Terminal Illnesses and Developmental Disabilites are Not Excuses for Abortion

Though my mother and father forsake me the Lord will receive me. Psalm 27:10
Thank you to Carla for sharing this scripture in her comment on jillstanek.com

Nearly every time I write about abortion, it’s a reaction to a story in the news or an article on another blog.  Sometimes it’s a story of joy and encouragement about true heroes in the fight to give each and every child their God given right to life, but most of the time, it’s a frustrated reaction to a pro-choice story.  In the past 24 hours, I have come across three different stories/websites, all of which are closely related, and each hitting me close to home.

I made my best attempt to keep this article as short as possible, but being the type of issue it is, a matter of life or death, I pray you will take the time to read what I have to share.

First of all, abortion isn’t a matter of life and death for the child only.  A nation who allows children to be murdered, against the will of the God it was founded upon, will die a slow and painful death as well.

I’ve made it clear in the past; I have no desire to argue abortion with anyone on a scientific or political level, which is expected with Liberals, but has become more of an issue recently with Libertarians.  I can’t tell you how many countless times I’ve been told how much Dr. Paul (I use the doctor part sarcastically because it is only brought up when Libertarians are talking about abortion) believes in the sanctity of life.  That may be true, but I can’t sit here and listen to many Libertarians’ Godless arguments against abortion.  This is NOT a matter of Constitutional liberties!  Life, is a God given, inalienable right.

I am deeply troubled by many Libertarians desire to keep their faith out of their political arguments.  My faith supersedes the Constitution of the United States of America.  If you are a Christian, there is no feasible way it should not.  With that being said, our Constitution was written by Christians and as a result, I can argue many Constitutional liberties with you without discussing faith.  Drugs, prostitution, gay marriage, you name it, I will argue it without discussing faith, but I will tell you this – I did not form those opinions based on the Constitution.  As a Christian, I formed those opinions on the Bible and believe our country’s founders had the same principles in mind when they wrote the Constitution. 

I recently read a well written and thoroughly thought out, yet troubling argument for Gary Johnson and his ‘pro-limited choice’ stance on abortion.  In Ron Paul’s defense, I don’t think he shares the same stance on abortion as Gary Johnson.

We all know rape and incest are thrown at pro-life advocates with the expectation of us cracking.  I may have been intimidated by those arguments a year ago, but they don’t even phase me now.  I don’t understand how the way the child was conceived makes any difference in how the child will turn out. 

Now, pro-choice and pro-limited choice advocates have moved onto situations where the mother’s life being in danger or there is a terminal illness or disability present for the child as excuses and attacks on pro-life supporters.  In this article, as a response to the article discussing Gary Johnson’s abortion stance, I want to focus on terminal illnesses and developmental disabilities. 

I had never heard the term ‘pro-limited choice’ until yesterday.  Let me quote the article to explain it rather than attempting to do so myself since it is still a fairly new concept to me.
(I am chopping up the article for the sake of space, so please check out the entire article for yourself.  I also want to make it clear, I am not picking on this one person, especially considering the fact I greatly admire their work as a blogger.  It is simply the article that inspired me to write about an issue I have dealt with when arguing with many people on abortion.)

There are two Constitutional liberties at stake, 1) life (the fetus), and 2) reproductive liberty (the physical autonomy of the mother). 

Would you allow abortion in the cases of incest or rape? 

If so, you are pro-limited choice, not pro-life.  

So, accepting legal abortions in cases of rape or incest puts one into the pro-limited choice camp because it provides for situations when a mother can voluntarily choose to end the pregnancy, which is putting reproductive liberty ahead of life under a narrow set of circumstances….

Let’s start by calling it pro-choice.  How is it your place to choose when abortion is ok?  Is a child living with Down Syndrome any less of a human being than one without?  I assume your answer is no, so I must ask, how is the unborn child with Down Syndrome any different?

To return to the question of where to draw the line, if abortion should be legal in cases of rape and incest, why not if you learn that a child has serious birth defects and will lead a short, painful life?

This is where this article hits home for me.  I will come back to this question later.

As a libertarian I am always fearful of exertions of state power over an individual, and restrictions on abortion are undoubtedly an exertion of state power over a woman’s reproductive liberty and physical autonomy. But by the same token, I agree with Frederic Bastiat that the proper role of government is to protect individual liberty. So protecting the life of the unborn is a legitimate governmental role that this libertarian can accept.

This statement sums up my single biggest issue with Libertarian thinking.  As a Christian, I am always fearful of human beings exertions of the power over God’s will!

Ultimately, then, I feel what some call the “eviction test” is a reasonable place to draw the “limits” on limited choice. Until a fetus becomes viable and can survive outside the womb, the state has a duty to protect a woman’s reproductive rights. After that point a state may choose to place a higher value on the fetus’s life rights than the woman’s reproductive rights.  

Governor Johnson has also embraced the “eviction test,” and I support him on this, the minefield of American politics: 

Life is precious and must be protected. A woman should be allowed to make her own decisions during pregnancy until the point of viability of a fetus.

The viability of a fetus?  So 100 years ago, we could kill a baby significantly later in the pregnancy than now due to lack of medical technology?  Is this a sliding scale as we make medical advancements?  It’s either a human being at conception, or it’s not!

Now I want to come back to the question highlighted in red.  This is the area where I have firsthand experience and also came across two other pages, completely by chance, relating to the topic. 

First of all, my simple answer to the question is because it’s not God’s will.

I can address this question from two angles.  First is God’s will and second is the possibility of medial mistakes or misdiagnosis.  I’ll leave out a third possibility of miracles, as I’ll assume many will see that as a weak argument.  If you do, I’ll be praying for you. 

God’s will is real simple.  God placed my wife and I in a situation with a severely ill and potentially disabled child.  We both immediately accepted the fact it was his will despite us not understanding.  If you abort that child, you will never know what the child may have done for you in their short or disabled life.  Our lives were changed in 37 hours.  We have friends whose lives were changed in 4 hours.  I know another family whose son lived 20+ years with his disability and they would never doubt their choice to follow through with the delivery.

I can’t say it any better than this comment from one of the related articles I found regarding a mother who chose to abort and will always wonder what could have been….

My Trisomy 18 baby was the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m glad for the 48 hours I had with her. Though it was difficult. For a brief fleeting moment, when I realized what was happening to her, I wanted to reject her. I wanted to run from her bedside like the disciples ran from Christ on the cross. But I steadied myself and stayed. I made sure that my voice was singing in her little malformed ears until the last moment of her life. Because that’s my job as a parent–to give her life, guidance and comfort for whatever length of days God gives her.

I thank Jill Stanek for always bringing stories like this to our attention.  I am sickened by the pain and grief that mother in this article will feel as she wonders about things she will never know.  How long the child would have lived?  What special memories they could have shared?  What if the doctors were wrong?

That brings me to the second point.  The first diagnosis of our son’s illness came at 37 weeks and it turned out to be wrong.  So here we are, claiming it is ok to abort a child based on a doctor’s diagnosis prior to 24 or 25 weeks, knowing full well, no one will really know what’s wrong until the child is delivered.  Heck, I know adults who doctors can’t properly diagnose. 

While I thought about the argument of a possible poor prenatal diagnosis by doctors, I happened across another comment leading me to a website dedicated to this issue.

This makes me ill. That they would name her, talk to her and then murder her because she wasn’t perfect.  

I am so sorry Sophia. So very sorry that your parents lacked the courage to give you life COME WHAT MAY! 

Though my mother and father forsake me the Lord will receive me. Psalm 27:10.
My heart aches.    http://www.benotafraid.com

Check out the Be Not Afraid website.  It is a wealth of information on the possibility of mistakes being made this early in the pregnancy.

Benotafraid.net is a network of concerned parents, professionals, and laypersons who have experienced and/or worked closely with issues surrounding poor prenatal diagnoses. In presenting our stories and information relevant to various diagnoses, we intend to offer hope to parents who are asked to make life and death decisions about their unborn baby.

Read some of the stories on the site.  There are plenty of them.

The test for Down Syndrome is one simple example anyone who has had a child can understand.  Nearly every OB office in the country will offer early testing for Down Syndrome.  If you test positive, you can go for further testing.  It does not mean your child will have Down syndrome.  After the further testing, which is known to place your child’s life in danger, you will be told whether or not you child has Down Syndrome – with a fairly significant chance they are still wrong.  The doctors will tell you themselves, the testing is not and cannot be 100% accurate, yet they also tell you the testing is done to give you the option of abortion.  This is one example of when a situation a pro-limited choice (aka pro-choice) supporter would allow a child to be aborted.

Are you willing to support a stance on abortion that will possibly kill perfectly healthy children? 

And let’s say the child does have a disability…
Are you willing to terminate your child’s life to provide what you think is an easier life for yourself?
I’ve had the opportunity to think about this question in depth while holding my dying child in my arms.  At what point am I terminating their life for my convenience and when is it their time?  I hope none of you ever have to experience that, but I also hope you can take my advice and know, if you haven’t even attempted to deliver that child, you have made a self-centered decision while ignoring your child’s right to live out life as God has planned.

Read more at The Bitter Americans