Free Republic

Three years ago, Erika Christensen flew to Colorado and spent $10,000 to abort her unborn son at 32 weeks of pregnancy. Now, she is an abortion activist who pushed her home state of New York to legalize abortions up to birth earlier this year. And this fall, she hopes to stop Colorado from passing a measure to protect viable, late-term unborn babies from abortion. Christensen recently spoke to the Canon City Daily Record about her abortion at one of the last late-term abortion practices in the country, Warren Hern’s abortion business in Boulder, Colorado. She said she was about 16...

An appeals court panel upheld a ruling Friday blocking Ohio from protecting unborn babies with Down syndrome from discriminatory abortions. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 against the pro-life law, arguing that its enforcement would block “access to constitutionally protected health care services.” The 2017 law prohibits abortions that are performed specifically because an unborn baby has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the state, and a judge with close ties to Planned Parenthood blocked it last year. Stephanie Ranade Krider, vice president of Ohio...

FULL TITLE: Mother, 33, who said she would have aborted her beloved son if she had known he had Down's Syndrome wins massive NHS compensation payout because antenatal tests were not carried out A mother who said she would have aborted her beloved son if she had known he had Down's Syndrome has won a massive NHS compensation payout after antenatal tests were not carried out. Although she is now devoted to four-year-old Aleksander, Edyta Mordel told the High Court in London she would have terminated her pregnancy if she had known he would be born with Down's as she...

“Are you a good guy or a bad guy?” Zak, a young man with Down syndrome who has escaped from a nursing home, asks Tyler, an expert fisherman and small-time thief on the run in The Peanut Butter Falcon (Roadside) — a film in theaters that has snagged a 95% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Tyler hesitates before choosing a “good guy” persona for himself. But that hesitation hints at a sensitive soul stirring within a man fallen on hard times. Both are looking for a second chance, and become improbable buddies in this unusual Mark Twain-inspired adventure accompanied by Gospel-inspired...

What happens when you cross a deviant misogynistic sexual fetish with people who are intellectually disabled? You get a sexually exploitative nightmare that is the equivalent to a turn-of-the-century freak show. As the mother of a son with Down Syndrome, I am all too aware of the challenges my son will face. Mostly, I am afraid of how other people will treat him. Even before he was born, he was discriminated against for having an extra chromosome. I was encouraged by the medical community to abort him. The world sees him as a burden and I just see him as...

Missouri's eight-week abortion ban was temporarily blocked from being implemented by a federal judge on Tuesday. The regulation was scheduled to go into effect on Wednesday. State legislators in May passed the "Missouri Stands for the Unborn," act, a sweeping piece of anti-abortion legislation. In addition to banning the procedure after eight weeks into a woman's pregnancy, the legislation includes a "trigger law" and a ladder of less-restrictive time limits ranging from 14 to 20 weeks, depending on what the courts find to be constitutional. In late July, Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Paul Weiss LLP —...

The priorities of Iceland’s political leaders are all messed up. The small European nation recently drew international scrutiny for its nearly 100-percent abortion rate for unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome. The deadly discriminatory practice drew massive outrage from across the world, but Iceland lawmakers did not react by passing protections for unborn babies. Quite the opposite, earlier this year, they voted to expand abortions. Then, on Sunday, Prime Minister Katrin Jokobsdottier joined other political leaders, scientists and environmental activists to hold a “funeral” for a melting glacier, The Connect News reports. The Okjökull, or Ok, glacier in Borgarfjörður, Iceland,...

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, August 16, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A public art event in Grand Rapids, Michigan next month will feature men and women with Down syndrome performing as “drag queens” and “drag kings.” A drag group known as “Drag Syndrome” is comprised of performers with Down syndrome, and is an LGBT activist's attempt to promote so-called “inclusion.” Their performances feature song and dance by men wearing women’s dresses, garish makeup, wigs, and in some cases fake breasts. Women sport beards and men’s clothing. A local TV channel, Wood TV, reports that "some people may be concerned because people with Down...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Down Syndrome of Louisville provides almost 800 members in Kentucky and Indiana with support, education, and advocacy. Executive Director Julie Torzewski says her non-profit also goes to great lengths to make sure those members are safe during their stays at the organization's Indiana Campus in New Albany and Kentucky Campus on S. Hurstbourne Parkway in Louisville. Now, however, she's wondering what more can be done. "It's just unfortunate and deeply saddening that we have to even have the discussion," she said. Torzewski recently learned one the young people who frequently visits the Kentucky Campus was sexually...

Deep in New York's Adirondack Mountains, family and friends gathered to help 59-year-old Kris Scharoun-DeForge pay tribute to her remarkable husband. "He got me laughing and everything. He was the one for me," Kris said. Kris and Paul met in 1988 and after dating for five years, they became one of the first couples in the world with Down syndrome to get married. "I proposed to him," Kris said. "I whispered in his ear, 'Would you marry me?' And he looked up at me with this big beautiful smile and he shook his head 'Yes!' And that's when I knew."...

“The Oldenburg Baby.” That’s what the German media dubbed Tim Guido when he was accidentally born alive on July 6, 1997, at the Städtische Frauenklinik hospital in Oldenburg, Germany, after a failed abortion. Diagnosed with Down syndrome, Tim’s biological parents decided to abort him during the 25th week of pregnancy. According to Youth Defence, he was considered to be so premature that doctors didn’t think he would ever survive labor, so it is likely the abortionist never injected him with the potassium chloride that would have killed him before labor was induced. But Tim didn’t die. He was born alive...

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — An outspoken Arkansas senator says he's not surprised but still disgusted with a federal judge's decision to block a trio of restrictive abortion laws. Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) expressed his dismay with Judge Kristine Baker's ruling to halt multiple abortion provisions from going into law July 24. He referred to the decision as a "crime against humanity." "I can't imagine a judge, even a judge that has ruled against pro-life laws in the past would say that a down syndrome child's life is not worth saving," Rapert said. Rapert served as a sponsor of Act 493,...

July 12, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A mother in the U.K. is suing England’s National Health Service (NHS) for more than £200,000 ($249,000 U.S.) for “wrongful birth,” alleging that health care workers did not conduct tests that would have revealed her unborn son’s Down syndrome. Edyta Mordel told London’s High Court that had she known he would be born with Down’s, she would have aborted her child, now four-year-old Aleksander, the Daily Mail reports. Mordel, 33, says she requested the tests during her pregnancy and was devastated when her baby was diagnosed with Down’s after birth. The case is legally classified...

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is, once again, under attack. And, once again, the attacks are from liberals who cannot tolerate Thomas' consistent, unyielding and faithful commitment to America's founding principles. The latest concerns Thomas' 20-page opinion offered up in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, recently considered by the Supreme Court. Planned Parenthood challenged Indiana law prohibiting abortion for reasons of sex, race or non-life threatening deformity. The challenge was upheld in district court and the law overturned. However, the Supreme Court chose not to rule on the matter for procedural reasons, turning it back to...

FULL TITLE: Girl, 4, with Down Syndrome 'is beaten to death by her mother's boyfriend after she interrupted him' A California man has been arrested for allegedly beating to death his girlfriend's four-year-old daughter, who had Down Syndrome. According to a press release from the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, on Tuesday night 24-year-old Adam Hughes was babysitting his girlfriend’s children at their home in the 10000 block of Kernwood Court in Rancho Cucamonga when four-year-old Kylee Willis 'angered' the man by interrupting him. The sheriff’s department wrote that the 5-foot-11, 220-pound Hughes assaulted the special needs toddler and then put...

Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Marjorie Dannenfelser.In 2011 the United Nations General Assembly officially declared March 21 to be World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD). The date, 3/21, represents the three copies of the 21st chromosome carried by people with Down syndrome – but the day represents so much more. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the value of every human being in our diverse world and educate about what it’s really like to live with Down syndrome.The theme of this year’s WDSD is #LeaveNoOneBehind. Down Syndrome International explains, “The reality today is that prevailing negative attitudes, low expectations,...

When Anastasia Pursel crossed the finish line of the Bakersfield Half Marathon, she did it with a team by her side. As she ran through the straightaway the morning of November 18, her friends Bryan Matthews and James Miller held each of her hands. While the crowd cheered enthusiastically, Matthews carried a hand-painted sign with the message, “Victory Is Mine.” Only 8 years old, Pursel is already a fighter. At 17 months, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a cancer that starts in the bone marrow. After six months in the hospital and another six months in isolation,...

A newly released video from The Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS) has just released a video pointing out how worldwide, people with Down syndrome are in danger of becoming extinct. Their lives are endangered because of abortion. So people with the condition are speaking out, demanding better treatment and an end to the eugenics that has left their numbers dwindling. The CDSS notes on its campaign website that “[b]y the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s own criteria, the Down syndrome community qualifies as endangered in many parts of the world.” The CDSS has applied “for the inclusion of...

LONDON, September 25, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A drag troupe comprised of performers with Down syndrome is an LGBT activist's latest foray into promoting so-called “inclusion.” Several “Drag Syndrome” events took place at a handful of underground events this summer around East London, promising “drag mayhem” during “extra Chromosome Drag night with our royal Queens and Kings.” The enterprise is a project of the London-based Culture Device, which receives public funding from the Arts Council of England. Like any other drag show, the performances feature song and dance by men wearing women’s dresses, garish makeup, wigs, and in some cases fake...

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill made a call to action Monday for the U.S. Supreme Court to take on a critical pro-life case. Hill said he wants the Supreme Court to rule on a lawsuit about a 2016 pro-life law that bans abortions performed because of the unborn child’s race, gender or disability, such as Down syndrome. It also requires medical facilities to bury or cremate fetal remains. According to Indiana Public Media, Hill said the fetal characteristic abortion ban guards against discrimination. He also argued the state has the right to require fetal remains to be treated with dignity....