The most dangerous idea in American politics
States, a campaign to call a convention to limit federal power and put term limits on members of the judiciary and Congress, are publicly talking about turning back decisions by the Supreme Court and Congress on marriage equality, health care, environmental protection and abortion. The entire Constitution and every Americans’ rights could be up for grabs. Even the high threshold for ratifying amendments — a majority vote in threefourths of our state legislatures — could be lowered to ram through the product of a “runaway convention.”
With so much at stake, it is hard to imagine that the same deep-pocketed special interests that wield such power in Washington and Harrisburg would not pay whatever it takes to call the tune at a constitutional convention.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a secretive corporate lobbying group that masquerades as a charity, has endorsed the Convention of States initiative and also is behind the effort to call a constitutional convention for a balancedbudget amendment. On the left, some activists are calling for a constitutional convention to deal with our campaign finance mess by overturning the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case. As a longtime advocate for campaign finance reform, I know how important it is to overturn Citizens United and restore balance to our democracy, but I also understand that the convening of a constitutional convention is courting disaster. Common Cause proactively supports amending the Constitution in the traditional manner — through Congress and the state legislatures, one issue at a time.
In Pennsylvania, the Legislature adopted a convention call decades ago for a balanced-budget amendment and is currently considering the more extreme call for a Convention of States. These measures are direct threats to every Pennsylvanian’s constitutional rights. Convention-supporting legislators in Harrisburg should consider the big picture, reconsider their position and reverse course to rescind their previous Article V convention applications, just as Delaware, New Mexico, Maryland, and Nevada have recently done.
The dangers of a constitutional convention raise major concerns for anyone who cares about basic liberties and civil rights. We are now just six states away from this disaster. Given the intemperate, uncompromising polarization that characterizes our politics at the moment, there may not ever have been a worse time in our nation’s history to assemble delegates to overhaul our Constitution.
To protect every American’s civil rights and liberties, Pennsylvania legislators should buck the big-money forces pushing this bad idea by rescinding its previous call for an Article V convention and deep-sixing the extremist proposal for a Convention of States. There is simply too much at stake to let special interests call the shots in an overhaul of our Constitution. Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.
In other countries, such as Iceland and Denmark, medical practitioners strongly encourage women to terminate pregnancies when there is a Down syndrome diagnosis. These nations spend very little, if anything, on research, and some of their leaders even proclaim their countries should be “Down syndrome free by 2030.”
That makes me sound like a pesticide or a fossil fuel.
I’m lucky I live in America, where I am valued and where I get to tell my government what I think. In my recent congressional testimony, I urged support for more National Institutes of Health funding for Downsyndrome research.
While I feel lucky, I am concerned about the next generation of people like me and the amount of money our government provides for this research.
The NIH estimates that it will spend $21 million on Down syndrome research this year, $7 million less than in fiscal year 2017 and less than at any point since fiscal year 2014. Funding will drop even though the number of people with Down syndrome in the United States has increased. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes, Down syndrome is still the most common chromosomal disorder and, annually, about 6,000 babies are born in the United States with it.
I worry that falling spending sends a message that our government soon will go the way of Iceland and Denmark. If our leaders no longer thinks funding Down syndrome is worthwhile, how long before they and other Americans think my life is no longer valuable?
If money equals support, then I’m worried.
This isn’t just about Down syndrome. Advances in biomedical technology are not going to stop at screening for Down syndrome. It won’t be long before we can identify all manner of medical or personality “deviations” in the womb. As a society, we should consider the ethics of all of this. Our choices today tell us about the ones we might have to make in a few years.
For those who still