With its easy-to-miss symptoms and link to birth defects, the Zika virus is very similar to German measles (rubella), which caused an epidemic in the U.S a half-century ago, says Professor Leslie Reagan, author of a book on that epidemic and its effects. Among those effects were changes in thinking on both abortion and disabilities. She discusses the parallels with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain.

"Epidemics tend to produce fear and panic, and an epidemic that produces frightening birth defects – especially cognitive disabilities, about which Americans are most anxious – would be especially alarming. ... There is every reason to assume that the response to Zika will be similar and that many pregnant women who have been, or suspect they have been, infected will seek abortions. The difficulty is that Florida and the other Southern states where Zika is most likely to develop are also the states where abortion is most severely restricted and the most inaccessible."

Full story at the Illinois News Bureau