Down Syndrome Advocates Call for HHS Mandate to Be Rescinded

Under the recently finalized Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations, private insurers will be required to provide no-cost prenatal genetic testing for all expectant mothers. As currently written, the HHS mandate for prenatal genetic testing is discriminatory and unethical. Unless revised to provide all of the needed information and support to expectant mothers undergoing prenatal testing, International Down Syndrome Coalition for Life (IDSC) calls for the mandate to be rescinded.

The mandate is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (PPACA) requirement for no-cost preventive care services for women. This is what makes the mandate especially objectionable. According to Mark Leach, Down Syndrome of Louiseville, (DSL) Board President, “DSL has counseled expectant mothers who have received a prenatal diagnosis and used that information to prepare for their child’s birth, to create an adoption plan, or to terminate their pregnancies. Nothing, however, about prenatal genetic testing prevented their unborn child from having Down syndrome.” Including prenatal genetic testing as a “preventive” service expresses a discriminatory view that the U.S. government believes unborn children with Down syndrome should be prevented.

This is our generation’s civil rights issue.