Santorum ups the crazy factor by arguing against coverage for prenatal testing … because sometimes such testing causes some parents to seek abortions. So it's clearly to simply not know about a major (or even minor) developmental problem, and just pray that everything will be okay, right? Of course, more babies might die that way, too, but at least that will be the way Santorum's zany religious ideas wants them to die.
Yeesh. #ddtb
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Santorum attacks Obama on prenatal screening – Political Hotsheet – CBS News
Claims free prenatal screening leads to selective abortions, says president's healthcare plan meant to "cull the ranks of the disabled" Read more by Rebecca Kaplan on CBS News' Political Hotsheet.
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All that testing is optional though…we didn't get any prenatal testing because we didn't want to stress it since many of the prelim tests can be false positives and lead to more invasive tests. I just didn't want to deal with it. However, many conditions can be caught in the womb and TREATED in the womb, such as spina bifida, that can be serious issues if not corrected immediately.
With that said, this guy is just an idiot. He really doesn't know what he is talking about and is trying to seem "tough" on the issue of abortion. Most people who have these tests don't turn around and have abortions unless there is something where the baby is so abnormal that it may not even survive the rest of the pregnancy (think baby without a brain).
I hate how conservatives make it seem like women are just waiting in line to have abortions and are using whatever excuse they can find to do it. When we chose to not have either of our kids prenatally tested, it was because we wouldn't have had an abortion either way and didn't want a bad test result to stress us out more than what we were already were.
The way I understood was that is was part of coverage for the most common things tested for…but it is all optional which is why I don't get why it is a big deal…but then again BC is optional too…
Nobody is mandating prenatal testing, just mandating that it be part of coverage. But, then, Rick (and others) seem obsessed with controlling others' options and opportunities to "sin".
After reading this link: http://yhoo.it/wi1Q3f I think that he is saying all that because he got offended when a Dr recommended abortion for his wife based on a test. Maybe the Dr didn't go about it correctly, maybe their nerves were super sensitized and read more into something the Dr said than what he actually did say… but many people would rather terminate a pregnancy than have to go through labor and delivery of a stillborn or severely disabled child. Pregnancy is hard to begin with and knowing that you have a child inside you that will not survive more than a few hours can be really hard on someone. All your hopes and dreams for that child is gone before they are born. I really don't think that Drs (at least most of them) are going to try to convince a parent to terminate a pregnancy if the parents are against it. I now have a least a little bit of sympathy for him, even if I do disagree with him.
So because a doctor offered a recommendation Santorum is opposed to, based on a test, Santorum thinks the test should not be readily available to anyone who wants it.
I sympathize with him for the personal issues he's had in this area, but that's not sound public policy — it's imposing personal feelings on everyone else.