Free Republic

Sarah Palin and I have little in common politically. I disagree with her on foreign policy, economic policy and Roe v. Wade—I am a pro-choice Democrat. But one thing Mrs. Palin and I share is that we're both parents of beautiful children who happen to have intellectual disabilities. And much as I disagree with Mrs. Palin on various political issues, I was struck when she talked about the cruel attacks on her son Trig in a TV interview last week. What separates me from many other pro-choicers I encounter is that I strongly believe we need to make abortion rare....

Sarah Palin and I have little in common politically. I disagree with her on foreign policy, economic policy and Roe v. Wade—I am a pro-choice Democrat. But one thing Mrs. Palin and I share is that we're both parents of beautiful children who happen to have intellectual disabilities. And much as I disagree with Mrs. Palin on various political issues, I was struck when she talked about the cruel attacks on her son Trig in a TV interview last week. [...] I had a personal taste of this at a conference I recently attended for children with disabilities. An obstetrician...

LifeNews.com Note: The following is an excerpt from Sarah Palin's new book, Going Rogue: An American Life. © Sarah Palin 2009. The book is published by HarperCollins and available at online booksellers and most retail outlets.A couple of years ago I began to notice some peculiar yet familiar physical symptoms, like the smell of cigarettes making me feel more nauseated than usual. For a few weeks, I brushed these aside. Then I began to suspect something. There was no way I could buy a home pregnancy test in Alaska. I was the state governor. The supermarket cashiers would know, the...

Boosting the level of a brain chemical reverses learning impairments in a mouse model of Down syndrome, researchers report. The work adds to emerging evidence that cognition-enhancing drugs may one day help humans with Down syndrome lead more independent lives. Down syndrome is the most common cause of mental retardation, affecting approximately one in 800 babies at birth. People with the disorder have an extra copy of chromosome 21, giving them additional copies of hundreds of genes. This somehow alters brain development and causes mild to severe learning disabilities. To investigate what goes wrong in the brain of someone who...

A couple of years ago I began to notice some peculiar yet familiar physical symptoms, like the smell of cigarettes making me feel more nauseated than usual. For a few weeks, I brushed these aside. Then I began to suspect something. There was no way I could buy a home pregnancy test in Alaska. I was the state governor. The supermarket cashiers would know, the people in the queue would know, and the next thing I’d see would be a headline. There were still a few things that I thought were not for public consumption, at least not at first.

Three Babies Aborted Every Day Due To Down's Syndrome Three babies are being aborted every day due to Down's syndrome, according to a study which shows the number of terminations has more than trebled in the last 20 years. By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor and Chris Irvine 26 Oct 2009 An increasing number of pregnant women are being told their babies have the condition because of a growing number of women putting off having children until their 30s and 40s and improvements in screening, doctors say. And around nine in ten women who are told they are going to have...

Down Syndrome Boy's 60-Yard Touchdown Run an Internet Hit By Thaddeus M. Baklinski ST. JOSEPH, Missouri, September 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A heart-warming story of true sportsmanship last week turned what might have been a dismal defeat into an extraordinary victory for both teams and everyone who witnessed Matt Ziesel's touchdown run. Matt, who has Down syndrome, is a freshman at Benton High School in St. Joseph, Mo. Despite his disability he suits up for every football game and cheers on his teammates from the sidelines. Last Monday night the Benton Cardinals football team was losing its game against the...

ST. JOSEPH, Missouri, September 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A heart-warming story of true sportsmanship last week turned what might have been a dismal defeat into an extraordinary victory for both teams and everyone who witnessed Matt Ziesel's touchdown run.Matt, who has Down syndrome, is a freshman at Benton High School in St. Joseph, Mo. Despite his disability he suits up for every football game and cheers on his teammates from the sidelines.Last Monday night the Benton Cardinals football team was losing its game against the Maryville Spoofhounds 46-0 when, with about ten seconds left in the game, Benton coach...

The development of prenatal diagnostic technologies presents a constellation of moral issues -- with the diagnosis of Down syndrome front and center. Over the past several years, a marked decrease in the number of babies born with Down syndrome has been both observed and widely reported. This decrease can be traced directly to the decision to abort after prenatal diagnosis.As Science Daily reports, a new leading article to be published in Archives of Disease in Childhood points to developments in the near future that will likely increase the diagnosis of Down syndrome [DS] during pregnancy. "New tests expected to...

Lucas Wondra has achieved something only about 4 % of those who enter scouting achieve. He has achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. His achievement is particularly significant because the 16-year-old Hutchinson (Kansas) High School student has the genetic disorder Down Syndrome. Lucas is one of many who are demonstrating that individuals with Down Syndrome can be productive members of society. Maybe they are not capable of performing brain surgery or becoming professional athletes, but then neither are the vast majority of the rest of us. Individuals with Down Syndrome have an extra copy of chromosome 21 , a condition...

Lucas Wondra has Down syndrome and communicates with a few words, sign language and a PDA with a speaker and voice software. But when it comes to the Boy Scouts, he concedes no disability. On Monday, Lucas, a 16-year-old freshman at Hutchinson High, became an Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America and the latest in a collage of medals and merit badges covering his uniform. Scout Master Bill Whitlow said Lucas is the first Scout with Down syndrome from Troop 301 to achieve his Eagle rank. "I feel like it's been a community effort," his...

Health Care: There might not be a "death panel," as Sarah Palin described it, but federal bureaucrats will be making end-of-life decisions. That's why state-run medicine is a leading cause of death in Britain and Canada.A post on the former Alaska governor's Facebook page has caused a stir by discussing openly what many privately fear and something we have written about. End-of-life counseling and efforts to measure cost-effectiveness of treatment will combine in a perfect storm to ration care in a way that lets the government decide who lives and who dies. "The America I know and love is not...

When I was four months pregnant with my first baby, I went to my OB for a routine checkup and structural ultrasound. I remember feeling so excited to have the opportunity to see a 3-D image of the little baby, whom I was already completely in love with. Once my doctor began performing the ultrasound, I knew something was wrong. She became very quiet and looked concerned, as the computer measured all of his little body parts. "There's a problem," she said slowly. "You see, the right side of his brain is measuring larger than the left."

Is it right to pray that Trig Palin be healed of his Down Syndrome? Many parents of children with Down Syndrome think it's a horrible thing to do.

Reactions to Sarah Palin’s decision to resign the governorship of Alaska have been a reminder of her unmatched ability to elicit strong emotions from friend and foe alike. We know some of the reasons why. It’s her evangelical Christianity and her folksy manner. It’s her small-town roots and her “new feminism.” But there is something more. A year ago, Palin gave birth to her youngest son, Trig, who has Down syndrome. Since then, mother and son have become objects of the left’s unrelenting scorn and the right’s unflinching fidelity. An underexamined reason why Palin is loved and loathed so fiercely...

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - Byrd and Melanie Billings had a growing brood of adopted children with autism, Down syndrome and other disabilities, and took care to make their nine-bedroom house a safe place for them, wiring it with surveillance cameras in every room. It was those cameras that captured images of the masked men who shot the wealthy couple to death in a break-in executed with chilling precision.

File this under: It ain't braggin' if it's true.This weekend, Free Republic won a battle in the political and cultural wars over Sarah Palin by exposing an article published by the Huffington Post that mockingly attacked the Alaska governor and her infant son Trig over Trig being born with Down syndrome.The exposure by Free Republic went viral to Twitter, Newsbusters and Hot Air (includes screen grab) as well as numerous blogs. The Huffington Post pulled the article within hours and issued an apology. The author of the piece of work, Erik Sean Nelson, issued his own apology via e-mail and...

The liberal Talking Points Memo website, which is deemed a respectable political site by the mainstream media which regularly quotes from their articles, published an article last night that speculated Alaska Governor Sarah Palin resigned because "she wants to spread Down syndrome." Palin's infant son Trig was born last year with Down syndrome.Amazingly, the article was published at 11:51 p.m., hours after the Huffington Post had issued an apology over a similarly themed article that the site pulled after it was highlighted by Free Republic.The TPM article, entitled Possible Reasons for Sarah Palin's Resignation and Other Schadenfreude, was written by...

The Huffington Post issued an apology Friday evening for an article about the resignation of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin posted at their website entitled, Palin Will Run In '12 On More Retardation Platform, written by HuffPo writer Erik Sean Nelson.The Daily Dose published an e-mail apology from Mario Ruiz of HuffPo: Due to an editorial lapse, Erik Sean Nelson’s post on Sarah Palin bypassed the normal vetting process and appeared on HuffPost — but was never featured anywhere on the site. Even though satiric works are generally given greater latitude, Nelson’s post falls outside of HuffPost’s editorial guidelines. As such,...

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin paid a visit to Long Island, N.Y., on Sunday and spoke about the joys of raising her 1-year-old son Trig, who was born with Down syndrome. "We are just so blessed to have this child in our lives," Palin said before a crowd of about 1,000 people. "What God has shown us with Trig in our lives is 'Yes, every single person has purpose no matter their developmental abilities.' " Also at the event – a fundraiser for Independent Group Home Living, a non-profit for children and adults with developmental disabilities – were Palin's husband, Todd;...

Well this is ironic: People with Down syndrome--against whom a concerted pogrom is being waged to wipe off the face of the earth via genetic testing and eugenic abortion or infanticide--may hold the key to an effective treatment for cancer. From the story: Scientists may have solved the mystery of why people with Down's syndrome seem to have a lower risk of some cancers. The extra copy of chromosome 21 which causes Down's appears to contain a gene that protects from solid cancerous tumours, tests on mice suggest. The gene seems to interfere with signals a tumour relies on...

Extra dose of protein limits blood vessel formation that tumors need Surplus production of a cancer-suppressing protein may explain in part why people with Down syndrome seldom get cancer, a study in the May 21 Nature shows. People born with Down syndrome have an extra copy of chromosome 21, instead of the usual two copies — one from each parent. The third chromosome causes genetic aberrations that result in the mental retardation and telltale physical traits that define the condition. But chromosome 21 carries 231 genes, including some that may well suppress cancer. In the new study, researchers provide evidence...

Sarah Palin's speech tonight at the right to life dinner in Evansville, Indiana. Awesome words about her baby and the culture of life,

In her first out-of-state political appearance since last fall's presidential election, former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin confided to 3,000 at a right-to-life event here that she had "just for a fleeting moment" contemplated seeking an abortion after learning she was pregnant with her son Trig, who will turn 1 on Saturday. Though it was unclear from her remarks how seriously she considered terminating the pregnancy, she assured the audience that "we went through some things a year ago that's helped me understand a woman and a girl's temptation to make this go away." Another worry in what she...

Before flying back to Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin made one last stop in Evansville this morning. Palin went to Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano to attend a private breakfast event hosted by S.M.I.L.E on Down syndrome, a local group that provides resources and support for people with Down syndrome and their families. The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee was accompanied by her husband, Todd Palin, and Meghan Stapleton, Alaska-based director of her political action committee, SarahPAC. Palin told the Vanderburgh County Right to Life 2009 Spring Banquet Thursday night that her baby son Trig, who was born with Down syndrome, did not...

Claire will never read these words. But at least she is alive and brings joy to her many friends and family members. You see, Claire is a survivor. She survived one of the most ruthlessly effective extermination programs in modern times. Claire has Down syndrome. Most of her Down syndrome brothers and sisters never got to be born. In the United States, more than 90 percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. (In some other countries this number reaches 95 percent.) But apparently this isn't enough for those who would eradicate these defective persons. The problem is that...

As Chuck Colson shared yesterday on BreakPoint, these are troubling times for human dignity and the pro-life movement. President-elect Obama has promised to pass the Freedom of Choice Act, which would eliminate every common-sense restriction passed on abortion at the state level and federal level in the past 20 years. The new administration is also encouraging embryonic stem cell research. And nowadays, 90 percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome prior to birth are aborted. In times when many evangelicals are tempted to retreat from the front lines of the battle for human dignity, we need some modern-day heroes for...

December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Can you imagine if "the experts" suggested that genetic tests be done on all pregnant women to screen for supposedly undesirable racial characteristics or a propensity for homosexuality (if that could be done), with the goal of vastly reducing the number of babies born with those traits? There would a clarion outcry.Well, that is precisely what is happening in Australia, only the targets are unborn babies with Down syndrome, people that "the experts" want very much to cull from society by preventing most from ever being born. From the story: “Australia urgently needs a national...

COPENHAGEN, December 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thanks to more aggressive guidelines for prenatal Down syndrome screening, the number of Down’s infants who survive the womb in Denmark has been reduced by almost half, according to a population-based cohort study published in the online British Medical Journal.While 55 Down's children were born in the country in 2000, the study found that number fell to 31 in 2005 and 32 in 2006.   The number of Danish children prenatally diagnosed with the condition rose by 30% in the year after the new guidelines for prenatal screening and diagnosis were implemented by the Danish...

Eugenics is one of those knock-down words used to silence argument. It was used several times last week, in radio discussions and articles about women choosing to give birth to babies with Down’s syndrome. The subject came up partly as advance publicity for a Sky Real Lives television documentary this Wednesday about a heroic young woman who adopted seven babies with Down’s, whose mothers had rejected them. There was also a BBC news story last week suggesting that more women these days are knowingly choosing to give birth to babies with Down’s. In fact the news story was misleading. Actually,...

Our daughter was born at 5:22 p.m. on December 30, 2005. Two hours later, a nurse called my husband out of the room. When he returned, he took my hand and said, “They think Penny has Down syndrome.” As this news began to make its way into my consciousness, we heard shouts from the room next door. Another child had been born. “She’s perfect!” someone exclaimed about that other baby. “She’s perfect!” Once we found out that Penny had Down syndrome, we had a hard time celebrating her birth. We didn’t open the bottle of champagne perched by my bedside....

CANBERRA, November 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Australian Parliamentary Group on Population and Development has been slammed by Queensland Senator Ron Boswell for holding to Nazi-style eugenic ideology on the abortion of disabled children. “This revisiting of eugenics principles is repugnant to a society that prides itself on the contribution of all,” Boswell said.The pro-abortion group had made a submission, signed by 41 Australian MPs, to the parliamentary committee that is examining the issue of abortion in Australia. The group said paying women a Medicare rebate for second-trimester abortions would save the government about $180,000 a year, due to the high...

LifeNews.com Note: Jill Stanek fought to stop "live birth abortions" after witnessing one as an RN at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. Her speaking out led to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act legislation, signed by President Bush, that would ensure that proper medical care be given to unborn children who survive botched abortion attempts.It was the Sunday after the election, and everywhere I looked I could only see impending doom. There is no way God would have allowed Barack Obama to become president were He not finally turning America over to judgment, to whatever great or lesser extent...

Five years after a doctor aborted his son, who had been pre-natally diagnosed with Down syndrome, a grieving father, who asked to remain anonymous, spoke with CNSNews.com about the decision to end his child’s life and the aftermath of that decision. The man and his wife, who was in her early forties when she became pregnant, already had a healthy daughter. For that first pregnancy, the couple did not have pre-natal screenings or testing. But after what “Joe” said was his wife having “an intuitive sense that something was wrong” with her second pregnancy, the couple agreed she would be...

Amid partisan wrangling over legislative solutions to the economic crisis, there was a rare moment of unanimity on Capitol Hill recently concerning the need to alleviate a much different, but equally serious, crisis. Passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress in late September and signed into law by President Bush on October 10, the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act provides expectant mothers whose unborn children receive a diagnosis of Down Syndrome or other genetic condition with up-to-date information about the nature of the condition and connection with support services. Co-sponsored by Senators Sam Brownback (R., Kan.) and Edward...

The title of homecoming queen is typically reserved for the head cheerleader or student class president, but not so at one Texas high school where this year's queen saw hundreds of onlookers moved to tears as she was crowned. "There wasn't a dry eye to be seen," said Carolyn Pass, the mother of newly crowned queen Kristin Pass, who was born with Down syndrome 18 years ago. Kristin Pass told ABCNews.com that she was thrilled to receive the crown. "I was surprised and happy about [winning]," she said. The crowd at the Aledo High School football stadium erupted into cheers...

Sarah Palin is not the only one. Right now 400,000 mothers are going through the same experiences every day - the simple joys, the profound challenges, the unexpected blessings. Ann Robertson is one of them. Like Mrs. Palin, Mrs. Robertson recently gave birth to a child with Down syndrome. When Mrs. Robertson heard Mrs. Palin was selected as the Republican Party's nominee for vice president, her emotions jumped quickly, from surprise, to joy, to tears. "Whether or not people are going to vote for her, we [mothers of children with DS] all were excited," she said. October is National Down...

The public presence of little Trig Palin is a powerful witness to the sanctity of human life, and the knowledge that this little infant with Down syndrome is bringing such joy to his family is upsetting those who believe that babies such as Trig should never be born.The public presence of little Trig Palin is a powerful witness to the sanctity of human life, and the knowledge that this little infant with Down syndrome is bringing such joy to his family is upsetting those who believe that babies such as Trig should never be born. The facts are daunting. It...

NEW YORK - Bill Clinton said Monday he understands why Sarah Palin is popular in the heartland. "I come from Arkansas, I get why she's hot out there," Clinton said. "Why she's doing well." Speaking to reporters before his Clinton Global Initiative meeting, the former president described Palin's appeal by adding, "People look at her, and they say, 'All those kids. Something that happens in everybody's family. I'm glad she loves her daughter and she's not ashamed of her. Glad that girl's going around with her boyfriend. Glad they're going to get married."' Clinton said voters would think, "I like...

LONDON, September 17, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The invasive procedures used to detect Down syndrome in unborn children result in the miscarriages of two healthy children for every three Down babies detected, a British study has found. The study's researchers, from the charity Down Syndrome Education International (DSEI), estimate that in the process of detecting and aborting 660 Down babies annually, screening leads to the deaths of 400 babies who do not have the disorder in England and Wales alone. Based upon their findings, the researchers are calling into question the ethical standing of the government's policy of offering screening to...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A writer for a libertarian group has written perhaps the most scathing attack on pro-life vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin since the Alaska governor was announced weeks ago as John McCain's running mate. Nicholas Provenzo condemns Palin for the birth of her baby Trig, who has Down syndrome.Provenzo, who writes for the Center for the Advancement of Capitalism, not only bashes her for allowing Trig to be born, but says she should have made the so-called morally justifiable decision to kill him in an abortion.The Center for the Advancement of Capitalism bills itself as a...

September 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week the L.A. Times ran a story: "Canadian doctor warns Sarah Palin's decision to have Down baby could reduce abortions." The story, based upon a Globe and Mail report, explained that Dr. Andre Lalonde, the executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, is worried that Sarah Palin's decision to give birth to her Down syndrome son, Trig, could lead fewer women to choose abortion for their Down babies. However, the L.A. Times now says that its story was all wrong and it has apologized for "mischaracterizing" Lalonde's remarks. The Times...

OCEAN SPRINGS -- Over the hustle and bustle of New York City's Times Square, 8-year-old James Vogelmeier will giggle as a puppy named Marshmallow gives him kisses. James is one of 200 children and adults living with Down syndrome featured on a video that will be shown Sept. 28 on the 40-foot screen on the north face of One Times Square, the building famous worldwide for the New Year's Eve ball drop. The 40-minute video kicks off Down Syndrome Awareness Month and the 2008 Buddy Walk held in almost 300 communities nationwide. It promotes a message of acceptance and inclusion...

CHESTER, Wales, September 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This week, a UK court heard the case of a mother who allegedly deliberately drowned her disabled child in a bath because she was ashamed and embarrassed by her daughter's cerebral palsy. According to the Telegraph, prosecutor Michael Chambers explained to the court how Joanne Hill's husband had refused to give four-year old Naomi up for adoption, despite Joanne's inability to accept the fact that her daughter had cerebral palsy. He recounted the evening of the murder, November 26, 2007: "When the bath was full she told Naomi she was having a bath, but...

NOKESVILLE, VA, September 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a moving example of paternal love and sacrifice, a man drowned earlier this week after attempting to save his disabled son, who had fallen into a septic tank on the family's Virginia property.66-year-old Thomas VanderWoude and his 20-year-old son Joseph, who has Down syndrome and who is the youngest of seven sons, were working in their yard in Nokesville, VA when Joseph fell through a septic tank cover that had suddenly collapsed.  VanderWoude immediately jumped in after his son and managed to hold his son's head above the surface, saving his...

Rush Limbaugh listeners may have heard this call to Rush the other day. I must have been trapped under something heavy and sound-proof to have missed it myself, but a friend told me about it. A guy in Pennsylvania was at the McPalin rally the day after McCain announced Sarah as the Veep. Palin showed herself to be the real deal on championing kids with disabilities like Down Syndrome. Keep in mind this was done with no press around (Unlike Barry deciding not to visit the wounded troops in Landstuhl, Germany because the press was not permitted to document The...

Canadian doctor warns Sarah Palin's decision to have Down baby could reduce abortions Sarah and Todd Palin's decision to complete her recent pregnancy, despite advance notice that their baby Trig had Down syndrome, is hailed by many in the pro-life movement as walking the walk as well as talking the talk. But a senior Canadian doctor is now expressing concerns that such a prominent public role model as the governor of Alaska and potential vice president of the United States completing a Down syndrome pregnancy may prompt other women to make the same decision against abortion because of that genetic...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense? CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh? RUSH: How about that? CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania. RUSH: Thank you. CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said:...

Perhaps nothing Sarah Palin said in her boffo address at the Republican Convention had as much resonance as her statement that “sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge.” That truism was redeemed from mere Hallmark-card sentimentality because everyone knew that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant and that Palin herself gave birth to a boy, Trig, with Down syndrome in April. The joys in the Palin household lately have been particularly leavened with challenges. Palin’s choice to give birth to Trig after she learned of his condition 13 weeks into her pregnancy endeared her to pro-lifers and contributed to the...

I was listening to this as I was picking my son up from school it was a very touching recount of a man and his family getting to meet Mccain and Palin. These are canidates with heart and compassion trying to do what is right. The link has the script of the call and the man's pictures he sent in. This was not a photo op becaue the pics are only the man's pics from his personal camera.