[Faith-talk] Disability Selected Abortions

Fri Apr 12 01:02:35 UTC 2013

Philip,

I've never heard of a woman aborting a baby because she was told it 
would be blind. I doubt that the NFB would be involved.

Blessings,

Linda

At 07:18 PM 4/11/2013, you wrote:
>Parents of unborn babies with disabilities often experience great pressure
>to abort
>
>Sarah Terzo
>
>
>
>Wed Apr 10 10:37 EST
>
>OpinionApril 10, 2013 (LiveActionNews.org) - Now that prenatal testing can
>so easily detect babies with physical and mental disabilities, more and more
>women are choosing to abort their children if something is wrong with them.
>For example, up to 92% of women whose tests show that they are carrying
>babies with Down syndrome abort.
>
>Some women have successfully sued doctors for the "wrongful life" of babies
>who were born handicapped, claiming that their doctors should have detected
>the anomaly so they could abort. Perhaps this is one reason why many doctors
>urge their pregnant patients to undergo amniocentesis, a test which is not
>without the risk of miscarriage. Along with the pressure to undergo
>amniocentesis comes the pressure to abort if the amniocentesis - or other
>recommended prenatal testing - shows a problem.
>
>Parents are Subjected to Eugenicist Views and Urged to Choose Abortion
>
>According to one pro-choice author:
>
>Through the gradual introduction of new forms of technology and testing, the
>medical establishment and the public health sector have been developing
>subtle quality-of-life standards and not-so-subtle ways of discouraging the
>birth of those who do not measure up. (1)
>
>Another researcher writes:
>
>The mere existence of a [genetic] technology contains an implicit coercion
>to use it[.] . Sometimes the coercion is more than implicit. (2)
>
>Some doctors oppose even allowing women to give birth to their handicapped
>children. Bob Edwards, the scientist who presided over Great Britain's first
>in vitro fertilization delivery, gave a speech at a fertility convention
>where he said:
>
>Soon it will be a sin if parents to have a child that carries the heavy
>burden of genetic disease. We are entering a world where we have to consider
>the quality of our children. (3)
>
>While it is impossible to know how many OBGYNs share this eugenicist and
>elitist view, a number of women have experienced pressure from doctors to
>abort their handicapped children.
>
>One women who found out she was pregnant with a baby with Down syndrome
>recounted her obstetrician saying, "It could just be hanging off you,
>drooling," while encouraging her to abort. (4)
>
>Another writer recounted the following:
>
>A woman I know was told by her obstetrician that her fetus had Down
>syndrome. The doctor ordered her to abort, she refused. . Another woman was
>similarly coerced. Her doctor told her that her baby would be more like a
>fish than a human and would only be as smart as a baboon. (5)
>
>The article this quote appears in talks about a study that found that 99% of
>individuals with Down syndrome report being happy with their lives.
>
>Parents often experience great pressure without being told of the great gift
>they've been given.
>
>Parents Are Pressured to Make Fast Decisions While Their Children Become
>Victims of Prejudice and Discrimination
>
>Women who are pregnant with disabled babies are often pressured to make a
>decision quickly. This may be partly because some abortion providers believe
>that abortion becomes more dangerous the later in pregnancy it is performed.
>One abortionist claims that the risk of abortion complications increases 20%
>for each week of pregnancy that passes (6).
>
>Abortions for reasons of fetal anomaly are usually late-term abortions
>because amniocentesis can be performed only in the second trimester, and
>most disabilities are not discerned until midway through pregnancy. This is
>why many women who are carrying disabled babies have abortions in the late
>second or third trimester. (This may change with the advent of blood testing
>that can detect some abnormalities.)
>
>One study found that parents of babies aborted due to disability or "fetal
>anomaly" suffer depression and loss. Those who conducted the study said:
>
>Despite the shock and grief they may experience upon hearing the news of a
>fetal anomaly, the pregnant woman and her partner are usually urged to make
>the decision to terminate quickly. Behind the urgency is the physician's
>desire to avoid complications of 'late' terminations of pregnancy. Because
>of the delays involved in amniocentesis, abortions may occur in the second
>and even third trimester pregnancy. In health care settings, the issue of
>such late abortions has raised ethical and legal questions. In one early
>study, most of the terminations occurred within 72 hours of the woman
>receiving the news of the abnormality. This hardly allows time for the
>couple to become informed about parenting children born with that anomaly
>and thus considering carrying through with the pregnancy. (7)
>
>Rayna Rapp, who aborted a baby who was found to be handicapped, conducted
>interviews with women who aborted due to their children's disabilities. She
>said of her research:
>
>New developments in reproductive technologies assist in the quest for the
>perfect baby not only by genetically creating 'better' children but also by
>detecting and eliminating fetuses deemed abnormal and defective. In a world
>where babies are bred for desired characteristics, having a healthy, normal
>baby becomes nothing less than a duty. While it may appear that medicine
>simply offers procedure such as diagnostic ultrasound, fetal
>electrocardiography, and amniocentesis as options for those who desire them,
>the fear of producing a child that falls outside the boundary of 'normal'
>compels many women to seek premonitory information regarding the status of
>the fetus. As one of [Rayna Rapp's] interviewees explained regarding her
>tests, 'if he was gonna be slow, if he wasn't gonna have a shot at being
>President, that's not the baby we wanted.' (8)
>
>Rapp reveals that simple prejudice against the disabled is a factor in
>driving couples to abort their babies.
>
>Parents Suffer from a Lack of Accurate Information
>
>Along with prejudice against the disabled and pressure from doctors to
>abort, another factor driving these abortions is that couples who face a
>disabled baby are often given limited, one-sided information. Their doctors
>may overemphasize the suffering that handicapped children go through or
>present the worst-case scenario. This may be because the doctor fears being
>sued or because the doctor has his or her own prejudices towards disabled
>people. According to one woman who aborted her disabled baby and later
>regretted it:
>
>We had only one isolated piece of information, not a whole crystal ball. How
>were we to know what would be best? .
>
>A person reeling from shock, numbed by a sudden catastrophe, cannot think.
>(9)
>
>In pressuring couples to make a decision quickly, doctors deny them the
>opportunity to come to terms with the fact that their baby will most likely
>have a disability. When couples are given biased information and pressured
>to make a quick decision, they may not have the wherewithal or opportunity
>to do a great deal of research on their own. They may not have the
>opportunity, for example, to thoroughly research the disability and talk to
>parents of children with disabilities. Many times, these parents would
>encourage them to carry their pregnancy to term. In reality, many women who
>have their babies with disabilities are glad they did not abort.
>
>The mother of a five-year-old girl with a cleft lip and palate wrote this
>letter to the editor:
>
>I was horrified to read that many couples now opt for abortion rather than
>risk having a baby with such a minor physical imperfection. My daughter is
>not some abnormal freak[.] . She can, and does, lead a happy, fulfilled
>life[.] . What sort of society do we live in when a minor facial deformity,
>correctable by surgery, is viewed as so abnormal as to merit abortion? (10)
>
>A beautiful gift.
>
>When radio show host Dr. Laura broadcast a call from a woman who aborted her
>baby with Down syndrome at 20 weeks, parents of handicapped children wrote
>her letters to express their disapproval. One man, the father of a baby with
>Down syndrome, said the following:
>
>Today, the 28th of March, I was listening to talk to one of your callers.
>She recently had terminated the life of her child in her 20th week of
>pregnancy and I believe the child's 20th week of life.
>
>The child's life was ended when it was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. This
>really struck a nerve and infuriated me, as I and my wife have the honor of
>being parents to our 22 month son, Conner, with Down Syndrome, that along
>with our other 2 children (a daughter 8 and a son 5) the joy and light of
>our life. This person that ended the child's life has no idea of the joy or
>divine love that these special people possess. It is hard for me to
>understand the callousness that she had about thinking that the child was a
>mistake of nature and it was okay to terminate its life. I would almost dare
>say that it is our limited understanding of these special people that is the
>problem.
>
>I have often looked into Conner's eyes and have felt a true divine, Godlike
>love shining forth. I will be honest and say that our life has not been
>changed by Conner. Unlike our other two children that walked before they
>were one and talked by two and developed in what we understand as 'normal'.
>Conner has yet to walk on his own, but he does possess the ability to
>brighten the darkest days we have faced.
>
>I would hate to think of life without Conner, he is the light in our
>families' lives. Our other children think the world of him and I feel are
>gaining a greater understanding and acceptance of 'ALL' people, unlike the
>caller today. She has missed a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow.
>
>These are the voices that parents considering aborting their children with
>handicaps need to hear. In pressuring these couples to abort quickly and
>giving them one-sided information, doctors encourage these parents to have
>abortions which they may later come to regret. The opportunity to bring a
>special and unique child into the world is taken away from these parents,
>and the ultimate gift of life is taken away from their children.
>
>Sources:
>
>1. Elizabeth Kristol. "Picture Perfect: the Politics of Prenatal Testing"
>First Things 32 (April 1993): 22 Quoted in Paige Comstock Cunningham, Esq.
>"The Supreme Court and the creation of the two-dimensional woman" Erika
>Bachiochi. The Cost of "Choice": Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion" (San
>Francisco, CA: Encounter Books, 2004)
>
>2. Lori Andrews, Future Perfect: Confronting Decisions about Genetics (New
>York: Columbia University press, 2001), 63
>
>3. Sunday Times (London) July 4, 1999 as reported in American Feminist,
>winter 1999 - 2000
>
>4. Jonathan Finer "Study: Negativity Often Tied to down Syndrome Diagnoses"
>Washington Post, April 29, 2005 A 3 Quoted in Ramesh Ponnauru The Party of
>Death (Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2006)166
>
>5. Rebecca Taylor "99% of Adults With Down Syndrome Report Being Happy in
>Life"LifeNews.com 10/6/11
>(http://www.lifenews.com/2011/10/06/99-of-adults-with-down-syndrome-report-b
>eing-happy-in-life/)
>
>6. Dr. Henry Morgentaler, abortionist: press conference. Statement read at a
>joint press conference with the Manitoba Coalition for Reproductive Choice
>in Winnipeg, Friday, June 23, 2000
>
>7. Donnai P, Charles N, Harris R. Attitudes of Patients after "Genetic"
>Termination of Pregnancy British Medical Journal 1981; 282: 621 - 622, P622
>in Elizabeth Ring-Cassidy and Ian Gentles. Women's Health after Abortion:
>The Medical and Psychological Evidence Second Edition (Toronto, Canada: The
>deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research, 2003) 159
>
>8. Rayna Rapp "Moral Pioneers: Women, Men, and Fetuses on a Frontier Of
>Reproductive Technology," and Hoffman et al., Embryos, Ethics and Women's
>Rights, 110, from Kathy Rudy. Beyond Pro-Life and Pro-Choice: Moral
>Diversity in the Abortion Debate (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 1996)
>11
>
>9. "Brown, Judy" (pseudonym) The Choice. Journal of the American Medical
>Association 1989, 262:2735
>
>10. Susan Kitching, London Sunday Times, February 11, 1990
>
>Reprinted with permission from LiveActionNews.org. Sarah Terzo is a pro-life
>author and creator of the clinicquotes.com website. She is a member of
>Secular Pro-Life and Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians.
>
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