Excited expectant parents are sometimes given the life-altering news that their little bundle of joy has a health condition that is considered incompatible with life. Many times, the doctors offer termination as a solution and unfortunately, these once thrilled parents choose that option out of fear.
In fact, when parents are not provided with up-to-date information and resources than 80% of their pregnancies end in abortion. Suddenly, these wanted babies have become unmanageable burdens. However, when parents are educated about the support, resources, and opportunities available for them and their baby, 80% of them choose life.
Still, many abortion clinics will have parents believe that aborting their baby is the compassionate choice. In fact, the Orlando Women’s Center believes that, “to diagnose fetal abnormalities and not be able to terminate the pregnancy is wrong.” Because of this, they are happy to perform late abortions on babies who have been diagnosed with any fetal anomaly in order to prevent “pain and suffering to the baby and family” and to allow the family to begin the healing process. In fact, after killing the baby and inducing labor, the clinic encourages parents to hold the baby and bring home his or her footprints and hand-prints.
So many aspects of this are dreadfully wrong. First, it is based in the belief that these children are life unworthy of life. It is human beings deciding that another human being’s life isn’t worth living. Taking a Nazism approach to anything is bad for us as a society, plain and simple.
Second, this clinic and others like it are completely off base if they believe aborting a wanted baby is the first step on the path of healing. Numerous studies prove that there is a definite link between abortion and psychological trauma. Imagine holding your baby that you chose to abort and then taking home her little footprint as a symbol of what you had, and what could have been, only to truly wonder, what could have been? These clinics tell parents to celebrate a life that they physically ended, and to be 100% good with that decision.
Finally, there are other ways to prevent pain and suffering besides murdering someone. Babies with terminal diagnoses are safest in their mother’s womb. Once they are born, there are steps doctors can take to ensure they are comfortable. Plus, what child wouldn’t benefit from knowing their mother’s love and being held in her arms if only for a short time? Allowing your child to live out her life is a true gift and there is help available. And there’s always the chance that the doctors are wrong.
When Jennifer Mckinstry was pregnant with her third child Colton, he was diagnosed with hydrocephalus. She and her husband were devastated and their doctors provided little to no support.
“We were told that we should terminate our pregnancy with Colton seven times,” explains Mckinstry, “and by three different doctors. The first time they told us to terminate the pregnancy was the hardest because it was all such a shock to us. The doctor was trying to tell me about his brain disorder and I couldn’t even hear him, everything was blurry and I felt so light headed. About a week later, we went to another doctor …and he told us that it would be best to terminate the pregnancy and that Colton wouldn’t make it. If he did make it, he would be a ‘vegetable’ who would never laugh or smile. After the second time that they told us to terminate we came back home and were so unsure of what to do. I never thought I would even think about terminating a pregnancy at all, but with everything the doctors were telling us, I wondered if it would be best. For three days, my husband and I thought back and forth if we should terminate or not. It was the most stressful and depressing days of my life. We decided that the best thing we could do was put it in God’s hands and pray, and whatever happened was meant to be. I just couldn’t think that God put Colton in our lives just to have him terminated. He was put here for a reason. The next month we were told a few more times to terminate the pregnancy because it would be best for Colton, and that it was selfish of us to keep him because he would be in so much pain if he even did make it. Well I am proud to say that Colton did make it through the pregnancy and when he was born was breathing on his own. He did need surgery to help drain extra fluid in his brain, but he is five months old now and is smiling, laughing, nursing, and meeting close to ever milestone for his age! The doctors are shocked and keeping telling us that he is doing amazingly well and way better than even the best case scenario they ever thought!”
Recently, thanks to Rick Santorum and his daughter Bella, who has Trisomy 18, families like the Mckinstrys are in the forefront of the media. With the Santorums, we are witnessing a family who is united in caring for and loving their child no matter how seemingly grim the diagnosis and outlook are. Unlike many parents, these families chose love. They chose to give their children everything, including life, and to care for them to the best of their abilities, rather than end their lives through abortion.
LifeNews Note: Nancy is a work at home mom who writes about parenting, special needs children, and the right to life. She is the lucky mother of two spirited little girls, one who has cystic fibrosis, and she spends any free moment she can find fundraising for a cure for CF. You can read her personal blog at www.ChronicAdmissions.com. Reprinted from the Live Action blog.
