"We already have evidence that prenatal testing, even with uncertainty, can dramatically increase the abortion rate. Ninety percent of women turn to abortion when they find out the baby has a Down-syndrome chromosome, even though the effects of that glitch vary considerably. And what's the biggest driver of these abortions? Cheaper, earlier tests that are now being proposed or recommended to all pregnant women."

Nope. Actually, the driver is not cheaper tests, the driver of that is that the vast majority of people cannot handle parenting a sick child or special needs child like a Down-syndrome child in OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM...nor do they wish to see a child of their own suffer physically or socially, that is simply ANATHEMA to any parent.

The tests merely inform. People make choices based on survival, including EMOTIONAL survival...you don't seem to understand that, perhaps because you are in a social position where you do not have to question your survival?

Easy on the the judgmental lashing, candoxx. Even if you're right, though, it seems pretty plausible that people may have a standing desire to avoid having to handle a sick or special needs child, and that the new, wider availability of tests are simply giving them the information to act on that desire. Therefore, the DIFFERENCE between the abortion rate now and the abortion rate then is the prevalence of the testing, even if it wouldn't have made a difference without the parents' desire to avoid sick children.