want To Pay For Disabled People

The letter goes into some detail about how promotion of the Down Syndrome test is deeply tied to cost reduction efforts. Government healthcare is even more expensive per individual than private healthcare, so if you assume that universal healthcare means everyone will be cared for, for as long as the system is maintained, think again.

Preborn babies with genetic markers that may indicate disability will be the first to be denied care. The government may not make it a policy to exterminate babies with genetic abnormalities, but they will promote it. They will subsidize or mandate the tests, and government doctors will be taught to persuade the parents that abortion is the least tragic and most “responsible” choice. And they will silence the voices who proclaim Down Syndrome lives are lives well worth living.

And the fewer Down Syndrome people living in that country, the less doctors will have any idea how to care for their different and additional health care needs. And when there isn’t a single Down person living in that country? The entire body of medical knowledge pertaining to DS will fall into disuse and will cease to be taught to medical students. This hurts Down Syndrome people who have already been born (again, so much for acceptance), and the lack of care will increase the perception that DS people are “suffering” from their condition, further discouraging parents from choosing life for their babies.

The letter asserts that, “the system of utilitarianism will not stop at Down syndrome. Within the not too distant future other groups will be identified: risk for autism, schizophrenia, low IQ? Children with these conditions also easily cost 1 to 2 million euros.”

Systematic Special-Needs Abortion Is Genocide

The systematic promotion of death for preborn individuals with special needs occurs in tandem with a progressive agenda that pushes acceptance for various minorities in Denmark and across Europe. These progressives preach inclusion and acceptance—just not for the disabled. As in the Danish ad, people with special needs are simply excluded and rejected.

It’s not just an issue of social acceptance: it’s a matter of human rights.

While the U.S.’s abortion rate for DS babies is still appalling (a weighted mean of 67 percent), support for living Down Syndrome people here is strong, with organizations like Down Pride and local Down Syndrome societies boosting awareness and helping to steer parents toward the right resources to help their kids live full, happy lives (which they do!).

Inclusion in pop culture helps, too: A&E’s reality show “Born This Way” has brilliantly shown the richness of life as a Down Syndrome person and the contribution they bring to our communities. While Europe marches toward extermination of special needs individuals, we are making strides in the opposite direction, toward real acceptance of people who are different from us.

Every effort should be made to promote acceptance of people with disabilities, but it’s not just an issue of social acceptance: it’s a matter of human rights. And for that reason, the administration would do well to lay the pressure on Denmark to cease policies aimed toward the extermination of preborn Down Syndrome babies.