They said it.
From Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood:
“No matter how much they desire children, no man and woman have a right to bring into the world those who are to suffer from mental or physical affliction.
It condemns the child to a life of misery and places upon the community the burden of caring for it, probably for its defective descendants for many generations.”
Margaret Sanger “When Should A Woman Avoid Having Children?” Birth Control Review, Nov. 1918, 6-7
Share on FacebookPro-choice writer Ruth Marcus writes the following in the Washington Post:
“This is a difficult subject to discuss because there are so many parents who have — and cherish — a child with Down syndrome. Many people with Down syndrome live happy and fulfilled lives. The new Gerber baby with Down syndrome is awfully cute….
I have had two children…I can say without hesitation that, tragic as it would have felt and ghastly as a second-trimester abortion would have been, I would have terminated those pregnancies had the testing come back positive. I would have grieved the loss and moved on.
I’m going to be blunt here: That was not the child I wanted. That was not the choice I would have made. You can call me selfish, or worse, but I am in good company. The evidence is clear that most women confronted with the same unhappy alternative would make the same decision….
Technological advances in prenatal testing pose difficult moral choices about what, if any, genetic anomaly or defect justifies an abortion. Nearsightedness? Being short? There are creepy, eugenic aspects of the new technology that call for vigorous public debate. But in the end, the Constitution mandates — and a proper understanding of the rights of the individual against those of the state underscores — that these excruciating choices be left to individual women, not to government officials who believe they know best.”
Ruth Marcus “I would’ve aborted a fetus with Down syndome. Women need that right” The Washington Post March 9 2018
Below: Diagram of a D & E abortion – the most common kind of second trimester procedure. This is probably the way her baby would have been aborted. As you can see, regardless of what the mother feels, the abortion is probably more “excruciating” to the baby.
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Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, as quoted by Bernard Nathanson:
“It has been my constant experience that disability and unhappiness do not necessarily go together. Some of the most unhappy children whom I have known have all of their physical and mental facilities, and on the other hand some of the happiest youngsters have borne burdens which I myself would find very difficult to bear….With our technology and creativity, we are merely at the beginning of what we can do educationally and in the field of leisure activities for such youngsters. And who knows what happiness is for another person?”
Bernard Nathanson with Richard Ostling Aborting America (New York: Doubleday, 1979) 235 – 236
Share on FacebookJoanna Kaufmann wrote about the child she aborted who would’ve been disabled:
“It was already kicking inside me and was a person I felt I knew. But the disabilities which we were warned about left no doubt that we did not want to bring this person into the world…
We could have coped with some of the physical handicaps like a cleft palate, dropped jawline and the fact that the baby would be floppy and not able to crawl or walk.
There were other indications though of disabilities connected with the liver, heart and kidneys which meant the child would suffer greatly.… We felt we must take responsibility for our actions and not let somebody else do it for us. What we had to ask ourselves was could we cope? We had 2 other children under 5 so it was a difficult decision.”
Sunday Express, November 12, 1989
quoted in: Jenny Bryan Abortion (East Sussex, England: Wayland Publishers Limited, 1991) 32
Share on FacebookAnonymous mother of a handicapped child, on why she would not abort a subsequent pregnancy:
“If I hadn’t already had one it would be an easier decision but I’ve had W and she is classed as handicapped. But she’s lovely, she seems as normal as can be, so I couldn’t have an abortion after W, but if I hadn’t had her, my idea of being handicapped would be different.”
Journal of Medical Ethics 1983, vol. 9, P152
Quoted in Jenny Bryan Abortion (East Sussex, England: Wayland Publishers Limited, 1991) 33
Share on FacebookThe parents of a child with Down Syndrome shared the following:
“Three years ago we had a child with Down syndrome, a closed esophagus and leukemia. After months of heartache, long hours at the hospital, not to mention unpaid bills, today he is the greatest joy of our lives. Anyone whose mischief can make me laugh before I’ve had my first cup of coffee in the morning can’t be all bad.… Who is more severely handicapped, someone who asks for nothing but hugs and cookies, or the person who would deny him an existence because he will never be a doctor or a lawyer?”
Randall J Hekman Justice for the Unborn (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Servant Books, 1984) 56
Share on FacebookA man named Richard explains why he and his wife Natalie decided to abort their son when they found out the baby had down syndrome:
“Both of us are in jobs that are a lot more than jobs. They’re things that we do because we believe in the work. All those things would have been affected by a life of caring for a Down’s child.”
Reflecting on the abortion, Richard said:
“I think if it had been some years earlier, when amniocentesis wasn’t available, and we had had a Down child come to term…we would have done our best to raise the child and give it all the love we could. I think we could have done a good job of raising a Down child. But we had a choice. One of the good things and one of the terrifying things about technology is that it gives you that kind of choice.”
Although he and his wife had the abortion because they did not want taking care of the baby to interfere with their jobs, he was sad when he saw the lifeless body of his son after the abortion.
According to the author of the article:
“[After the abortion] Richard asked to see the baby….Alone in an empty room with his dead baby boy, Richard wept. He was still overcome when he returned to Natalie’s room. “It was stunning to me because I’ve known him for a long time and I’ve never seen him cry,” Natalie said.”
Kate Maloy and Maggie Jones Patterson Birth or Abortion? Private Struggles in a Political World (New York: Plenum Press, 1992)
Share on FacebookA woman whose baby had severe health issues and was scheduled for an abortion, writes about the euphemisms she and the medical professionals were using. These euphemisms hid reality. A few days before her scheduled abortion, a friend asked her a question that made her confront what she was doing:
“So when do you go for the abortion?” My friend asked, her voice sympathetic. “Wednesday,” I replied, and then hurriedly got off the phone. I called Mike, my boyfriend, in tears, complaining about how inconsiderate people are, how no one thinks before they speak. The truth was, and until I heard the word “abortion,” it hadn’t occurred to me that I was actually having one.
I was, of course. But we’d been using euphemisms for days, ever since my doctor called to say my amniocentesis results “weren’t good.” We’d say “when we go to the hospital” or “the appointment” or “after the procedure, we can try again.”
Maria Eftimiades “One Woman’s Choice” The Washington Post, November 15, 2003
Share on FacebookA couple gave their reasons for aborting their child with down syndrome, a boy. The mother, Natalie said:
“A seriously handicapped child takes a lot from your life that you wouldn’t otherwise have to give. I think life is difficult enough as it is. It didn’t make sense to us to start [a baby] out with severe problems, to go into it knowing.”
The father, Richard, said:
“Both of us are in jobs that are a lot more than jobs. They’re things that we do because we believe in the work. All those things would have been affected by a life of caring for a Down’s child.”
At the time of the interview, Natalie was pregnant again:
“When we spoke to her she was pregnant again. “Our chances are much higher now that we’ve had a Down fetus…for some reason they don’t understand, once you have a Down baby, the recurrence rate goes to one in a hundred- bingo- for all ages.”
If her next baby had down’s, she was going to abort again.
“Natalie asserted that her and her husband’s decision to abort their Down syndrome fetus was the right one and they would do the same thing again….”My best guess is that if the CVS were not available…I don’t think I would have tried to get pregnant again.”….She said she would still abort her current pregnancy.”
Fortunately, her baby was found to be a healthy girl, and they allowed her to live.
Kate Maloy and Maggie Jones Patterson Birth or Abortion? Private Struggles in a Political World (New York: Plenum Press, 1992)
Both parents chose abortion not out of concern for the well-being of the child, but because they did not want to make the sacrifices needed to raise the baby. In fact, there is a waiting list to adopt Down Syndrome children, so they could have given birth without raising the child at all.
Share on FacebookAn article about a new prenatal test for Down syndrome, which could lead to more Down syndrome babies being aborted, on a couple who conceived a down syndrome baby:
David and Annelies Reilly had dozens of questions swirling in their minds when doctors diagnosed their newborn daughter, Melissa, with Down syndrome.
Could she learn? Would she go to school? Could she ride the bus alone? Could she live a normal life? Could they?
Now their daughter is a college student:
Melissa, now 25, is successful by any measure. The college student is a speaker invited to inspire others around the country. She travels to represent the Down syndrome community internationally, and is a Special Olympian who brings home gold medals in skiing, cycling and swimming. Additionally, she interns for a Massachusetts state senator and tutors pre-school students with Down syndrome in math and reading.
Melissa’s mother says:
“She has taught us compassion for those who are not as strong or so-called perfect and beautiful. We see her as perfect and beautiful.”
Kimbery Hayes Taylor “Down Syndrome Rewards Touted as New Test Loom” NBC News 9/29/2011
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