As we head into the 2015 legislative session, we need to be prepared for anti-choice individuals and groups to use the issue of disability-selection abortions to try and widen the divide between disability rights activists and those working for reproductive rights. It’s already begun in Indiana, where state Sen. Travis Holdman (R-Markle) filed a bill last week to prohibit abortions based on fetal determinations of sex or potential disability. The proposed Indiana bill is very similar to legislation that failed to pass in last year’s session and mirrors a North Dakota bill that did pass in 2013. Regardless of this bill’s progress, it should serve as a warning to pro-choice disability rights activists of the legislative maneuvers sure to take place in the coming months.

Sen. Holdman’s bill is a prime example of the way anti-choicers shape their message to appeal to those who might otherwise be opposed to anti-abortion efforts—particularly those in the Down syndrome community. The bill, SB 334, “prohibits a person from performing an abortion if the person knows that the pregnant woman is seeking the abortion because of: (1) the sex of the fetus; or (2) a diagnosis or potential diagnosis of the fetus having Down syndrome or any other disability.” It does not define “other disability” until toward the end of the bill, when it explains that could mean “a physical disability, a mental disability or retardation, a physical disfigurement, scoliosis, dwarfism, Down syndrome, albinism, amelia, a physical or mental abnormality or disease.”...

Now, the authors of SB 334 are exploiting those good feelings, using faux advocacy for disability rights—and, with regard to the sex-selection aspect of the bill, gender equality—to try to restrict access to abortion. This reflects a broader trend among anti-choice groups, who frequently use the idea of people with Down syndrome being blessings, angels, and cute as reasons not to terminate. These are powerful, persuasive tools and an effective way to craft legislation designed to drive a wedge between communities.

Such bills seem even more underhanded when contrasted with those actually advocating for disability rights. Abortions based on prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome are relatively common, at least as a subset of total pregnancies involving such a diagnosis; the most recent data suggests about 75 percent of all people who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to terminate the pregnancy. This high rate can be attributed to many factors—but, as disability rights activists have found, too many health-care providers do offer women incorrect or out-of-date information about Down syndrome following a positive fetal diagnosis.