Zika Virus Threat Puts Abortion Rights And Disability Rights On Collision Course

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...