Journalist – Historian – Speaker
New at The Nation: Anti-choice activists have found what they think is a winning wedge issue: Down syndrome and other “sympathetic” disabilities. The latest attack was in Ohio, where, in late December, GOP Governor John Kasich signed a bill that bans abortions after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Ten states have either passed similar …
My latest in The Nation: Mostly buried beneath early November’s onslaught of news, stories from Oklahoma, Iowa, and Maine reveal the ways that state governments, through both apparent incompetence and maliciousness, are failing disabled residents and their families. In the first two examples, disability programs are being cut as a result of self-imposed budget crises. …
In my latest for The Nation, I zoom in on a little clause in Trump’s latest comments on mental health and gun violence. Trump’s comments on mental health are typical of Republican response to violence. He characterized the killer as a “very deranged individual” who has a “mental health problem at the highest level.” This …
I wrote a piece for The Nation on people with disabilities killed by police over the last week, writing that the number was four. It was, however, actually at least 9 (the information wasn’t available when I filed). My hope for this piece is to push back at the training and registry narrative that gets so …
It started with a tweetstorm in May. Let’s talk about #BodilyAutonomy as a core Democratic party value. A core American value. Is there a better term for it? More catchy? /1 — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) May 8, 2017 Grumpy at the “let’s stop with identity politics” takes, I offered my thoughts on how we …
I wrote a piece for The Nation on the Age of CRISPR. I argue we’re going to need new approaches both to regulation and to our discourse around “normal” as we develop these new tools. I use the ongoing failures to change how we talk about Down syndrome as my example: A few weeks ago, …