Testimony of CLI Assoc. Scholar in Support of the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act

On April 14, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on HR 4924, the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA) of 2016, sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks. The bill would prohibit discrimination against the unborn based on the preference of sex or race alone. Charlotte Lozier Institute associate scholar Anna Higgins, J.D. testified in support of the bill, and summarized her newly published paper on sex-selection abortion.

Some excerpts from her testimony are here (footnotes available in full text):

Sex selective abortion is defined as choosing to abort a preborn child based solely on the child’s sex. Any discrimination against a unique human individual based on sex alone constitutes sex discrimination. Congress has the opportunity, through the passage of H.R. 4924 to prohibit the discriminatory practice of sex-selective abortion, thereby confirming the fact that women have the same inherent human and civil rights as men.

…

The practice of sex-selective abortion implies a right to choose not just whether or not to have a child, but the right to choose the characteristics of a child. The ethical implications of such a practice are numerous and unacceptable. The result of continuing to allow this practice is an implicit approval of the practice of assigning value to a person based on his or her sex alone.

To continue reading the full testimony, please see: Written Testimony of Anna Higgins, J.D. in support of PRENDA

Video of the full hearing can be watched on the House Judiciary Committee’s website here.