Parenting is about abortion, according to Yahoo!
Yahoo! Parenting recently published a piece by freelancer Hallie Levine with the headline, “If I Knew My Daughter Had Down Syndrome, I Would Have Aborted Her – All Women Should Have That Right.”
Yahoo! appeared to have no problem sharing the story in which Levine argued that the “ultimate form of condescension to mothers” is to keep them from aborting babies with Down syndrome – often out of “genuine concern."
(Concern? Concern for whom?)
Levine began her piece by complaining that Ohio may soon become the second state to ban abortions for diagnoses of Down syndrome.
“If I had had a prenatal diagnosis,” she contested, “I would have obtained an abortion.”
Levine slammed the legislation saying, “As a pro-choice woman who has a 7-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, I find this absolutely appalling.”
While, today, she is “beyond grateful” for keeping her little girl, she continued, “I cannot ever in any circumstances imagine insisting others not have that right.”
After learning that her baby, Johanna (Jo Jo), had Down syndrome and other health complications at birth, Levine recalled thinking “I never signed up for this.”
“Seven years later, I remember that day vaguely, as if it was the haze of a bad dream,” she said. While Jo Jo “is the center of my world,” she warned, “it was a rocky road to get where we are today, and while it’s a path I’m glad I’m on, I would never want to see a woman forced into it.”
Because, Levine claimed, if she had been forced to continue her pregnancy after a prenatal diagnosis, “it would have been a disaster.” She continued, “The worst thing you can do to a woman going through a crisis is to leave her feeling even more disempowered.”
Which, by the way, is exactly what abortion does.
She deemed Ohio’s legislation that “strips a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy because of Down syndrome” as “the ultimate form of condescension to mothers.” [Emphasis added.]
“It sends the message that we’re hyper-emotional during pregnancy, that we can’t think clearly, and that the decision to have an abortion stems from misguided ignorance and fears and selfishness – rather than a genuine concern for the well-being of our unborn child,” she said.
Read that again: aborting a child with Downs can come from a mother’s “genuine concern for the well-being of our unborn child.”
Ironically, Levine came to the conclusion: “I’m so grateful I did not have to make that choice” – the choice to abort her little girl who now reads, swims and performs ballet.
In the face of many obstacles while bringing up Jo Jo – especially education-wise, Levine summarized “I’ve spent so much time fighting for my daughter, other parts of my life have been sacrificed in the crossfire: My career as I once envisioned it, my marriage.”
But it’s worth it, to her.
“At night, when Johanna’s asleep, I slip into her room and watch her, her blonde hair spilling over her pillow, her hands clutching her Barbies in a death grip,” Levine wrote. “She yawns and curls up in a fetal position, slightly snoring, and I am filled with a surge of love for her that makes me realize that yes, I will do anything to help her thrive and succeed.”
That strangely included attacking Ohio’s proposed ban.
“I will tell you what won’t help her” Levine said, “Legislation forcing women to go through with unwanted pregnancies in the misguided belief that it will advance her life, or the quality of life of other people with Down syndrome.”
She concluded, “The only message the Ohio legislation sends to my daughter is that if she gets pregnant, she doesn’t have the right to make decisions based on what she thinks is in her baby’s best interest.”
“And every woman — disabled or otherwise — has that right,” she finished.
Well, yes, every woman – disabled or otherwise, born or unborn – does have a right. The right to life.
