Zika Virus Threat Puts Abortion Rights And Disability Rights On Collision Course
By Chloe Angyal,
HuffPost Politics
| 02. 04. 2016
Untitled Document
As more cases of Zika virus pop up in the U.S., abortion rights advocates are raising concerns about whether harsh abortion restrictions will affect pregnant women’s ability to terminate pregnancies if they’re infected with the virus.
Zika has been linked to microcephaly, in which babies are born with underdeveloped brains and abnormally small heads. Some cases seen in Brazil and elsewhere in the Americas have been severe. As The Huffington Post reported last week, people born with microcephaly “may suffer from additional ailments, including convulsions, impaired vision and hearing, deformed limbs and severe breathing problems.”
In El Salvador, where abortion is completely outlawed, the government has advised women to simply not get pregnant until 2018. In Brazil and other Latin American countries, the outbreak has officials re-examining strict abortion laws. Here in the U.S., officials have stayed mum on the topic, but abortion rights advocates are rightly wondering what an increase in fetal abnormalities would mean at a time where abortion restrictions -- from lengthy waiting periods to laws designed to shutter clinics -- have left...
Related Articles
By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 08.06.2025
A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies.
His work was reviled as reckless and unethical because, among other reasons, gene-editing was so new...
By Kristel Tjandra, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | 07.30.2025
CRISPR has taken the bioengineering world by storm since its first introduction. From treating sickle cell diseases to creating disease-resistant crops, the technology continues to boast success on various fronts. But getting CRISPR experiments right in the lab isn’t simple...
By Arthur Caplan and James Tabery, Scientific American | 07.28.2025
An understandable ethics outcry greeted the June announcement of a software platform that offers aspiring parents “genetic optimization” of their embryos. Touted by Nucleus Genomics’ CEO Kian Sadeghi, the $5,999 service, dubbed “Nucleus Embryo,” promised optimization of...
By Keith Casebonne and Jodi Beckstine [with CGS' Katie Hasson], Disability Deep Dive | 07.24.2025
In this episode of Disability Deep Dive, hosts Keith and Jodi explore the complex interplay between disability science, technology, and ethics with guest Katie Hasson, Associate Director at the Center for Genetics and Society. The conversation delves into...