To: Rick Santorum, Republican Presidential Candidate
Tell Rick Santorum prenatal testing isn't a gateway to abortion; it's basic healthcare for women!
Stop attacking women and their access to health care. Prenatal testing is basic health care for women, not a gateway to abortion.
Why is this important?
What started with the Susan G. Komen Foundation's attack on Planned Parenthood has only escalated. Now Rick Santorum says the purpose of prenatal testing is to increase abortions. It's outrageous!
"One of the mandates [of health care reform] is they require free prenatal testing in every insurance policy in America. Why? Because it saves money in health care. Why? Because free pre-natal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done, because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society." --Rick Santorum, February 18, 2012
Tell Rick Santorum prenatal testing isn't a gateway to abortion. It is basic health care for women!
Prenatal testing is used in many ways. It determines the mother's blood type and Rh factor, whether she has anemia, whether she has infections such as toxoplasmosis, hepatitis B, syphilis, chlamydia, and HIV, and whether she is immune to rubella (German measles) and chicken pox.
While it is true that in a tiny minority of cases, prenatal testing finds conditions that may lead to a choice to terminate a pregnancy, it is much more frequently true that the information gleaned from prenatal testing uncovers conditions that can be, and need to be, treated promptly. Prenatal testing can make profound improvements in the health and lives of pregnant women and the fetuses they are carrying!
(1) Santorum challenges policy on prenatal testing, CNN, February 18, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/19/politics/santorum-prenatal-testing
(2) Prenatal Care and Testing, WomensHealth.gov, http://www.womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/you-are-pregnant/prenatal-care-tests.cfm#c
"One of the mandates [of health care reform] is they require free prenatal testing in every insurance policy in America. Why? Because it saves money in health care. Why? Because free pre-natal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done, because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society." --Rick Santorum, February 18, 2012
Tell Rick Santorum prenatal testing isn't a gateway to abortion. It is basic health care for women!
Prenatal testing is used in many ways. It determines the mother's blood type and Rh factor, whether she has anemia, whether she has infections such as toxoplasmosis, hepatitis B, syphilis, chlamydia, and HIV, and whether she is immune to rubella (German measles) and chicken pox.
While it is true that in a tiny minority of cases, prenatal testing finds conditions that may lead to a choice to terminate a pregnancy, it is much more frequently true that the information gleaned from prenatal testing uncovers conditions that can be, and need to be, treated promptly. Prenatal testing can make profound improvements in the health and lives of pregnant women and the fetuses they are carrying!
(1) Santorum challenges policy on prenatal testing, CNN, February 18, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/19/politics/santorum-prenatal-testing
(2) Prenatal Care and Testing, WomensHealth.gov, http://www.womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/you-are-pregnant/prenatal-care-tests.cfm#c