#508
2nd Jul 2010 at 5:33 PM
Posts: 310
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SOME parents might decide that they can't handle the needs of a child with severe spina bifida, or cystic fibrosis, or deformities of essential organs (like the heart), and whatever reason they have, it has to be respected. Other parents will decide that they can, and that should be respected as well.
Since it's already legal (although extraordinarily difficult to obtain) and genetic testing and ultrasound testing can reveal many of these serious problems already, it's not like people are going to suddenly decide that they're going to abort frivolously.
Currently, most late-term abortions are performed when a deadly defect is discovered. Anencephaly is a big one. Trisomy 21 (Downs Syndrome) is a tricky one, but very often comes along with serious heart defects. Because it's a wide spectrum disorder, most parents opt for having the child and hoping for the best. However, if there are defects that need to be fixed with surgery, there's a high likelihood that the baby will not survive surgery. Parents who realize that their child will die without surgery, but will also die without surgery, are deciding to abort for that reason, not because they don't want a Downs Syndrome child.
By the time a pregnancy reaches the stage where these problems can be detected, the parents have already chosen names, decorated the nursery, maybe even had the baby shower and such. When they have to make this choice, it's absolutely the last thing they want to do. Anyone who's had a child knows that you get to the point that you love this child and anticipate its birth well before week 21. If someone thinks that these abortions are being used casually as birth control, then that person lives in a very special little bubble.
To then say to these already devastated parents that they're not allowed to choose what is best for them and their child simply underscores their insulation from the real world. These heartless folks will say things like "well, then, you shouldn't have gotten pregnant!" as if this outcome were something the parents should have been able to predict. "Oh, honey, I'm afraid our baby will be born with only a brain stem and missing the entire back of its skull, so let's try next month, instead."