Remember when Republicans throughout the land were wailing and gnashing their teeth about the Affordable Care Act? How concerned they were about the government "getting between" citizens and their doctors? Well, I guess we know now just how sincere they were:

The Arizona Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow doctors to withhold information about prenatal problems if it could make the decision to have an abortion more likely.

Republican state Sen. Nancy Barto introduced the measure to protect doctors from so-called “wrongful birth” lawsuits.

Such lawsuits are sometimes filed by parents of children with disabilities who believe that doctors withheld information that could have led to the decision to have an abortion.

“When I first heard of this issue, I couldn’t believe that these lawsuits are actually happening,” Barto told KTAR last month. “That some couples, after they give birth to their child that has a disability, would claim that the child should not have been born, and would sue to get damages.”

What a self-righteous twit of a woman. Not everyone can afford to take care of a child with a serious disability. Does she think God will send magical pixies to pay those bills? Not everyone can become a high-powered lobbyist like Rick Santorum, who admits that despite his hefty income, his family struggles with the cost of caring for his disabled daughter.

“The lawsuits that are being brought imply that the physician is somehow at fault if the child is born with a disability,” she added.

Barto claimed that a doctor could still be sued if there was evidence of wrongdoing.

Barto, who last year was named ALEC's Legislator of the Year, is a proud member of the Pureheart Christian Fellowship. Apparently they use special editions of the Bible that delete the part about "judge not, lest ye be judged."

Who knows? Perhaps her next legislative project may be modeled on Deuteronomy 22:28-29, a bill to force a raped virgin to marry her attacker.

One of the luckiest and best things that ever happened to me and my family was when my folks decided to take a foster son into our family. I was 11 years old, and so was Kevin. I wasn’t sure about him coming, because with my oldest sister moving out, I would have finally have a bedroom to myself when my older brother moved into her newly empty room, but I got over it quickly enough.

Kevin is developmentally and physically disabled because of brain damage he had suffered from child abuse. He can’t talk very clearly (although those of us in the family can understand him pretty well), read much, or do much math. He has always moved pretty slow, and now has cerebral palsy and is having more and more trouble moving at all. But before getting CP, as long as he was able, Kevin went to work every Monday through Friday in structured workplaces, making money to support himself and pay taxes.

He is fun to be with, as engaging and good-natured as anyone I know. Although he’s not able to talk very clearly, Kevin tells great stories, is genuinely funny, and is always interested in hearing about what is going on in my life. He has a better memory on some things than I do, and despite not being able to read a map, he is better at finding his way around Lincoln, Neb. (our hometown) than I am. He calls our mom every single day (which is better than I do) with stories about his day. Most importantly of all, he cares for others wherever he is. Since he left our house after we all grew up, and Mom and Dad got older, Kevin has mostly been in group homes in Lincoln. We still see him on holidays and whenever we come to town, but since leaving my folks’ house, he has usually lived with others who have mental and/or physical disabilities. Even with his developmental challenges, his cerebral palsy, and the fact that he is losing some hearing and eyesight, Kevin has helped his housemates. For example, he has been a strong source of comfort, support and friendship for a young man he is living with now who is worse off than him in terms of his disabilities.

My brother Kevin, with all his challenges, is in every way the kind of person we would want in our society: a wonderful son, a great brother, someone who looks out for and helps everyone around him. This is the kind of person Republicans would leave by the side of the road in order to, as my friend Bob Creamer put it, “protect tax loopholes for CEOs who fly corporate jets.” They would devastate Medicaid and programs for the disabled, so that the wealthiest most powerful people in America would not have to pay a single extra dime in taxes. But Kevin is not the only son of the middle class who would be badly hurt by the Republican position on the budget and the debt ceiling. Conservatives are threatening everything that helps support a decent middle class, including help for our family members who have disabilities; including money for education and student loans; including middle-class consumer protection from financial predators; including Social Security and Medicare for elderly folks. And they are playing chicken with our entire economy, because as a vast majority of economists believe, a debt ceiling default would traumatize a very weak economy. We could have another major financial panic, millions more in job losses. And all so that people over making over $500,000 don’t have to pay one more penny in taxes.

Now obviously, this is terrible policy, sociopathically insane. But it also goes to the core of who we are as a country, our deepest foundational values and vision of ourselves. Are we a nation built on Ayn Rand’s philosophy, which celebrates selfishness and wealth above all other things, and mocks people like my brother Kevin as defective parasites? Or do we follow the ideas of Martin Luther King, Jr. who had a dream, “deeply rooted in the American Dream,” that we would be an American family sitting down at the table of brotherhood where we were all judged on the content of our character? By that test, my brother Kevin would far outshine people like Paul Ryan.

Our economy is at stake in this budget and debt ceiling debate, perched on the edge of a precipice. But so is the content of our character as a country. I hope it is not found wanting.

The ballet pair of Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowei, she without an arm and he without a leg, is one of the most moving dances ever. More about these amazing performers is here.

Open thread below...

Baltimore Sun:

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday that he might not have chosen Kristen Cox as his running mate if she were not blind.

Since picking the state disabilities secretary for his ticket, Ehrlich has praised her doggedness and intelligence. But on the Politics Program with Mark Plotkin on Washington Post Radio yesterday, the governor suggested that those qualifications alone might not have landed her the coveted spot that helped catapult Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele - the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate - to national prominence.

Asked by Plotkin whether he picked Cox, 37, because of her blindness, Ehrlich said, "No, but do I think the fact that she cannot see, do I see that as part of a paradigm for what I want to represent? Yes."

Later, after a commercial break, he added without prompting: "I just want to finish the last question, because I think it's a really fair, good question. In my heart of hearts, I cannot answer honestly if Kris had sight, whether she would be the person I chose. I do not know that." Read on..

Tipster MrEMan wants you to know that there's a sensible Democrat running against Erlich: Martin O'Malley