Poll: Over Half of Democrats Support Aborting Babies with Down Syndrome

More than half of Democrats support or strongly support eugenics-style abortions of babies with Down syndrome, a recent poll found.

When respondents were asked: “Do you strongly support, support, oppose, or strongly oppose abortion because the child will be born with Down Syndrome?” 56 percent of Democrats say they support such abortions, while 42 percent oppose.

Democrats are at odds with overall poll respondents, 58 percent of whom disagree with aborting babies because they will be born with Down syndrome. Thirty-nine percent of overall respondents say they agree with aborting babies with Down syndrome.

Republicans (75 percent) and independents (58 percent) are overwhelmingly against the practice, in contrast to their Democrat counterparts. However, 24 percent of Republicans and 39 percent of independents think babies with Down syndrome should be killed by abortions rather than being born.

The finding is part of a Knights of Columbus-Marist poll on abortion released before the 2024 March for Life, conducted with 1,371 adults between January 8-9, 2024, with results statistically significant within ±3.6 percentage points. That poll also found that a strong majority of Americans support abortion limits and pregnancy resource centers.

Democrat support of aborting babies with Down syndrome harkens to the eugenics movement in Denmark. In 2004, Denmark became one of the first countries to offer prenatal Down syndrome screening to every pregnant woman.

“Nearly all expecting mothers choose to take the test; of those who get a Down syndrome diagnosis, more than 95 percent choose to abort,” The Atlantic reported in 2020. “…Since universal screening was introduced, the number of children born with Down syndrome has fallen sharply. In 2019, only 18 were born in the entire country. (About 6,000 children with Down syndrome are born in the U.S. each year.)”

“Down syndrome is a genetic condition where a person is born with an extra copy of chromosome 21,” according to the Cleveland Clinic.

“This means that they have a total of 47 chromosomes instead of 46. This can affect how their brain and body develop. People diagnosed with Down syndrome have happy and healthy lives with supportive care,” according to the Cleveland Clinic, which noted that the life expectancy for a person diagnosed with Down syndrome is 60 or older.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.