Sadly, There’s No Prenatal Test For Stupid February 21, 2012
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in Health Care, Politics, religion.Tags: abortion, amniocentesis, chromosomal abnormality, coverage, insurance, neural tube defect, prenatal, rick santorum, testing
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Santorum says that prenatal testing like amniocentesis “more often than not” results in an abortion, so just like with contraception, he doesn’t think it ought to be covered by health insurance plans. He’s right, sort of, and he’s wrong and he’s wrong. Amniocentesis actually more often than not results in a negative diagnosis and a normal healthy baby. But when the amniocentesis (or chorionic villi sampling, which is more syllables than I suspect Santorum is capable of comprehending) results in a diagnosis of a chromosomal abnormality or a neural tube defect like spina bifida and meningomyelocele, then the recommendation frequently would be to terminate the pregnancy. That’s good medicine and it’s ABSOLUTELY APPROPRIATE. Too many of my compatriots on the left are too meek and hesitant to stand up and say what needs to be said: Abortion is often the best choice to be made for one’s fetus and one’s self. The inclination is to always preface any discussion of abortion with adjectives like “unfortunate” and “unavoidable”. What is more unfortunate is when an abortion is the most appropriate decision and it is not performed. What is avoidable is damaged children with no chance for a normal life and often with no chance for life at all.
So, yeah, prenatal testing can lead to abortion. It does and it SHOULD, and it, along with abortion and contraception, ought to be covered by health insurance. And here’s where that whole American concept of individual liberty comes in: Anyone who doesn’t want to use contraception, prenatal testing, or abortion doesn’t have to. And they should leave the rest of us to live in the 21st century.
BW
I am angry beyond belief that you choose to denigrate people born with Spina Bifida in this way and say that they have no chance of a normal life or no life at all. I think that the 166,000 US citizens and all those around the world with this medical condition would disagree with your opinion. Chances are that many of them have lived far richer lives than you or I will ever live. Try searching Adam Hall (from New Zealand) and Aaron Fotheringham, just two of many. When you have finished there, try looking up the Scottish Woman of the Year 2010, who is a doctor with Spina Bifida. What is unfortunate is that you probably will never take the opportunity to talk with anyone affected by Spina Bifida or their families. Disability directed terminations are a direct reflection of the same attitudes towards the disabled displayed by Nazi Germany and one would hope that lessons from the past have been well learnt. Children with disabilities are not damaged goods like a bag of crushed chips, to be disposed as unworthy of life. They deserve an investment of our love, time, and protection and the return on investment is huge – just ask any mother with a Special Needs child. The Groningen Protocol is the most recent development in disability directed euthanasia and one which has directly affected babies born with Spina Bifida and one which IF Global stands firmly against (www.ifglobal.org). As for me, I will raise my little boy, who has Spina Bifida with as much love and positivity as I can. He has changed my life so completely for the better that I hardly recognise the woman I was before he was born.
I have Spina Bifida. I have a job, I drive, I have a social life, I have a degree and I am independent. Like all disabilties there are varying degrees of it. I suggest you speak to some more people out there like me before stating we all should have been aborted.
As someone with Spina Bifida, who has a job, a University Degree, drives her own car and owns her own home, I think this article says more about the person writing it, than it does about me, or about any of the other worthwhile people living with disabilities. Just the title of the article, in my humble opinion, puts this into the realm of hate speech. In any case, it shows your understanding of disability, and of those of us in the disability community, is fundamentally erroneous – or is that too many syllables for you to comprehend??? (incidentally, it’s a shame there is no prenatal test for stupid, or presumably you would not be around to write this drivel).
The previous commenters are correct. You really should think about this stuff before you write it publicly. It only makes you look bad and hurts others.
[...] pretty clear that I struck a nerve with my blog post “Sadly, There’s No Prenatal Test For Stupid“. I received a series of comments from individuals with spina bifida, all impassioned and [...]