They said it.
A man with Huntington’s chorea in his family was asked if he would have wanted to be aborted. Huntington’s chorea usually strikes at age 40 or so, and causes rapid degeneration of mind and body. It is hereditary. The man with the disease said he would not have wanted to be aborted.
“Better a short life and a happy one than none at all. Better take the chance to live well until you’re 40!”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 136 – 137
Share on FacebookRex Brinkworth, the founder of the Down’s Children Association, has a Down syndrome daughter named Francoise. When she found out about the test for Down syndrome and the fact that some women aborted babies like her, she said:
“Does this mean they kill Down’s babies? They would have killed me, though. Will they try to kill me now?”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 145 – 146
Share on FacebookBritish proabortion activist Ann Kellecher on what to do when babies are found to be disabled in the womb:
“The rational policy would be to allow the foetus to be born (if you suspected it was unacceptable) and then to kill it if it was affected. But probably the better thing to do would be to allow the foetus, the child, to reach a certain age, whatever age that it might be expected to understand these things, and then ask it if it wanted to go on living.”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 235-236
An author quotes an activist who helped thalidomide victims:
“Marjorie Wallace, who conducted the Sunday Times campaigns to win compensation for thalidomide victims, has personally interviewed over 100 thalidomide people and says:
“They represent the full range of perfectly normal personalities, and are not unhappier than any other random group of 100 fully able-bodied people.”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 130
Share on FacebookRuth Brandon, who had an abortion after an amniocentesis showed her baby had downs syndrome, wrote the following in The Observer:
“What I cannot tolerate is the thought that there are people who would have wished to prevent me acting as I did. When I look at the normal, healthy baby whom I had 16 months later, and think that instead of her, these people would, if they could, have condemned me to have an avoidably handicapped child, my blood runs cold.”
The author of the book that quoted this passage says:
“The article elicited letters from parents of down syndrome children who pointed out that their handicapped child was a joy to them.”
Mary Kenny Abortion: The Whole Story (London: Quartet Books, 1986) 235-236
This quote shows the ablest attitude that condemns so many preborn disabled children to death.
Share on FacebookDr. Harry Harris in Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion:
“In traditional societies, the doctors should only be concerned with the welfare of their patients. But in these changing social times, some may take a wider view of their responsibilities.
They may, for example, consider the family, even if they are not inclined to the idea, should be pressed to take advantage of the opportunity [to have an abortion] for the social good….it is socially desirable to minimize as far as possible the amount of ill health in the community.”
He argues that to give birth to a handicapped child imposes a “burden on society.”
Harry Harris Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion (Nufflied Provincial Hospital Trust, 1974)
Share on FacebookA woman on facebook shared this story on 5/21/2017
When my mom was pregnant, the doctors told her that the baby was going to be born with down syndrome, this devastated her. Her and my dad have been trying for years, the doctors suggested an abortion if my mother didn’t want to bring a child with a disability into this world. At first she agreed but later changed her mind bc she she was too attached. 3 weeks later my mom got a call saying the test results were wrong, they accidentally mixed up someone else’s test results with hers.
I was happy, sad and mad. I was happy for my mom but sad for the other family because of this huge mixup and extremely mad at the clinic for screwing up. If my mom would have aborted the baby and received this information afterwards, her whole world would have crumpled down.
Although even disabled babies have a right to live, there are many times where the tests are wrong or, like in this case, a mistake has been made.
Share on FacebookPro-choice author Frances Ryan claims aborting disabled babies is “the humane choice”:
“There are times when abortion is the humane choice… It’s okay to say that out loud. The thought doesn’t suggest a disabled life is worth less, but acknowledges the extra time, energy, and money a severely disabled life needs.”
Frances Ryan “How Pro-Lifers Hijacked the Paralympics” The Guardian, October 30, 2012
Hydrocephalus is a disease where fluid collects in the brain of an unborn baby. the prognosis varies, but many children with hydrocephalus go on to live normal lives. The mother of a child with hydrocephalus describes the pressure that was put on her to abort him.
Jennifer Mckinstry was pregnant with her third child, Colton, when he was diagnosed with hydrocephalus.
“We were told that we should terminate our pregnancy with Colton seven times,” explains Mckinstry, “and by three different doctors. The first time they told us to terminate the pregnancy was the hardest because it was all such a shock to us.
The doctor was trying to tell me about his brain disorder and I couldn’t even hear him, everything was blurry and I felt so light headed. About a week later, we went to another doctor…and he told us that it would be best to terminate the pregnancy and that Colton wouldn’t make it.
If he did make it, he would be a ‘vegetable’ who would never laugh or smile. After the second time that they told us to terminate we came back home and were so unsure of what to do.
I never thought I would even think about terminating a pregnancy at all, but with everything the doctors were telling us, I wondered if it would be best.
For three days, my husband and I thought back and forth if we should terminate or not. It was the most stressful and depressing days of my life. We decided that the best thing we could do was put it in God’s hands and pray, and whatever happened was meant to be. …
The next month we were told a few more times to terminate the pregnancy because it would be best for Colton, and that it was selfish of us to keep him because he would be in so much pain if he even did make it.
Well I am proud to say that Colton did make it through the pregnancy and when he was born was breathing on his own.
He did need surgery to help drain extra fluid in his brain, but he is five months old now and is smiling, laughing, nursing, and meeting close to ever milestone for his age!
The doctors are shocked and keeping telling us that he is doing amazingly well and way better than even the best case scenario they ever thought!”
Nancy Flanders “Clinic Tells Patients: “Wrong” Not to Abort Disabled Child” LifeNews 1/13/12
Share on FacebookAuthor James Tunstead Burtchaell received the following letter from a disabled woman and her husband:
“Amniocentesis and its search and destroy philosophy… We cannot emphasize too strongly the evil of destroying an unborn child who may be deformed.
I can give personal witness to the fact that such unborn sick children do want to live.
I am a Marfan’s syndrome and spina bifida person, happy that my parents loved me enough 56 years ago to give me my right to live and be a Catholic.
Though both diseases cause me only mild problems, I would still want to live if I had been a more severe case.
When I did volunteer work in a local nursing home, I was struck by the cheerfulness and will to live of the patients there, all poor, many black, who many would say should never have been born – how unchristian and hard of heart we as a nation are.”
James Tunstead Burtchaell Abortion Parley (New York: Andrews and McMeel Inc., 1980) xii
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