Did A North Dakota Democrat Say He Voted To Let His Brother Get Aborted?

On Thursday Chris Berg had a couple of guests on his 6:30 Point of View program to debate the gay marriage issue. One was Tom Frier of the North Dakota Family Alliance, and the other was state Rep. Josh Boschee, a Democrat from Fargo.

During the segment, which you can watch in its entirety here, Berg reads a question from a viewer asking why Boshchee, if he’s so concerned about human rights issues, voted against every single pro-life bill considered by the state Legislature last year. Since, you know, being alive is sort of basic to human rights.

Boschee responded first by calling the pro-life bills extreme (every single one of them passed with a bi-partisan majority, but I digress), and then launched into a bizarre comment about his mentally and physically disabled brother.

Referring to legislation that prohibits abortion for genetic selection (i.e. aborting a boy because it’s not a girl or aborting a child with Downs Syndrome), Boschee noted that there have been advances in genetic testing which can detect mental and physical handicaps in the womb. According to Boschee, that sort of testing could have helped his parents become aware of his brothers handicaps before he was born.

Now, keep in mind that Boschee is bringing this up in the context of explaining why he voted against bills banning abortion for the sake of sex selection or genetic defects. He seems to be saying his parents would have aborted his brother if only they had access to the genetic testing available today, which is why he voted to keep that sort of abortion legal (the Legislature ultimatelypassed the bill).

That’s…pretty grim.

Berg asks Boschee point-blank if that’s what he meant, and Boschee (who seems to realize at that point just where his comments were heading) says it isn’t. But why else would he have brought that up?

Definitely a strange exchange that was perhaps more revealing than Boschee intended.

By the way, someone should ask Boschee (North Dakota’s first openly gay lawmaker) how he would feel if we found the gene (if there is one) that causes homosexuality, and parents began aborting their children in favor of those likely to be heterosexual.

Would Boschee champion abortion “rights” in that instance, or would be outraged?

Keep in mind, he voted to keep just that sort of thing legal.