Obama campaign pushes back against Santorum attack on prenatal testing

Feb 21 2012

In campaign appearances and on the CBS News program "Face the Nation," he criticized the health law's requirement that insurers cover prenatal testing.

CBS News: Santorum Attacks Obama on Prenatal Screening
Campaigning in Ohio on Saturday, Rick Santorum displayed his culture-warrior side in full force ... He lambasted the president's health care law requiring insurance policies to include free prenatal testing, "because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society"  (Kaplan, 2/18).

MSNBC: Santorum Says Obama Looks Down On Disabled, Encouraging More Abortions
Many doctors and medical experts would dispute Santorum's reasoning that the sole explanation for pre-natal testing is to have an abortion. There is value in pre-natal testing, because it can detect potential problems in utero or at delivery and allow parents and doctors to get the proper care for their child (Rafferty, 2/18).

Politico: Rick Santorum Defends Attacks On Obama 'Theology'
Santorum said Tuesday that amniocentesis is "done by in large, to find out later in pregnancy whether the child in the womb has a disability" (Summers, 2/20).

Bloomberg: Santorum: Obama Favors 'Earth Above Man'
He criticized the idea of requiring insurance plans to cover amniocentesis, a prenatal test used to detect fetal maladies. "A lot of prenatal tests are done to identify deformities in utero and the customary procedure is to encourage abortions" Santorum said. ... "We need to have a health-care system in this country that respects the dignity of every human life in America," he said (Lerman, 2/20).

CNN: Santorum Challenges Policy On Prenatal Testing
He added that the requirement was "another hidden message as to what President Obama thinks of those who are less able." The White House referred CNN to Obama's re-election campaign for comment, and campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith called Santorum's remarks "the latest in a long string of unfortunate comments in the race to the bottom that the Republican presidential primary has become." "Prenatal screenings are essential to promote the health of both the mother and baby and to ensure safe deliveries," Smith said (Cohen, 2/20).