Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the guest author.
Justifying abortion by sacrificing the babies that have disability is a horrific state to be in. First Lady Jill Biden invited Kate Cox, a Dallas mother who sued Texas to abort her baby with Trisomy 18, to be her guest at the State of the Union. Cox lost her bid to abort her baby in the Texas Supreme Court and went to another state to terminate.
I have great compassion for Cox.
Fifteen years ago I received the same news of Trisomy 18 when pregnant with my fifth child. Cox and I were given a similar diagnosis and prognosis for our babies. My husband, Brad, and I were told our daughter was “incompatible with life,” a “fatal fetal anomaly” and that only 5-10% of babies born alive would make it to their first birthday.
A geneticist told us that our disabled daughter would ruin our marriage, the lives of our other children, and our finances. He then urged us to get an amniocentesis to confirm the genetic diagnosis for the purpose of killing her.
I was lied to and so was Cox.
Over 90% of children with Trisomy 18 are aborted, and there has not been a medical standard of care for people with Trisomy 18 up to now (see below for amazing medical professionals that are presenting a standard of care for Trisomy 18).
Faith Smith and her parents. Do not reprint.
Most families like mine have been denied care for our children even when they live. How then can anyone in the medical field circulate these dire statistics with medical certainty of death with any type of ethical practice and conscience?
Whether pro-abortion or pro-life, we should all agree that patients should receive informed consent — and neither myself nor Cox received that from our doctors. For any medical community to present the idea that your child is disabled and might die, therefore they should be aborted, is a heinous cruelty.
This invitation from the Bidens plays politics to appeal to pro-abortion voters by making children like my daughter targets to an entire nation simply because they are disabled. Promoting Cox as a courageous mother for leaving her home state of Texas to abort her child is a sad and lonely shadow to the vibrant, greathearted women I know who left their states (and one who left her country) to get their babies lifesaving care in many of our nation’s best children’s hospitals.
READ: Trisomy 18 is not an automatic death sentence. These children are proof.
My daughter Faith is 15 years old now. Faith is no longer fetal and obviously T18 is not always fatal. Faith and the hundreds of other people, both children and adults with Trisomy 18, that I have met over the years blow the ridiculous “nonviable pregnancy” and “lethal fetal diagnosis” statements out of the cesspool of ignorance and bigotry.
What all of these living, loving, valuable people have in common is that they, like Faith, found great doctors who treated them as valuable human beings and patients.
The Bidens do know better and so does the press in Washington, D.C.
Former Senator Rick Santorum sought the Republican presidential nomination in both 2012 and 2016. His daughter Bella also has Trisomy 18 and is six months older than Faith. When my husband and I were trying to find another family that had a child with T18 we found the Santorums from the news coverage of his candidacy. Senator Santorum and his wife Karen gave us lifesaving advice for Faith that had not been suggested or offered to us at several different hospital systems.
My friend Laura, a Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, has a funny, sweet seven-year-old daughter named Lucy who has Mosaic Trisomy 18. Lucy sits at their table to do her homework and loves dancing to her favorite music. Like Laura, many of the Trisomy 18 families wanted Cox to know there is hope and help offered by some brilliant doctors in the medical community who offer treatment — not death.
Lucy. Do not reprint.
“I think of Kate Cox’s sweet baby and everything that baby could have been had they been given a chance at life,” expressed Laura with heartfelt sorrow.
The White House is not just pushing misinformation, but dirty lies that promote the death of disabled children – I just thought you should know the truth.
Read more here about hope and help for children with Trisomy conditions:
- Dr. John Carey, MD Emeritus Pediatrics University of Utah, leading geneticist in the world for Trisomy 13, 18, and related disorders, statement
- Detroit Free Press featuring doctors and patients with Trisomy 18 thriving and surviving from University of Michigan’s Mott Children’s Hospital
- Dr. George Zacur discovers novel way to treat pancreatic complication in child with Trisomy 18
- 45th National Conference on Pediatric Health Care: Comprehensive Care for Children with Trisomy18 Across the Care Continuum: A Clinical Practice Guideline: Page 15
- Support Organization for Trisomy: SOFT is a network of families and professionals dedicated to providing support and understanding to families involved in the issues and decisions
- Beverly Jacobson’s Daughter Charity with Trisomy 18 in Newsweek
- Living with Trisomy 18: How a 6-year-old girl is beating the odds
Bio: Jesi Smith is married to Brad. They have five children including their youngest daughter Faith who has Trisomy 18. They have become strong advocates of disabled children after seeing and experiencing the horrible bigotry shown to these loving people in America and around the world.
