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Posted on 12/13/2025 10:55:34 AM PST by Morgana
This article is a transcript of “When there’s a prenatal diagnosis, the medical community often pressures parents to abort.” courtesy of volunteer Ben Tomlin. A few minor changes were made for clarity. If you’re interested in volunteering to transcribe more of our content, please complete our volunteer survey.]
The medical community frequently pressures parents who receive a prenatal diagnosis to abort. There’s research to show that a significant number of physicians, genetic counselors—whoever—will self-report that they will emphasize the negative aspects of a diagnosis in order to indirectly pressure parents to abort, or they will just overtly tell them, “You should abort.”
To add more depth to this data, I’m going to read quotes from this qualitative study of mothers who got a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome and did not abort, and what their experiences were like:
One mom reports that the OB said, “You have to move quickly. There is a doctor at blah-blah Hospital who does late-term abortions.” The mom replied, “No, I told you I’m not going to have an abortion,” and the OB said, “Well, talk to your husband. You might want to think about it.”
Other moms reported medical teams saying things like, “This child will not accomplish anything. Everyone in my practice has aborted.”
One mother reported that her OB said, “I’m giving you five days to decide which day you will terminate. Call me and I’ll book it.” This was without them having any conversation about whether she wanted an abortion.
Another reported that her geneticist’s office said it was too late for an abortion in her own state but, “I can get you on a plane to another state if you leave by 4:00 p.m. today.” Again, this was as she was getting the diagnosis, without her giving any indication that she wanted an abortion, much less a later abortion.
The most frequently reported negative experience was meeting a clinician who assumed the mother would terminate the pregnancy. When the mothers expressed dissent or ambivalence, it often was met with resistance, disbelief, or lack of support.
One mother reported that her OB turned on his speakerphone to consult with another physician who, upon hearing that the family had decided to continue the pregnancy, said, “What are they, Mormons or something?”
Another mother reported that her genetic counselor—whose literal job is to help families understand these results and their options—said to her, “What are you going to say to people when they ask you how you could bring a child like this into the world?
Mothers reported that they felt more positive when they were able to talk about realistic expectations for their babies with physicians and other clinicians who were well informed about Down syndrome—no big shock there. Other things that mothers reported as helpful included the Down Syndrome program at Children’s Hospital giving them up-to-date books and pamphlets; they said the information was valuable in their preparation for parenting their child with Down syndrome. Another helpful resource was meetings or phone conversations with parents who had children with Down syndrome, which they described as a great source of support and information.
Offering these resources should be standard when clinicians deliver prenatal Down syndrome diagnoses. Unfortunately, they often are not. This is a qualitative study from 1998, but it echoes themes that we’ve seen recurrently all the way up to today. To mitigate some of these biases, an interdisciplinary committee—including people with disabilities—came up with 20 recommendations for decreasing these problems when clinicians give prenatal diagnoses. Check out this paper, which gives a bunch of ideas, regardless of your feelings about abortion generally, on how we can minimize the ableism and pressure that the medical community puts on parents who get prenatal diagnoses.
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We need to enquire about the political distribution of the diagnoses leading to abortions. Too suspicious about diagnosis conspiracies? I wouldn’t it past our woke doctors and lab techs.
The only reason for an amniocentesis.
Ok. Primary reason for Amnio
There is syndrome called 22Q11.2 Deletion Syndrome. It affects 1 out of 3,000 births. It usually results in about a dozen medical defects, out of 200 different possibilities. Some babies have few affects on their lives, while many end up seriously affected with many surgeries and feeding problems.
About a year ago, the FDA approved a prenatal test for the deletion. A recent study found that 92% of positive results result in an abortion.
In middle age, he adopted an ungrateful boy, who abused and abandoned him. He said that, no matter how painful that was, he would do it again just to try to contend with his terrible loneliness.
He was loved deeply by his family, but their lives were destroyed by his condition. His mother died in deep depression, lacking the will to live any longer.
His family loved him and tried to be of help, but there was little they could do.
His father had to work very hard to accumulate enough money to support him.
At one point, his mother, a highly conventional woman, said to me defiantly and in strict confidence that she would "pay someone" to be a sex partner to him. This was a very radicle thing for her to say, but it reveals the extent of her desperation.
When he was a newborn, he was not expected to live. His mother said uncomplimentarily that she believed his paternal grandmother hoped he would not live. She was probably right. Obviously he did live. I would have been better if he had not.
We were told to abort one of our twins because of a heart defect diagnosis. Full disclosure: we lost their brother to HLHS the year prior. After serving as an officer in the US Navy for six years, he is now about to turn 30 and completing his PhD studies in nuclear engineering. ALWAYS seek a second opinion!
I have an ex-sister-in-law who was pregnant and her doc told her that her baby would be born without lungs, and that it was best to just abort it now. She didn’t, her son was born fine, and is almost 40. Her 2nd pregnancy, she was told her baby didn’t have a brain, and would be stillborn, and that it would be best to abort now. She didn’t. Her daughter was born healthy, and is in her 30’s without any problems.
This isn’t a NEW phenomenon.
After my recent run arounds with the medical community this past fall because *something* showed up on a scan or test, and my PCP wanted me to see a specialist, virtually every specialist said there was nothing there, the repeat tests showed nothing wrong. I don’t need to come back and see them.
I don’t trust their testing and scans, etc.
Or them.
You're so correct. Back in 1990 my pregnant wife's OB said he'd seen something unusual on on a scan and sent us on a 200 mile mile journey to a special clinic where they said our baby had Down syndrome and urged us to abort. We said no, and similar to the article we were met with resistance, disbelief, or lack of support. Four months later my wife gave birth to a healthy baby girl who now at 34 is an educator who speaks and teaches three languages and is an artist who has had numerous gallery showings.
I know they been doing this a long time, question is why are they still doing this?
Do they just assume women want to abort a disabled child?
Are they afraid of being sued if the child is born disabled? (which has happened)
Or is there just still disgust for a disabled child in the medical community?
Prayerfully grateful from here that you (a) know they’re not the final authority and (b) act accordingly.
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