In 2017 America, where neonatal surgeries can be performed on unborn infants in utero and prematurely born babies have been saved after spending only 22 weeks in the womb, a federal judge ruled that there is no legal ground for banning selective abortions based on special needs, gender or race, or requiring that the remains of children killed through abortion should be treated with dignity.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt struck down as unconstitutional several abortion laws in Kentucky and Indiana that ban elective abortions based on gender, race or genetic abnormalities such as Down syndrome, ruling such laws "directly contravene well-established law that precludes a state from prohibiting a woman from electing to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability."
On top of this restriction, Indiana had also enacted a policy requiring hospitals to dispose of aborted babies humanely via burial or cremation, rather than as biological waste tossed in dumpsters alongside dirty syringes and used urine bags.
Pratt, however, ruled it is unconstitutional to require hospitals to bury or cremate aborted fetal remains on the basis that the remains are not “human,” saying she could find no legal reason to require hospitals "to treat fetal remains in the same manner as human remains."
"Stated otherwise, if the law does not recognize a fetus as a person, there can be no legitimate state interest in requiring an entity to treat an aborted fetus the same as a deceased human," she wrote in her decision.
This ruling comes despite the basic and indisputable scientific fact that an unborn child is comprised of its own unique human DNA – rather than that of, say, a pigeon or a sea monkey – and is clearly alive in utero as evidenced by a distinct heartbeat and brain activity.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, who said Pratt’s ruling establishes "the path for genetic discrimination that once seemed like science fiction,” said he plans to appeal the decision to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.