From Staff Reports, CITIZENLINK.COM, 8-29-2007

Women who have genetic tests done on their preborn babies would receive information and counseling under a bill that the U.S. Congress likely will take up when it reconvenes after Labor Day.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has introduced the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act, which would provide additional information to women who receive adverse genetic diagnoses. The bill is cosponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Ryan Connors, a spokesman for Brownback, said the legislation would protect innocent lives.

“We have to reach out to people when they get this kind of a diagnosis and connect them with the support services that they need," he said, "so we can be a culture that welcomes people even in this kind of situation and tries to help them out.”

More than 80 percent of preborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted, and Connors said the numbers are similar for other conditions. He pointed out that the results often are false positives.

"One of the elements of information they’d be required to get would be the likelihood of the results not even being true" he told Family News in Focus, "and then, if they are, what is the most accurate information that’s available.”

Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst with Focus on the Family Action, said the figures are so alarming that the bill has gained strong support from both sides of the aisle.

“Bipartisan support for this bill means that it has a better chance of passage, and in the long run that’s better for women and children.”