Posted on 02/08/2016 7:07:54 PM PST by kathsua
Today parents are sometimes pressured to abort simply because their unborn child has a cleft lip, a correctable condition. Physicians categorize it as a disability. Yet a surprising number of successful individuals were born with cleft lips. Among them is Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.
Manning’s success story shows that his cleft lip did not hinder him at all. Because his parents chose life, Manning was able to grow and pursue his dreams in football. This week, he and his team will play in the biggest American sports game of the year — the 2016 Super Bowl. Manning is not only well known as a successful quarterback, but also as a faithful Christian, husband and father.
Many babies born with this condition aren’t given the chance Manning’s parents gave him. Instead, they are aborted or left to die. According to a 2013 article in The Telegraph, “More than 10 times as many abortions take place for cleft lip than are recorded in the Department Health statistics.†Because even a child with a cleft lip is viewed as less than perfect in our society, physicians often suggest abortion.
One startling case occurred in 1997 when the Petersons welcomed a son into the world. Aidan Peterson was born with a cleft lip, and doctors told his parents to abandon him at the hospital. In a previous article, LifeNews reported about the Petersons’ experience:
The hospital pediatrician called my husband into the nursery and advised us to sign Aidan over to the hospital. He told us that we were still young, we could still have other children, and that these kids (kids with cleft lip and palate) tend to have neurological problems, he would require many surgeries that could bankrupt us, and that if we were foolish enough to ignore medical advice and take our baby home he would end right back at the hospital as a “failure to thrive.â€
CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!
The hospital’s solution was to give Aidan pain medication and wait for him to die of starvation and dehydration. Despite the hospital’s insistence, Aidan’s parents chose life and took their baby home with them. They found special bottles that allowed their son to eat.
When he was 18, Aidan wrote:
For any and all parents who are stuck in the same or similar situation that my parents were, listen up. Your kid is worth it, be he or she mentally or physically disabled. And as my mom said, if your kid has only one day to live, spend it loving your child.
Put yourself in your kid’s shoes. You have one day to live, no two ways about it. Which is better: to spend that day with your loving parents, or to starve to death while uncaring doctors simply pass you by, not caring at all for your plight? Answer that question, and then make a decision on your kid’s life.
Stories such as Aidan’s and Manning’s ought to encourage parents who have children with disabilities. Their stories prove that disabilities do not define a person or hinder them from achieving success. Rather than allow these difficulties to mark the end of a child’s story, families should embrace the gift of their son or daughter’s life.
A great charity and one of the few I trust. They and the Salvation Army and our local animal shelter get donations in my grandchildren’s names at Christmas.
Just what I was thinking....
Around 1994 I was recreation director at Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly just East of Asheville. They use a different name now but it is the same place doing the same thing.
Anyway a little 9 or 10 year old girl came up to the rec shack and got a coke out of the machine. She leaned against the shelf while drinking it.
I got to talking to her and asked where she was from. She replied “Drew, Mississippi”. I then asked her if she knew Archie Manning. “He is my Uncle” was the reply.
She really looked a lot like the Mannings. Red hair, freckles and that same look, more like Archie than his kids.
Any doctor who would recommend abortion because of this is a quack!
About 50 years ago my niece was born with a cleft lip and palate. She had corrective surgery back then and grew up to be a beautiful woman.
Sometimes I wonder what medical schools are passing for doctors these days.
Somewhat misleading article. He wasn’t born with a cleft lip. It was a cleft palate.
Romans 3:23
...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
1 John 1:8
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
My younger brother was born with a double Cleft upper lip, a cleft pallet,no tear ducts, and 2D vision. He was born 1950 in France. While my dad was station there. My brother is smart, bright, joyful, and has no self pity. Takes life head on no matter what comes his way. The military Doctors started working on my brothers problems when he was only 1 year old. The Doctors took pictures of each operation with details of what they did. The original Doctor that started working on my brother would see him every three months. Then when my brother was in his teens he would go in once every 6 months. They first repaired his pallet. Then his lip and finally give him tear ducts. What would happen is as my brother grew older one side of his face would stretch but the other side would not. So they would operate and stretch the side that didn’t grown. This procedure continued and was completed when he was 26 years old. The VA in Denver Co. installed tear duct in both his eyes in 1980. He could now cry for the first time. To him those tears were the best thing since shirts got pockets. I heard that a Booklet was made of his case an was to be used to show parents of children with cleft deformities what can be accomplished. The only scare you can see is two thin red line running down from is nose to his lips. The vision could not be increased to 3D.
Please Don’t Abort a Child For This Deformity. Help is there for them to have a normal life. Thank God For modern medicine.
Don
That was a nice report on your brother.
I fully support your conclusion.
Many people with disabilities are inspirations to others.
It would be a less rich world without them.
When I hear of someone talking or aborting a child for problems like this, it makes me sad and angry.
my Dad had a cleft palate, never slowed him down let alone stopped him from doing anything ya play the hand yer dealt as best you can
Thank you for the comment. I agree w/your comments
Don
“:^)
More than you think.
God bless military medicine. You can some losers but no more than the average town.
The same quack doctor who support the ACA and its death panels. Docs act like judge, jury and executioner. "sorry folks, we the mega elite, have determined that your baby will be too much of a cost to the system and therefore we must eliminate that cost." Meanwhile they continue to pump good money after bad by giving the repeat heroine overdosers the drug Narcon to save them.
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