Jezebel blogger wishes priest had let baby with Down syndrome die
So, evidently, no one is ever allowed to offer someone who is even considering having an abortion any other options whatsoever. Because hello, that’s coercion, or something. Of course, back on planet Earth, giving someone another option, which they then agree to, is not coercion. These are the people who call themselves “pro-choice.” But when someone is given another choice besides abortion, they’re outraged. But don’t you dare accuse them of being pro-abortion!
Then there’s her drivel about how people with Down syndrome so often lead terrible lives (blatantly false), and that the church doesn’t help people once their babies are born. Perhaps Ms. Baker should brush up on her facts a little, because the Catholic Church could arguably be said to do more social good than any other organization in existence. One example alone would be Catholic Charities. But that doesn’t fit into her “DOWN SYNDROME BABY MUST DIE!” narrative, so of course, she has to say that the baby would lead a terrible life and the church wouldn’t help after birth, anyway.
This is an example of a “pro-choicer” who is angry that a pregnant woman didn’t make the “right” choice, all because a priest had the gall to tell them they had another option. Baker and her ilk like to use that word a lot – “choice” – but the reality clearly is that they only support choice if that choice is abortion.
~ Cassy Fiano, reacting to Jezebel writer Katie Baker’s rage against a Catholic priest who helped a couple considering abortion to instead find an adoptive family for their child with Down syndrome, Live Action News, July 11
[Photo of Facebook appeal (click to enlarge) via CNN]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
That blog post was just plain old awful. Offering a woman a choice of adoptive families for a baby she doesn’t want and isn’t capable of raising is a nice thing to do even IF you are pro-choice. Would the blogger rather people ignore the family and give them less options? This is just mean-spirited and stupid.
Not that I really expect differently from Jezebel. They had an article calling a male rape victim “sexhausted” and an article where the writers make light of domestic abuse as long as the victim isn’t female. I insta-lose respect for people who read Jezebel in a serious way.
Eugenics and misdirected anger rear their ugly heads again.
“See, here’s the problem with this kind of double-edged fear-mongering: people are up in arms that this couple is being coerced into keeping an unwanted pregnancy, and simultaneously saying how “icky” pregnancy, and god-forbid, special needs kids would be – the old “I couldn’t do it, I don’t know how those sainted parents do it” line is such crap. I’m a pro-choice mother of a kid with Down Syndrome, and the real untold story here is how much coercion goes on in the medical community to terminate these pregnancies, based on no hard data that your life will be much different than any other parent of a newborn, screaming milk-machine. You haven’t lived until you’ve had all your healthcare providers subtley shit on you and devalue your pregnancy, and look at you with pity – that’s what coercion looks like. The truth? Parenting is hard, but rewarding – typical and special needs alike. Coercion takes many faces when it comes to unfairly judging your unborn fetus – down syndrome or not. And it’s a murky line about who loses out in the end – this couple may not have been ready for any child they conceived, or they may have been sold a bill of goods and talked out of an otherwise wanted pregnancy, which is shattering no matter how you cut it. We’ll never really know, saccharine Church narratives”
At least some of the Jezebel commenters are realizing it’s all kinds of effed up to judge a family for not aborting their special needs child. Pro-choicers and pro-lifers alike should agree on that.
Reality, Megan, whatever pro-choicer, what do you think? And as a side note, do you think that Jezebel is a shining example of the feminist movement or a sexist hypocritical rag?
“I’m pro-choice. Having a “special needs” baby just means you know what’s wrong with them right away, and you learn to deal. My brother is severely mentally retarded, and our childhoods were totally “normal” lives. I love my brother, and had my mom aborted him, we’d all have less love in our lives.
A “normal” baby just means you don’t know yet what you’re going to have to cope with – addictions, mental disorders, learning disabilities, general douchebagginess. There’s no pre-natal test for serial killers or child molesters, but they’re “normal” when they’re born.
I’m sorry, but “I know I couldn’t cope with special needs” makes me want to punch you in the face for being a horrible waste of a human being. If you can only love your children if they’re “normal”, you don’t have enough love to have kids at all.
I’ve ended friendships and relationships over this issue – nothing makes me more upset. I plan to adopt two Downs babies in a few years when I’m ready for kids, and I have to get on waiting lists to do it”
Okay, this commenter makes no sense at all. So, she’s pro-choice. She believes that a woman should be able to abort a fetus at will. It’s the woman’s body and her choice, according to the pro-choice belief. So where does she find the moral right to judge those women who abort for disabilities? How is aborting for disabilities any different from sex-selective abortion, or aborting because you’re poor, or aborting because you’re nineteen and don’t feel ready? In all those cases, you’re making the choice that your circumstances overrides the child’s right to be born and loved. Aborting because you’re having a boy and you already have one, and you want a girl instead means the exact same thing, you don’t love your children more than their external factors. Exactly the same thing as aborting the child who has genetic deformities. She’s being really hypocritical.
Regardless of that, I agree with her that you need to take your children “as is”. Children are children, we don’t get to pick and choose which ones we love and take care of because they have issues. For the same reason I don’t think adoptive couples should be allowed to pass over children with disabilities for “normal” children. Parenting isn’t about you, it’s about the kids. It’s pro-choice logic to think that we get to choose which kids are good enough to be parented and which ones should be discarded and it’s not something anyone should support in my opinion.
Katie just might be post abortive.
When others do not choose what she did she gets angry.
When others do choose abortion she can justify her own.
How can “choice” be one thing??? (abortion)
Of course she does because she hates retards.
So, Jezebel is an evil, hate-filled corner of the internet. What else is new?
Jezebel should have Googled the priest first to learn his father sacrificed his life to save his brother, who has Down syndrome. Sacrificing your life for a baby after they are born is apparently not enough to demonstrate “caring” to the ravenous pro-abortion wolves. We see how hollow their concept of caring is, when they declare an entire class of human beings to be life unworthy of life, not unlike their intellectual ancestors. They support ripping human beings to shreds so they can have free sex and they have the audacity to lecture anyone about empathy and compassion?
Such an aptly named website.
Chris says:
July 18, 2013 at 9:08 am
Such an aptly named website.
Is it possible that the bloggers are not aware of the biblical character whom their site is named after?
This was such a heartwarming story and they tried so hard to twist it…
On the Downs Syndrome note, has anyone else seen that they are finding ways to block the chromosome which causes it? Thoughts?
http://www.lifenews.com/2013/07/17/scientists-shut-down-chromosome-responsible-for-down-syndrome/
“Though a full treatment is still many years off, the work will drive the search for therapies that improve common symptoms of DS, from immune and gastrointestinal problems, to childhood leukaemia and early-onset dementia.”
I often get my best insight from Jill’s blog :)
Down Syndrome is not a disease.
Agreed! But I’m torn. I see where they’ve gone so far as being a good thing: helping to reduce childhood leukemia and other actual diseases associated with DS is a positive move. AND if they were able to “treat” Downs Syndrome, it should greatly reduce the pressure to abort on mothers of DS babies. At the same time, I hate the idea of losing the absolute blessing and joy that persons with Downs Syndrome bring to this world. And I feel like they are already treated as second-class citizens enough, without the complication of having a seeming “cure.” I’m also always hesitant about anything that manipulates your genetic structure, just as a general note…
Del, not only are they probably aware, I bet they think it is a point of honor.
Del,
I have read of “treatments” to make children with Down Syndrome look more “normal.”
I hear what you are saying though. There are other health issues associated with DS.
Very well said Cassy.
”
Agreed! But I’m torn. I see where they’ve gone so far as being a good thing: helping to reduce childhood leukemia and other actual diseases associated with DS is a positive move. AND if they were able to “treat” Downs Syndrome, it should greatly reduce the pressure to abort on mothers of DS babies. At the same time, I hate the idea of losing the absolute blessing and joy that persons with Downs Syndrome bring to this world. And I feel like they are already treated as second-class citizens enough, without the complication of having a seeming “cure.” I’m also always hesitant about anything that manipulates your genetic structure, just as a general note…”
I do worry about this. My sister’s kid is severely disabled, my sis wouldn’t change her for the world and she’s morally against anything that purports to “cure” mental developmental disabilities. Like she says “my daughter is who she is, and who she is isn’t an illness”. I think you have a point that “cures” for mental disabilities might increase stigma against those who it didn’t work on or who can’t afford it. I have never thought that developmental disabilities are an “illness” just different, but I do wish we could find a way to help the physical ailments that come along with things like Down’s sometimes.
My sister is mentally disabled; it isn’t something that has an official title, but it displays much like Down’s Syndrome. She is such an amazing person to have in our lives, always full of joy, and I can’t imagine her any other way. I also can’t imagine taking that away from her and expecting it to somehow improve her “standard of living”… BUT I do think it would be cool if we could extend the life expectancy of DS and other disabled individuals. Not to remove a part of their identity, but to lessen the chance of a young death…
But this is popping up on my newfeed constantly, and I keep seeing things like “Science is awesome!” and it’s not that I disagree that this is exciting, but I do seriously hope that they don’t try to eradicate this wonderful rich and vibrant culture of the disabled in favor of the accepted definition of “normal.”