William Helms: “all who value the rights of the unborn are indebted to our distinguished former colleague from New Hampshire, Mr.…”

“all who value the rights of the unborn are indebted to our distinguished former colleague from New Hampshire, Mr. Humphrey. From the day he arrived in the Senate, until the day he left, he championed the cause of the most innocent, most helpless, victims of the permissive society that plagues America. It was Senator Humphrey who in 1989 brought to the attention of the Senate a new and particularly brutal form of discrimination in America--abortions performed solely because the prospective mother prefers a child of a gender other than that of the fetus in her womb. Senator Humphrey brought to Senators' attention a New York Times article published on Christmas morning of 1988, headed ``Fetal Sex Test used as Step to Abortion.'' I remember well my own consternation when I read the article, which began: In a major change in medical attitudes and practices, many doctors are providing prenatal diagnoses to pregnant women who want to abort a fetus on the basis of the gender of the unborn child. Geneticists say that the reasons for this change in attitude are an increased availability of diagnostic technologies, a growing disinclination of doctors to be paternalistic, deciding for patients what is best, and an increasing tendency for patients to ask for the tests. Many geneticists and ethicists say they are disturbed by the trend.…”