Posted on 04/19/2011 11:01:51 AM PDT by wagglebee
There is an ugly statistic made well known by none other than The New York Times from a 2007 article; 90 percent of all pregnancies where the unborn child is given a diagnosis of Down Syndrome end in abortion.
Can you wrap your head around that? 9 in 10; 90 in 100 – that is a lot of life snuffed out because of the possibility of one pesky extra chromosome.
Have you ever met a child with Down Syndrome or with other special needs? I have met plenty of them. If fact, one of my own children has special needs. We say she may be delayed at most things, but she’s very advanced at loving.
I’m not going to paint a rosy picture and say it’s all sunshine and smiles being the parent of a child with special needs. There are extra trials and days you wonder if you’ll be able to keep your head while you heart feels like it’s breaking. My husband and I explain it to our other young children that their sister needs extra help, more help than most kids her age. Sometimes it’s not easy being a sibling of a child with special needs. But none of us could ever imagine our life without her, without her smile, her laughter, her hugs and (extra wet) kisses.
That’s why that statistic causes me to shudder. How many beautiful children meant for this world have been killed because some test didn’t come back perfect? How many smiles and hugs has the world lost because this little life wasn’t given the chance to take a breath and change minds, hearts and lives? Here’s a newsflash: none of us is perfect; some of us just have more visible crosses than others.
“We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.” Pope Benedict XVI said this a few years ago, and I have since had conversations with other parents who have children with special needs about the last part: necessary. These kids who have extra struggles, extra pain, need extra help, are necessary. Many a lesson can be learned from them: selflessness, humility, sacrifice, joy, triumph.
The extra struggles lead to greater triumphs. The first time she independently got that morsel of food to her mouth or was able to sit up for a few minutes without assistance, joy welled up inside of me far exceeding that of my other kids reaching appropriate developmental milestones. Parents are not the only ones who feel this way. Siblings share in the extra joy too mushrooming into an exponential effect for the whole family.
Daily, my daughter teaches me these things and more. In fact, for the time being, I’ll be taking a break from this column and a professional break from the front lines in the fight to build a culture of Life so her lessons sink in more deeply. I thought I needed to go out into the world to help build a culture of Life, but lo and behold a daily building will occur in menial tasks with the potential for monumental triumphs. Families with children who need extra help do this every day and are a testament to the world that each life matters, including, and perhaps especially, the special ones.
Amen!
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Heartbreaking.
Another thing about children with Down Syndrome is that they have a 0% chance of becoming child-hating ultra-violent sociopath leftist vermin.
If only the leftists would show the world some mercy and kill their own worthless selves.
I would never even consider running the tests to determine if our babies had Down’s Syndrome.
That statistic is shocking, but not surprising. I’ll admit that if younger, I might be scared to have a potential downs child. Now as an older parent, I recognize the blessing. It’s sad that Doctors probably encourage people to short these children.
Auto-correct. Short should read abort.
I had no idea that the numbers were so shockingly high. I had noticed not so long ago that it seemed that the human landscape had changed, but I thought I must be imagining it. Sadly, it seems that it was not my imagination at all.
And thus we begin to see (if we wish to see) why the statistic is 90%. Self selection bias. People unwilling to abort don't usually prenatal test for this.
Interestingly you see most of those down’s kids in church situations.
I don’t actually know one couple with a Down’s in their family who aren’t a Christian of one stripe or another.
I’d take the tests. But not for abortive purposes; to be prepared.
Touching.
Palin and Beck have both stated they learned much and got much from their special needs children. I can’t imagine the challenge or raising a child that needs far more work and attention than “normal” but I can’t imagine the rewards either. I’ll bet they love unconditionally.
I remember former Alabama football coach, Gene Stallings said they were devastated when informed their baby had Down’s Syndrome.
He said they eventually realized he was a blessing. Full of love and affection.
“Beautiful article.”
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Indeed, and it is worth noting that our last two Popes have been absolute stalwarts, not giving an inch on the Pro-Life issue.
If you believe, as we Catholics do, that these men are divinely appointed descendants from Christ Himself, that speaks volumes, no... an entire library, about where God stands on the protection of innocent human life.
“I remember former Alabama football coach, Gene Stallings said they were devastated when informed their baby had Down’s Syndrome.”
#####
We were honored to have the manly and classy Coach Stallings here in St. Louis as coach of the old St. Louis football Cardinals.
His warm and actively loving relationship, with his son (now deceased), moved even the the local cold, jaded, Commie Sports media.
Coach Stallings, taught us all what it means to be a REAL man.
I did have the blood test done but only because I’m a control freak who would want to be prepared. But I certainly never would have aborted had the test indicated an abnormality.
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That may be true, but there is another influence at work here as well. It has been my experience that the medical community can be very aggressive in promoting these tests.
Said the best I have ever seen. As the aunt of a beautiful woman with Downs, I agree with every word.
Well reasonable people who do not get easily cowed by authority figures usually ask themselves a reasonable question...
“What will I do, if anything, with this information?”
If the answer is “Absolutely nothing, it will change nothing” it takes away a bit of the impulse to find out the answer - wouldn’t you say?
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