The Left Targets Children With Down Syndrome

The leftist assault on life is unbridled. In 1992 then-President Bill Clinton said that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” This idea was repeated in 2008 by Hillary Clinton. Since the early days of legalized abortion, the left has assured Americans and the rest of the world that abortion was only suited for extreme cases and rarely implemented. However, in recent years they have changed their rhetoric.

Abortion advocates are now arguing that the word “rare” causes a stigma and the Democratic party removed the phrase from their platform in 2012. Now abortion advocates instead prefer to use the term “unapologetic.” It should not shock us that the world is unrepentant of the sin of abortion. However, it is shocking that the left is targeting more individuals and no longer hiding their eugenics agenda to eliminate the most vulnerable among us.

The World Health Organization recently put out both a Tweet and Facebook post that created a list of birth defects, stating that “Most birth defects can be prevented and treated with access to quality maternal and newborn care. Yet, every year, they cause the deaths of close to 250,000 babies within just 1 month of birth.” Although this may seem like an innocuous statement, WHO went on to list Down Syndrome as a so-called preventable birth defect. Down’s Syndrome is not a birth defect, and the only way to prevent a child from having the chromosomal variant is abortion.

Countries worldwide have increasingly targeted children with Down Syndrome and other genetic anomalies. In Denmark, since offering chromosomal testing to women, nearly 95 percent of pregnancies determined to be of a Down Syndrome child are aborted. In Iceland, that number is almost 100 percent. Health officials worldwide are suggesting to women that they would not want to bring a child with Down Syndrome into the world. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there are 6,000 children a year born with Down Syndrome or about 1 in every 700 births in America. Imagine if the United States adopted such a devastating policy as Denmark and Iceland. We would eliminate the potential of these children’s lives.

Some of the arguments that the left makes in favor of aborting children diagnosed with Down Syndrome is that they will negatively affect the parent’s relationship and other siblings, create a financial burden, and not have a productive or happy life. These are all myths that the Global Down Syndrome Foundation and other advocates are trying to dispel. If given a chance, children with Down Syndrome can have productive and happy lives and enrich the lives of their family and friends.

Determining the value of a life based on a medical diagnosis is a dangerous and slippery slope. If we decide that children in the womb with Down Syndrome have no value, what stops the world from determining that those born with this, and other diagnoses also lack value. The very idea of determining value in life has led to some of the worst examples of eugenics in history.

Sadly, there is a growing number of individuals on the left with this very agenda. They would have the world believe that suffering can be eliminated by ending the lives of babies inside and outside of the womb. This statement is not merely rhetoric; Maryland just introduced a bill to allow for the murder of a child up to 28 days of age to go without legal charges brought against the murderer. The possibility of individuals killing children unexpectedly born with genetic disorders under such a law is very high.

Take ACTION: If you are concerned about the increased push from the left to justify the murder of Down Syndrome babies in and outside the womb, please contact your state and federal representatives to ask them to support life, as well as supporting the rights and protection for those with Down Syndrome and other medical diagnoses.

History is undoubtedly repeating itself as we follow the path of the Nazis and determine who is allowed to live and unapologetically eliminating all others. We must recognize that all life has value regardless of the medical label applied to that baby. God creates life, and each life he creates should be cherished.

Psalms 139:13-14a teaches us:

“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”