Lon Jacobs, general counsel for News Corporation and a pro-choice Democrat, writes in the Wall Street Journal that he empathized with Sarah Palin when she spoke in an interview last week about the “cruel attacks on her son Trig.”

Jacobs, whose 13-year-old daughter has an intellectual disability, says he perceives a widely held presumption that society would be better off if children like his daughter were eliminated before they could be born. “In too many quarters we have moved from a society that protects the right to abortion to one that promotes it,” he says. “This is especially true with regard to those with disabilities.” An excerpt:

I don’t presume to tell others what to do when they are faced with these difficult decisions. But I worry that women who find themselves pregnant with a child who has a physical or mental disability get only one message, which is all about the burden about to be dumped in their laps.

…  I have no magic answers. I do have a beautiful daughter who lights up my world when I look into her trusting little face, who enriches our family with her life, and whose big-heartedness brings out the best in those who know her. I sometimes wonder how many Americans deprive themselves of that same joy because of an aggressive message that abortion is the only sensible choice.

In my mind, President Bill Clinton had it about right when he called for abortion to be safe, legal and rare. If that is to be more than just a convenient political spin, we who support a woman’s right to choose should do our part to celebrate the life side of choice.

‘Before the birth of son Trig, Palin says she knew the abortion option was there’

From ABC News (with video):

In an interview to be aired on “20/20,” former Alaska governor Sarah Palin tells Barbara Walters about her decision to continue her pregnancy after tests revealed that her baby would have Down syndrome. The interview includes footage of Palin’s son Trig, as well as other members of the family talking about the impact of Trig on their lives.

An excerpt:

Ninety-two percent of women who get that news terminate the pregnancy, according to research reviewed by Dr. Brian Skotko, a pediatric geneticist at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Palin said she knew abortion was an option but was able to overcome the fear of the unknown to go ahead with the birth.

“I knew that the option was there. … I thought again, for that split second, ‘OK, now I know, too, why, when that fear strikes you, because of the unknown,’” she said. “I understood then, too, why a woman would consider [abortion] an easier path to perhaps, if you will, do away with the problem, instead of understanding that every child has purpose. There is destiny for every child. And it can be good, in our world. And that’s what I held onto.”

When asked by Walters if her “right to life” stance on abortion dictated her choice, Palin said her decision was not “politically motivated.”

“My decision certainly wasn’t a political decision. It was a holding onto a seed of …that promise that things will be okay if we choose life. And that certainly has come to fruition in my life,” she said.

Two of Palin’s children said they did not know about Trig’s Down syndrome diagnosis until after he was born. Todd Palin said he expects Trig to keep up with the family’s outdoorsy lifestyle and do all the things the couple’s other children have done. Kids with Down syndrome, he said, “are just beautiful gifts from God for all of us to learn from … and to make us stronger as we live. He is just another kid in our house. … But he has, but he has just been a blast.”

(Photo from AP/National Review)

Said to be trying to spare women’s feelings

From the [UK] Daily Mail:

An independent British registry  reports that unborn babies with Down syndrome in the UK are being aborted at a rate twice as high as the government’s official tally.

Experts said doctors have been trying to spare women’s feelings by classifying such abortions as “social” rather than noting that a diagnosis of Down syndrome prompted the abortion.

Professor Joan Morris, the director of the National Down’s Syndrome Cytogenetic Register, warned that skewed reporting on abortion forms is yielding “wholly inaccurate data”. The register is considered highly reliable because it gathers data from hospital genetic testing labs and tracks each case individually, while the Department of Health relies on reports submitted by doctors.

Between 2004 and 2008, the NDSCR reported a total of 4,777 abortions carried out on fetuses with Down syndrome in the UK. Over the same period, the Department of Health reported 2,168 such abortions.

From the Grand Rapids [MI] Press:

The Perinatal Care Program provided by Hospice of Michigan offers comfort and guidance to families coping with a prenatal diagnosis of a life-limiting condition. (At left, Jody Kyser and her daughter Chloe, who had Trisomy 18).

The program is one of only four in the state that offers support to such parents and helps them deal with the uncertainty of the diagnosis – answering questions like how to give the news to the other children, how to deal with questions about the pregnancy, how much medical intervention to seek, and how to plan a funeral.

“It’s really nice to be able to offer families something more,” said Trudy McKanna, a genetics counselor. “You feel like you give them perhaps the worst news of their life, and you want to be able to help them. If there’s nothing you can do to help the baby medically, you at least want to be able to take care of their emotional needs and their family needs.”

(Photo from Grand Rapids Press)

‘As more than 90 percent of women carrying a child with DS choose to end pregnancies, parents raising these kids say they’re a ‘gift”

In its coverage of recent research documenting widespread terminations of pregnancies involving Down syndrome, ABC News shifts its focus to the growing concern that women are making their decisions based on misinformation and myths about the disorder.

Author Susan Donaldson James interviews Dr. Brian Skotko, who says research suggests that mothers are getting inaccurate, incomplete and sometimes offensive information. Advocates for people with Down syndrome worry that the decline in births will lead to reduced funding to study the disorder.

Boston filmmaker Melanie McLaughlin had no knowledge of Down syndrome when her daughter Grace was born, but was encouraged after the First Call program of the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress introduced her to a family of a five-year-old with the syndrome.

“She played hide and seek, and she kept jumping out, telling us where she was hiding,” McLaughlin said. “She was amazing. I was thinking she would be sitting in a chair unresponsive and drooling. “Actually, she was much like our other children,” McLaughlin said. “We thought, maybe we can go forward.”

A Connecticut woman told ABC News that she terminated her pregnancy after Down syndrome was diagnosed and her doctor “didn’t paint the brightest picture” and didn’t introduce her to anyone with the condition. She said the stress of the experience made her feel that “we were falling apart.”

A Utah mother said she and her husband were given scant support after a Down syndrome diagnosis and wish they had received accurate information and positive feedback. She and her husband decided not to terminate. Their daughter is now thriving in first grade..

“The most important things you can provide are accurate, up-to-date information, and what it’s like to parent a kid with Down syndrome, just to have someone who walks in those same steps to listen and share their own story,” said Sarah Cullen, family support director for First Call, which takes no position on whether to terminate pregnancies.

At last count, the story had drawn more than 170 comments. Many of the commenters are arguing about abortion rights, while others say the author should have done more to explore the lives of adults with Down syndrome, and did not adequately take into account the shared public cost of their ongoing care. Yet another said the real tragedy here is a society in which caring for people with disabilities is widely perceived as impossibly burdensome, and the health care system cannot be counted upon.

(Photo from ABC News)

Writing in the [UK] Guardian, columnist Tom Shakespeare says the statistics on Down syndrome diagnoses mask the “human cost” of the UK’s prenatal screening program.

Shakespeare supports a woman’s right to choose, as well as the right to terminate a pregnancy in which Down syndrome is diagnosed. But he says scientists need to examine the high emotional price that couples are paying for prenatal testing, as when invasive tests cause the miscarriage of healthy pregnancies, or when tests pose “morally and emotionally burdensome choices” for couples.

An excerpt:

I have long felt that it is a priority to provide better information to prospective parents about what Down’s syndrome is, and the effect it has on individuals and their families … I believe as much money should be spent on information and counselling as is spent on the technology, because humans matter more than statistics and cost/impact calculations.

Shakespeare is among the developers of a website that provides information about various disabilities that can be diagnosed prenatally.

Caring for a Down’s Syndrome child – [UK] Telegraph

Sue Hare, 48, says of her son, Will:

Now that Will is nearly five years old, it’s impossible to look at him without thinking that he is the most perfect child imaginable. Having a child with Down’s syndrome is not a punishment; that one extra chromosome doesn’t make him a booby prize. People compliment me for having a very “Pollyanna” attitude, but I love Will in the same way that any mother loves her child.

Our Down’s syndrome son Oliver is a joy – The [UK] Sun

Former world auto racing champion Damon Hill says of his 20-year-old son, Oliver:

I think some people have an idea that their life will be over because they will be caring for this child. It is hard work, but so are all children.

‘Jane’, who aborted her child with Down syndrome, says:

… “It was heartbreaking having to accept I’ll never be a mum but I stand by our decision. I just don’t think it’s fair to bring a child into the world knowing it will suffer.”

Down’s Syndrome: ‘The idea of losing my son was too much to bear’  – [UK] Telegraph

Sandy Lewis, mother of 16-year-old Max, advises other parents of children with Down syndrome to enjoy each moment with their children. However, she says that raising a child with Down syndrome can be hard work when dealing with the physical ailments, getting services, coping financially, and fearing the idea of losing a child. Max, an actor, appeared with Cate Blanchett in the film “Notes on a Scandal.”

Mum of Down’s syndrome daughter ‘wouldn’t change a thing’ – Oxford [UK] Mail

Emily Robinson says of her two-year-old daughter Lucy:

“I believe if people really knew about Down’s syndrome, and knew the facts about what it was really like, they would not have the terminations.

“I wouldn’t change things for the world.

“If you look at Lucy, she’s walking, she’s starting to talk, and she goes to a mainstream pre-school. People’s stereotypes and preconceptions are 15 to 20 years out of date.”

([UK] Telegraph photo)