Responding to “Aborting My Baby With Down Syndrome Was the Kindest Thing I Could Do”

International   |   Sarah Zagorski   |   Oct 14, 2014   |   11:32AM   |   London, England

Last week, LifeNews shared a story about a couple that decided to have an abortion because they found out their baby had Down syndrome.

Suzanne (below right) and her husband Tim told the Daily Mail they decided to “terminate” their baby at 15 weeks and three days. Suzanne said, “We, his parents, chose to end his life before it started.” They had an induction abortion and delivered Oscar after taking lethal pills to end his life, and bring on labor.

suzannetreussardIn the article they said the reasons they had for killing their son was, he would be a burden to their family, and it was the kind thing to do because Oscar was destined to suffer. Then they said they didn’t share their story right away because they were worried about being judged.

Now, the Pro-Life News Alliance has shared a story of a mother who chose life for her baby with Down syndrome. Lynn Murray of Edinburgh writes:

Down’s syndrome strikes fear into the hearts of many expectant families. How did a group of people, who rarely harmed anyone in their lives, manage to get such bad press?

I have a daughter with Down’s syndrome and I’m glad to say that Down’s syndrome is only part of her story and even that doesn’t lead to despair. The Daily Mail presents the story of a woman counseled into aborting her unborn baby due to the predicted limitations he would have had. Counseling should be a little more challenging than that surely.

Supporting, and I mean properly supporting, a woman who loves her baby to carry on with her pregnancy is the modern challenge that we face. This woman wanted her baby; she should have been offered much more than a termination. There is a desperate need for more money and resources (such as perinatal hospice care) to be put into helping families through crisis pregnancies.

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Abortion is the hopeless choice. The Antenatal Results and Choices organization should be campaigning along with other women for more options, not promoting sad stories like this.

Unfortunately, the Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC) organization doesn’t have anything on their website about placing a child for adoption. Instead, they have numerous articles defending late-term abortion and even a link to an article that claims the media sensationalizes abortion by making it seem worse than it really is.

Thankfully, in the United States, we have the National Down Syndrome Adoption Network, which both supports parents in choosing adoption of their own children with special needs if they feel they are not in a position to parent them, and helps parents interested in adopting connect with such families or with older children.