Kathleen Parker has a nice piece on abortion and some of the absurd reasons that people are using to justify having them.
For example: having a clubbed foot.
She writes:
The week before, in what could have been a prequel to the child-actor story, Britain’s Sunday Times reported that more than 20 babies had been aborted in advanced stages of gestation between 1996 and 2004 in England because scans showed they had clubfeet.
She goes on to point out that, had such abortions been performed in the past, a number of very prominent individuals would have been aborted and that having a clubfoot did not stop these individuals from going on to notable successes in life.
Among them were the poet Byron, the commedian Dudley Moore, and the figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi–in fact the latter not only won her fame with her feet, but she began figure skating as treatment for her clubbed feet.
What makes the abortion of such individuals even more appalling is that having clubfoot is a treatable and often fixable disorder.
Parker writes:
While it may be intellectually easier to justify aborting a fetus in cases of severe abnormalities, terminating a pregnancy because of easily corrected imperfections should disturb our sleep.
AAAAAMEN!
How about the original Elephant Man?
Though he didn’t have clubfoot, and even though he suffered very much, his life was not pointless, because he showed that human dignity still exists within man no matter how ugly he may appear and how little he ‘enjoys’ life.
I have also read that Troy Aikman, Charles Woodson and Mia Hamm were born with clubfeet.
Both my second son and Godson were born with clubfeet and it is beyond comprehension that anyone would ever commit abortion let alone try to justify because of clubfeet.
St. Ephrem pray for us!
thx jimmy. words like “appalling” and “incomprehensible” simply don’t get there anymore. of course, what words do we have to describe an abortion performed so the mom will not miss out on a neato ski trip a couple months down the road? forgive my impatience today: we were saying a roasry outside of planned parenthood this morning, and it hit me, i’ve been praying outside of death chambers longer than their typical clients today have even been alive.
I worry these essays are counterproductive. People thinking about abortion know their kid isn’t likely to be a superstar who is perfect in some cultural category, so they figure their kid should at least be close to perfect in health. I think we need a strong defense of imperfection and disability that doesn’t appeal to some other worldly perfection, but highlights the inherent good found even in the imperfect, in other words: the image of God.
Yeah, Ed,
We need to start using dirty words to describe these people 🙂
In 2004, my mother and I protested Kerry’s visit to our home town, and were holding anti-abortion signs, when this girly man came up to my baby-boomer mother and told her she would never have children because… I’m not sure. He just stomped off, never explainned himself. The funny thing was he didn’t know the guy standing next to my mom was her child, thereby refuting his curse1 🙂
Sorry about the typo at the end of my comments.
These essays show that every child has tremendous potential even if they have an “imperfection” in the eyes of society.
Highlighting that along with defending the inherent dignity of each and every person will go along way in changing our culture from one that glorifies death to protecting the weakest among us.
Take care and God bless,
Inocencio
J+M+J
Kevin, i think “counter-productive” is too strong, but they are over-used. You know, like the one about Beethoven and all. I warned people against those by painting a similarly sad story, and saying, “Congratulations. You just aborted Adolf Hitler.” and the point was made: these analogies are a two-edged sword.
Charles Talleyrand, Napoleon’s foreign minister, also had a club foot.
But he was also a defrocked priest and bishop, so that may not be a good example. 🙂
–arthur
AMEN! I also blogged after reading that article. My son was born with bilateral clubfeet, adn we found out halfway through our pregnancy. I can’t imagine making the decision to abort him over such a small, CORRECTABLE setback!! Thank you for posting also!!
In the movie “The Robe”, Dean Jagger, playing Justus, tells Richard Burton that his grandson was named Jonathan, because “like Jonathan of old”, he was born with a club foot. I presume he was referring David’s friend. Anybody know if Jonathan did, indeed, have a club foot?
Might we also mention that these stats are from England.
Where they have free healthcare(basically.)
women’s health is probably the biggest reason for abortions (more so than “deformed” fetuses). One anti-abortion counselor was able to convince a woman not to have an abortion, once she found out her reason for going to the clinic: she was having back pain.
Imagine, pregnancy causing back pain – unheard of, right?
Thankfully, this counselor was able to tell the woman that back pain is fairly normal during pregnancy and sent her to a good chiropractor.
Unfortunately, that “woman’s health” clause in the ruling of Doe vs. Bolton has condemned many to death for the most trivial of reasons, usually under the guise of “mental health of the mother”.
The stats are from England because you couldn’t really collect stats like that here. In England late-term abortions are only permitted for ‘major defects’ or ‘life/health of woman’ and have to be justified by the physician in hospital records.
In most states in America there is no such requirement.
Unfortunately, in our quest for “perfect” children, the right to an abortion slides down the slippery slope to become the duty to abort any child with any imperfection. Once one class of citizens becomes vulnerable, we are all vulnerable. It take great arrogance to feel qualified to judge which lives are worthy and which are not. Keep praying since it will be by the grace of God that hearts change and the sanctity and dignity of human life from conception to natural death is respected.
“women’s health is probably the biggest reason for abortions”
That makes me want to SPIT right now. It makes me so, so angry.
I’m 31 weeks pregnant with a very healthy baby girl — but this pregnancy is anything but healthy for me.
Women who are truly very sick or dying during a pregnancy agonize over termination — women with back pain and “mental health issues”? I don’t think so.
I think that attitude is a slap in the face to women who have terminated because of debilitating maternal illness. It’s also a slap to those of us who keep going with a pregnancy when we’re seriously ill.
I just want to throw extra strength Tylenol at that woman with back pain and tell her to grow the heck up. Oh, poor you. Minor discomfort vs. murder? Hmmmmmm……try vomiting up to 20 times a day. And still continuing a pregnancy.
The moral death of our society makes me want to scream.
Sorry, just really, personally offended by all that right now. sigh….. Saint Gianna, pray for us!
No, Jonathan was able-bodied, and quite able to take care of himself. I think you are thinking about Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth, aka Merribbaal, who suffered some sort of foot injuries whan he was dropped by his nurse while they were fleeing after Saul and Jonathan had been killed in the battle of Gilboa (2Sa 4:4). Later, while David was fleeing from Prince Absolom, he was unable to go along with the friends of David, and was incompletely framed as a traitor by his servant (2 Sa 16:1-5). Hope this helps.
Glenn
Thanks, Glenn.
Killing the child because of the strain it might put on the rationship between the mother and her family is also allowed.
They are either crazy or demonic. (Jimmy, is name-calling of pro-aborts who are not posting on this blog allowed? If not then I’m sorry.)
I would like to add that our son, Nash, was born with a unilateral clubfoot and will be having his next surgery next week.
I can’t than God enough for the GIFT of this child life. He has been a blessing over and over again.
He’s a bright 2 year old who loves to sing and learn to count. His only weakness at this time is that he is in a cast and can’t stand on two feet or walk.
Give him time.
Parenting is all about time. It’s about paitence and love. In time, with alot of paitence and love, our son will be off and running.
Sure, his right foot will always be smaller than the other, but that’s nothing that a fitting at the local shoe store can’t handle.
He might play football someday and win the superbowl, or he might cure cancer.
There are so many things that our son might do. He has the ability and the gift of love and LIFE to do so.
I didn’t know before his birth that he had this birth defect, but it would not have made a differance in the love I have for him.
He is a gift straight from heaven to my arms and I will always be grateful.
Pray for the women who are ignorant enough to murder their little miracles.
Nash is mine.