Cosmo: Aborting Babies With Down Syndrome is Fine, Just Not This Girl Since She’s a Model

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Mar 18, 2016   |   5:30PM   |   Washington, DC

The women’s magazine Cosmopolitan does a good job of not thinking too much about the implications of its editorial positions.

Lately, the magazine has published quite a few strong, pro-abortion pieces – and denied space for pro-lifers to respond. It has attacked a Texas law that requires abortion clinics to protect women’s health and safety by meeting the kinds of medical facility regulations and hospital admitting requirements that other outpatient surgical facilities meet. In 2014, it launched a campaign to get women to vote for pro-abortion candidates. It attacked states for protecting babies from painful, late-term abortions.

In its latest pro-abortion piece, the magazine lashed out against an Indiana bill that would protect unborn babies from discriminatory abortions based on their sex or a disability like Down syndrome.

Interestingly, The Federalist Managing Editor Joy Pullman noticed that the magazine published the piece on the same day it ran a story celebrating a young female model who has Down syndrome:

Cosmopolitan magazine’s Internet properties are championing Madeline Stuart, a 19-year-old Australian model who has just won a contract to model bridalwear. Madeline has Down Syndrome, but that hasn’t stopped her. In fact, her mother says, part of her mission is to use her success to “change the way people discriminate against disability through gaining attention through social media. She wants people to know that Down Syndrome is a blessing, something to be celebrated.”

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In fact, the same day Cosmo published this “rah-rah, we love Madeline, look at how beautiful and worthy disabled people are” article, it torched an Indiana bill that would have prohibited mothers from discriminating against potentially disabled children in utero, including babies predicted to have Down Syndrome like Madeline.

“If House Bill 1337 is signed into law, abortions sought because a fetus has been diagnosed with a disability (such as Down syndrome) will be banned. Abortions sought over a fetus’s gender, nationality, race, or ancestry will also be banned. Providers who perform such abortions could be sued for wrongful death,” writes Cosmopolitan.com senior writer Prachi Gupta under the headline “Indiana Passes Anti-Abortion Bill So Egregious That Even Anti-Choice Republicans Are Outraged.”

… She then, apparently with no self awareness or sense of irony, complains that Indiana lawmakers supporting the bill are “not thinking of the living and breathing women whose lives will be forever altered by these laws…” Right, like the living and breathing (babies breathe amniotic fluid in utero to prepare their lungs to breathe air right after they’re born) children inside these women, whom this bill would have prevented from being killed merely because they were women or had Down Syndrome? Babies develop lungs beginning in the third week of life after conception, and have rather well-developed lungs by week 16. It has lungs, it has a heart, it has a heartbeat. It’s a person.

It’s wonderful when magazines and other media outlets highlight individuals with disabilities and celebrate the importance of their lives. Stories like Madeline’s send the message that human beings are valuable and should be treated that way, no matter what their abilities.

Madeline’s story in Cosmopolitan really is a beautiful one. The charming young model lives in Australia and has become an international success. She recently walked during New York Fashion week and was offered a job as a bridal model. Some of her stunning photos were published with the article.

Her mother wrote on Madeline’s website: “Maddy really wants to change the way people discriminate against disability through gaining attention through social media. She wants people to know that Down Syndrome is a blessing, something to be celebrated.”

It’s a shame that Cosmopolitan is so blind to the effects of its own positions. It openly discriminates against the most marginalized victims in today’s society – unborn babies, and as a result, there are fewer Madelines in today’s society for us to celebrate.

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